Roland SH-32

I just got this thing, I really like it, all I can say right now is that if you don't like the zipper effects of the filter, you can try hooking it up to a good external midi controller and that should hopefully give you much smoother control. On my Evolution MKC461, the problem almost takes care of itself.

The preset sounds are great! I didnt expect to get such fat synth sounds out of this machine. It was easy to use, within like 10 min i was making...sounds. I got hung up on how to make songs with the paterns for awile.

First of all the arpegiator on this is great. The reason i gave it a 9 is because the drum machine in it is lacking, but the arpegiator makes up for it.

You can do alot with the sounds on this synth. It has everything from a trance lead to a organ (is that a big jump between sounds?)
It has a great aprgegiator with alot of patches.

It feels like i could drop it and it would survive. It scared me how solid it felt, manly because the thing is incased in thick metal for such a low price.

I havent had a problem with it

O this was worth it... i only paid 185 for it new so that was a steal. it wasnt even on ebay.

Don't know what the sofware revision is, but this does the (very simple) job I require from it, i.e. replicationg the Moog Taurus sound. I put a set of Roland's PK-5 pedals through this on pre-set D49 and can replicate flawlessly the same sound I obtained from my long-lost Moog Taurus pedals. I've cycled through the rest of teh sounds and they're convicingly analog-ish. The manual is very (and I mean VERY) comprehensive - must be a new boy at Roland who is out to impress.

The polyphony (so far as I can tell - I don't really use it) is good. On-board effects are adequate for my use - I'm a simple soul and easily pleased. I bought this for a very specific purpose and it performs perfectly.

I haven't played with the arpeggiator as yet, but its operation looks fairly straightforward (according to the manual).

This unit attempts to emulate analog sounds and, for my use, does so perfectly. I bought it to emulate the Moog Taurus sound and it does exactly that.

Looks and feels solid.

No dealing s with Roland as of yet.

A steal at #140 - the guy I bought it from had only used it three times. I put a set of Roland's PK-5 pedals through it and the SH-32 performs effortlessly. I'd definitely buy another if it were lost or stolen - it's intrinsic to the sound I need.

I cannot recommend this unit highly enough, hence the 10/10 rating.

This synthesizer is my third synth ever so I have limited experience with editing but this thing is pretty easy. If you have a solid understanding of ADSR you're already halfway there. Good effects, limited arpeggiator. Nice preset sounds that give you useable ideas.

32 voice polyphony. There is no keyboard but the unit can have one octave played from the front panel in preview mode. The effects are pretty standard distortion, chorus, reverb, a nice selection of delays. Full midi.

This is basically Roland taking all of the best of their classic analog synths and approximating them into one. You can really put a lot of feeling and expressiveness into the sounds. It has the classic analog "dirty" filters for fat basses and squealing leads but it also has quite a few atmospheric sounds.

White sheet metal case, seems as sturdy as it needs to be. I don't usually abuse my equiptment. I'd imagine it could take a punch better than I could.

I haven't had to deal with Roland, but it seems as if their customer service is barely available. They have no 800 number, there are toll numbers for phone and fax. No email support.

I really love this thing. I think I wouldn't hesitate purchasing another one if something happened to this one. I have been playing keyboards for around 3-4 years but have played guitar for over 10. This synth fits well for the type of music I like to write but I think would be good for any setup. My other main synthesizer is a Moog Source. It's been easy to mix the two and get good sounds. The only thing I don't like about it is I can't find out how to change between a single trigger and auto trigger on notes. Aside from that, which is probably based on my stupidity, I think it's a great synth that hasn't had it's ass kissed enough.

Overall, it's very easy to use. Knobs, buttons, and faders all over the place. I was a bit daunted at first by having only a 3-character LED for feedback, but even that won't stop you from getting a good sound out of this thing. The perks on this machine are a lack of complex submenus and real-time, instant-gratification changes in sound, from oscillators to filters to effects. The downers on this machine are cryptic effect names and an unbelievably complex arpeggiator, although I must admit that its complexity allows it to achieve complex patterns. However, effect names like StU and TRL are somewhat beyond redemtion, but with a manual, who cares?

It doesn't have a sequencer, and I wish the best of luck to anyone who tries to use the arpeggiator as one, like the sales pitch recommends. Other than that, you get tons of waveforms, two oscillators, two ADSR filters, two LFO's, and an arpeggiator that's as easy or hard as you make it. It's got portamento, onboard effects, and interfaces ridiculously easy with any MIDI controller. For $200, what more could I ask for? Well... that's somewhat of a loaded question. While I suffer little on account of the small LED display, I find the arpeggiator just a tad cumbersome... But I'm a whiner. Oh, and it can be either mono- or polyphonic, which is cool.

