Roland SH-201 Review

Roland SH-201

$699

www.rolandus.com

Roland continues its quest to exploit its own history with yet another synthesizer with a strikingly familiar name. The SH-201 tries to keep the faith by promising nothing new at a reasonable price.

For the most part, Roland markets solid, usable instruments that tend towards the predictable, with a few occasional jaw droppers interspersed among them. Sometimes those products turn out to be rather special, as in the case of the RE series of Space Echoes or the CR-78 drum machine. Other times, it has dished out bland products that have wound up in the right hands at the right time and been catapulted to near-legendary status. The Juno-106 comes springing to mind.

Having owned a goodly number of Roland instruments over the past few decades, I would place the SH-101 squarely in the latter category. Its single oscillator and limited modulation resulted in what could only be described as a “generic” sound. Yet, it was dirt cheap to get a hold of, and dead easy to use. It therefore seems a bit strange to me that it has gone on to achieve cult status.

It’s the SH-101’s cult status that gives me the most difficulty in reviewing the SH-201, Roland’s new box full of old technology. The choice of naming the new synth after a much-loved vintage instrument may backfire when potential buyers realize that this instrument bears no resemblance to the synth that gave it its name. For those who only know of the SH-101 from its rather over-inflated legend, any instrument that parlays on that name will be a letdown.

Even if we ignore the nostalgic moniker, the SH-201 represents nothing new. It is, simply, Roland’s virtual analog (VA) synthesis crammed into a lightweight package. If you have heard a V-Synth’s analog section, or a JP-8000, you’ve more or less heard the 201. It has all the usual Roland VA doodads, including the much vaunted (and overused) “Supersaw” waveform onboard and those familiar Roland filters, whose buzzing resonance may or may not be to your tastes. (If you like the buzzing, then you are in luck, because Roland has tacked on an overdrive circuit as well, so you’ll be able to do all the obligatory 303 riffs you like.)

In Use

The SH-201 is being marketed as a beginner’s synthesizer. As such, its panel is laid out in a manner to promote learning and experimentation. It’s possessed of the standard analog signal path of two oscillators pumped through a multimode resonant filter with a pair of both LFOs and envelope generators. The envelope generators are of the simple ADSR variety and are assigned to filter and amplitude. Before the signal reaches the output stage, it is spat through reverb and delay processors.

From the above description, it’s obvious that Roland had no intention of recreating the SH-101. In fact, it’s already apparent that this unit is, parameter for parameter, twice the instrument that its granddad was. There is double the number of oscillators, and each of them can pump out one of eight different waveforms, as well as an audio input. All the usual analog waveforms are available, including saw, square, pulse, triangle, sine, and noise. Upping the ante even further is the addition of the Supersaw and a feedback oscillator.

The oscillator section offers control over pitch, detuning, and pulse width or feedback, should you have the appropriate waveforms selected. Unfortunately, you can’t access the controls of both oscillators at once. The same set of knobs is used for both, depending on which oscillator you have selected for editing.

Once you have tweaked your waveforms to taste, you can mix and match them in the Mix/Mod section, which gives you a simple balance control and a selectable mix/mod selector. The choices on offer are mix, sync, and ring modulation. The latter was once seen as a very esoteric feature, usually reserved for owners of modular systems and Daleks, so it’s nice to see it included on an instrument in this price range. Another unusual option: Before your sound hits the filter stage, you are given the choice of rolling off the low frequencies or boosting them. This comes in handy for giving a lead sound an instant bite or pushing some air with your basses.

Roland’s filters were once strictly of the 12dB variety. Unlike many of its contemporaries, however, it understood the benefit of offering a high-pass mode in addition to the stand low-pass filter. Usually, the HPF was tagged on after the LPF. Alpha Juno users will understand the benefits of such an approach. On the SH-201, there is also a high-pass mode, as well as a band-pass mode; unfortunately, you have to choose between them. However, you can choose between the 12dB slope and the more precise (and popular) 24dB. Cutoff and resonance knobs are supplied, as well as a control for scaling the filter via the keyboard.

Overall, the filter sounds decent enough. I have never been a fan of the somewhat exaggerated virtual analog filters that are currently popular, so it was a bit aggressive for my tastes. Nevertheless, as the instrument is aimed at newcomers, it’s likely to be their only synth, and such aggressiveness will allow them to cut through a mix.