Roland GAIA SH-01

*sigh*

so I guess Roland still haven't remembered how to make a proper synthesizer and are persisting with their misguided ethos of churning out cheap plasticky toy keyboards.

I thought they might actually knock out something truly analogue this time.....check out this plastic box with pretty flashing lights on it:

http://www.rolandconnect.com/product.php?p=sh-01

Wow. Looks shit.

But it's got a 'massive sound' with a 'fun' control panel, what more do you want?

lol

i want AWESOME SOUND.

  On 3/24/2010 at 3:13 PM, BCM said:

i want AWESOME SOUND.

Fucking lol.

I have it on good authority that aurtchrsh used this for some of the massive sounds on oversteps, and that in the upcoming marketing campaign there will be promo shots of them in their studio having fun with the control panel together. I could tell you how I know, but I'd have to rape kill you.

I really don't understand the market for this thing, but I guess there must be one. If you want a lol, have a look at the action shots for the new ax thing at the above roland link.

the market is the multitude of 15 year old bedroom producers who think one day "hey, I iz going to make teh idmz and become a famous artist liek them afex twinz". they ask mum for a synth for christmas, mum googles "sythesizers" and finds links to all these shit toy keyboards. it's the same reason the uk is over run with fucking microkorgs....

also, why do Roland persist with this fucking D-Beam controller nonsense? it's shit. nobody uses it.

it literally looks like a VST.

  On 3/24/2010 at 9:02 PM, BCM said:

also, why do Roland persist with this fucking D-Beam controller nonsense? it's shit. nobody uses it.

because it is ROLAND EXCLUSIVE and NO ONE ELSE HAS

(though, admittedly, it's kind of like owning an exclusive piece of poop, if that's all you had wouldn't you play it up?)

  On 3/24/2010 at 4:59 PM, BCM said:

the market is the multitude of 15 year old bedroom producers who think one day "hey, I iz going to make teh idmz and become a famous artist liek them afex twinz". they ask mum for a synth for christmas, mum googles "sythesizers" and finds links to all these shit toy keyboards. it's the same reason the uk is over run with fucking microkorgs....

I bought a lot of shite when I was 15/16, but that's because I was going off the recommendations of bald men with pony tails in music shops rather than the internet. I would hope I would've been more clued up otherwise, maybe not.

I saw two kids walking about in kennington the other day, each with matching microkorgs, not in a case or anything. I gave them a withering look. When I have the final, final breakdown, I really hope its something like this that tips me over the edge, rather than just crashing my car into a motorway siding. I'd quite like to be known as that guy who brained two students with their own fucking microkorgs.

LOL

Although I don't know what it sounds like, at least it has a bunch of knobs and sliders.

In that respect it's a step up from a Microkorg or an Alesis Ion, and a lot better than their newer "Junos."

omg, that juno-di or what ever is a total fucking disgrace to the juno name. The demo video where they practice with it outside a coffee shop... so bad...

  On 3/25/2010 at 10:12 PM, scones to die for said:

Although I don't know what it sounds like, at least it has a bunch of knobs and sliders.

 

In that respect it's a step up from a Microkorg or an Alesis Ion, and a lot better than their newer "Junos."

Agreed! At the right price point it could be a decent vst controller. And if they (hopefully!) made up a whole new synth it could be a bonus to have an on board synth. If it is the same as the sh-201....i'll pass. =D

looks gaiay

http://instantrimshot.com

I reserve judgement until I hear how it sounds. With all those knobs and sliders it looks quite nice to play with.

what's so wrong with it?

i also dont get whats wrong with it.

well it's essentially gonna be a very decent affordable virtual analogue with nice presets that'll sell in droves, thereby annoying those who feel special for having only expensive chunky non-portable vintage gear that needs servicing every 5 years.

reboxed SH201 X3 so instead of making the old flakey JP8000 engine sound better they've taken a leaf out of Access' book and just stacked the voices drown it with more FX to make it sound 'phatter'

I've never trusted Roland since the MC303 although I have quite impressed with the SP-555 (D-beam works really well too) as a performance sampler also some rave about the MC-09 (never tried one) and I am after one of those top end VS recorders eventually.

Roland could make a proper analogue TB 303 again for £100 if they wanted too but the last bit of analogue kit they made was some bass synth pedal in the 90's which is also getting a cult following but they never seem to learn and I get the impression most of their kit is solely designed to wow you in the short space of time you have to demo it in the shop and naive people with expendable income burning a hole in their pockets make up a hell of a lot of the music instrument business.

I don't get the microkorg hate in this thread. Mind you, I've never owned one nor have I ever played with one in a shop or the like, but from countless examples of it on the net it seems quite the capable puppy.

I mean, yeah, sure, it was eerily adopted by every fucking fringed douchebag with non-prescription glasses in some band that he was taken in to "phatten the band's sound" or some shit, but it was certainly not marketed nor built as such. I hold that more against humanity in general than against the synth in question.

These new ones Roland ones are laughable, however, and everything they've come up with recently bearing the Juno name is a fucking disgrace.

  On 3/28/2010 at 2:41 PM, soundwave said:

reboxed SH201 X3 so instead of making the old flakey JP8000 engine sound better they've taken a leaf out of Access' book and just stacked the voices drown it with more FX to make it sound 'phatter'

Not to be defensive or anything, but how is that like what Access do?

  On 3/28/2010 at 3:09 PM, Lube Saibot said:

 

 

Not to be defensive or anything, but how is that like what Access do?

up to the 'C' I fond the Virus engine had a very weak top end (and bad aliasing) hence why the give to tons of polyphony for layering as well as drowning it in tons of FX which is a classic trick to disguise a mediocre sound source (you don't get this with Nords)

can't speak for the newer stuff like the TI ect so maybe its more like what Access 'did' although if I want good analogue poly sounds I'd get a real analogue poly for the price a TI or Snow go for

I've got a TI Snow so yeah... no experience with problems of the sort. But even in the older generations... you'd get a reverb, a chorus, a phaser, a delay and a distorsion unit. That's pretty much standard fare, FX-wise. How is that "drowning"? Or do you mean that you find the presets to be designed in such a way as to fool you with FX? And the stacking\unison detune? I find that pretty much indispensable for a workhorse lead synth. And what exactly do you "not find on Nord" of the above?

Sorry to be nitpicking your post, I'm a fan of both Access and Clavia, just think you're jumping the shark a bit.

Then again i really didn't buy nor use the Virus for "analogue poly" sounds. I'd get a real analogue poly for that as well, tbh. Though i really wouldn't know one in the same price range as the Snow... Any suggestions? I mean, besides the Prophet '08 and the Tetra. Not being sarcastic, could really use my eyes opened a bit wider in this dpt.