I’ve watched many of these videos today and it looks like it has fun potential at the asking price, but it’s definitely got that same “retro” digital sound that other Roland gear has that I’ve tried. I feel it might be a love/hate thing with that sound palette. I think the key here is managing expectation - as a £500 kitchen table groovebox this might be a lot of fun. It’s probably not going to change the musical landscape. It looks MUCH easier to program your own sounds than the 101 and 707. Even though I have a love/hate relationship with my Syntakt I love the ease of programming, I think it’s critical with a groovebox.
I found the FX on the 101/707 pretty naff as well, I wonder if it would be the same with this.
Been thinking about getting a multitimbral polyphonic synth.
This looks nice, and sounds good. Not having limitless encoders will probably screw me up a few times.
A sequencer is always nice to have, even if it’s a bit more basic. I’ve been eyeing the Access Virus B for around 500€ 2nd hand, we’ll see. But like some folks said, there’s shows coming up. Might as well wait a bit, and later in the summer/year some might go for really cheap 2nd hand, and we’ll see more of what this year has to offer.
People love to compare this to the syntakt but forget the fact this is sold at 1/2 of Syntakt price.
Its closer in price point to the Models products, and if you compare the Roland sh-4d to the Model:cycles or the Model:Samples, its not even close .
Yes it’s not elektron workflow/sequencer but it has infinitely more sound design potential.
Off course Roland got inspired by Elektron and mostly the Syntakt/Cycles, but imo they went way further into this direction. Giving you the choice to do deep sound design with menu-diving or more immediate but more shallow sound design with the macro controls.
Wish Elektron would get some inspiration back and deliver something like this (which somehow makes me think of the MnM in some ways) with the deeper elektron sequencer, actual portability and macro controls…? So like a MegaModel? hahaha
First time I’ve been motivated to pre-order anything (haven’t done so yet, but I’m actually considering it for once). This thing looks perfect for my use case. Lots of reasonable criticism on this thread too - it’s clearly not going to be for everyone, and it doesn’t appear that it’s trying to be.
Initial thoughts:
Sounds really good.
Timbrality is pretty impressive for the price point.
The buttons look very much like the ones on the DB-01 and the LXR-02 (which I like).
Sequencer looks imperfect but capable enough, in spite of not meeting the Elektron gold standard.
Lack of endless encoders is a strange choice for this form factor.
The gyroscope “feature” is ridiculous. Hopefully the parts and engineering that went into that are a negligible portion of the price, I’d hate to be paying extra for that nonsense.
Planning on pairing this with the M:S if I end up grabbing one. Hard to imagine wanting for much with that setup.
Im referencing official prices, Yes you can get cheaper syntakts but the official price is 1099 euros as stated on elektron website, and the official price of the Roland sh-4d is around 600 euros as stated on multiple review videos so far.
Which, As I wrote earlier, place the Roland sh-4d closer to the price of a Model:cycles than a syntakt.
