All user reviews for the Roland SH-101

It's a mono synth, fully analog, without memory, where each parameter is directly accessible on the front panel. There is no simple and convenient.

Features:
A single oscillator at first, but you can mix the waveforms, and it has a sub oscillator and a noise generator. There is a detachable and adjustable portamento.
A resonant low pass filter, which can easily grow in self-oscillation.
One envelope, which can act on the VCF and VCA.
An LFO can act on the VCO, the VCF and the VCA. You can also use the noise generator as a modulation source, giving very good results.

There is also an arpeggiator and a small built-in sequencer.

UTILIZATION

Editing sounds is straightforward, simple and enjoyable. The calibration parameters are perfect. Everything reacts exactly as expected.

The keyboard is small: 2 octaves 1 / 2, luckily the little switch octave leap is convenient and well placed. It is controllable CV / Gate, and then access to five octaves, it is easy to control via MIDI converter.

The bender meets great, we arrive at a game very expressive, especially since the keyboard is nervous and reacts to a quarter of the hair.

SOUNDS

The sound of the SH101 is alive, not fat, I love it. Nothing to get rid of the oscillators are fine, the filter is great, the dynamic envelope is super!

One can only regret the absence of possibly a second oscillator for added versatility. At the same time, we would lose a little simpler and it's also what makes it to the point with this synth.

OVERALL OPINION

I use it for more than 10 years, I never get tired.
The three things I love about this synth:
- Sound
- Expressiveness
- Simplicity

It is very difficult to talk price with machines that are 30 years old, so I did not venture

2 octave keyboard and a half (FA DO) with a switch for transposition of +1 / -1 octave.
pitch bend wheel (horizontal) / modulation (vertically) and dosed assignable to VCO / VCF and pitch separately.
arpeggiator and sequencer triggable by a gate signal is connected to the speed of the LFO.
I / O CV / Gate Standard (1V/oct). minijack in
main output and headphone jack 6.35.
HOLD pedal input jack 6.35.
Click on EXT jack 6.35: controls the speed of the arpeggio / sequencer

UTILIZATION

LFO: triangle, square, and random noise, from 2 to 20 hz. applies to the pitch with a slider and knob bender. VCF in PWM and the square of the VCO: a slider and a 3-position switch to select the source: LFO, ENV, or Manual (PW simple).
mixer section for the determination of the volume waveform of the VCO: SAW and SQUARE SUB with the oscillator and the white noise generator.
SUB OSC fairly complete: October square -1, -2, and PULSE -2 October October
then the section with conventional filter cutoff, resonance, depth ENV, LFO depth and Keytrack.
VAC: 1 switch to select between WRAP and GATE.
ADSR classic with a 3 position switch: Retrig or not, and trigger the LFO.

SOUNDS

that's the interesting part: Roland classic sound with silky Square, a pleasant SAW reminiscent of many TB-303. a filter that creamy little saturated self oscillates violently while being very musical, quite the opposite of PRO-ONE example. makes this filter ROLAND IR3109 (Jupiter 6, Juno 8 6-106, JX-3P) is my favorite filter in the world.
for a small monophonic (one CSO, one LFO ENV 1) it has a fairly comprehensive modulations, especially lack of ENV on pitch. Note that the NOISE shaped LFO can get very aggressive sounds unlike other Roland.
a standard brief recognizable at first listen.

OVERALL OPINION

past ten years that I practice that is my favorite bass machine. but it provides very good sound LEAD classic and sequenced sounds interesting. no complex modulations (or extreme) but a full, punchy, powerful and above all a shell prompt (analog), which ridicules the most recent synths.
I highly recommends that they though the rating used is overvalued (€ 350 seems a fair price)
Note that many changes can make very easy to turn it into the semi modular system 100.

Everything has been said above!

UTILIZATION

Very easy to use, it is a good way to get to analog. The only downside may be the arpegiator difficult or almost impossible to stall on a tempo ... Analog Analog!

SOUNDS

The range of sounds is not super wide but just for the bass that can come out, it's worth it!

OVERALL OPINION

For over 20 years, I always had at least one SH101, and I even had the handle at a time into a synthetic strap or the doc in Japanese! is a tireless and timeless synth, which I use mainly for bass sounds. It gave me this synth is pleased to spend days hacking away (and note my hacks on photocopied manual presets blanks!). That said, for some time, I went (oh sacrilege!) To more than honest emulation that fill the lack of control related to the analog ... it will make some jump, but I assume ...

- Keyboard 32 keys from an FA to an OD (about two and a half octaves)
- Monophonic
- The sounds are typical of a synthesizer, ie, unpredictable. The sounds that can modulate the Roland SH-101 are rather serious, and even then there is the possibility of transposing to higher octaves.
- There's a Pitch Bend (X, Y) adjustable pormento an adjustable one sequence and a ARPEGIO adjustable speed and "meaning" melody (ex: you can sequence DO-MI-SOL, and after play in the sense SOL-MI-DO)
- Works with a 9V or 12V adapter or with batteries (I do not know how, I just know they are very large and Cylinders)
- Possibility of adding a "grip modulation" to control pitch bend with an external control
- 1 Output, 1 Phones
- Outputs / inputs I do not know the value: "EXT CLK IN", "Hold", "CV / Gate = IN", "CV / Gate = OUT."

UTILIZATION

No need for a manual, this synth is very easy to use.
Of course, you have a multitude of potential given the number of adjustment possible!

SOUNDS

Analog sound.
To try to be clear, the sound of this synth can be used in progressive rock, it can be used as "Piano Bass" (that's what I did in fact, with electronic organ, and Hop, we go for the complete Doors!), one could even reproduce sounds at Daft Punk.

OVERALL OPINION

I use it for a year now.
This is the first synth I have, and the only negative I have to proclaim is the mono ... I know, it's also a Minimoog monophonic and yet it is a great instrument, but the mono really limits us as to the total explotation of these little toys.
If I remake my choice, I rushed to a polyphonic synth.
Anyway, I will not complain, the Roland SH-101, I found it in the basement of a bar! :-P

Audio signal
CSOs with a PWM pulse sorting and mixable + Sub + Noise-> Q + VCF-> VCA
Control signals
1 LFO 1 ADSR + lever Roland Pitch & Mod + Porta
1 + step sequencer arpeggiator

Synthesizer features low

UTILIZATION

use could not be simpler. Just playing on the sliders!

SOUNDS

Interesting for a synth bass sound or two or even lead but without great originality: it is a Japanese synth (with some machines like the series MS / PS ...)
Filtering funny but too limited to modulation of the interesting things

OVERALL OPINION

soon purchased immediately I thought about selling it ... I still kept a good year ...

-Monophonic analog synthesizer.
-Controller core (mod, bend)
Noon-No .. it's CV / Gate synths like all vintage.
-A single audio output (mono)
Edit-developed enough .. it indeed the interest of analog synth.

UTILIZATION

-Wide configuration clear.
-Editing sounds not very simply the first quarter of an hour .. but with the doc ... in 30 minutes, we understand everything.
Manel-clear.

SOUNDS

TRANCE-SOUND .. a good bass sound, it quickly turn a TRANCE pace ... but you can do lots of other things with.
-The filter is very sharp ... very good, but ... there's only one ... sniff (a low-pass).

OVERALL OPINION

-Use for 4 days. But very happy.
-Strong point: price, sound possibilities.
Black-point: a single filter, plastic housing, bend fragile.
"I have also MS20 ... well, the MS20 is better ... but the sound of sh-101 is less dirty ... and then we can not really compare them.