Sold! Wow! EDIT: Bought it last night and got it today. Watched this video last night, played with S1 for a while today, then watched the video again. You answered all my questions and prepped me well for my initial exploration.😂 Thanks again for not only selling me on this thing, but also making it painless to learn!
I have the T-8 and love it! I bought it as a souvenir from my visit to LA and Perfect Circuit - and played with it on the plane for 5 hours, barely looking up at all. It's THAT fun. I highly recommend these little boxes of enjoyment!!
@bill Vincent I love the T-8 too. Only thing that bugs me a little is no empty patterns- always have to erase a factory pattern to save one of my patterns. Have you found a workaround for that?
I am glad I live in the timeline where this man decided he was going to start a TH-cam channel. You make some of my favorite music and theyre literally just jams. God bless you and your talent
Idd, they realy thought about how their Compact & Boutique synths fit in a modern & mobile workflow. Gets overlooked & the nay-sayers complaining about other stuff like "euuuuuh it's not analog" are missing the point of these devices.
@@martin_the_artist_ it doesn't catch on quickly (enough for you, anyway) because Designers and manufacturers try to meet the most pertinent desires of their current customer/user baser first. Audio over USB is one among hundreds of design variables that may or may not be important to those users. As a company grows it can better afford to play more on the edges of what is viable, and what was once a 'wild idea' (ideas that a smaller company cannot afford to pursue for long and still turn a profit from their "steady sellers") can become the norm or tradition within a few years of market success.
I think with roland gear there was an issue with the driver which has meant anyone with more than one piece of roland gear has had to use the generic ASIO4ALL driver. I dont know all the ins and outs but it doesnt seem like theres a standard way to deliver USB audio so that any device with this capability can deliver audio via, say any ASIO driver
Man, I LOVE it when these new things come out! Oh, no, I don't mean the synth. I mean new Loopop videos! :D By the way, Loop, I was able to sign up to your patreon (months ago), and I've been enjoying your growing book on synthesis. What a fantastic resource. Thank you!
This would be an excellent synth for touring / gigging musicians. Wish i had any reason to buy one, but like the SH-4d, i already have a lot of gear to do these types of sounds. The market for basic subtractive synthesizers is very saturated. Maybe over saturated. So i only buy new gear if it does something very new and unique; which is not this at all. But there are loads of people buying their first synth, or just need a new bass synth.. or, just want the dopamine rush of buying a new synth, for only $200. Still, great sounding tiny synth, and i might go so far as to say it is definitely a contender for anyone thinking about a Volca. I’m also glad Roland is making this tech available at a lower price point.
"as far as to say a contender" for volca?! Having owned and sold a few different volcas and owning this, the S1 can do sooooo much more and is just a generally much better thought out device than any of the volca lineup
Roland have been hitting their market with this kind of package offering hard for old timers like me to get too excited but perfect for youngsters or people with some disposable income looking to create on a budget with a great representation of the legends of old👍
@@reecedeyoung6595 if you have a great powerful laptop or computer yes. I use cubase but I can switch on gear like this and play. How many of us wasted time with stuff not working setting up. Then when ready to jam. Give up
@@reecedeyoung6595 I am chained to a computer all day. Consequently computers have very little mojo for me. I only use the computer for final mix and mastering. Also IME controllers are always a compromise.
Thanks for the video ! This would've been an instant buy if I didn't get an SH01a a few months ago (better form factor and love the vintage look and feel). The effect section is such a nice addition.
Everyone say bad about Roland boutiques. But the true is that a lot of people has big fingers..and don't would say about the sound that is so close to the original models. Today for more people is better a software synth..instead spend money for an hardware machine. (I am DAWLESS 😊)
@@Sandelec-gm2cl Totally love my Boutique SH01a ! I could've go for a software rendition, way cheaper but the fact that everything is up there to touch, experiment with, physically, to make happy accidents, to fail ; there's no equivalence. (yeah you could MIDI learn, etc... not the same to me) Maybe it's the way I'm wired but hardware brings me so much joy compared to any "in the box" composition. (I agree that's a privileged stance though, hardware could be very expensive)
The original SH-101 was a lot of fun with the MC-202 sequencer and built in synth. I modded a Dr. Rhythm to sync to the sequencer. These units bring all that back!
FYI some of the features you show need the 1.02 firmware update to work. It comes shipped with 1.01 so some things like step preview for instance do not work without the update on the site. Great video!!
I owned an original SH 101 so many years ago 😊 the Korg MS20 and SH were my first synths I owned and learned on. There’s obviously a sentimental attachment to the SH here I guess so I have to buy one of these. It really sounds like one. Great review thanks.
This looks very cool just because of the draw and chop function but id really love to know if there is a way to backup individual waveforms/patches to a computer and load them back later?
