Roland SH-101 (Wall Mounted, Bad Paint Job)

Brand: Roland
Model: SH-101
Link: http://www.vintagesynth.com/roland/sh101.shtml

BLURB:
This is my oldest synth!!! It was the second synth I purchased.
The custom paint job was allegedly done by FRANKIE KNUCKLES (!!!) during the early 90s at a bush rave (Doof) near Byron Bay – back in the day when “Raves” and glow sticks were cool. This horrible paint job also acts as insurance…no-one wants to steal it.

PROS:
It’s AWESOME. Most Angelspit tracks have the SH-101 chugging away (panned dead centre). Low and fat. The SH-101’s single oscillator (and sub-oscillator) produce a simple, clean and defined sound that make a solid and thumping bass. We always layer the bass with more sounds, but EQ out everything under 100Hz – this is so the low frequencies are free for the SH-101 to dominate.
We used it live when we toured in Australia, USA and parts of Europe in 2007/2008 – it’s built really well.

CONS:
It has a weird quantisation happening when you send it portamento information via MIDI->CV converters. It does not produce a smooth note/glide response.

HINT:
1) Add a little compression (preferably analogue) and this synths with THUMP! It also responds beautifully to analogue distortion.

2) Need more studio space? Mount the SH-101 on it’s side!! As you can see, we’ve mounted our SH-101 on the side of our modular.The SH-101 is very light, plus we don’t need to access it that often, so it makes sense to side-mount it.

3) DO NOT MIX DRUGS, PAINT AND ANALOGUE SYNTHS! Terrible things happen.
…who the hell puts UV-Reactive dinosaurs on a classic mono..??!!