Roland SH-201

The best feature of this unit it it's myriad of knobs, buttons and sliders that make sound creation/tweaking very intuitive - just like the analog synths of old. Sadly, that is where the comparison between this synth and the older analog synths ends. Kudos to Roland for getting this part right, but the sound quality is harsh-read on.

Nice delay and verb. But this is supposed to be a nod to the classic Roland analogs of old...and no chorus, which was standard on almost all of their analogs.

The keyboard action was the worst I ever tried on any synth, and I've tried many since the mid 80s. The sounds trigger when you've only pressed half-way down on the key. Big problem. This unit is built very very cheaply, the knobs are very lightweight thin plastic. The case feels empty and light-lightyears away from my Alpha Juno which had solid build quality and sound that makes it a favourite of producers to this day. I can see someone at Roland had a brainstorm to bring this unit to light, but somehow the Roland Corporation got in the way and it was profit over quality for the build quality and sound. If only musicians or even educated music lovers had a strong say in the development of this unit. I can see this was sadly not the case. They shot themselves in the foot. It's a tragedy to see Roland does not prize it's own brand name anymore. Perhaps they would be better named as Corporation: Roland rather than Roland Corporation.

The build in sounds are meh...some great ones though. You could have programmed a lot of very good sounds on this due to the decent synth architechture, but the sounds are marred by the fact that the sound quality is BAD digital - harsh on the ears, and nowhere near the sweet sound of quality digital or quality analog. The Novation X-station or Xio sound miles better than this unit and actually caress the ears, not punish them. The touch sensitivity is marginal at best, nowhere near the Novations I've tried (I noticed the Novations have the most warm analog sound out of all the VAs).

I returned it so I don't know, but the build quality tells me these things won't last for many years compared to Rolands other synths over the years.

Never dealt with them.

Don't be fooled by the newbs and their enthusiastic reviews - this one would only be appreciated by either someone who doesn't know better, or someone who's ears can miraculously handle the harsh sawlike digital oscillators.

I grew up on Roland synths, and it's painful for me to give this product a negative review. But I realize the Roland of the 80s is now only Roland in name, but not in spirit. I hope they read these reviews and learn from them, but this product is a travesty and I'm almost in tears about it. I've ordered a Novation X-station and the sound is light years more pleasing.

easy as ****, just turn it on and away you go.

loads...

super saw

A1..

$$$

this synth is not for everyone, ********* beware..

have to admit i havent been able to use the software, i read in some magazine review that the reveiwer just plugged it in to his pc and away he went, lucky guy. the software seems nice and i will have to give it another go soon. the manual is good for roland and seems clear, not crazy about the presets, creating patches on the 201 is fun though and easy.

i dont play a note, i control all my synths with sequencers, the effects are nothing to write home about but i have plenty of effects, outboard and plug'ins which i rather use anyway, i like to record dry. i like the filter and while its no classic has its own little thing going and do use it.

this is an expressive synth, just switch it on and before you know it your creating new sounds, thats the whole idea really with the 201 i think. the audio input is great and the 201 sits into my setup nicely.

no problems, like most instruments does'nt like to fall down the stairs or have beer poured all over, the pots are sturdy, the sliders a little less so.

no use yet

the SH201 seems to really have annoyed some people here and i give 10 out of 10 because i feel some reviewers have really been unfair. what do they want from this machine. this is a very specialist machine really, a niche instrument. its not a all singing all dancing work station. i love the light weight, i can mess around with it when sitting in bed (now now, you know what i mean!) for the money i think its a great synth with plenty of personality which is a lot more than you can say about a lot of synths these days

I have about 5 high end keyboards ranging from Kurzweil, Ensoniq ASR10 and a Prophet 600. This little guy is a monster and can stand up with them. To me it has a very asian sound like Kitaro, and it fills that nitch. I replaced the ugly sliders that looked like Chinese molded plastic with some nice metal looking ones. The reason I love this is I can get all those nasty analog sounds and a great many my analog cant do! Im using it as a sound card USB interface on a hackintosh OSX86. Its light so I can take it to a party and not worry in fear that its going to get broken because its inexpensive unlike my Prophet that needs TLC!