I was surprised and excited to see your video this morning that Roland is making these. I always wanted a SH101 but at the time I was too involved with my DX7. When I was ready to get one, Roland discontinued them. Then if you could find a new one the prices for them jumped up and doubled. The beauty of this synth at the time, aside from the sound it was capable of, was the low comparative price. Now on the used market they are ridiculously overpriced. So to be able to get one at this price is amazing, I couldn’t resist. I just ordered one. I particularly like the small size and that it runs on a rechargeable battery. I’ll be taking this magic machine with me when I travel and it won’t take up any space in my current setup, for me a win, win. Thanks again for your great reviews!
I'm completely sold on the S-1. It's pretty interesting really, how many features these AIRAs all share with the Sonicware Livens, even as different as every one of these from Roland, and Sonicware are. One thing the Livens have, these AIRAs don't have, even though some effects for the Livens still need some refining, is the ability to process external signals with each units effects. Changing delay times while a sequence is playing, actually sounds wonderful too. Very musical sounding, while changing delay timings on the fly.
Liven boxes are similar enough to my elektron boxes that it was easy to jump into them without too much manual diving. I now have XFM, Texture, Lofi-6 and Bass&Beats. I'm interested to see what they come out with next.
Who the fudge is gonna pick up a synth plugged into a bunch of cables and move it around? Oops, moved too much in the club, out comes the power cord...
Roland: "we don't chase ghosts and we will never re-release what everyone wants like remakes of our old analogs, but yet we keep producing toys which are inspired by the gear everyone wants."
I had no idea this little guy was in the works, and I have one on order now... it's just too nice and now when I travel for work I will have a perfect companion for my Digitakt!
I know the UI isn't good, but this tech was all but unreachable not that long ago. If I was just starting out, this might not be a bad first synth. The price point reduces the UI pain.
I love the AIRA compact series. Have the drum and chord sequencer, and think this would round out the collection nicely. Built in battery, and audio pass through (so no need for a separate mixer), are a big plus. A few of these on a coffe table and you are ready to jam 🎶🌎☮❤
I came here to rip the notion of Roland re-making more of the same but this thing seems stunningly useful for even in a proper studio. Waveform editing, effects, chords, poly, and sonically near identical to an OG SH-101. This just rendered the boutique SH-01a kinda useless. Great review.
I'm still amazed at Roland's ACB engine, years later. Sounds so good for a digital engine! I really don't notice any difference with the oscillators. Behringer is killing right now with the affordable gear, but this is a great deal as well!
I think Roland did a brilliant job on this new Roland Compact Synth. Pattern chain would be nice of course! Q. do you get 64 synth presets by the way? or is it a blank canvas sound patch wise? so the seq has 64 steps .. could be nice if the T-8 got an update to match the number or steps for it's bass section also.
I think it's cool to enter the era of full VA synths of this size, moving smaller from the microkorg size synths of last era. Now it remains to offer good controls for them.
"Good controls" are defeated by the smaller size. Funny how that goes, eh? Corner-cutting is the name of the game - and the whole deal here. i.e. tiny audio jacks, no proper MIDI i/o jacks, tiny knobs and buttons with low resolution and on and on. The main virtues of the original were it's a) immediacy and b) flexibility in interfacing - both of which go way down here for the sake of a) portability and b) the ever-elusive goal of moving more units at a lower price. And it wouldn't cost Roland diddly to manufacture these with real VCO-VCF-VCA in there (no more than it costs Korg or anyone else). But they are obviously set on streamlining production by putting it all into one FPGA or whatever DSP - and that's that.
@@shaft9000 really you think four voice polyphony in a box that small would be trivial to produce AND not spike the production cost at all? interesting take lol
@@PorchBass The Circuit gets away with it without any visual display, so IDK. You could use the 16 pads as a visual indicator for coarse editing (pitching/length), and then a two knob combo for resolution and fine edit for start/finish. It's not impossible, just an inbuilt learning curve. Editing on an old Yamaha SU10 was incredibly precise once you got your head around it, and most of that was by ear.
@@Gainn bro I own an su10 ! Love it. It will tell you BPM of the sample (always thinks in bars though) when moving sample cues. The way the circuit uses the pads is well done and I also love my launchpad!
I don’t understand why they don’t make these things for like you to do a weird shift trick where each knob could have multiple parameters below it but it engages a thing where every time you hit the button whatever the button would be that it would very easily just go right through the perimeter so even if you wanted to be random and just keep hitting the button and turn in all of you can decide random variations, and just keep scrolling through the parameters very quickly. And that would be really cool to be able to do that on a step sequencer as well. You can just keep scrolling through different variables or whatever and just keep screwing up the timing or whatever, etc.
