It (kinda) makes sense on a mobile device like a phone you can hold in your hand… but on this ? 
I have it on all 3 devices mentioned but I don’t use it.
I did use it briefly with Borderlands on iPad.
That’s a fun way to use granular, but agreed it’s gimmicky.
I see videos pop up from time to time for OP-1 and OP-Z about using the gyroscope as a modulation source but It doesn’t motivate me to use it that way.
EDIT: And this is about the same size as an IPad. It’s also portable so I’m guessing there’s no reason not to include it.
From a marketing stand point… this is the feature that somebody will make a video showcasing even two years later. It’s cheap advertisement
no glide? really?
I’d say from what I’ve heard so far its bass and drums are its weakness, modern pads are its strength. Not bad at all, but zen core still sounds notably worse than ACB to me for some stuff. Just a single ACB part for a bass voice would have gone a long way. The drums probably mostly come down to the sequencer being a bit stiff or just not hearing someone really deep dive into making some tasty drums.
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Roland has their wireless communication products, perhaps with the battery and all a wireless product was an initial design, but was trimmed out for expense.
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The MC101 has some great bass sounds (as far as I‘m concerned). Can’t imagine this to being weaker in that regard.
Or which planet in my case. Here on Mars, the prices are all inverted. The Syntakt is around 20 Marsbucks, while the Model:Samples is like 10,000 Marsbucks. And this new Roland box hasn’t even been classified as an organism yet
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Anyone know or can take a guess (or might have read the manual) of it’s possible to send clock sync in via the 3,5mm clk and then send clock out via midi with this one? 
It seems to have glide in this video
https://youtu.be/yvn497MC1aw at 2:27
I guess I also find MC101 bass a bit lacking… but not to say it isnt passable with clever programming, or in a mix or what not… just like in the alex ball video he plays an old SH at the start and just no other bass sound in the whole video seems near as inspiring… if that makes sense.
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Haven’t bought a syntakt, never will. Just not interested.
1600 AUD is roughly 900 GBP at the moment.
SH4D on the other hand, looks way more appealing to me.
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I agree. But taste in synth bass tones seems to vary. I’ve heard some synth bass tones that some people think are great but I didn’t like as much.
Same with drum sounds. People get really picky with those. I like some sample-based drums that others think are shite. Other people like drum tones that I think are crap.
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I stopped by a friend’s design studio today and they had one of these bad boys sitting out. The bass on this thing must be insane
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I prefer the DeWalt bass, though.
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Some of my thoughts on this device:
- The SH-4d feels like a pretty generous offering overall. There’s a lot to like here and that fifth drum track makes this thing super versatile given that all tracks are polyphonic. As a Syntakt owner, I look at some of the features with envy. Sure, maybe I don’t need Roland’s palette of 90+ effects, inserts per track, EQ per track, master compressors and EQ, multiple sends, etc etc - but could I please at least have the Digitone chorus in the Syntakt, Elektron?
The Elektron offerings feel a lot less generous in comparison. - I still love my Syntakt dearly, but the SH-4d is yet another device that reminds me of just how much my ears love those gorgeous poly synth sounds and arpeggios. It (still!) is a real shame that the Syntakt offers no polyphony, and I’m not surprised that the most upvoted reply in this thread so far is a request for Elektron to address it. Again, Elektron, I hope you are paying attention. Just do some paraphonic DSP wizardry and call it a day. Or just add track chaining / note stealing logic. Please?
- Athough the SH-4d is technically “just a multitimbral synth with a drum track and a 64-step polyphonic sequencer”, it may be Roland’s best attempt at a groovebox yet. Perhaps it’s more of a sketchpad than a groovebox though, because that sequencer looks like it’s just a little too limited.
- As an owner of an MC-101 that mainly serves the purpose of a Syntakt sound module, the two obvious upgrades that the SH-4d provides are a way more hands-on synthesizer workflow and sound design experience, and a fifth track. The latter is actually pretty significant because with five tracks, you have enough to finish full songs (eg drums, bass, pad/chords, lead, arp) whereas with four tracks, you’re bound to make compromises.
- Battery and usb-c power is an absolutely wonderful thing. The fact that this thing can run for 4 hours on alkaline batteries means it will run for over 6 hours on 3000 mAh rechargeables. That’s mighty impressive and better than anything I’ve seen so far!
- No, Syntakt’s SY Swarm does not sound like Roland strings.
