Roland GAIA SH-01

The Roland Gaia SH-01 gives you a really good sound and at a great price. You can do some really neat things with the effects on the Gaia SH-01 because it allows you to stack them up. Some of the effects on the Gaia SH-01 are bit crash, phaser, pitch shifter, low boost, delay, distortion and reverb. You can add these effects and tweak them all in real time. The Gaia SH-01 is a very portable keyboard, it is very light and rugged. It can even be powered by batteries if you want to use it on the go and you don’t have a wall outlet available.

UTILIZATION

The Gaia SH-01 has everything you need right on the interface of the keyboard, there are not menu’s to have to shift through or items to have to find. Everything you need you can see right from the main interface. It has no LCD display screen and nothing to navigate through. It is almost like an old school type of unit because everything is knobs and sliders.

SOUNDS

If you are in search of a warm and fat analog sound then here it is, the Gaia SH-01 has a rich tone and fat sound and just imagine what it will sound like when you stack those effects up with that fat analog sound! The sound design and creation abilities on the Gaia SH-01 are truly limitless. I have been using the Gaia SH-01 for about 2 years now and it works just like it did the first day that I got it in the summer of 2010.

OVERALL OPINION

The baselines that I am getting from the Gaia SH-01 are probably my favorite sounds. I am getting bass that I never had on any other keyboard or VST. Besides the fact that you will get some great sounds, it is also a lot of fun to play the Gaia SH-01. Just look at the interface, all those knobs to mess with make everything a breeze and a lot of fun.

After using the GAIA SH 01 I was really shocked on the sounds that it has and the ability to change those sounds and make them your own. I really felt like I had full and total control over what came out of the GAIA SH 01. The best thing about the GAIA SH 01 is the ability to change the sounds and you don’t need any software or any manuals to do so. You can just start messing with knobs. I havent really had too many keyboards that are like this one, it has a vintage style and appearance to it but the sounds are just amazing. Very clear.


UTILIZATION

Easy to use, because everything is right in front of you with no on board screen so there are no menus to go through or anything difficult at all. You want to add reverb? Its right there in front of you so add some reverb. It really cant get much easier than Roland has made it on this 37 key analog synth . It has built in arpeggiator, and a lot of on board effects so you wont have to get your effects from elsewhere and the effects are right in front of you too so no looking for them. This is actually one of the easiest boards that I have used.


SOUNDS

Sounds are great, you can use the same sound a bunch of different times and make it sound so different each time and best of all its very easy to do it. It takes no effort at all. I havent found many synths for this price range that can give you what the GAIA SH 01 can.


OVERALL OPINION

Amazing keyboard and I cant believe that it only cost around 700 dollars. It passes many other keyboards in my oppinion just because of the ease of use and the price.

Huge sound with 3 virtual analog engines onboard, each with a dedicated oscillator, filter, amplifier, envelope, and LF0
Layer up to 5 simultaneous effects, including distortion, flanger, delay, reverb, low boost, and more
64-voice polyphony for massive sounds without note drop-out
Fun, hands-on control panel that's great for instant gratification, and for learning synthesis
Lightweight, compact body with 37 full-size keys
Runs on AC or battery power for portable convenience
D Beam, arpeggiator, and Phrase Recorder onboard
USB ports for saving user patches to USB flash drives, and for audio/MIDI connection to computers

Basically this synth boasts that you can stack 3 different synths to make totally unique sounds. It has 3 different engines, all of them analog in flavor. There aren't any screens or menus. Basically all the controls are right at your fingertips, which I think is a pretty good way to go about making a portable synth. The layout can be a little intimidating at first if you aren't very familiar with analog based synths.

UTILIZATION

I produce dubstep as a kind of hobby. And I'm also always on the lookout for new tools for my studio. I have tried about every synth out there. This new offering from Roland really intrigued me. The idea is clever... The manual is pretty good, and it needs to be because I have never used anything quite like this before. This is the kind of device where you will be rewarded if you spend time with it. It's not your typical synth. The controls all seem solid and I was up and running with it pretty fast. It's easy to get bad sounds out of it if you don't kind of know what you're doing. The keys are pretty solid. Not world class but good enough for the price point. Nothing on the keyboard feels overly cheap. I have never used it with batteries so I don't know how good that is.

SOUNDS

First off the presets are horrible. Roland designed a great sounding unit here but it seems they don't know how to use it? The real goods come when you start pressing buttons. You will probably never hear the same sound twice with this synth. There's so many different combinations and effects combos that it would be hard to run out of ideas. It's a creative masterpiece in that regard. Now whether or not every sound you can get is useful is another thing altogether. The Gaia can make your traditional synth sounds and in my case it covers most of my dubstep needs okay. But the real strength here is the ability to really dig down into the unit and get some amazing sounds to come out. The demand is high but the reward can be even higher if you put in the time. The sound quality kicks butt in this price range and the variety of things you can make it do is massive.

OVERALL OPINION

Roland took a very simple concept and turned it into something that is infinitely versatile here. There is a big learning curve though. Learning how to use all 3 programs together so that you can get what you want out of it is crucial. I don't recommend this to people with no synth experience at all. But on the flip side, you don't need to be a synth genius to make it work. I love it and I will be keeping mine for a long time.

The Roland GAIA SH-01 is a compact virtual-analog synthesizer. While it’s technically not a true analog synth, it has all the sounds and controls you’d get with one and essentially operates just like one. It runs on three virtual analog sound engines for it’s tone, each with it’s own oscillator. The keyboard itself has 37 keys and polyphony up to 64 voices at once. It has all sorts of audio and MIDI connections, as well as USB ports for saving sounds and the like…


UTILIZATION

The configuration of the Roland GAIA SH-01 is just like that of a more traditional analog synthesizer, so those familiar with the controls generally associated with analog synths should feel pretty comfortable here. It’s got sections of parameters for your oscillators, a filter, envelope control, effects, an amplifier, and an LFO. Each has a nice amount of control as there really is a ton of different possible sounds between the three oscillators and all of these controls. I haven’t seen a manual for it, but if you’re at all new to analog synths, I’d recommend having it.



SOUNDS

I don’t think I’d be able to tell too much of a difference between the Roland GAIA SH-01 and a true analog synth. For all intents and purposes, this might as well be a real analog synth and it really doesn’t bother me at all that it isn’t since it still sounds like the real thing. You’re going to be able to get all sorts of analog synth sounds here, and between all the controls you should be busy with it for quite some time. It also has effects like delay, reverb, distortion, and more. I don’t believe that the Roland GAIA SH-01 is lacking anything in the sounds department.


OVERALL OPINION

The Roland GAIA SH-01 is the perfect little synth for those looking to get analog synth sounds without the hassles of it. You’re not going to encounter the same issues with this that you might a true analog synthesizer, which is definitely a good thing. The price of the Roland GAIA SH-01 isn’t outlandish considering the great instrument you’re getting. Those after an analog synthesizer need to seriously consider the GAIA SH-01.