Does anyone understand the purpose of the chord machine? Why not just enter my own chords on another machine?
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This question genuinely deserves its own thread.
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I think you might need to update the firmware. There was a bug where motion record ON was actually OFF and vice versa.
Edit: Sorry I see youāve tried setting to OFF. Maybe just check the firmware though.
The other thing to bear in mind is that the motion recording works like automation lanes, so you have to set a value on the following step or the parameter will stay at the last setting.
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Looks like mine is arriving this weekend. Really looking forward to making it a part of my live setup 
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Ok, so it turns out the solution was to update and to factory reset the device. I updated successfully, but that didnāt fix it. Someone on Gearspace mentioned a factory reset. Tried that and now motion recording works!
Regarding the update procedure, just in case anyone gets confused like I did:
Roland says that it should download the driver automatically when you plug the SH-4d in. You may or may not get a notification that this happened - I had no idea if it downloaded, I never got a popup or anything. I downloaded the driver manually and clicked āsetupā after extracting the files. No feedback on that either. I decided to try to run the update procedure and it worked like a charm, updated the SH-4d successfully.
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Itās strange that I received mine over a month ago and it came with the latest firmware preinstalled.
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Weird. Maybe mine is in a batch that got stuck on a boat or something? It was on 1.01 when I got it.
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The MC 101 and 707 do the same. Iād plugged the MC-101 into my work laptop once to just power it on to check something. About a week later I noticed Roland MC 101 icon on my start menu wondering how it got there. I like that itās completely painless and automatic, but a little notification wouldnāt be a bad idea
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Hoping someone can help me out with a possible bug. I am trying to copy 1 part to another part. Iām on part 1 and hit shift + copy to copy part from part 1. Then I go to part 2 enter the copy menu and paste to part 2. It says itās pasted correctly but nothing changes? Can anyone confirm?
It half worked for me. It just copied the sequencer steps instead of the whole part.
Edit: tried again on a new pattern, same result. Initialized Part 1. Went to Part 2. Changed the sound a bit, added steps. Copied Part 2. Switched to Part 1, pasted. It copied the steps but not the sound.
OK I think Iāve had this long enough to form a coherent first impression. Despite the length of the ābadā list Iām enjoying it.
The good:
- The synth engines sound incredible. Itās got that very clean Roland sound that I was looking for, and a lot of variety. I especially like the Draw engine so far.
- The filter sounds surprisingly good, and I really like the resonance.
- The menus are shallow.
- The drum sounds are way better than I expected.
- Resolution scaling per part!
The average:
- The sequencer is fine. Plugging in a sequence is quick. 4-parameter modulation lane limit is annoying.
- The FX are pretty good.
- A half-assed version of P-locks is way better than none at all. Probability on drums is cool, but I wish we had conditional trigs as well (1:2, etc).
- Visual Arp is cool but Iām not sure Iāll ever use it unless they add the ability to keep it going when itās off screen.
The bad:
- Saving things. Others have beat this horse already, but itās so awkward. Not being able to overwrite factory presets is incredibly irritating on any device.
- Relatedly, the sound/ pattern structure. This one is very personal, but the way I work does not at all match up with how the SH-4d structure works - Iād much rather have the option to have sounds confined to a pattern. As it stands, if I want multiple variations of a sound in one song, I have to save those sounds separately and load them in, which will eat up save slots fast. I may be able to adjust, but this is a huge annoyance.
- Why are FX sends not a modulation lane destination? If theyāre supposed to be, they arenāt working for me
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No slides? Seriously, Roland?Nevermind, Iām an idiot. - No modulation options on the drums is a huge head-scratcher.
- This one feels really nitpicky, but the Tone shift button should really be a dedicated button, so many essential options are hidden there. Getting to the mixer is also awkward - why doesnāt it have a dedicated button?
- No indication of when an oscillator model has shift functions/ extra options if you hold the button below the slider. I"ll get used to it eventually I guess.
- No visual indication of where a knob is. I know we can hold Exit and turn a knob, but holding less buttons is better. If it showed both the saved value and current knob value when holding Exit that would be perfect.
- Having a second LFO in the 3d model means itās the one Iāll probably use the most. 2 LFOs really should be the bare minimum in 2023, especially given it only has 4 mod lanes.
- Bugs. Iāve encountered a few bugs - motion recording didnāt work until after a factory reset, the Part Copy bug above, the step sequencer mysteriously didnāt work once until after a power cycle, and Iām pretty sure Iāve encountered problems with the device just not saving at least once.
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Not totally sure if itās what you mean but you can dig into the tone (i think) menu and turn on portamento to normal or legato and then use ties to make slides happen.
Iām still sort of trying to work out how to relaibly make the Digitakt and the SH4d play nice together and Iām not quite there yet. Whatās really nice is using all the DTās midi channels, 4 for the synths and then 4 for different drum groups, makes muting and remember whatās where much easier.
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Oh ffs, I somehow completely missed that.
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Thereās a lot to miss and it ties in with your point that it should just be a button rather than a shift function
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I never knew this!
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Good summary
The saving thing Iām still working through, I flit from new track to new track pretty rapidly, so Iāve taken to pressing write and saying āyesā to everything, ignoring renaming or anything else. At some point the user area will be gummed up with garbage like 50 x āUSER TONEā but it remains to be seen if itāll really becomes a problem
Good point on the tone button, I would have ditched the pointless pitch +/- buttons or maybe the arp hold button for better options. The biggest miss for me on the controls, remains the lack of dedicated buttons switching parts and for getting to the mixer
A lot of these complaints fall into the category of real time performance, and Roland seemed to have cut back in this regard on purpose, lest it become seen as another groovebox
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What are ownersā thoughts on build quality? Does it feel well made and like it will last? How are the interface elements like buttons and dials?
Itās a strange mix. The knobs and faders are all solid and feel high quality. The buttons are squishy, plastic and unsatisfying, but thankfully they are less important than the other parts of the interface. The top panel looks and feels solid and durable. Apart from the buttons, the other main thing is that the screen is purely functional. With better buttons and an OLED screen, it would feel as good as an Elektron device. As it is, itās a tier or two down from that. Still a great pleasure to use in my experience. Really loving it so far. It feels like with a bit of care, it will last a long time.
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Iāve been turning off the pitch bend and using them as Novation style animate buttons by assigning various parameters in the mod matrix
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Huh wow, I hadnāt even spotted they were available as mod sources. Thatās a great idea
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