Good stuff, the whole lot of it. Some are too snobby to use sampled waveforms, but not me. It does sound digital, but it sounds good. For all you who hate the digital sound, you're probabably too good for this one. However, it's a fat digital sound, and you could shake some walls with it. Nice, fat, basses, soft-sounding pads, and some freaky-deaky leads. I like it a lot.

As for the beats, the 808/909 sets sound PRO-BOSS. It's nearly worth the price for the drum sounds alone, if you've got a good sampler... and I've got a good sampler... so it was nearly worth the price for the drum sounds alone... Where else can you score sounds like this for that price!?

Now for the not-so-good... The infamous "zip". Anyone who isn't familiar with this, imagine turning up volume with a regular knob, then imagine turning up volume with a step-knob, where each step makes an audible, not-so-smooth transition from one step to another. You will find this step-up on filters and pitch bends. However, using portamento, or other effects that are set-and-forget, this effect is non-existant. Basically, if you tweak a lot, this thing will drive you mad, but then, that's why I keep my Juno. It's my mad tweak box.

It should be noted that this is not an analog-sounding synth. It makes a reasonable facsimile, but it still sounds digital... If you can get over that, you'll really enjoy this synth. It sounds great.

Well, it's Roland, and I trust Roland gear.

Never dealt with them, but I've never HAD to deal with them, which says something...

I love this unit. It's a bit limited, and it's not perferct, but it's definitely worth owning and it's got great potential. I would buy it again in a heartbeat, despite that notorious zip everyone keeps bitching about. If you can look over a few shortcomings, you'll find a great unit.

Anyway, it was certainly refreshing to hear Roland producing their drum sounds again. They're absolutely tops, no two ways about it. It's fun to muck about with the synth part until you've gotten wrapped up in it, then turn around and say "Oh wait, this thing makes drum sounds too!!" If you're reading this, you're obviously interested... Go to your local dealer and try one on for size! They're great!

Pretty easy to use if you've used most of the newer GROOVE Gear by Roland. I bought it for $125 with no manual but about an hour of fiddling about and I've got the overall idea. easy straight foward analog style editing, lots of klnobs and sliders, if its like the other Toland gear I'm sure they probably tramsmit midi controller dat also, Some Presets are usuable some are Naff, anyone with a limited analog programming background should be able to get some nice analog like sounds out of these beasts

32 note polyphony, should be fine for the average songwriter, decent effects, your typical Roland delays, reverbs, distortion, cool isolator. No expansions but for under $200 I wouldn't expect much. MIDI stuff seems decent similar to most Roland gear. No sequencer but sweet appegiator, you can program and save your own styles COOL, you can also you it to make drum lines

Decent analog style sounds. sounds as good as my JP-8080, and I paid a quarter of the price for it. I prefer the bass sounds to my K-station. Great for anybody who needs more analog style sounds. The Filters are typical roland Groove wackyness, most of the time you should set the resonance at half way or else you'll get a super dramatic change in sound, but still sounds decent overall and for the price I wouldn't complain

I own a Roland JP-8080,JUNO-106, MC-303, D2, MC-09, Ef-303, and now this, havent had a problem with any of them, I've gigged everything else mentioned and haven't had a single issue. unlike my Novation K-station which is a piece of junk. So I would Recommend ROLAND anytime

never had an issue, bought manuals from ROLAND and they seemed happy to help

I JUST ORDERED A 2ND SH-32 FROM MUSICIAN'S FRIEND THEY ARE SELLING THESE NEW FOR $199 WITH FREE SHIPPING, FOR UNDER $200 I RECCOMMEND THAT YOU BUY ONE. I LIKE THE SOUND, I LIKE THE PRICE, I WISH IT HAD A MC-303/505 LIKE SEQUENCER BUT FOR $200 I'M NOT GOING TO PISS AND MOAN, IF YOU GET A CHANCE CHECK ONE OUT. I BE THAT YOU'LL BE SUPRISED

Easy to use. Lots of sliders and knobs that are intuitive to use if you have at least the basic understanding of LFO's, Envelopes and the like. Each preset can be previewed and tweaked easily. The 16 step keys are not set up like the TR-808 or Korg Electribes but, it is easy to use because it uses a piano/keyboard layout.

Tons of features that you would expect from a top notch groove box synth. The SH-32 has the TR-808 and 909 sounds in it as well as 303 and SH-1000 style synth patches.

