I’ll never get rid of my SH-101, except maybe for 4x Atlantises
The 202 is a solid choice. If you take the time to learn its sequencer you can get some very expressive parts out it. I like how you can tweak the individual note gate lengths, leading to humanized sequences. They’re reliable too. I’ve owned 2 in the last 20 years and both functioned perfectly and didn’t require service.
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it went bang! then no sound…
When I sent it back to the Tech he said it was the resonance pot that had something to do with it. Anyway, they replaced the synth so no worries!
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Haha. Why exactly 4?
Does the mc202 only have it‘s sequencer? No cv/Gate or Midi?
Yup, that’s correct and the CV/Gate are only for inputting notes into sequencer from external keyboard (they are quantised by CPU), so do not run smoothly in real-time. There is a (relatively) simple mod to fix this.
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It really, really does nail the sound. Roland did an excellent job on their ACB modelling. It is of course less noisy and a bit more stable than even the best conserved original SH-101 can ever be after 35 years. 
Also, it’s entirely valid to really want a piece of analogue gear just because that feels better to you.
What kind of issues did you have with getting the audio into your computer over USB?
The only downside of the SH-01a I can think of is that the level of the minijack audio output isn’t very hot compared to the line level output of most other synths (this is true of all Boutiques). This means you’ll need to take gain into account to make sure it doesn’t sound “weak” compared to other gear you’ve plugged into the same mixer.
A huge reason for getting the SH-01a IMHO is that — as with all Boutiques — Roland not only did an excellent job on the sound, but also faithfully reproduced the human interface and the workflow provided by the original. A bit part of the SH-101 was the way the controls are laid out and work and the way the sequencer got used in those original tracks we all love so much.
I owned a BS2. Excellent synth. Can do the same kind, but doesn’t sound or behaves the same. Not a replacement for the real thing.
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It was ok for some time, than suddenly crackling, noise appeared. I had to replug it to get it working again. This happened everytime I used it. I read that many people have problems with Audio via USB with all boutiques
Same with the USB audio. I admit, this might also have fooled me. Volume certainly plays a role in the perception of sound
Maybe I give it another go and use the minijack. I liked the interface. The size was ok, the faders were quite nice to operate. And I really liked the optional polyphony and the sequencer
Not sure. I’d love to hear them side by side one day. It’s difficult to judge on the base of youtube videos.
But demos feel as if the real deal has more substance to it. But as I said, I might be fooled by the digital stamp
I tried the Roland ACB technology with a system-1, after having read/watched quite a lot of decent reviews, which said that the model of the SH-101 would create sound pretty close to the original.
TBH I have never had an original SH-101, but I liked the sound of the ACB model. I also bought the SH-2 model and in comparison I would say that I like the bass sounds of the SH-2 model more.
This green design is also not my cup of tea … but what the heck … it’s not expensive, it’s not about 30 years of aged electronics, and it sounds great … IMHO
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it’s a shame. The system 1/m looks a bit better. If you could only dim the lights, it would be ok for me. But the lights seem to be crazy bright
The system 1/m has really great options in the oscillator section. Some really interesting additional waveforms. In general, it’s pretty cool to have two oscillators.
People say the ACB is better on the SH01a. They also say it’s better on the TR08 compared to the TR8. They seem to have developed it further since the first AIRA products.
Sure does. A big part of getting a strong bass sound has always been a bit of saturation and/or compression from driving your mixer or tape machine a bit too hot.
This is easily lost if you use a digital model, but luckily there are a lot of ways to add this back in.
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I am also a huge fan of that classic sweet Roland SH sound.
The ACB in the System-1/1m is more powerful than the boutiques. The System-1 can do 96k, the boutiques (including the SH-01A) are 44.1 only. Whether or not they updated the model from the plugout to the 01A, I don’t know. They both sound great. I listened to a very in-depth blind comparison between the 01A and a real 101 and while I could just about tell which was which (the ‘tell’ is when you have high resonance and a lot of modulation, you can hear it alias a tiny bit and be less smooth) the 01A probably sounded better most of the time. The advantages of an 01A over the S-1 plugout is that the interface is exactly as per the original layout/functionality, it has poly/unison modes, and the step sequencer. However, it doesn’t have any effects, and the S-1 also has its internal model with poly/unison and the excellent SH-2 plugout available.
The all-in-one 510 module has a great sound, it really thumps, but you need to be able to power it (case & psu) and control it (cv/gate) which might add quite a lot of cost compared to the competition. It does at least have a line level out as well as euro level, and is cheaper than buying the separate VCO/VCF/VCA System-500 modules (though more limited).
