Members r33k Posted August 10, 2006 Members Share Posted August 10, 2006 I popped over to my local music shop to kill some time during lunch and was surprised to see an SH-201 sitting there, so I played it. Initial gut impression: I liked it. Possibly a lot. I liked it for the exact same reasons I fell in love with the JP-8000 back in the day: 1.) the sound, and 2.) the immediacy of sound control and manipulation. Sound-wise, I felt the raw oscillator tone was very good and I will echo those who have praised the PWM model. Obviously the SuperSaw is stuff of modern legend. I quickly dialed up a big ol' polysynth tone and then sculpted it into a washy pad. All very quick and satisfying. It was hard to make it sound bad -- again, just like I used to feel about the JP-8000. Control-wise, obviously, the synth is a breeze to move around on. There are no menus, no display, and a bare minimum of dual-function controls. I appreciate pro-style holdovers from the JP, such as the ability to bypass effects with a button press. I also like how processing of external audio sources is so integrated into the control panel. Some have complained about build quality. I tried to pull off a rotary knob and was unable to. Didn't try too hard, but I gave it a good tug. There's a little play in the rotary pots, but honestly, I didn't find the build quality nearly as bad as some other budget instruments I've played. For me, the biggest negative is the lack of an internal power supply, which the JP-8000 had. I'm kind of a bitch about that; equipment that doesn't have an internal powersupply is not professional equipment, in my not-so-humble opinion. Anyhoo, cool board. Play it. You might like it. Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mrcpro Posted August 10, 2006 Members Share Posted August 10, 2006 SH-201 PWM is to die for, and much richer than on my analog Jupiter-6. I don't own a JP-8000, but I don't recall it sounding anything like this, esp if you use an inverted LFO destination on one of the 201's osc pulsewidths. Roland knobs on their recent gear are vulnerable to downward or side-to-side pressure. I don't know about pulling up on them, but I don't think it would be as common in real-world use as taking a side hit or having something dropped on them. Or even shipped upside-down on their knobs. But it's nice to know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mrcpro Posted August 10, 2006 Members Share Posted August 10, 2006 Hey r33k... do you work at Portland International Airport? (PDX?) Is it crazy there today because of this terror plot back east? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members r33k Posted August 10, 2006 Author Members Share Posted August 10, 2006 No, I don't work at the airport. Sometimes we Portlanders use the airport code as an abbreviation of the town name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rpieket Posted August 10, 2006 Members Share Posted August 10, 2006 10x polyphony, 2x multitimbrality, 2 osc per voice, supersaw, feedback osc... am I talking about the JP-80x0 or the SH-201? Is there much to distinguish the two? -Ron. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mrcpro Posted August 11, 2006 Members Share Posted August 11, 2006 Originally posted by rpieket 10x polyphony, 2x multitimbrality, 2 osc per voice, supersaw, feedback osc... am I talking about the JP-80x0 or the SH-201? Is there much to distinguish the two?-Ron. There are some differences. In osc, the SH-201 adds sine waves and polyphony to feedbackwave, but drops trimod. Envelopable and depth adjustable Xmod from the JP-8000 is dropped, replaced with just on-off ringmod. A second totally programmable LFO is added to the SH-201, along with two invertable destination busses for each one. These LFOs now operate at the voice level, I'm told. External in can be used as an osc source on the SH-201. Vocoder from the JP-8080 is dropped. No RPS this time. The biggest difference between them to me is the more aggressive sound of the SH-201, which I'm guessing is mostly due to the addition of overdrive. But if you really just took two saw waves and ran them through the lowpass filter on each and compared them, would you hear any difference? I don't know because I don't have them to compare side-by-side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TheFoosa Posted August 11, 2006 Members Share Posted August 11, 2006 Originally posted by rpieket 10x polyphony, 2x multitimbrality, 2 osc per voice, supersaw, feedback osc... am I talking about the JP-80x0 or the SH-201? Is there much to distinguish the two?-Ron. 8000 has 8 voices, 8080 and 201 have 10. mcrpro covered a few other things, I should also mention that the 201 allows you to use ANY wave on both oscillators, as opposed to the limited waves of osc2 on the JP's. You want 2 feedback oscillators? Go ahead. 2 Supersaws? Be my guest. etc etc etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sizzlemeister Posted August 11, 2006 Members Share Posted August 11, 2006 You guys are really making me want one of these. It would be a tough choice between this and an Ion if I needed another gigging VA. I have to try one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted August 11, 2006 Share Posted August 11, 2006 Got mine and will mess wit it this weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members r33k Posted August 12, 2006 Author Members Share Posted August 12, 2006 Review and clips would be appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members -groovatious- Posted August 12, 2006 Members Share Posted August 12, 2006 Ok, I really want one of these - rang my usual music store today that has the best prices in AU on keys and they said that they can do them for $1200 AUD!! What a bloody joke. Am I right in thinking that standard price in the US is $599 USD????? OK, at today's conversion rate, that equals $780 Australian dollars. WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS GOING ON?? Not happy..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted August 12, 2006 Share Posted August 12, 2006 Got mine for $462 new in the box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members -groovatious- Posted August 12, 2006 Members Share Posted August 12, 2006 Originally posted by burster1 Got mine for $462 new in the box. That's insane...ok, what's goin on...where's the big conspiracy???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MuzikB Posted August 12, 2006 Members Share Posted August 12, 2006 Originally posted by r33k Review and clips would be appreciated! http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Keyboard%2FSynth/product/Roland+/SH-201/10/1 You'll hear it soon enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kuniklo Posted August 12, 2006 Members Share Posted August 12, 2006 Originally posted by burster1 Got mine for $462 new in the box. Where? For that kind of money it would almost be worth it to me just for the D-Beam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members r33k Posted August 13, 2006 Author Members Share Posted August 13, 2006 Originally posted by burster1 Got mine for $462 new in the box. That certainly isn't a typical street price. Did a Guitar Center buddy sell you one at cost? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mrcpro Posted August 13, 2006 Members Share Posted August 13, 2006 It's time to spill the beans burster 1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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