Supreme! This is a mean box. I own the Korg Electribes, a maxed out Emu Turbo Phatt, an Oberheim Matrix 6R, an Access Virus, and most of the soft synths out there and this box beats them all. The TR-808 drums are true blue and the synth presets are heavy. Best box I have ever heard. Did I mention the 808? If you want an 808, I highly recommend this box!

Built tough. I have owned it for about a week so I don't have a long relationship with it yet. I haven't heard any unwanted noise and it's a $600 unit new so I don't expect I'll encounter any problems.

Just sent in the registration.

Like I said earlier, this is the best sounding box I own.

Well, here goes... my first product review! No idea on the software version... let's call it 1.0; just brought the unit home from the local music store. Many of the presets are lame in my opinion, but are good starting points for dialing in your own sounds. Patch editing is very easy due to all of the dedicated controls. Only some functions require some "menu-diving". On the whole, very straightforward. No patch editor required. I think the manual is good... no reason to read it cover-to-cover due to the design of the unit. A handy reference manual for MIDI setup, etc.

32-voice polyphonly, 4-part multitimbral with a rhythm part. Built in effects are very good, IMO... a good selection of good effects, nice and clean. No expansion options. All I can comment on in regards to MIDI capabilities is that I went right in and set it to a corresponding channel to my XP-80, which I'm using as the controller. Next I have to assign parts per MIDI channel for seqencing with the XP-80. Given what I've seen so far, I'm sure it's easy enough. No actual sequencer on-board, but a flexible programmable arpeggiator and chord memory. I can't comment too much on either, as I very seldom use them. An audio input/vocoder would have been great... I imagine that omitting them helped to keep the price down.

Sounds are the main reason I buy any instrument. As stated earlier, most of the presets are weak, but I was creating and storing my own within minutes. There's a lot of synth power in this little box. I've always been a big Roland fan, having previously owned the Juno-106, SH-101, Jupiter-6 and JX-8P. What's great about this thing is, when I feel like adding Juno/Jupiter-type sounds, I can just bring it along and slap it on top of the XP-80's panel, all the way over to the right. I think the SH-32 excels at leads, pads and basses, and the on-board TR-909-style drum kits are great. A lot of 80s Phil Collins tunes waiting to happen! I don't get into the trance/hip-hop/house/acid stuff... I will mainly use this module for 70s and 80s synth textures, leads and pads. The velocity and aftertouch nuances are nice.

As with most Roland gear, it appears very sturdy, although I wouldn't throw it out the window or drive over it in a car. I always take really good care of my gear so I expect that it will last for a couple of decades at least. Will definately use it without a backup.

I've only contacted Roland tech support once, a long time ago. Service was OK. No problems ever using my local Roland authorized service center.

If lost or stolen, I'd replace it. I think it's WELL worth the price I paid for it, and I think if Nord or Novation made this thing it would have cost $800. It's a nice compliment to my live rig... currently a Roland XP-80 and Korg Triton classic. I love the sounds and how it gets warm, fat analog textures. Compared it with the Novation K-Station before buying, and although the SH-32 has no input/vocoder (I wish!), I think it offered more bang-for-the-buck to me personally. Have to give it a 10 for value!

Latest software version. Presets are pretty good and show off some of the variations in sound that the unit can provide. However, you can EASILY make MUCH better sounds on your own with little effort and the results are great!

Editing pateches is VERY easy and a LOT of fun though you do need to keep track of which oscillator/LFO you are on. Some of the functions are a little obtuse but surprisingly the LED display though cryptic is big and bright and can communicate "farily" well what you are doing. It is really easy to come up with all sorts of sounds; leads, basses, pads, blips, squeaks, etc, etc. You can get GREAT sounds FAST!

Manual is pretty good as well and covers a lot of ground without getting too long winded. Easy to find the sections I want info on. Better then most, not as good as some but for sure a VERT hand reference for some of the deeper functions (arp patterns, etc).

This is a synth module without any sequencer but with a VERY powerful arrpegiator that allows you to make a lot of noize in one easy to use package. 32 voice polyphony (quite a bit!) makes for note-rich pad playing without hearing the voice stealing. Also allows for complex 4-Layer Performance set ups whcih are a lot of fun with drums and multiple arpeggio patterns running simultaneously. Velocity and key tracking are available to various filter and Amp functions and it responds very well to both velocity and modulation functions etc.

