Roland SH-3A

A monophonic synthesizer fairly simple to use with a routable on ADSR filter and / or volume and presets envelopes for VCF and VCA (type piano, lead light with soft attack and release some long lead time with normal attack minimum and minimum release). VCO for the part five of five octaves different oscillators are available, each with independent adjustment of the wave. Three waveforms are available: Sawtooth, Square, momentum. One may regret the absence of a couple of oscillators fully adjustable for a chorus of two oscillators slightly detuned but a chorus knob ets expected to offset this effect. Moreover, the low frequencies of the square wave and pulse wave is quite convincing. The sawtooth wave lacks a little power but is well suited to light leads (A little "Genesisiens" but a little less bold ...). Noise generator can be routed either directly to the VCF and the VCA can be set to pink or white noise. The VCF is a low pass at the rough externally controllable synth that has good fluidity and a fairly complete race. The synthesizer has two LFO: A saw-tooth and the other square wave or triangle. The LFOs are routed to either the VCF or the VCA or the VCOs. Controls on the side of the oscillators, the portamento is adjusted by a rotary knob and push button has a shot to disable. Portamento is a little hard for my taste, to be used in moderation. There is also a button "glide" that allows shot to mimic the effect of a bend guitar (something close to) the oscillators. A function called "sampler" curious is actually a kind of LFO / Arpeggiator connected to the keyboard that scrolls in a chromatic notes either triangle or sawtooth positive or negative sawtooth or either random.

In connection, the keyboard has a mono output with three different levels of output means (low, medium, high), a headphone output with independent volume, a CV input for the VCF and a CV input for the VCO. It also has a tone control on the back of the case.

The keyboard is 3.5 octaves and is quite noisy (sounds of spring). The low notes have priority over the acute (which is a little disturbing when one is not used).

UTILIZATION

Overall, this keyboard does the job as part of a use-oriented "Seventies" (or even by limiting the Prog ...). That said, it seemed very interesting to use it coupled with a multi-purpose (through distos of delays and modulations of all kinds), as part of an electro sound, as always Lead. He gave results rather sexy as a low, but here the coupling to a stereo splitter (type chorus) needed to get fat on the stamp and "cheat" by introducing the stereo ...

SOUNDS

The lead can be very light and fits well with a musical game while sensitivity. Otherwise I got out of bass sounds very powerful and square-wave pulse and asses are apocalypticaux with the LFO speed to the max square oscillators serious. For the nostalgic rock prog not "minimoogisé" is perfect, otherwise it will leave others unsatisfied.

OVERALL OPINION

This is a good synth for those who love vintage sounds and light or for those who do research on sound and almost anything that can fairly involved torturing the sounds of this small keyboard. Personally the only problem annoying me is that with age the keyboard slightly "detuned" (Calibration resistance bead, must be resolved if only one to put the hands dirty!). Otherwise, the portamento is a little too "thick" in my opinion. Another negative, WEIGHT! For a small synthesizer, it works the biceps!