An important finding, if you’re a Logic Pro user. Since Roland doesn’t seem to know this (May 2024), I will post this through my favourite electronica TH-camrs. Having owned the S-1 for about 5 minutes I began thinking about how I could integrate it into my UA/Logic Pro set up. USB-C connection to the Mac. First try resulted in the S-1 taking over completely, no access to UA. The Roland “support” site said that it wasn’t possible to use it with multiple audio interfaces! Accepting the challenge I created an Aggregate Device in the the Mac’s Audio MIDI set up, with the UA as master device. Let there be audio! The MIDI part was a brain twister though. Audio still working fine when I started the S-1’s internal sequencer. But no MIDI triggering the S-1. Double checking the MIDI setting on the S-1 revealed that I had adjusted the chorus, Cho, mistaking the o for a zero. The correct parameter is called CH. Why it wasn’t already set to channel 1 is anybody’s guess. Cool box, lousy support site, as usual. Roland, please fix your extremely slow and unhelpful site😤 Thank you for sharing a helpful video.
I was shaking my head while Loopop was scrolling through options and screen was cryptic with shorthand words. Thought - at this point just get rid of screen and make it even harder for a real challenge. Imaging not just shift, but double/triple shift combos. Shaking head judt thinking about it. On a serious note - on the regular models the small screen sucks, but is useable just requires major menu diving. My retired alarm clock from a decade ago has better resolution. Roland must have put in a huge order of small screens to last them for a decade to make sure they continue to torture their customers. We are supposed to be happy and doing backflips if it can show 3 or 4 lines of text in 8bit. I will pass out when they finally wake up from the 80's and use a decent size color touchscreen. By then Akai will already have AI bluetooth to connect to my brain.
I bought an sh-09 and an sh-101 when they came out in the 1980's. I kick myself that I sold them in the 1990's ! Woof. S-1 appears to be a very capable machine.
Don't feel so bad. Everyone sold them coz they were limited in some way. Blasphemy but the boutique SH01 is technically an upgrade in terms of poly and connectivity
they sound different imo but the s1 is a very very great sounding synth. unblievable for its size and price. despite being a modula junkie with lots of expensive stuff i really fell in love with these series especially the s1. the j6 not that much, but its still a fun devixce.aira did a good job.
I have it and the main flaw of this series of Roland synthesizers is the interconnection system. I think it would have been better a magnetic connection between them or specific cable all in one or similar and it is not minijack system.
Hi, I just bought the volca fm 2 and now im asking myself if this Roland s1 might be a better choice for a beginner. I like the volca for his 6 voice polyphony but the séquenceur and the sound and the built quality look great here. Can someone provide some comparaison if you have both. Thank’s
both are great for beginners & both based on old classic synths. the FM will let you go wayyyy in depth with the sound design/oscillator & carrier sounds to the point where you'd rather just design patches on he computer (which you _can_ do with a program called *Dexed* as all patches with FM are interchangeable with the DX-7). this s-1 features a more classical synthesis model starting with basic waveforms you can blend and modify to your likings. with new modern bonus features and a nice big 64 step sequencer! can't go wrong with either! love em both
Thank.s for the answer. Do you think that 4 voices of the S1 can a factor of limitation for complex composition. I’m trying to see which one of those synth can be a instrument that I can learn with to make various type of electric music. Which one is the best value for money? I don’t want to make a mistake. And I would connect the synth with a PO 33’
@@DamienPlouhinec 6 voices is really nice. i wish the s1 had that. but if you already have the fm2 stick with that!! i only have the first version with only 4 voice polyphony so i really wanna upgrade to the new one. so i don't think you can really make a mistake. play the fm2 for now and when you're ready for something different get an s-1 (wil probably be cheaper then) and play that. then after a while you'll come back to the fm2 with a new perspective and be able to do even more! have fun & yeah should be able to run anything right thru the po33!
Hi Loopop that res filter sweep actually forms part of the end of a song - there was a section of that sweep that was uncanny when I heard it. When I find it, I'll post the name.
First of all: Your presentations are terrific! Learned a lot... Thank you! Just an idea: what about starting with giving info about the weight of the gear you dive us into ? Could be very useful for musicians.
I recently started looking into good affordable synths to start playing around with and this was a super convincing video! I just ordered one and am excited to play around with it.
a 64 step sequencer is something that gives it a seriouse edge over the Korg volca's, id be interested to know what the noise floor is compared to the Korg Volca's, are you able to shed some light on that ?
By ‘clever’ you mean ‘greedy’ right? That’s what Roland’s business decisions are led by in the last 10 years. They could be making new things that people actually want, but instead they keep repackaging their recent digital tech while chasing the ghosts of their old gear. Look at Korg, they’ve been making both fully new concepts (Wavestate etc) and great analog repros of older gear (2600, MS20 etc). Rather than doing sneaky things to resell the same thing over and over, they are offering new and classic products that people want.
@@sub-jec-tiv I don't know how much is greed vs lack of imagination. They used to aim for the best balance of a) musically-useful innovation, b) practicality and c) improving quality over what was available before. Now it seems Roland is mainly interested in using it's heritage to sell instruments with the least possible fuss in manufacture. I don't know what bit them, but _something is keeping them meek._
Sold! Wow!
