New Synth: Roland Sh-4d

Are you watching some YT videos? :rofl:

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very cool! hopefully roland put as much thought into ui/ux as they did their engine emulationsā€¦

all their new stuff sounds incredible but can be a bit of a pain to program, especially compared to stuff from elektron and teenage engineering

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Here in Canada, itā€™s 899$, 50$ more than the Minifreak.

I like it but itā€™s probably all ready got too many functions.

I imagine this will hurt the korg drumalogue

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Yeah but does it Undo? :rofl:

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Itā€™s 2023. Rolandā€™s latest device can store 256 user presets. Routes its audio input straight to the master output. Has non-class compliant USB audio. Has a step sequencer but does not do parameter locks. And if you want to set the probability of a note you got to dive the menu to page 2 of the notes settings and choose the note from a list.

But it sounds great.

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Would be nice if its USB worked with the MX-1 mixerā€¦ the AIRA compact models did/doā€¦ hmmā€¦

[edit: turns out it does! omgz]

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So, this is 5-Part multitimbral with 11 synth models ??
Iā€™m totally in.

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Judging from loopop: it has some parameter locks. For drums only velocity and gate, but for synths ā€œmoreā€ parameters are plockable, though not all. You would have to look at the manual to see which ones are and arenā€™t.

Frankly, from your list, I feel like the 256 user presets is the only real turnoff for me. Unless the factory presets can be purged easily and permanently. No need for plocks for every possible parameter, not everything has to be an Elektron. And the digis also donā€™t allow you to route audio in to everything you want to.

It costs 600ā‚¬ and is more powerful than most (any?) synth at this pricepoint, we shouldnā€™t ask for everything all the time. Especially since thereā€™s pricier Roland gear that can do some things that youā€™ve mentioned. And the digis in some aspects can do a lot less than this thing that costs 3-500 euro less in the future.

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Iā€™m curious how it sounds compared to the MC707/101.

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ā€œIt costs 600ā‚¬ and is more powerful than most (any?) synth at this pricepointā€

How about the Dirtywave M8

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I agree. But at least they could have routed the audio through the MFX engine as it does with its USB audio.

Yeah, Iā€™m afraid the sequencer is just no fun to interact with. I find that a turn off in the long run. Elektron nailed that. For me, Dirtywave M8 nailed that too.

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oohh boy, that first video. sounds great!

Given itā€™s Zencore based probably similar.

Iā€™m considering swapping my MC-707 for one, but 8 channels + 4 inputs with FX on each is compelling.

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Totally fair. I think weā€™re on the same page. An intuitive sequencer is key for me, and I donā€™t trust Roland that itā€™s fun enough to not feel like you would rather use an Elektron instead, even though it doesnā€™t come with all of the fancy stuff Roland has crammed into it.

@cane_creek: Donā€™t know too much about the M8, but I feel like itā€™s a different beast, as the big selling point of SH-4D is hands on control in a rather fully featured package that runs on batteries. The M8 seems more comparable to MC 101.

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The M8 is a magical device on many levels. But it cannot compete with Roland devices on synth level.

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From what I heard so far it sounds like the SH4D outputs sound more gritty/hotter than the 707. But yeah, very hard to judge. Maybe itā€™s just me hoping this is true.

it does look really cool and similar to the Korg Drumlogue groove box. My wish is for Roland to make a true analog poly synth once again as those were my favorite things they ever made years ago.

But the thing is it will sound better if you run a Roland VST on a half decent computerā€¦

Iā€™ve been reading the manual and the rhythm section use sampled waveform but you can layer 2 of them and there is pitch env, a filter for each part and you can FM the waveform so sample based but with cool synthesis option.

Looks like the best Groovebox Roland made IMO but no patterns chaining , no song mode and limited amount of pattern and sounds ā€¦ Really ? Ho well.

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