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Roland SH-201 cheat sheet


raffor

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Roland synthesizers have certain trademark features that travel through their whole line of analog synths: Pulse Width Modulation via Envelope. Somehow, they forgot about this feature in their latest digital incarnations. Here is a trick to get a similar effect using the LFO in retrigger mode (maybe for some an obvious feature).

 

Choose Oscillator1 pulse waveform and set the PW to the middle at the 12'clock position. Use LFO1 and set to sawtooth waveform. Modulate the PW1 with a negative value. Set LFO1 to getrigger by holding down the LFO1 button and push the TempoSync button until the light comes up. Now turn the rate button to the 9'clock position and play a note. The PW travels from nasal to square with the speed of the LFO rate.

 

If you want to inverse the effect (travel from square to nasal) just set the modulation of PW1 to positive values. The amount of the modulation let you adjust the effect, as does the rate. The rate should be longer than the tone (otherwise you will get a retrigger of the sawtooth waveform).

 

If you need a longer attack try using the LFO triangle waveform. Keep in mind that the LFO is modulating the PW in plus and minus (AC coupled), so you travel through your PW knob setting at half waveform width. By lowering the PW1 modulation and adjusting the PW knob in the oscillator section you can tune the effect to your liking.

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Add space and depth to your sound:

 

The Roland SH-201 lets you chose 8 different delays (by pressing FX ON and push one of the 1-8 button). The last two delay slots are occupied by Chorus 1 and Chorus 2. Especially Chorus two is a thick Chorus that adds space and depth to the sound.

 

Do add the same space and depth to your sound without coloring your sound with this thick chorus you can do the following:

 

Choose Delay with the EDIT button and set TIME to minimum. Hold down FX ON button and move the amp ENV Release slider to zero (that is the modulation delay) and the amp ENV Sustain slider to something greater than zero (the depth effect is actually controlled by the modulation amount and gets more noticeable when the slider is in higher position). If you want delay with this effect, just adjust the TIME knob to higher values. Adding a rate (FX ON + AmpENV Release) you can add modulation and a chorus effect.

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Octave Shift without the pitch knob:

 

Going through the sounds available for download I noticed that people are using the OSC pitch knob for detuning both OSCs. There is an easier way of doing so that is also described in the manual. Just press down and hold the UPPER or LOWER and the OCT UP/DOWN button. That not moves the keyboard up and down as it would do withtout holding down the UPPER/LOWER button but just moves your sounds up/down and the octave shift is also saved with the sound (not just a keyboard shift that is lost after powering down). The effect can be in- or decreased multiple times by repressing the OCT UP/DOWN button again and again (of course by holding down the UPPER/LOWER button).

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While your on the topic is there a way to do a factory reset on the SH-201 mine is acting funny.

 

 

You can do a factory restore by powering up the unit while pressing USER and PRESET. Confirm with WRITE and voila. Your old sounds will be lost when you do that.

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You can do a factory restore by powering up the unit while pressing USER and PRESET. Confirm with WRITE and voila. Your old sounds will be lost when you do that.

 

 

LOVELY this helps but still may need to get it to a tech, the sound goes out or reduces significantly after a few mintues, when I switch sounds and come back to my patch the sound comes back but issues repeats its self, may be a few more resets.

 

Is there a Hard reset or system update out?

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OK, I start a new thread and I will add as I go along with information & sound samples from the Roland SH-201.


I started with putting all the button/knob/slider combinations on one sheet to find my way around the not so obvious parameters (you can call them hidden).


 

 

By the way raffor nice cheat sheet, Roland owes you some $$$$ now LOL!!!!

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Do any of you guys have experience using this as a VSTi? I have a few questions if anyone does.

 

 

What exactly did you want to know?

 

Just to throw it out there to everyone, the SH-201 VSTi integration functions only as editor window for the SH-201, not as a virtual instrument. To get the sound of the SH-201 right into hosting program, you use it's USB audio connection which you don't even need the editor for.

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Is it possible to assign another VST to the SH-201's audio input within a VST host? I'm thinking it might be cool to use this board live with a laptop and avoid a separate audio and midi interface.

 

 

The SH-201's audio input section is simply that, audio which you input. You don't need to configure any kind of VST settings for anything, just route an audio wire from your laptop and into the SH-201's RCA audio inputs which are on the back of the machine. You only need to set up a hosting program to route the SH-201's sound to your PC for recording and such.

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Thanks for the info. Does the SH-201 transmit MIDI via its USB port?

 

 

Yup, so it can be used as a controller for a soft synth, but it's limited because you can't assign CC functions to any of the knobs like you can on a normal MIDI controller. All the knob functions are set in stone and are most likely not fully compatible with most programs or other synths. You can't even control the transmitted velocity settings within the keys. With my SH-201 connected to my MC-808, the only CC functions that carried over successfully were the filter controls.

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Auto panning

 

One of the things I am missing is the option to auto pan. There is the traditional way around, also that slashes your polyphony to 5 voices.

 

Take a patch and copy it to upper and lower. Set one patch to the left and one to the right side by holding down cancel and moving the filter tracking knob. Modulate with one of the LFOs the amplitude (start with the sinus waveform) on both patches. The modulation amount is positive for the upper and negative for the lower (or visa versa). Now you have two sounds blending in alternatively.

 

You can take this further:

- use different waveforms

- use two different sounds

- apply the delay to get some great panning delay effects

- sync the LFO to Midi to put the panning into the rhythm content

(that is a trick the Virus is using for a lot of their arpeggiator patches)

...

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