EDIT: Bought it last night and got it today.
Watched this video last night, played with S1 for a while today, then watched the video again. You answered all my questions and prepped me well for my initial exploration.😂 Thanks again for not only selling me on this thing, but also making it painless to learn!
I have the T-8 and love it! I bought it as a souvenir from my visit to LA and Perfect Circuit - and played with it on the plane for 5 hours, barely looking up at all. It's THAT fun. I highly recommend these little boxes of enjoyment!!
@bill Vincent I love the T-8 too. Only thing that bugs me a little is no empty patterns- always have to erase a factory pattern to save one of my patterns. Have you found a workaround for that?
@@lawrencedb Go to any pattern hit (Shift + A#) and it will clear the pattern.
I echo this love the T-8. Easy way to create nice Bass Lines.
I am glad I live in the timeline where this man decided he was going to start a TH-cam channel. You make some of my favorite music and theyre literally just jams. God bless you and your talent
One thing I like about a lot of Roland gear is making audio available over USB - saves a couple of inputs on your audio interface.
I know, I don't know why it hasn't really caught on in the wider synth industry, it's so handy it actually effects my buying decisions now!
Idd, they realy thought about how their Compact & Boutique synths fit in a modern & mobile workflow.
Gets overlooked & the nay-sayers complaining about other stuff like "euuuuuh it's not analog" are missing the point of these devices.
@@martin_the_artist_ it doesn't catch on quickly (enough for you, anyway) because
Designers and manufacturers try to meet the most pertinent desires of their current customer/user baser first. Audio over USB is one among hundreds of design variables that may or may not be important to those users.
As a company grows it can better afford to play more on the edges of what is viable, and what was once a 'wild idea' (ideas that a smaller company cannot afford to pursue for long and still turn a profit from their "steady sellers") can become the norm or tradition within a few years of market success.
@@shaft9000 did ChatGPT write that reply lol
I think with roland gear there was an issue with the driver which has meant anyone with more than one piece of roland gear has had to use the generic ASIO4ALL driver.
I dont know all the ins and outs but it doesnt seem like theres a standard way to deliver USB audio so that any device with this capability can deliver audio via, say any ASIO driver
Yet another superb showcase.
Be opportune to combine all these compact units for a mad jam
Man, I LOVE it when these new things come out!
Oh, no, I don't mean the synth. I mean new Loopop videos! :D
By the way, Loop, I was able to sign up to your patreon (months ago), and I've been enjoying your growing book on synthesis. What a fantastic resource.
Thank you!
Thanks very much 🙌🏻🙏🏻
I've only played the instruments, I've never played the Loopop so I guess I'm more interested by the new synth 😀
This would be an excellent synth for touring / gigging musicians. Wish i had any reason to buy one, but like the SH-4d, i already have a lot of gear to do these types of sounds. The market for basic subtractive synthesizers is very saturated. Maybe over saturated. So i only buy new gear if it does something very new and unique; which is not this at all. But there are loads of people buying their first synth, or just need a new bass synth.. or, just want the dopamine rush of buying a new synth, for only $200.
Still, great sounding tiny synth, and i might go so far as to say it is definitely a contender for anyone thinking about a Volca. I’m also glad Roland is making this tech available at a lower price point.
"as far as to say a contender" for volca?! Having owned and sold a few different volcas and owning this, the S1 can do sooooo much more and is just a generally much better thought out device than any of the volca lineup
well this came out of nowhere... awesome video, and im a big fan of what roland is doing with these
The tones you opened the video with brought be back 7 years to when I fell in love with the OG s1
The 101 was a smallish synth at its time, now it looks giant.
It looked pretty big on me with a guitar strap. But i was 14 at the time so that’s not a huge surprise.
@@sub-jec-tiv compared to the synths of that age, it was one of the smallest... Think of a Jupiter-8, obxa, cs80, etc
And SMT vs thru-hole is (mostly) why
Lol so true. And before this it was the boutique with the K-25 keyboard. So this is a portable version of a portable version of a mini synth 😂
Hopefully we'll be getting a new mx-1 to go along with all love this aira gear
or at least something better than the volca mix, LoL
A matchbox sized miniature mx-1!
They put ACB in there? So it is a real boutique SH01? That's crazy. A no brainer! And as always a great in depth video and great musical jams 🔥👍
That riser noise thing is such a good idea
couldnt believe my local SweetGuitarWaterCenter had them in stock, bought immediately and way impressed!
Great sounding little box! 👍🏻
Roland have been hitting their market with this kind of package offering hard for old timers like me to get too excited but perfect for youngsters or people with some disposable income looking to create on a budget with a great representation of the legends of old👍
Idk why you wouldn't just get a midi controller and a couple vsts. If it's all DSP any way. Its not like this thing is very good as a controller.
@@reecedeyoung6595 because many people have zero interest in vsts. Myself included.
