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Roland SH32 Synthesizer

4-part multi-timbral. 32 voices.

Overall User Ratings

Overall:
           9 out of 10
Features:
           9 out of 10
Quality:
           9 out of 10
Value:
           9 out of 10
I Want It:
           9 out of 10
Sound:
           9 out of 10
Ease of Use:
           0 out of 10
Support:
           9 out of 10
 
 

Roland SH32 SynthesizerCustomer Review

Overall:
          10 out of 10
Features:
          10 out of 10
Quality:
          10 out of 10
Value:
          10 out of 10
I Want It:
          7 out of 10
Sound:
          10 out of 10
User: a customer from aol.com
Submitted: 3/20/2004
Style of Music: Experimental, Sound Track, Rock, Techno, Jazz, Spoken Word
Location: San Rafael, CA, USA

 

 
Feature:
There is nothing here I would demand, again, at the low price. I think you get much more than what you pay for.

Quality:
It seems very well built, and I have no reason to assume that it should not work as designed. The appearance of it either looks a bit retro, or a bit dated, depending on your point of view. The knobs all seem decently robust, and the sliders feel a bit thin and fragile, but nothing feels like it will break off in your fingers. Again, at $200, well above par.

Value:
$200? Game over...

Desirability:
Not really concerned about the looks at this price. And in all honesty, the look at any price...

Sound:
This is my first ever hardware synth. I have been using high powered software for several years - Reason, Reaktor, Tassman, Absynth, etc. -so I cannot compare it to much more expensive units, but at the price I paid for it, $200, I feel like I am getting away with something. If your first impression of this unit is via headphones, you will be a bit let down, as I think they cut some corners there to keep the price so low, but as soon as you plug it into a better amplifier and speakers, that
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"Fantastic value, fantastic sound"

Overall:
          10 out of 10
Features:
          8 out of 10
Quality:
          10 out of 10
Value:
          10 out of 10
I Want It:
          10 out of 10
User: East Coast
Submitted: 3/6/2002
Style of Music: Brilliant
Location: USA

 

 
Truly a unique little (emphasis on little -- this is a miracle of compactness!) synth. Excellent, rugged design. Waveform variations for all the classic analogue synth waves plus spectrum and noise provides a _huge_ VA sound palette. 35 built-in efx in Insert effects unit, plenty of reverb, delay and chorus variations in Send efx unit _plus_ ability to route 'em parallel or serial. Classic Roland synth filter (does it self-resonate? hell yeah, screams like a banshee!), JP8K-style env control with sliders, smooooth oscillators (NO they are not multi-samples, don't care what FUD others are spreading, they're wrong), incredible glitch and industrial capability with noise and spectrum oscs, sub-osc for massive bottom end, arpeggiator is fully editable with 88 factory styles, all replaceable, really a full-scale 32-step step sequencer, all incredibly easy to use. Fantastic built-in TR808-style drum machine to boot, full drum sequencing abilities alongside synth engine with NO load on the latter.

Just amazing, check this one out!
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Roland SH32 SynthesizerCustomer Review

Overall:
          10 out of 10
Features:
          10 out of 10
Quality:
          10 out of 10
Value:
          10 out of 10
I Want It:
          10 out of 10
User: a customer from aol.com
Submitted: 4/8/2002
Style of Music: Future Funk
Location: San Francisco

 

 
The Filters are excellant/ aggressive. The Oscillators have many variations of each saw, square...so you are not stuck with one synth sound. It has this funky chord memory function that allows you to play comlpex chords with one finger. Easy to program. I have alot of synths, but this one is the most fun.
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"most amazing synth i own"

Overall:
          10 out of 10
Features:
          10 out of 10
Quality:
          10 out of 10
Value:
          10 out of 10
I Want It:
          10 out of 10
User: a customer from yahoo.com
Submitted: 8/29/2002
Style of Music: Trance
Location: Santa Barbara

 

 
zZounds has verified that this customer bought this product from us.
This unit has amazing quiality sound, its not very difficult to use, and it even has usable presets. By far the best synth i own, a deffinate recomendation.
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"Flawed - but cheap!"

