Roland SH 101 and 201

[hurlingdervish]

i sense one of these in my future.

i wish they would bring back these smaller modular synths with all the knobs and sliders ready to go. people would drool over them, see:micro korg, so why wouldnt they release new versions when electronic music is booming again?


just want to know if you guys have one or have tried them, they seem like the best analog synth for the monies although the 201 seems a little bit sketchy

[THEWEAZ]

I got the SH-201, its my first synth and the only comparison I had was the synth's on Reason.

If your going to gig, this unit seems to be a bit flimsy but for home/studio use it hasn't let me down... It also works as a interface so it would work with your software which beats the hell out of using a little M-audio keyboard.. In my opinion.


I researched all the synths around $300-600 for sometime and this was the winner..

[hurlingdervish]

It also works as a interface so it would work with your software which beats the hell out of using a little M-audio keyboard.. In my opinion.


I researched all the synths around $300-600 for sometime and this was the winner..

yea most definitely is the winner...

yea fuck m-audio keyboards, my oxygen v2 lasted a few months before the usb jack broke

i have a haggard ass practice full size electric piano that weighs a thousand pounds, with a midi out. fully weighted keys, but id much rather just have a modular synth (wouldnt we all...)

[PHeMoX]

i wish they would bring back these smaller modular synths with all the knobs and sliders ready to go. people would drool over them, see:micro korg, so why wouldnt they release new versions when electronic music is booming again?

Yeah, it's a shame they don't invest in those modular synths indeed. There's a bunch, but most of them are mono-synths which is a bit of a shame really.

There's definitely a few products out there I would love to see a new version of.

[Tator606]

First off the 101 and the 201 are vastly different, the 101 is monophonic and analog, the 201 is polyphonic and virtual analog. I won't get into the analong/va/digital/fm debate. But I would personally prefer the 101, it sounds amazing, but good luck finding one cheap. And whats the problem with monosynths? The problem with making polyphonic analog synths is price. And are you guys calling keyboards "modular synths"? I personally got a brand new dave smith mopho for 330 and I love it, have been using it with my 606 and it's fantastic, just layer sounds, mono is NOT a shame.

[hurlingdervish]

First off the 101 and the 201 are vastly different, the 101 is monophonic and analog, the 201 is polyphonic and virtual analog.

mono is fine with me, i would be layering and resampling the shit out of it anyway.

sounds like i dont want the 201 though

mopho's audio quality is amazing, but its the knobs already routed im after

[Tator606]

The 201 has nice hands on control, but for VA it's not the best deal IMO. And it does seem plasticy. And I use an m-audio axiom and I haven't had any problems. If you want total user control for the same price almost as the 201 you could get an alesis micron with a behringer bcr2000 and you would have SO much more synth power than the 201. Or you could get the fantastic DSI mopho and have he beefy analog sound.

[hurlingdervish]

The 201 has nice hands on control, but for VA it's not the best deal IMO. And it does seem plasticy. And I use an m-audio axiom and I haven't had any problems. If you want total user control for the same price almost as the 201 you could get an alesis micron with a behringer bcr2000 and you would have SO much more synth power than the 201. Or you could get the fantastic DSI mopho and have he beefy analog sound.

well the thing is, if i wanted a digital sound, i would just use my midi setup (i have a fully weighted 88 keyboard with midi) into ableton live


i basically want to be able to turn on my sp 555 and a synth and be ready to experiment. can you have midi knobs attached to filter, envelope, and lfo parameters on the Mopho or little Phatty?

[Tator606]

i basically want to be able to turn on my sp 555 and a synth and be ready to experiment. can you have midi knobs attached to filter, envelope, and lfo parameters on the Mopho or little Phatty?[/quote]


I find the synths on ableton to be lacking the feeling im looking for, unless it's for some backround ambient type stuff. What do you mean midi knobs? Both the mopho and the LP have dedicated knobs for filters and the like. The mopho has 4 lfos, an evelope, another evelope that can act as an lfo, 2 sub ocs, 2 main osc, 4-16 step seq., internal feedback circuit. I mean, there's so much you can do with it and a sampler ( esp the 555 with live loop) you wouldnt be disapointed.

[hurlingdervish]

I find the synths on ableton to be lacking the feeling im looking for, unless it's for some backround ambient type stuff. What do you mean midi knobs? Both the mopho and the LP have dedicated knobs for filters and the like. The mopho has 4 lfos, an evelope, another evelope that can act as an lfo, 2 sub ocs, 2 main osc, 4-16 step seq., internal feedback circuit. I mean, there's so much you can do with it and a sampler ( esp the 555 with live loop) you wouldnt be disapointed.

well its actually NI's Massive id be using which is as good as it gets for a digital sound, but it definitely has a sound of its own. and i use operator for some FM noise and sine waves

but as for the mopho and phatty...
i didnt notice the knobs before
it has the cutoff and pitch etc, but i would need some LFO speed goin on and some attack envelopes too, can you change the knobs depending on the preset?

obviously with the 555 i can get around that but still it would be nice

[Tator606]

yeah it has 4 assignable knobs ( the mopho) that you can assign to any parameter you want. I design sounds on the pc editor and make the knobs what i want to use live. Its easier than it looks/sounds.

[Lezlie]

Just wanted to mention - in case you haven't heard - that DSI will release a 4 voice polyphonic version of the Mopho, called the Tetr4.
Read about it in the discussion over at VSE:
http://www.vintagesynth.com/forum/viewt ... =1&t=49423

[PHeMoX]

And whats the problem with monosynths? The problem with making polyphonic analog synths is price. And are you guys calling keyboards "modular synths"? I personally got a brand new dave smith mopho for 330 and I love it, have been using it with my 606 and it's fantastic, just layer sounds, mono is NOT a shame.

Nope, keyboards aren't modular synths, they're technically not synths in most cases.

Mono is great, but it's just this idea I have of how paying 300 bucks for a monophonic synth is a bit much. There's no bias towards sound quality though, I'm sure the Dave Smith Mopho will blow away most more expensive polyphonic synths in that area. Layering sounds is of course a good idea, but I tend to do that with polyphonic sounds too.

[Tator606]

well, 300 for an all analog mono ( brand new!) is a steal in the synth world. And unless you want to go the route of buying a very used roland juno 60 ( no midi) or 106 (midi) for more than that usually for a decent working example then you're pretty much out of luck. There are the yamaha cs10s and cs15's but they can't offer the range of modulation capabilities and sounds of the mopho. There are "bargains" out there and there are some very cool synths from small companies that aren't on musicicansfriend.com. You just gotta search. I searched for over a year on what to get and finally just pounced on a mopho and am extremely happy ( was considering the moog LP and Juno 106)

[hurlingdervish]

well, 300 for an all analog mono ( brand new!) is a FUCKING STEAL

fixed