Key action, well its small and cheap. The effects are great! Remember no old school analogs will have any effects! (Do they?) Mine don't. The D beam is neat but for me in a dark studio environment its not working in super low light. I could invision modding this into a metal case with a netbook and touch screen, wow, imagine that!

Ok, the sounds, OMFG, this thing is the bomb. I can see it being used in Hiphop, Midi Guitar, newage, post, pure lead solos, wackie techno with its killer 32 part on screen programmable arpeggio.

Ok, well um this is one hell of a plastic toy looking box. When I got mine it has taked a pretty big smacking and some knobs had fallen off. The machine was pretty much "Zoned out" and half the unit was not functional in stand alone. I cracked it open and suprisingley there almost nothing inside! The knobs are not servisiable at all with out totally dismanteling it! I quick press on every ribbon connector and the machine sprang to life or I reset something? Either way its cheap as hell but suprisingley sitting on stage or a rack of keyboards it looks like its solid metal! But to me its value is Im not taking my Vintage analogs to drunken beer partys (I think this would smoke my Prophet 600 at a party with its Arpeggio, although its not "Phat" but use an analog guitar chorus and phaser you get the analog break up. Hell to be honnest my Analogs are all using rack digital effects because they sound great but lack needed effects so in the end its all broken down to digital so break this down to a few analog effects and she is a done deal. This box is not for drunks that like to knock things around in the back of a hatchback.

The web forum answered my question but answered "I don't understand what your asking" so I had to attach photos lol.. Several other questions have gone stale at the forum and the official Roland web forum took 2 days to get a password and even then I was unable to login with out "WORK" and I gave up.

Over all I snaged this with the intention of selling but the size makes this a unit I can toss into a camper with a mini amp and jam anywhere! My friend built a 12 adapter and plays in his car with headphones in the back seat on long trips. This sounds only as good as a VSTi but imagine not having to have to lug a laptop on stage? Im amazed its bad reviews and comparing this to machines costing twice the cost. Its feature packed, I use it as a midi input for a second keyboard and USB interface on my hackintosh, used as a VSTi plugin (Although I dont have it working as a VSTi yet.. Its dark sounding not bright and brittle. For the guys that hate on this its not a piano so the keys are light, its plastic but makes loading on stage an easy job. I have so many synths that I should sell and even this one fills a voide so I cant sell this! ITs super portable and I can imagine at a party pulling out this wonderbox and guys saying where did you get that? Outfitted with wireless pack and 9v battery this is a great and serious professional fully featured synthesizer as long as you can get over the fact you cant press a button and churn out a dance track with the factory preset (Although I can) Id not pay over $350 but only because there so many choices out there but $325 makes this a moog killer. In 10 years where will we be with VA synths? Remember a moog back in the day could run $3,000 to $8000 for the Sequential circuits prophet 5 so comparing this to something costing 20X the price is not a good comparison.

The layout is okay. Tries to follow that of what it is trying to emulate.

It has a decent set of features for a modeling synth. More than enough to get a good number of interesting sounds out of it.

Here is where this thing falls apart. The oscillators sound pretty weak and thin. The core sound of each waveform is painfully digital sounding. The Filter sounds terrible, and you can hear the digital stepping while riding on the control. It quickly becomes apparent that this keyboard really doesn't hold much to most of the other Virtual Analog keyboards out there.

Very cheap feeling. Very flimsy. I'd imagine one fall/drop and it would be toast. I couldn't ever imagine actually gigging with this, even with a flight case. It would never last.

Do yourself a favor... If you want an inexpensive $300-$500 range Analog Modeling synth, go get yourself a Novation x-station. You'll be in knob heaven, and it sounds WORLDS better than this thing.