Honestly, those are the only options that really nail that SH sound for me. The Jove eurorack filter module by System 80 is also along those lines though and sounds wonderful, more like a Jupiter but it’s a similar vibe. Mylar Melodies runs a Dixie oscillator through it and it absolutely has that thickness and smudge, it sounds fantastic.
FYI I am selling a near-mint System-1 at the moment, as I have an SH-01A and need to fund a polysynth. I fully expect to re-buy it (or more likely a S-1m) in the future though, it’s a great synth IMO.
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Yes, the standard system 1/1m sound seems also to sound pretty cool. Fx also sound nice
It sounds great yes. It has that Roland sound I’m after. I could sequence and modulate it with the A4. Could be a nice combination. I still have a small euro case, but I was about to leave the Eurorack thing.
Yeah, love that video Great sound indeed
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I wonder, how this can be. IIRC the hardware processors should be the same for the entire range of ACB units. The synths should be software-models only. I would expect that an improvement on the software side would be made available as an update for all plug-outs.
Does anybody know more?
"Roland (via Japan) have also confirmed to CDM that they went back to the original SH-101 and TR-808 hardware to make new models of the originals. These are still assembled from the same proprietary analog circuit behavior modeling, but into a new finished product.
Upshot: these won’t sound exactly like the SH-101 PLUG-OUT for the SYSTEM-1, or the 808 model on the TR-8. I got to hear both new models enough to say they sound pretty darned good, but comparing them to the first-generation AIRA or to the original analog Roland classics will take more time."
There are a couple of factors.
- there are first/second/more? generation ACB chips, ie not all ACB chips are the same
- different synths have different numbers of ACB chips
- the models do get updated but I suspect they use that mostly as a marketing tactic to sell new versions of things that they have already been marketing - eg the TR-08/09 when the TR-8 already existed, likewise for the SH-01A when the System-1 SH-101 plugout already existed
The amount of processing that the synths can handle varies according to the first two of those. This manifests itself in two factors: polyphony, and sample rate. The updated models do not rely on more processing power, they are just new versions of the software. The fact that they are so vague about what the “update” consists of exactly makes me suspect it’s mostly a marketing ploy to make things like e.g. the boutique 808 & 909 seem viable next to the TR-8, which is barely any more expensive and kills them on features.
The boutiques have less ACB processing power than the System-1/1m - IIRC they have one ACB chip where the 1/1m has two. They can only manage the same 4-note polyphony at less than half the sample rate. The only case for saying the 01A sounds better than the SH-101 plugout is if you believe that they improved the accuracy of the ACB software model. Which they might have, but it’s very hard, if not impossible, to find that out because they’re not very clear about what they’ve done.
The biggest difference is the form factor and physical interface, and the functionality differences like the sequencer.
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I was in a similar situation a few months ago. I was looking to get back (I had at one time an SH-101, SH-1/2/3a) that typical Roland rubbery, bouncy, snappy sound. I wanted cv/gate - MIDI was not a priority.
I looked/listened to the SH-01, but lack of cv/gate in moved it down the list. I decided to pick up a Manther used to see how that would do. Summary - not happy with it as an SH substitute nor as a synth in and of itself. Lots of little issues that should have been caught in design/beta testing/QA that annoyed me. Finally bit the bullet and found an SH-101 for a reasonable (for today) price. Seller thought the LFO bender push-up function wasn’t working, I have a spare bender assembly from years ago and I have done repairs in the past so we negotiated a compromise price and now it’s exactly what i was looking for.
Summary - the quickest way to get that sound (no matter what that happens to be) is to pick up the original if at all possible. 30 seconds after plugging in the SH-101 it was like “yep, that’s exactly what I wanted to hear”.
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Right, without the CV/CPU mod you’d want to slave via DIN sync.
MC-202 could be of interest.
Good comparison here of the original CV/Gate and the modded inputs -
It works ok for basic stuff, but gets pretty wonky when you send it busy patterns with slides etc.
Din syncing the internal sequencer to Elektrons is fun too, I use mine with the Rytm and Digitone a lot.
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Thanks for the insight. Yep marketing department may have had the biggest influence on “improvements”.
Since I have the luxury to run my plug-outs on the system-1 and/or system-8 it seems that I don’t need to worry about the sound quality. Both do sampling at 96 kHz IIRC, which as an interesting fact, seems not to be described online (just had a visit of their Aira-product pages … or I missed it totally)
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