Effects are standard Roland quality (which is excellent!) providing both a single Insert and global Reverb/Delay. The effects add a lot of sonic power and allow for some very professional, polished sounds of all types. Lots of types of effects from distrotions, LoFi to chorus, flange, phase, delays etc. Many allow for BPM sync. All in all a responsive little critter.

Th range of sounds the unit is capable is truly amazing. It covers them all; pads, leads, basses, blips, etc and the selection of waveforms is really extensive. This IS a synthesizer and is made to make SYNTH sounds; no piano, guitar, breass etc. Everything is centered around a flexible pallate of synth tonalities. It CAN sound CLOSE to analog (not totally) as well as quite digital in the Waldorf vein. The filters have a bit if a sharper quality than some and really cut when you trun up the resonance. With the resonance truned DOWN they get quite smooth and "round" sounding. Ring Mod is a really nice addition of a-tonal sounds, sync is nice but make everything MONO(!) and having pulse width mod on both oscilltors alllows for some VERY thick sounds. A great paint box for synth sounds; perfect for techno, house, ambient, garage and really any other music that calls for SYNTH sounds.

Steel casing, standard Roladn plastic knobs (not the best) sliders have a pretty strong feel and are "stubby" so they should not snap off even when slid fast. Would for sure use w/ out a bcak up as I don't mistrast my dog or my gear.

Never needed to contact them. Roland site is pretty easy to manage and this is where a lot of support is located these days.

This is a very inexpensive, higly vesitile tool with a few unique tricks up it's musical sleeve. It is quick and easy to program and to get new sounds that are inspiring and musically useful. There are the issues that other have discussed with "zipper" nose when you CHANGE some of the parameters, BUT, the actual envelopes and LFOS's don't appeart to do this. Even with some of the inherent technical "glitches" and quirks as an "instrument" it provides me with lots of inspirational sounds and adds a new and unique voice to my music. It is ABSOLUTELY a synth and can be considered a poor-man's Virus. I like it a LOT and if stolen, lost (who DOES something this stupid?) I would absolutely purchase again. I don't know of ANY synth near this price that offers SO much bang for the buck, is as versitile, fun and sounds as good. Highly recommended IMHO!

The unit is pretty logically layed out. A few little things to learn to find the few more remote parameters but I had everything figured out with just a couple hours playing around while checking out the presets. I haven't mastered the arppegiator, but I'm not sure I'm interested for my particular applications.

Great feature set, especially at this price. It doesn't do everything, but it offers a lot of nicely related stuff. This is a satisfying combination of basic subtractive synthesis with enough editing control, cool effects, and some drum sounds thrown in to round it all out. I would like a keyboard version, but I like keyboard versions of everything.

I bought this primarily for the sounds. I have 17 other synths, some digital, sampler, lots of analog. This is definitely a subtractive synthesis sound, similar to analog, but not exactly like anything else in my setup. It really compliments my other synths. Of course, the natural comparison is to analog synths.

In particular, it doesn't have the lush and smooth sound of my JP-8 and yet I think it is probably more flexible. I am surprised to find how wide a range of sounds it has. The voice architecture is not very different from typical analogs, but I find it has t ability for a wider range of sounds than those. Maybe it's the number of variations of the waveforms?

Or maybe it's the effects. I'm comparing against analogs that have no built in effects. Sure, I could run those through a processor, but it's not the same as having effects dedicated to each patch.

There is something about the overall tonality, maybe mid range push, or mid treble, that makes this unique. It doesn't have a bank of fixed frequency filters but it does often sound like it does. It is easy to come up with sounds that have a centered frequency presence or defined range. I think it sits well in a mix, leaving lots room for other sounds around it.

The filter doesn't sound like any other synth. It's not very analog, but that's not bad. I really like it. I guess that is probably responsible for the focused tonal character.

Whether it is the effects, or the filter characteristic, or waveform variations, the sound is complete. My analogs all have a great raw base, but often need post processing, for EQ, compression, reverb, and other effects.

I haven't had this long enough to really nail down what makes the sound of this synth. Whatever it is, it is easy to get very usable sounds out of the SH-32. It's just always ready to go.

In my experience Roland stuff usually is among the most reliable. I'm guessing this will be the same. It seems really solidly built.

I rarely use tech support. Never needed it for SH-32.

Overall, this is great value for the price. Easy to use, fast access to usable sounds. High polyphony and multitimbral are often useful. I've owned about 70 synths in the past 25 years. I currently own Moog Modular, Prodigy, Pro-One, P-600, SEM, and JP-8 analogs. I have JV-1080, DX-100, and K5000s digitals. I also use Reactor and Reason. SH-32 fits very well in my setup.