This synth is very easy to use, no nested menus, nothing but pure single slider or button = single function, just like the oldies. I think there may be a few multiple button commands for advanced features, like changing midi channels, etc...but I've never needed these. Never cracked open the manual, never needed to.

10-voice polyphony, split/dual mode. The setup/architecture is very similar to my Jupiter-6. Keyboard action is not as good as Roland's of the past, but works just fine, light and springy. Keys seem shorter than normal to me. I usually use it in split mode, bottom split = MIDI channel 1, top split = channel 2. Perfect for my hardware sequencer setup. My only gripe is that the arppregiator seems a little sluggish timing-wise; a disappointment considering it's a Roland (I'd expect this from a Korg).

OK, this is why I wrote this review. I wanted to hate this synth when it first came out. I originally owned an SH-101 back in 1985 (my first synth!) and I knew this VA was going to be nothing along the lines of it's analog ancestors. When I kept going back to it at the local music store I knew something was up with this thing; I kept churning out lush pads, thick bass, vintage leads, etc. The presets were awful and did not do this synth any justice at all. I found that it matched my Jupiter nearly perfectly in most areas except hi-resonance sounds (VA's cannot do analog resonance well, except for possibly the ION). Othewise, I can't understand why people give this synth low marks in the sound category. It's absolutely analog sounding; especially when used with the great vintagey-sounding chorus/phase & delay. I will NEVER sell this synth.

It's Roland, I'm sure it will be around 40 years from now, plastic case and all.

This synth is incredibly underrated, and a real bargain. I thought Roland had lost it's soul a long time ago, but this synth is really a winner.

The SH-201 is very easy to use provided you understand analog synthesis. The manual goes out of its way to simplify the process ad does a better job than many Roland manuals that I have read. Even with a background in analog synths, I found it easier to just turn it on and start messing around than to sift through the manual, the "road map" type labels on the top of the unit do a good job of conveying work flow.

10 note polyphony with velocity sensitive keys, built-in reverb and delay. This isn't a workstation by any means so don't expect too much extra. It does what it was meant to do and it does it well. Some reviewers complain about the effects, but used properly and in moderation they can really add to the patches you create. I use it with Sonar via USB along with my Juno G and some other gear and have no problems with that configuration. I give it a 9 because I didn't expect a keyboard of this type and in this price range to have much extra and thus I was not disappointed.

Again, keeping in mind what the SH-201 was made for, it sounds great. I can't help but think that the reviewers whining about the thin sound quality just don't know how to properly flesh out a patch or are expecting a sampling keyboard. I have created everything from stringy pads to drums to pianos and they all sound sweet...in an analog kind of way of course. I was spurred into writing this review out of a desire to set the record straight mainly in this category...the SH-201 is infinitely flexible in its sound capabilities and Roland has done a great job of breaking the controls out in a logical and useful fashion. If you know what you're doing you can really coax some crazy stuff out of it. I use it for ambient, trance, electronica, and some experimental type music and the sounds work great for that. I don't even think twice about using it on my tracks.

So far so good. I have gigged with it, but I am always very careful in the transport and setup / tear down. Electronically speaking, I am sure it is as concretely reliable as all of my Roland gear, but physically...well, plastic is plastic. Just be careful and it won't let you down.

Heard bad things, but never had to call them myself. 5 because I just don't know.

I have been playing for about 15 years and I have had better synths, but I have had worse as well. If you know what you are getting and you're cool with that then the SH-201 is a great value and can do some really unique things. It fills a void in my gear lineup. However, if you are expecting Fantom quality sampled patches and built-in multi-fx and other extras, look elsewhere. It was made for one thing...analog emulation, and in my opinion it does that quite well. It is so easy to just crank it up and start tweaking. Before you know it you've got a new sound for that next track. It is my favorite starting point for songs. I would definitely buy another one if it was lost or stolen.

very easy to use and get going.

not tonnes but enough.

d beam is quality. the synth is very 'hands on' which is good moving straight from soft synths editable only via a mouse.

dunno...

dunno....

crap. do not buy this synth unless you are an actual novice and want to learn about BASIC synthesis.