@@d3tuned378 this thing is hardware controller over a DSP sound engine. The same as a hardware midi controller and vst.
@@reecedeyoung6595 if you have a great powerful laptop or computer yes. I use cubase but I can switch on gear like this and play. How many of us wasted time with stuff not working setting up. Then when ready to jam. Give up
@@reecedeyoung6595 I am chained to a computer all day. Consequently computers have very little mojo for me. I only use the computer for final mix and mastering. Also IME controllers are always a compromise.
Thanks for the video ! This would've been an instant buy if I didn't get an SH01a a few months ago (better form factor and love the vintage look and feel). The effect section is such a nice addition.
Everyone say bad about Roland boutiques.
But the true is that a lot of people has big fingers..and don't would say about the sound that is so close to the original models.
Today for more people is better a software synth..instead spend money for an hardware machine.
(I am DAWLESS 😊)
@@Sandelec-gm2cl Totally love my Boutique SH01a ! I could've go for a software rendition, way cheaper but the fact that everything is up there to touch, experiment with, physically, to make happy accidents, to fail ; there's no equivalence. (yeah you could MIDI learn, etc... not the same to me)
Maybe it's the way I'm wired but hardware brings me so much joy compared to any "in the box" composition.
(I agree that's a privileged stance though, hardware could be very expensive)
@@Oyasoom I need the instant gratification of the hardware interface. Even if it's the same synth engine.
Roland Volca Keys 2.0, I think I am in love.....
@@Purrrelll yeah, he knows. We all know. What's your point?
Rolca
@@d3tuned378you're kind of a dick huh.😂
I like that the video ID in the URL ends with 'Gas'
Best tutorial on the internet for the S1 ! Thank you
I bought s J-6 not too long ago, I can’t wait to play with this new Aira.
The original SH-101 was a lot of fun with the MC-202 sequencer and built in synth. I modded a Dr. Rhythm to sync to the sequencer. These units bring all that back!
I had an MC-202 it was a great acid machine.
just exactly what i was looking for, i will watch it a couple of times, waiting for my s-1 :D
FYI some of the features you show need the 1.02 firmware update to work. It comes shipped with 1.01 so some things like step preview for instance do not work without the update on the site. Great video!!
Thanks for the info! Ten minutes later, and I'm all set!😊
Luckily mine shipped with the 1.02 firmware preinstalled.
I owned an original SH 101 so many years ago 😊 the Korg MS20 and SH were my first synths I owned and learned on. There’s obviously a sentimental attachment to the SH here I guess so I have to buy one of these. It really sounds like one. Great review thanks.
@loopop! I found your songs from 2020 and they're amazing, i love Sun Machine One! Thanks for the great content!
My pleasure and thanks very much!
Loopop's review of the other Aira synths is here (I didn't see the link in the video or the description): th-cam.com/video/JPcRE3h10lk/w-d-xo.html
Thanks - I forgot to add it!
We really are living in a golden era for the new synth head.
really i just see another episode of bad gear coming.
@@knallbertkrach9263 most of the stuff he covers on bad gear these days is just "gear" 🤣
@@aikighostagree, it’s just shock value naming. Lots of great gear on his channel.
@@aikighost It's not every day that a rhythm wolf comes out😅
wtf is a 'the new synth head'
and do you really want to know
This looks very cool just because of the draw and chop function but id really love to know if there is a way to backup individual waveforms/patches to a computer and load them back later?
Yes, but I have not checked it. Please have a look at the manual there’s a chapter that talks about it.
@@loopop Thanks, will do.
I absolutely can't tell the og and the S-1 apart with my eyes closed, I'm beyond impressed
cant wait to see this on bad gear
At first it was ticking quite a lot of boxes, small, inexpensive, plenty of knobs and buttons, four note polyphony- whaaaaat?!
Nooooo😂😂😂
He probably already producing it now. 🤣🤣🤣
Bad Gear videos probably sell as much product as Loopop's.
Stale predictable comment. Much like the J-6, people will enjoy these things thoroughly.
I was surprised and excited to see your video this morning that Roland is making these. I always wanted a SH101 but at the time I was too involved with my DX7. When I was ready to get one, Roland discontinued them. Then if you could find a new one the prices for them jumped up and doubled. The beauty of this synth at the time, aside from the sound it was capable of, was the low comparative price. Now on the used market they are ridiculously overpriced. So to be able to get one at this price is amazing, I couldn’t resist. I just ordered one. I particularly like the small size and that it runs on a rechargeable battery. I’ll be taking this magic machine with me when I travel and it won’t take up any space in my current setup, for me a win, win. Thanks again for your great reviews!
I'm completely sold on the S-1. It's pretty interesting really, how many features these AIRAs all share with the Sonicware Livens, even as different as every one of these from Roland, and Sonicware are. One thing the Livens have, these AIRAs don't have, even though some effects for the Livens still need some refining, is the ability to process external signals with each units effects. Changing delay times while a sequence is playing, actually sounds wonderful too. Very musical sounding, while changing delay timings on the fly.