Overall:
          8 out of 10
Features:
          9 out of 10
Quality:
          7 out of 10
Value:
          10 out of 10
Sound:
          9 out of 10
Submitted: 3/3/2004

 

 
Feature:
For the price, this little box offers more features than you can get anywhere else. It's too bad that you can't hook up a modulating pedal, and the modulation routings (esp. for mod wheel, aftertouch, etc) are severely limited. None the less, it is packed to the gills. The arpeggiator is fantastic.

Quality:
There are many bugs in the system that it doesn't look like Roland is going to fix. For example: using the LFO to modulate the panning results in an audible (and unpleasant) distortion; the DACs overload easily when the volume is turned up; the portamento will only glide up two octaves (any note higher than that will sound the same pitch)but will glide down indefinitely, etc. The unit didn't sell that well, so I don't think they're going to fix these particular bugs.

Value:
For the money? You can't beat it.

Sound:
The actual sounds you can produce with the unit are really superb. If you tweak everything correctly, you can get really fat analog pads, trippy sound effects, crunchy basses, etc. The effects section is especially helpful in this respect. Too bad it only has two effects!

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"Wow, awesome sound"

Overall:
          10 out of 10
Features:
          10 out of 10
Quality:
          10 out of 10
Value:
          10 out of 10
I Want It:
          10 out of 10
User: a customer from yahoo.com
Submitted: 3/24/2002
Style of Music: Trance/dream trance/epic trance... Trance.
Location: Santa Barbara

 

 
zZounds has verified that this customer bought this product from us.
I just got back from a local music store where i had the chance to play with the SH-32, and all i have to say is, wow. This thing has a great sound. I was very impressed with the demo, It had a great trancy sounding part to it. When i get the money. I'm getting this synth.
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"Impressive features in a small package"

Overall:
          8 out of 10
Features:
          8 out of 10
Quality:
          10 out of 10
Value:
          6 out of 10
I Want It:
          6 out of 10
Submitted: 11/26/2002

 

 
User interface can be a little intimidating given that depending on the particular mode, any given button, dial or combination of them might have a totally different function.

Sounds are a little "thin", i.e., not much punch in the low end, so I wouldn't recommend looking for sounds that will rattle your fillings.

Aside from a few minor limitations this is a great desktop synth. List price is a little on the high side, so shopping around for the best street price is highly recommended.
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"Sounds fat!"

Overall:
          9 out of 10
Quality:
          10 out of 10
I Want It:
          8 out of 10
User: a customer from netscape.net
Submitted: 4/29/2002
Style of Music: Trance, D&B, Electronica
Location: Detroit Michigan

 

 
zZounds has verified that this customer bought this product from us.
It has that sub-osc. and with the dozens of waveforms provides for some major sound manipulation. Interface is confusing as hell but that is what a manual is for. Very tweakable and can sound pretty far-out. Arp sounded pretty nice too.
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"a misunderstood arp odyssey. A+ for design effort."

Overall:
          8 out of 10
Features:
          9 out of 10
Quality:
          9 out of 10
Value:
          10 out of 10
I Want It:
          9 out of 10
Sound:
          8 out of 10
Support:
          8 out of 10
User: a customer from yahoo.com
Submitted: 8/18/2004
Style of Music: ambient
Location: Mass

 

 
zZounds has verified that this customer bought this product from us.
Feature:
would have got a ten if it had a step sequencer.

Quality:
seems sturdy. replace the wall wart with a micro adapter from radio shack.

Value:
absolutely the best synth under 200 bucks. the only thing in the price range is the darkstar xp2, but if you don't mind the thin reedy sounds like arp, there is no comparison in terms of ability to make strange sounds. (and techno too if you are boring)

Desirability:
i just bought a second one.

Sound:
too tricky for djs? too techno for synth guys? think of this as a small arp odyssey as your starting point.

Support:
pretty helpful. 12 bucks for a manual is a bit steep for this unit, though.

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