The whole thing feels like a toy not a piece of pro gear. the sounds are ok-ish. Supersaw is amazing!!! the rest is pretty bland. The chasis flexes under pressure and the rotary dials feel like they could snap off at any time. The feel is ok and the keyboard is good with a nice action, however they are shorter than most normal keys.

the bit which really pissed me off was that the USB MIDI/Audio integration was so limited and you cannot bypass the SH201s synth engine for remote control of any softsynths. You also HAVE to use the SH201 as your primary sound card...

...well i did because I happen to use an original Digidesign Mbox so you cannot create an aggregate audio device with that - bastard Digidesign nobheads. If you use any other audio interface you should be able to create an aggregate audio device and not undergo this problem! :)

I am now streamlining my entire set up and getting a Novation X Station! bye bye Mbox!

safe

Sorry, im not even wasting my time with a full review. It just doesnt seem needed. Ok so im going to skip alot of bs and get to the point. i bought one because at first glance i was super impressed by the setup of this synth. 41 KEYS,FULL KNOB EDITING, USB SUPPORT, NOT EVEN A LCD SCREEN!, ALL EDITABLE FROM THE FRONT PANEL!. IN A VA THATS UNDER 700 BUCKS!? Wow thats sounds like a sweet deal. not to mention an arpegiator, and chorus and reverb that can be removed in a matter of seconds like everything else. Ok in theory this couldve been one of rolands greats.

But, its actually the worst synth ive ever purchaced taking the place of a yamaha dx21 i bought in 1997. OK first off you cant knock the enclosure. Sh-101's had a complete plastic enclosure and actually felt real cheap. and by a analog standard sh 101's were not that full sounding. not much of a fat bottom or warm feel to them.
Now with that said i soo wanted to love this synth. it had everything i wanted in it for a lead and bassline synth. the problem was the sound engine in it was garbage. and the max polophony was horrible. id play a chord with a pad and it would emediatly cut out. this is 2008, come on you cant put a better polophony in there for that price? everything about this thing sounds pretty aweful. the filters are horrid. the occilators remind me of a 91 casio toy keyboard. i cant imagine putting this thing in a mix with proffesional gear and it not getting outted for being nothing more then a really expensive toy. Heres a real problem. if you cant sound better then a freeware softsynth then your not much good for anything. so i took mine back and opted to finally get a roland m-vs1 vintage synth module and a novation drumstation(808,909 clone) YEAH i picked up both of those used for the price of this POS! and actually had 200 bucks to spare. man that sounds so effing sad to say. i actually pitty anyone who bought this junk and got stuck with it. i still love some of rolands gear. but i think im going to stick to waiting for there gear to get discontinued before i take a risk like that again. ok to sum it up.... go buy a casiotone from a pawnshop and a electro harmonix micro synth and youll save alot of money and will probably have better results. and if not at least youll still have one things thats worth a rats ass.

very easy, very fast, turn a pot here, hit a button there

loads, a future classic i think, all plastic, metal and wood will be around forever, high grade light weight ultramodern with a nod to the glory days. i put my korg ER1 through this then into a fat 1 comp, no expert on filters but again just a little tweaking and see what happens. USB to pc, pc editor, LFO to input sounds, can put input sounds through the whole machine if want be, basic effects thank god.

middle of the road dance music "big sounds", for me less is more, nice for layering into the back ground of the drums, get those LFO's working, nice and clean, no hissing, the SH201 is in the back of the mix there doin its thing

a few crashes, no big deal, i crash all my syths all the time, i use live to record too, i crash that a couple of times a night also. really though its as rough and strong as i need. i'd rather this hit the floor than say my laptop or valve comp, bomb proof, no.

havent been there, bought from thomann

its really grown on me. was,nt crazy about it at the start but now its in the mix all the time, which is more than i can say about a lot of my other synths, plenty of machine for your money,