From shojo@pln.com Tue Jan 17 10:10:31 1995 Date: Tue, 17 Jan 95 02:25:13 From: Robert Schmeltzer To: analogue@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Subject: Re: SH-1000 >What is this lists combined knowledge of the Roland SH-1000? >Is it >another preset machine (like the SH-2000)? >What about the Korg Mono/Poly? >I'd like to know about the sound/interfacing capabilities of each >please. >Thanks! >john.. ******************************************************************** Well John, I happen to be the proud new owner of a SH-1000. It cost me a whopping $20. Even at that price I was thinking "Gee I already have an SH-101, I'll bet they are the same sound wise and God knows I don't need another monphonic analog synth". But I got it anyway and am glad I did. It is a weird synth from a time when synth manufacturers were probably trying to figure out the best way to market synths to people outside academia. The SH-1000 thus has many color tabs on the front of it just like grandma's organ. It even has two little holes drilled in the top so you can put in a little music stand. It's not quite a preset synth though. It does have 10 presets that are not editable other than to add vibrato or tremolo. But it also has tabs for creating your own sounds from scratch. You could select 32' square or ramp, 16' pwm, etc. To edit the wave form, on the left side of the keyboard (where the chord buttons would be if it were grandma's organ) are most of the controls for editing. It has an EG with one slider each for ADSR and a VCF with a slider for both freq. and cut off. However , they work differently depending on whether or not you've chosen to flip the colored tab on front labeled "ADSR". This is in the section of tabs labeled "Spectrum (V.C.F.)". Other choices are, of course, "growl" and "waw". But there are also knobs for those up where the chord buttons should be. Confused? I'm sure the buying public was too and that's why you don't see the SH-1000 around, nobody wanted to figure out this weird system. If you own any other analog synths, you'll be able to figure it out though.. It is not that difficult, it's just not as straightforward as looking at an SH-101 for instance. You look at the SH-101 and you can pretty much see the sound goes from left to right and is affected along the way. The SH-1000 isn't so clear. It also has a random note generator (uses the noise as its source), glide(preset), portamento (adjustable) and an octvae transposition switch for the keyboard. The SH-1000 external controls are "V.C.F. Cont." and "Glide". I'm assuming that my VCF cont. doesn't work becasue my SH-101 had no effect on it, but maybe I haven't figured out the secret tab and knob configuration to make it work. Glide on the front panel consists of a nice red momentary switch, but makes my SH drop the note a half step. Again maybe my synth isn't working correctly, but who knows, maybe that's what Roland thought glide should do. The sound? Well, it's NOT the same as the SH-101, but pretty close. Talking about sound isn't that informative, but I'd say the 1000 has more "presence" than the 101. The 101 has deeper bass and is more capable of variety of sounds, but the 1000 has a richness to it. The SH-1000 also has white and pink noise and some funky modulation implementation. I'm glad I got it, but I wouldn't have paid very much more than I did to get one. But then if you don't have a bunch of other analog synths around, you might be willing to pay more and be glad you got one. You could probably modify it pretty easily for more external control if you know something about electronics (which I don't). I've been thinking of uploading a JPEG of the SH-1000 to the archives, so maybe I'll get with it and do that for you. Give me a couple of days though. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ \\\Robert Schmeltzer\\\\\\\\\"I listen to a solo and I think of a duet"\\\\\\\ \\\\\shojo@pln.com\\\\\\\\\\\\\Fabio, from his CD, "After Dark"\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////