Roland SH-201

[Tomer=Trance]

well you have got to see it more as a portable Va workstation thingy.

you just take it along with a laptop and your good to go.

soundcard,compact controler keyboard and a synth all in a rather easy to carry around package.
how much does the thing wight?

[Merlot]

I had a go with a 201 today at guitar center. The build is what you would expect out of a $500 synth, plasticy and cheap feeling. The sound was decent though. Very Jpis obviously. I did like the simple layout. The only thing I hated was not having a display of some sort. Even if it would be just numbers. For this you would have to rely on the plug in which sucks. Pretty sounding none the less.

Keybed was spongy. Not as bad as the nords, but almost.

[Hollowcell]

Originally Posted by djencode

and from what i hear, sh201 uses the vsynth engine, and thus making it inferior to the 8080 for sound. since i've owned a vsynth, sold it cause it sounded thin as paper, got an 8080, and the 8080 sound way better than the VA section of the vsynth.

How could anyone sell a V-Synth!?
I am getting some of the phattest and fully controllable sounds ever (usually with having some nice processed analogue synths from which
to grab source waves though).

I do admit that the VA section of the V-Synth
feels like a cheap add-on.
I always thought that way about the 8080 too though.

What sort of sounds do you use the VA section for Khazul? I'd be interested to hear a few samples of what you're doing with.

EDIT: So how is everything going with it Ten?

[ten]

Hey yo:

After a bit more playing...

Again, the knobs and sliders are cheap and shit.....I could see someone a bit less gentle than myself fucking them up. The keyboard is actually not to bad, its no Fatar but it has a nice wieght and is comfortable to use. I agree with merlot a lcd readout would of been nice to see what params are up to.

The software installs and runs fine. The editor lets you load it up as a vsti, but you have to feed the audio analog back to your card and onto an audio track in your seq. Although using Cubase SX3/N3s external synth feature you can set this up ala virus TI mode and not use a audio track and just like a vsti which is VERY fucking cool indeed. The editor itself is simple and well laid out, nothing fancy and all on a single page. Each section has a detail button where you can access even more indepth controls that are not available directly on the hardware itself. You can save as many patches as you want to your daw, then make a bank and syncronise them to the hardware which is very simple and quick.

Using the synth could not be any easier. There are no menus whatsoever which I love, you just twist and dial in shit and theres your sound. No farting around with 3 level menus and screens.....I wish all synths were like this, its just so damn quick and easy to use (even tho as I mentioned an lcd readout would of been nice!)

The sound??? Well, I had been lusting after the jp80xx sound ever since I sold mine a couple of years back and the 201 does not disappoint. As soon as I played the first preset it bought back the memories of 8080 fun. The sound is just as aggressive and beefy. I dialed in a few bass sounds and it seems to have even more sub than I remember on the 8080. There is a special 'low freq' button which can boost the oscs and make it sound a lot deeper, very cool.

I fannied around with some lead sounds which were sounding cool, but adding on the new distortion effect really makes them shine! You only need to dial in a little bit to get some lovely new roaring monster lead sounds.

I really missed the pads I could create with the supersaw on the 8080 so I had a go at a few of those and it was good The lush slowly unfolding filter on the ssaw is a joy to hear, the top end sounds clearer than I remember but I will have to test that a bit more. Again adding some distortion effect brings in a little more charecter to the sound.

Reverb and delay are both perfectly usable, have extra settings and sound fine.

Overall very happy. There are definately some areas that could of been better, but for ?360 you really cant complain, the sound is lovely and the vsti editor a welcome addition.......might do ya some samples a bit later on

btw, djencode, the feedback osc is there.....maybe open your eyes next time you 'demo' a synth.

ten

[djencode]

i dunno guys it still seems like too much of a kids keyboard for me to ever use it. and you'll never convince me it sounds the same as an 8080, it doesn't have the same circuitry, and as far as i can tell, the oscs don't even sound the same. like the vsynth, the VA sounds cheap and thin. it's no virus or waldorf. it's good for its intended audience, people new to music looking for a easy keyboard that's cheap, but i would never use one. in regards to the vsynth, variphrase admittedly is really cool, but if i need it that badly i'll get varios. since every other aspect of the vsynth isn't that apealing to me, and dbeams is nothing more than a trinket to me. im a mouse and keyboard kind of guy, i have no piano background, so for me, my performance will be more on sculpting textures via knobs rather than playing. and while i could assign parameters to the dbeam to do such performances, i'd feel like a dork doing it, and i'd rather have tangable control anyhow.

[Khazul]

Originally Posted by djencode

i dunno guys it still seems like too much of a kids keyboard for me to ever use it.

There was another cheap looking kiddy toy that roland once made. Now they change hands for more than 10 times their original new price...

[Timo]

Originally Posted by djencode

i dunno guys it still seems like too much of a kids keyboard for me to ever use it. and you'll never convince me it sounds the same as an 8080, it doesn't have the same circuitry, and as far as i can tell, the oscs don't even sound the same. like the vsynth, the VA sounds cheap and thin. it's no virus or waldorf. it's good for its intended audience, people new to music looking for a easy keyboard that's cheap, but i would never use one. in regards to the vsynth, variphrase admittedly is really cool, but if i need it that badly i'll get varios. since every other aspect of the vsynth isn't that apealing to me, and dbeams is nothing more than a trinket to me. im a mouse and keyboard kind of guy, i have no piano background, so for me, my performance will be more on sculpting textures via knobs rather than playing. and while i could assign parameters to the dbeam to do such performances, i'd feel like a dork doing it, and i'd rather have tangable control anyhow.

No-one's got a gun to your head forcing you to buy one, ffs.

[Hollowcell]

Opinions are always subjective.
Different strokes for different.......You know what I mean.

Enjoy Ten.

[MADSTATION]

Awesome review...Thanks Ten.
I'm off to the shop, hopefully they got some in stock.

[Merlot]

congrats ten! I also like the results you could get out of the overdrive. Rellly nasty sounding leads and bass's with it.