BlahBlahCafe - Jean-Michel Jarre forum

I tried one of these yesterday. It's a nice synth, but for £400+ you can get something so much better. It may not have USB, but it's still a better synth (3 Oscs, 2 Filters, 3 full envelopes - the Alesis Ion has this (sorry) and I bought mine for £400).

Synthesist wrote: Madonnas keyboardplayer has a white SH-201, a sponsorgift from Roland.

Don't know if that was soo much better though.

I must say I'm a little surprised that it isn't more expensive than 700 Euros (the black one, here in Sweden) allthough to me it seem like you have to "put in" most of the sounds you want to play.

V-Synth Rack, Fantom, damn, he uses good synths !!
Thank you for pictures my dear

I think Roland sponsors him,
like Jarrekid with Alesis. The name "Roland" is on all the synths very good readable.

Jarp2600 wrote:like Jarrekid with Alesis

Yes, I think Roland sponsors him too

Jarp2600 wrote:like Jarrekid with Alesis

It's a great synth!

Anyway, I think Roland have needed a more affordable synth for a long time, so they bring this out. Trouble is, it's still too expensive, it should be at least £100 cheaper for what features it actually has.

noyau wrote:V-Synth Rack, Fantom, damn, he uses good synths !!
Thank you for pictures my dear

Im more excited about the white Nordlead 3 but I don't have any close up pictures of it but you can just spot it.

Synthesist wrote:

noyau wrote:V-Synth Rack, Fantom, damn, he uses good synths !!
Thank you for pictures my dear

Im more excited about the white Nordlead 3 but I don't have any close up pictures of it but you can just spot it.

Access Virus TI Polar allready IS white.
All white instruments looks good while they are new. If you consider to keep it for a few years you should maby take into consideration what will happen next to this shiny white color?
(My white guitar is NOT as white anymore...more like "sour cream" kind of white. )
I would like a Roland SH-201 in any other colors but white.

...just as a warning.

Velodynamic wrote:

Synthesist wrote:

noyau wrote:V-Synth Rack, Fantom, damn, he uses good synths !!
Thank you for pictures my dear

Im more excited about the white Nordlead 3 but I don't have any close up pictures of it but you can just spot it.

Access Virus TI Polar allready IS white.

Where did he mention a Virus TI?

Its a very nice synth!!

Velodynamic wrote:

Synthesist wrote: Madonnas keyboardplayer has a white SH-201, a sponsorgift from Roland.

Without the sideburns and evil look he'd look like Louis Gordon, John Foxx's partner in crime.

GeeJee wrote:

Velodynamic wrote:

Synthesist wrote: Im more excited about the white Nordlead 3 but I don't have any close up pictures of it but you can just spot it.

Access Virus TI Polar allready IS white.

Where did he mention a Virus TI?

I didn't get it either

Btw. I went into my locak music store to check out some of the new synths from this summer including the SH-201 sadly I couldn't get any sound out of it, it was turned on though with audio cables. I couldn't check out how it sounded but looked more interresting than on the pictures. For a plastic synth this didn't feel toyish at all.

Today I tried a SH 201. (Lucky me, there's a Feedback in my city )

Pro's:

- Nice sound
- Easy to switch bitween memory patches
- Nice playing keys
- Polyphony: Enough voices for good pads
- Audio in
- Arpeggiator with 32 arpeggio styles

Contra's

- Very little memory: 64 patches (32 preset, 32 user)
- Monotimbral
- D-beam controller doesn't have many functions (or they are hard to find)
- presets are very Trance-orientated
- No onboard sequencer

Conclusion: I feel it a bit expensive for the functions you get. For solo-synth it is good, but if you want to make productions with it, you can't build on it.
I would save some more money, and buy a better synth.

Jarp2600 wrote:- presets are very Trance-orientated
- No onboard sequencer

.

Most synths nowadays have rather limited appeal to me,although i do like the odd Dance genre Preset, i think many synths are overlooked by people because they beleive the presets are the only thing its capable of so in theory bypass using one because its geared for dance heads,which is a shame,because there are a lot of damn good synths out there thats capable of so much more if only some would look beyond the presets...especially VA where you have more options on programming interfaces anyway

I bought a Korg Electribe MX a few months ago the guy in the shop asked me what sort of music i do,when i told him he said the EMX wasnt really suited for me as it was aimed at the DJ/Producer....what a total load of Bollox,the EMX has intergrated into my music perfectly and theres no sign of a Trance or Techno track been written by me with it...just because it has preset Dance patterns doesnt mean its not capable of being used for just about any genre...to me the programmer makes the music not the machine..You only get out of it what you put in.

but on the appearance of trance presets in the SH,if you look at the sounds programmed into the Old Jupiters and Junos many of them were made that way,its just the Trance /Dance genres picked up on it and found they were suited to that type of Timbre


As for lack of sequencer on the SH,would be pretty pointless anyway seeing as its Monotimbral!!!!!the Arps i would suspect takes care of any sort of sequencer lines you may want to play on it,lets hope it has the ability to edit your own Arp patterns.


64 presets may not sound like much,but again we have synths loaded with 1000's of presets,how many times over the useage of the machine are you ever gonna get through a 1000 patches???Its better to have 64 decent usuable patches than a couple hundred of pointless plips and pops or 500 variations of a sampled trumpet your never gonna use.limitations make you explore further to get the most of what it does...

I actually think that having a few Mono timbral synths are better than having racks of multitmbral units.I adore my Prophecy it has a certain charm that many synths dont have..its polyphony limitations are one of its strong points playing wise it gives you a certain sense of playing an old Analog monosynth and actually teaches you to play another way,especially when your used to polyphonic playing..

I'm gonna check out the SH soon,looks intruiging..I just hope Roland havent filled it with TB/Jupiter emulation presets,i get sick and tired of new synths still replicating old stuff,how many tired old emulations can you do!!!!

I think the reason why synths are often said to be dance related is because in the dance genre it's common that producers do not always make their own sounds, they just want the presets or something, but I do get what you mean and I totally agree that those VA's full of dance and techno presets are often nominated to be what the presets says, even people who should be professionals say if just something on it isn't cool.
I think it's a shame I rarely see any satisfied producers of this one, I think it's unique because it is so simple like the Junos, no complicated parts like the late 70's-early 80's synths.