i guess the C# would have gotten in the way of the (still yet unsynced) Arpeggio and the Hold buttons. It would have been less weird to just NOT include the extra D, and make room for another dedicated button/control…
Exactly my thoughts.
Really looking forward to getting one of these. Hope they will be available soon. What are some of your favorite demos of the sh-4d available so far? I like how it sounds in this demo:
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Interesting observation, I’d be willing to bet money on different scales coming in the near future as it’s an obvious usability improvement at relatively low development cost. Perhaps the first two of the sharp keys (c#, d#) could be used to step through different scales, and the first three (f#, g#, a#) keys could be used to transpose -1 and +1 semitones, with the middle g# resetting to c again. That’s how I’d implement it if I were in charge anyway. 
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I honestly just think its a design oversight where they probably had the arp and hold buttons in the right place and the missing c# and then decided to add their roland trademark least useful feature ever and just hacked it in.
Man, I never thought the D-beam would be seen as a sensible and valid controller but yay roland’s pick and shake your expensive gear around pioneering.
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Ended up sending mine back. Was fun to try it out but man so many strange ux/ui choices. I thought there was more to the drum synth side of things which I feel is where it comes up short. It is marketed as a synth so that’s my bad.
I will say if you don’t have a lot of Roland crossover in your kit. This thing gets you there in spades. And quickly. Fun but just not for me.
Anyways it made me realize that I wanted a Digitakt back in the arsenal so now I have one… again. 
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That’s an interesting jump from a polyphonic Roland synthesizer to a monophonic sampler and sequencer!
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Indeed. I honestly bought it for the drum kits though. Something of a couch jamming box and was pleasantly surprised by the synth engines.
It was the realization that I could do a lot with those drum tones on the 4d but I wanted more. Better p-locks, better filter and 2 lfos go a long way. I had a Digitakt when it was first released and have missed it since I sold it. Funny how these things happen.
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I do know what you mean. Mine might go the same way.
It sounds really great (if Roland sounds anre your thing) and there are parts of it I really enjoy. But the drums are a little too limited potentially (mind you to be fair to Roland they are clear this is first and foremost a multitimbral synth), and the lack of endless encoders is annoying to me.
I am tempted to bite the bullet and just get a syntakt, which is what I was considering when I got this. I would miss the polyphony (Roland strings and pads are great on this), but for my other uses (bass, lead, drums, weird noises and percussion) the syntakt would prob be the better bet (paired with the MPC and SP404mk2)
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Roland is looking more and more like an outdated legacy company. The Sh-4d feels like a lame response to the Syntakt. As frustrating as some of the choices that elektron makes can be, seeing the mainstream competition always reminds me how far ahead they still are.
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You sound like me. If you are like me, the Syntakt will grow on you.
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Hmmm, I love my Syntakt but this is 4 part multitimbral with Polyphony…different thing I think.
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I received mine several days ago and so far I love it. Sounds great, is small, and I like that I can power it on the go. It’s a nice little bring-to-bed or the couch machine. there is like, 24 drum tracks on it. They sound good and very helpful to have onboard to assist with synth parts. I love how Roland synths sound, so it is one big sweet spot sound wise for my ears. My only gripe is Elektron corrupted me for what I want from build quality, with their metal boxes, clicky buttons and nice encoders, but with the SH-4D im looking past that. It’s cool Roland made something like this. Very easy and fun to use and priced fair.
Edit: I will add, if you own a new MPC, it is a great little add-on for it via midi. Playing the pads vs the SH-4D buttons is helpful and you can sequence all SH-4D channels right on the MPC with midi channels, which I prefer. For me it’s kind of like having a synth add-on for the MPC.
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It’s a four part multitimbral polyphonic synth with 60 voice first with a single drum part as an extra feature.
To me feels much closer to an A4 than to a Syntakt.
In a way is like buying the A4 to do drums, it can do good drums but has lots of limitations because is a melodic synth first.
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I don’t known a4 is a stretch, 4d feels more groove box in presentation to me. It’s definitely a 4 part synth with a lot of polyphony, yes. But half of that polyphony is literally drums.
I did really enjoy the drum stacking but they could have gone so much further with it. I feel like the filter fits the 4d engine and 106 more than it does the sh-101 imo. Just doesn’t have that bite like the sh01a does to a degree.
But hey man, this thing is really powerful. Can make some great music with it regardless. Enjoy it for what it is!
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I agree, I love it as a multitimbral polyphonic melodic synth with hands on controls.
I also agree filter is not as interesting sounding as the sh01a but still love the synth though.
I hope they add more filters in the future though.
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I’m absolutely thrilled about the SH4d but I have been waiting to see a Jupiter XM with a similar desktop form since the xm came out. This is the closest although still not the same.
My dream XM Desktop would have:
- Full models instead of just oscillator models. Zencore compatible.
- Five Stereo outputs
- Same filters as the xm
- User samplers for the drums
- Simplified part parameters like in sh4d
- Simple sequencer from the sh4d
- Reverb, chorus and delay per part insert fx.
- Increased polyphony
I would happily pay double of the cost of sh4d for something like this.
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You know one thing I was really surprised by?
The cutoff knob is bigger because obviously everyone is always tweaking away all the time (I mean I’m not but I assume people must be right?) but it’s like 10mm shorter than all the other knobs, so while it is larger in diameter, it is harder to adjust…
I can only imagine it’s a purely cost focussed thing where they realised that having it the same height as the rest of the knobs would cost them an extra x$ per unit.
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As a self confessed musical idiot I’d love for some fixed scales to keep me safe.
I feel as new features go, it’s pretty low hanging fruit
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Is half the polyphony really dedicated to the drums? I thought there was a way to control the voice assignment? Sure the drums will take the voices if they are used, but if you just want to use the four synth parts and play some ridiculous number of chords you’ll get all voices for your synth extravaganza
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