Liven boxes are similar enough to my elektron boxes that it was easy to jump into them without too much manual diving. I now have XFM, Texture, Lofi-6 and Bass&Beats. I'm interested to see what they come out with next.
I love my 8BW, and XFM! @@djangofett4879
What an amazing video! Thanks for all the time you put into this!
Wow, they really nailed those OSCs.
not quite on the rectangle, it misses some of the SH's harmonic 'girth' from 30-60% PW
"We thought D-Beam wasn't useful enough, so we created D-Motion which sounds even cooler without being useful at all."
Who the fudge is gonna pick up a synth plugged into a bunch of cables and move it around? Oops, moved too much in the club, out comes the power cord...
People will use it in clever ways I’m sure
Man it sucks that you can't even sweep a ding dang filter without some bot thinking they own it!
Roland: "we don't chase ghosts and we will never re-release what everyone wants like remakes of our old analogs, but yet we keep producing toys which are inspired by the gear everyone wants."
Behringer is forcing it on them lol. I wonder if this was their response to the MS-1 mkii
I don't like old analog limited synth's. Welcome to 2023 boomer.
Probably best boutique so far
I had no idea this little guy was in the works, and I have one on order now... it's just too nice and now when I travel for work I will have a perfect companion for my Digitakt!
Somebody at Roland really thought boutiques weren't small enough
They think they are getting in on the volca market 🤣
I swear those Japanese guys get tinier hands everytime they develop a new synth.
@J McCarthy Thats the least of the selling points for me
MC-202
@@reecedeyoung6595yeah except they're way better then the volcas.😂
I know the UI isn't good, but this tech was all but unreachable not that long ago. If I was just starting out, this might not be a bad first synth. The price point reduces the UI pain.
Whoa! We had a Roland SH-1000 at home when I was a kid; the first synth I ever played on. How wonderful is the evolution of this device’s lineup!
Still have my original SH1000 from the 1970's, but i'd get the brand new rolands too.
Superb review as always 👌❤
I love the AIRA compact series. Have the drum and chord sequencer, and think this would round out the collection nicely.
Built in battery, and audio pass through (so no need for a separate mixer), are a big plus.
A few of these on a coffe table and you are ready to jam 🎶🌎☮❤
This device is a future classic for sure! Cannot wait to get one
Nice little box, but I'd take the bigger grey one ;-)
I came here to rip the notion of Roland re-making more of the same but this thing seems stunningly useful for even in a proper studio. Waveform editing, effects, chords, poly, and sonically near identical to an OG SH-101. This just rendered the boutique SH-01a kinda useless. Great review.
Very well done Roland, their ACB works super fine here. As always, amazing unbeatable review!
I'm still amazed at Roland's ACB engine, years later. Sounds so good for a digital engine! I really don't notice any difference with the oscillators. Behringer is killing right now with the affordable gear, but this is a great deal as well!
Im sure its been updated over time...
I got the t8 few days ago im getting the S1 next month cant wait
well i guess i’m buying this now
update i bought it :) finally
Great... Now I have to buy this!
Was thinking about getting a Bass Station 2 but I think this will scratch my itch as I have the T8 and Voice Tweaker...Excellent!
Hello how are you doing 😊
@Helena Russo to be honest I could do with a good SCRUFF.
Thank you for your vid’s. A real treat.
Great video as always! TY
!
I think Roland did a brilliant job on this new Roland Compact Synth.
Pattern chain would be nice of course!
Q. do you get 64 synth presets by the way? or is it a blank canvas sound patch wise?
so the seq has 64 steps ..
could be nice if the T-8 got an update to match the number or steps for it's bass section also.
You do get 64 presets, yes
The first 16 patterns are presets. 17-64 are empty
I think it's cool to enter the era of full VA synths of this size, moving smaller from the microkorg size synths of last era. Now it remains to offer good controls for them.
"Good controls" are defeated by the smaller size. Funny how that goes, eh?
Corner-cutting is the name of the game - and the whole deal here.
i.e. tiny audio jacks, no proper MIDI i/o jacks, tiny knobs and buttons with low resolution and on and on.
The main virtues of the original were it's a) immediacy and b) flexibility in interfacing -
both of which go way down here for the sake of a) portability and b) the ever-elusive goal of moving more units at a lower price.
And it wouldn't cost Roland diddly to manufacture these with real VCO-VCF-VCA in there (no more than it costs Korg or anyone else). But they are obviously set on streamlining production by putting it all into one FPGA or whatever DSP - and that's that.
@@shaft9000 really you think four voice polyphony in a box that small would be trivial to produce AND not spike the production cost at all? interesting take lol
13:21 I like the way the wave shape matches the shape of the output cable in the SH-101
the reverb sounds sweet
"That's a 'W' there" made me laugh for some reason. Great stuff as always.
