Roland. Wake up.
Huh? What time is it? Is it 1983 … 84? Where am I?
You need to wake up. You’ve been asleep for a long time. Everything has changed. WAKE UP.
Oh my god… it can’t be 2023… I was just making another Jupiter 8… no… what… is that really a phone?
This year, slowly but surely, at least one part of Roland Corporation woke up. Having been tediously ‘legendary’ for so very long somebody high up in the Corporation has signed off on a thing that wasn’t Boutique, wasn’t a Jupiter something – instead a little odd, a little crazy, and quite a bit Korg.
Of course the team had to make some gesture to the past to get through the meeting. There once was the SH-32 and here is the SH-4d. See the same little buttons? It’s safe. SAFE! The past.
THE COMPUTER FONT IS BACK!
But now there is more Now.
11 models offer a variety of tactics – FM, PCM, synch and drawing have all appeared on the higher end Fantoms. Instead of having ZenCore‘s deep menu settings these separate models allow shallow, tactile control which you stack up to create bigger ensembles. The SH-4d is based on the same Behaviour Modelling Core chip as runs ZenCore. But it’s free of that family and not deep but wide. Almost all the controls are right there on the front panel. They do change their functions depending on what model you are using and there is, unfortunately, the SHIFT button that Roland likes to put in an odd spot.
The ‘analogue’ aspects of the box are satisfying: LFOs go up to the bottom of the pitch range and create a respectable if not quite Moog grunge. The Sync and FM models aren’t quite the things they emulate, instead they establish their own distinctive style. The drive control in the filter section is very musical, as is the filter in general. Extras like ‘Fat’ and cross modulation are in menus but they are worth the effort.
The most surprising thing are the little physical sequencers hidden away in the system menu of the box. Tilt the box to steer the sound, or play Pong on screen, or bounce balls off an imaginary floor – these are all Korg ideas that come from their Kaossilator range and Roland are getting their tuxedo dirty in a space they’ve avoided up to this time.
Speaking of tilting the box – it’s small, heavier than you thought it would be, made with metal. Don’t drop it on your foot. There is no power supply included so steal one from your phone, or run power from a USB slot. That will show up on your MIDI ports – and like all Roland boxes there will be yet another audio driver added to the list. I seem to have about 100 of them.
It is limited. It’s made at a price point, thinks like a groovebox, will not suit an orchestrator. Get a Fantom if that’s you. People at GearSluts have managed to find aliasing and tiny amounts of noise to bitch about. Having to move through multiple layers to create tones and layer them in a pattern is not for the impatient. Layering is done by putting all parts on the one MIDI channel. They will follow up with a more deluxe version. BUT here is the first odd box from Roland in ages and it is open to exploration and serendipity. It’s distinctive, and that is worth more than all the Jupiters in a bonfire.