Saying that completely disregards polyphony, which is absolutely essential for strings. Sure, you could program it across several tracks on a Syntakt but let’s be honest, that is about as fun as diving deep into the dreadful Roland workflow to dial in a per-track EQ. 
More importantly, I find that it’s often the keyboard noodling with a polyphonic synth or arpeggio that leads to new music ideas, so even though you could program polyphony on the Syntakt across several tracks, you won’t stumble over inspiration gold when just noodling around. - I don’t care at all about true analog vs VA. If someone replaced the Syntakt analog circuits with a VA emulation and in return made it run off of batteries/5V/usb-c, I would make the trade in a heartbeat. Emotionally, I like the fact that there’s true analog circuitry inside of the Syntakt, it makes me feel like it’s a bit more special, but I’d rather ditch the 12V power brick or birdcord workarounds if I could. Even though the SH-4d is almost twice the size of the Syntakt, it’s free from cords! I wonder when Elektron will realize the power of this freedom and build a groovebox that can at least optionally run on batteries and usb-c power.
- The SH-4d filter actually sounds really good to me! Really gritty and nice, more interesting than many analog filters I’ve heard lately, including the ones in the Arturia Minifreak and the Syntakt filters.
- The drums actually sound good in the demos I listened to and offer enough tweakability to feel like more than just a romple drum track.
- I’ll still much prefer a sampled hi hat than any of the Syntakt hat/cymbal/ride models. All the hats I heard on the SH-4d sounded better than the ones on the Syntakt. Let’s hope that Elektron releases a new metal/alloy machine in the future.
- Crucially, the SH-4d lacks song mode, lacks p-locks, lacks conditional trigs, and has a workflow that, while being a massive step forward for Roland, is still a Roland workflow. I’m 100% sure I’d kind of hate the experience in practice, at least as a sort of groovebox option. As a multitimbral synth though, this thing is gold.
- If this thing had the VST plugin companion like the Minifreak, this would probably be my first-ever pre-order purchase. Let’s hope more manufacturers follow Arturia’s lead there!
- I don’t care much for the design of those round buttons, they look kinda tacky to me.
- What’s up with Roland and their obsession with knobs instead of endless encoders? This is always a headache when the knobs are shared across four oscillators and four parts. Do they actually think this is a superior design, given that this is how they build nearly all of their devices? If so, what are they smoking? Also, when will they adopt the Korg/Arturia method of scaled knob modes that works so much better than either of Roland’s jump and catch modes?
All in all, I won’t lie, devices like this make me question my almost unconditional love for the Syntakt a little bit, mainly due to the lack of polyphony and its sad 12V power needs and lack of battery options. The former could be solved with firmware updates, but the latter is unfortunately just a thing I have to live with.
Ultimately though, the SH-4d has a very limited sequencer that likely makes writing full songs on it a really frustrating experience compared to an Elektron box, so no, I won’t be making a switch here.
But man, do I wish that Elektron would offer some polyphony, and an arp. 
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I’m loving the idea of the Sh-4d…will never use the sequencing so it’s just a sound module for me. Perfect size with 4 tracks sequenced from my Digitakt…just need to get a Perfourmer and those 4 tracks and will be full up and set!
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I was interested until I realized the lack of a DC power input. No more music devices for me that solely rely on USB-C for connected power.
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I thought in sonic state vid they mention conditional trigs and parameter recording ( only 4 though)
Not quite elektron but it has a bit.
Between this and korg drumalogue I’d probably choose this.
I’m weary of Roland usb audio … I have system1 era devices and unsure if they maintain usb drivers. ESP for Mac due to many Os updates and jumping to Apple silicon.
And finally … I wonder if the editor comes out and is only on cloud subscription… 
Yeah, it’s a good reason to be concerned. The good news is that the drivers are being maintained for now… there seems to be this bare minimum from a lot of vendors, of “X years after discontinuation date”…
The MX-1 for example… launched in 2015, was discontinued seven years later, in 2022, and has current macOS Ventura drivers up…
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I was interested in getting an mc101 but this sh-4d makes a lot of sense. 4 synth tracks plus a drum track would partner well with my op-z.
Seems to be a microfreak as a groovebox.
I know there is no pattern chaining or song mode, but can you play one pattern and then seamlessly jump to another pattern? Or do you need to stop the sequencer first?
I wonder if they will add looper track functions and sample loading or reserve that for the mc range?
I’m also interested in how many world music tones it has like flutes and bells. Hopefully some decent ones, I want proteus 2000 vibes but romplers aren’t in at the mo.
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