Hello Daniel how are you doing 😊
Next one needs to be a sampler.
Imagine editing samples on that LED!
@@PorchBass The Circuit gets away with it without any visual display, so IDK. You could use the 16 pads as a visual indicator for coarse editing (pitching/length), and then a two knob combo for resolution and fine edit for start/finish. It's not impossible, just an inbuilt learning curve. Editing on an old Yamaha SU10 was incredibly precise once you got your head around it, and most of that was by ear.
@@Gainn bro I own an su10 !
Love it. It will tell you BPM of the sample (always thinks in bars though) when moving sample cues. The way the circuit uses the pads is well done and I also love my launchpad!
Doesn’t the voice processor do sampling ? What a neat , tidy little synth , eternally tweakable , lovely .
I thought Roland would stopped the AIRA Compact series but this one made me excited for the another one! 😂
I don’t understand why they don’t make these things for like you to do a weird shift trick where each knob could have multiple parameters below it but it engages a thing where every time you hit the button whatever the button would be that it would very easily just go right through the perimeter so even if you wanted to be random and just keep hitting the button and turn in all of you can decide random variations, and just keep scrolling through the parameters very quickly. And that would be really cool to be able to do that on a step sequencer as well. You can just keep scrolling through different variables or whatever and just keep screwing up the timing or whatever, etc.
Thanks a lot, watched this tutorial twice! :D now i can use S-1 much more easier haha. You're, really, really great tutorial-ist, respect to you dude.
filter-sweeps are the back-bone of the universe. and... the S-1 sounds fantastic(!) and looks pretty fun... Cheers!
Cool seeing the 2 side by side
An important finding, if you’re a Logic Pro user.
Since Roland doesn’t seem to know this (May 2024),
I will post this through my favourite electronica TH-camrs.
Having owned the S-1 for about 5 minutes I began thinking about
how I could integrate it into my UA/Logic Pro set up.
USB-C connection to the Mac.
First try resulted in the S-1 taking over completely, no access to UA.
The Roland “support” site said that it wasn’t possible to use it with multiple audio interfaces!
Accepting the challenge I created an Aggregate Device in the the Mac’s Audio MIDI set up,
with the UA as master device.
Let there be audio!
The MIDI part was a brain twister though.
Audio still working fine when I started the S-1’s internal sequencer.
But no MIDI triggering the S-1.
Double checking the MIDI setting on the S-1 revealed
that I had adjusted the chorus, Cho, mistaking the o for a zero.
The correct parameter is called CH.
Why it wasn’t already set to channel 1 is anybody’s guess.
Cool box, lousy support site, as usual.
Roland, please fix your extremely slow and unhelpful site😤
Thank you for sharing a helpful video.
Couldn't find stock, but have bought one which should be shipped late next week. Not a fan of the phrase no-brainer, but this absolutely is one.
Nice review as always.
Roland devices: The screens are too small
Mini Roland: Hold my beer
Roland engineers secret goal has always been to make the smallest screen on Earth
Offical Roland microscopes when?
@@GreenHoleSun with the worst user interface and documentation!
I was shaking my head while Loopop was scrolling through options and screen was cryptic with shorthand words. Thought - at this point just get rid of screen and make it even harder for a real challenge. Imaging not just shift, but double/triple shift combos. Shaking head judt thinking about it.
On a serious note - on the regular models the small screen sucks, but is useable just requires major menu diving. My retired alarm clock from a decade ago has better resolution. Roland must have put in a huge order of small screens to last them for a decade to make sure they continue to torture their customers. We are supposed to be happy and doing backflips if it can show 3 or 4 lines of text in 8bit. I will pass out when they finally wake up from the 80's and use a decent size color touchscreen. By then Akai will already have AI bluetooth to connect to my brain.
Could Def use one of these in my box,can’t beat the price and features,on top of the sound to boot.⚡️
Very nice. I wish this one had CV Gate so it would go nicely with my eurorack sequencers.
Mayby this one can be modded? So CV Gate can be added.
@@kosmikmusa Wirth a kenton converter
I bought an sh-09 and an sh-101 when they came out in the 1980's. I kick myself that I sold them in the 1990's ! Woof. S-1 appears to be a very capable machine.
Don't feel so bad. Everyone sold them coz they were limited in some way. Blasphemy but the boutique SH01 is technically an upgrade in terms of poly and connectivity
Copyright for filter sweeps? Damn 😂
As far as the comparison goes, I was really impressed with how similar they sound and function.
Very nice. It's made me realise my SH-4D would be much better with a 101 filter emulation. Hope they can add that.
Does SH-4d have the Draw and Chop OSC like this little guy?
@@mikenoface it has draw but not chop.
