I wrote to Thomann to cancel the order due to that 8-10 week timeline, but they said they checked with the supplier and the more realistic timeline is March 30th.
Gear4music has expected delivery of March 20th, but costs 30€ more… plus i just like Thomann for whatever reason.
If the drive is the same as on Jupiter XM and JX08, I would lower my expectations. I didn’t find the drive on them all too useful or interesting. Sounded quite guitary and a lot less like an integral sound shaping tool as on Analog Four. Felt more tacked on, if that makes sense. Of course that’s all subjective, so give it a listen. You can destroy stuff if cranked all the way up on Jupiter XM, if I recall correctly. On JX08, it’s quite tame even on full intensity.
Dominas is one of my fav Carl Craig songs, but it’s 25 years old now and isn’t going to sell 1000’s of SH4d’s to an impressionable young generation…
understood 
I haven’t used my Jupiter X in a few months, so difficult to say with any certainty, though I would say the general sound characteristic of the oscillators and filter is very much ‘in the ballpark’, they sound very good.
I spent a good amount of time with the drum section tonight, it is excellent - you have all the classic Roland sounds (and more) as starting points and each drum can have its own pitch, layering, pitch envelope, amp envelope, filter settings etc.
First impressions remain really solid, there are definitely some improvements that could be made to work flow, sequencing etc, though I’m sure Roland will do so as they have recently with the SP404 and Jupiter X/M
Thanks for that.
I can see the SH-4d being a hit and driving the Jupiter XM out of production, given that the 4d sounds good enough—that makes the XM simply overpriced by comparison.
The gyroscope will probs be most interesting when using the synth in a car or on a plane, or train journey, subtle modulations on timbre brought to you by the very journey to a finished track, as opposed to windmilling it like a lunatic or trying to get all the ball bearings in those bastard holes at once.
Or lob it off the multi-storey to get that once in a lifetime sample.
Gives a new meaning to “wait for the drop.”
PSA for 707 (not sure about 101) users: Layering drums (up to four) per pad, pitch envelopes, filter envelope, fxm is all possible. It’s just a lot more menu diving 
I’m withholding judgement until Banana plays jazz flute on the Sh-4d. Playing all scales from top to bottom on the Sh-4d on jazz flute will give me an idea of its potential. I think of minor scales as modifications of the major scale (rather than in terms of relative minors). So once I hear the major scale on the Sh-4d with some dynamic jazz flute solos, I can ascertain the quality of the 3rd, the 6th the 7th etc. Of course there are the diminished scales we well to judge on the Sh-4d, which I just think of as the leading tones to a diminished chord, the whole tone scale as a modification of the melodic minor (major scale with a minor third) and the blues scale just adds a further modification to the major scale (minor 3rd,flat 5th and flat 7). The sH-4d shows much promise for jazz flute, Midi bagpipes, and virtual sitar.
New Detroit Disco From Starsky Carr using Roland Sh-4d
I think it’s more I was looking for more volume swells/filter sweeps with breath to get a good sense of the dynamic range.
I’m not sure what was included in the SH-4D but it’d be pretty hard to top the SuperNATURAL Flutes/Bagpipes/Sitar on the AE30.
You are talking about the “Drive” knob.
There are many more Saturation/Drive/Distortion options in the MFX.
The Xm (and X) have:
More filter types (R, M, S, as well as older TVF filters; all in 12 and 24db)
many more waveforms (in the 1000s I think)
JP8X model
Jupiter 8 model
JD 800 model
Vocal designer model
I am curious if Roland will port some of these options “downwards” into the SH-4 (and if they will port things like the wavetable OSC “upwards”).
Another review from Music Radar
True, but I wonder how much of that stuff matters to most people, once they see how much cheaper the SH-4d is.
btw, the 800 and Vocal Designer models are extras you have to pay for. They’re good but they’re not cheap…
i thought drums had 26 instruments, he seems to think its only 16.
and that d-motion is just a gimmik tacked on… even on great ipad apps i dont use it.
Fair enough. I didn’t feel like any of these models felt like an integral part of the synth. More like „well, we have all of these effects, might as well throw them in“.
But to be fair, I didn’t give them much of a chance, as the XM buried everything in sub menus and made anything frustrating.
I ultimately think that things like the 1000 waveforms you‘ve mentioned won’t mean that much in practice to a lot of users if it’s not fun to use. I think a more limited and focused unit like the SH-4D with some concept is a lot more valuable than the XM, which has everything crammed into it but doesn’t make anything fun or intuitive to use.
To paraphrase Pink Floyd, I got 1000 waveforms of shit on the XM to choose from