Thanks. I love this small boxes.
they sound different imo but the s1 is a very very great sounding synth. unblievable for its size and price. despite being a modula junkie with lots of expensive stuff i really fell in love with these series especially the s1. the j6 not that much, but its still a fun devixce.aira did a good job.
I have it and the main flaw of this series of Roland synthesizers is the interconnection system. I think it would have been better a magnetic connection between them or specific cable all in one or similar and it is not minijack system.
24:00
Made me think of Sterac - Astronotes (Part 1&2) 1995
Hi, I just bought the volca fm 2 and now im asking myself if this Roland s1 might be a better choice for a beginner. I like the volca for his 6 voice polyphony but the séquenceur and the sound and the built quality look great here. Can someone provide some comparaison if you have both. Thank’s
both are great for beginners & both based on old classic synths. the FM will let you go wayyyy in depth with the sound design/oscillator & carrier sounds to the point where you'd rather just design patches on he computer (which you _can_ do with a program called *Dexed* as all patches with FM are interchangeable with the DX-7).
this s-1 features a more classical synthesis model starting with basic waveforms you can blend and modify to your likings. with new modern bonus features and a nice big 64 step sequencer! can't go wrong with either! love em both
Thank.s for the answer. Do you think that 4 voices of the S1 can a factor of limitation for complex composition. I’m trying to see which one of those synth can be a instrument that I can learn with to make various type of electric music.
Which one is the best value for money? I don’t want to make a mistake. And I would connect the synth with a PO 33’
@@DamienPlouhinec 6 voices is really nice. i wish the s1 had that. but if you already have the fm2 stick with that!! i only have the first version with only 4 voice polyphony so i really wanna upgrade to the new one.
so i don't think you can really make a mistake. play the fm2 for now and when you're ready for something different get an s-1 (wil probably be cheaper then) and play that. then after a while you'll come back to the fm2 with a new perspective and be able to do even more! have fun
& yeah should be able to run anything right thru the po33!
Thank you for your answer, I will stick with the volca. Have a good one
Muy completo para su tamaño y una réplica igual con menor costo!!!! Saludos desde México 🇲🇽
Not a bad little device. But Roland needs to stop this D-Motion nonsense by moving the device around.
Can it do sequencer or arp step advance by clock sync like the SH-101?
I love the Aira series. However, the one thing I wish the J-6, E-4, S-1, and T-8 had was the same lcd screen as the TR-6S
Sh01a: Volca Edition
but way better
Espen Kraft is going to LOVE this!!
Hi Loopop that res filter sweep actually forms part of the end of a song - there was a section of that sweep that was uncanny when I heard it. When I find it, I'll post the name.
Gracias Roland por poner estas herramientas a las manos de todos❤
I like how the 7 segment display tries to display letters. I'm a big fan of the "k"
Just when I was thinking J-6 & T-8 wouldn't be enough!!!
This whole line is cool and this is exactly what was missing
First of all: Your presentations are terrific! Learned a lot... Thank you!
Just an idea: what about starting with giving info about the weight of the gear you dive us into ?
Could be very useful for musicians.
Thanks and noted. I try to do that when there’s a discrepancy between what something looks like it should weigh, and what it does…
Mine will be here in 2 days. My T-8 and J-6 have been waiting for a buddy to play with. :)
Crazy observation on filter sweeps, I hear the high freqs because of the spectrascope, and notice the low freq buzz thanks to the oscilloscope
I recently started looking into good affordable synths to start playing around with and this was a super convincing video! I just ordered one and am excited to play around with it.
Enjoy! it's a great place to start
This and some nice modular sequencer would sound great as a layer.
a 64 step sequencer is something that gives it a seriouse edge over the Korg volca's, id be interested to know what the noise floor is compared to the Korg Volca's, are you able to shed some light on that ?
I didn't notice any. Since this is all digital, it makes sense it would be pretty quiet
Was deciding on this then ended up with the Roland SH-4d instead, but the Aira would definitely have been more portable and lighter lol.
I predict that this is gonna be the best selling Aira Compact so far. And now I know why the J-6 sounds are so limited... Clever move, Roland.
By ‘clever’ you mean ‘greedy’ right? That’s what Roland’s business decisions are led by in the last 10 years. They could be making new things that people actually want, but instead they keep repackaging their recent digital tech while chasing the ghosts of their old gear. Look at Korg, they’ve been making both fully new concepts (Wavestate etc) and great analog repros of older gear (2600, MS20 etc). Rather than doing sneaky things to resell the same thing over and over, they are offering new and classic products that people want.
@@sub-jec-tiv I don't know how much is greed vs lack of imagination.
They used to aim for the best balance of a) musically-useful innovation, b) practicality and c) improving quality over what was available before.
Now it seems Roland is mainly interested in using it's heritage to sell instruments with the least possible fuss in manufacture. I don't know what bit them, but _something is keeping them meek._
How come I can’t preview steps? When STEP pressed and Rec hit, my Play button doesnt flash when pressing steps. Nothing happens 😢