On the contrary, the sound that this thing can belt out can be really quite astonishing. The sound and timing of patches suffered too much for my liking. So much so that early on I canceled the idea of making performance mode patches. LFO and envelope rates are relatively slow and running the synth in performance mode only compounds this issue. The box clearly lacks DSP resources… It is common to hear parameter stepping when adjusting controls. Anyone who owns one will know it’s not the smoothest of operators. It had 4 part multi-timbrality, drum kits, an arpeggiator and step sequencer, PWM, oscillator sync, FX and more waveforms, it seemed a great idea.ĭespite the feature list, listening to a SH-32 confirmed that this wasn’t a typical VA.
WASG promised to offer a VA type synth with more generous polyphony than a lot of the competition (32 notes single/16 notes dual oscillator), and still have many of their features. Roland coined an interesting acronym, WASG (Wave Acceleration Synthesis Generator!) a bit of a mouthful… When the SH-32 was released, the marketing appealed to those who wanted a VA synthesiser, but were put off by higher prices and polyphony limitations. The flip side to these capabilities was a heavier burden on DSP resources, resulting in limited polyphony compared with a traditional sample based synth design. Typically this included PWM (pulse width modulation), oscillator sync, modelled filters, faster modulation rates etc. They also posessed synth functions not seen on other digital synths. It’s generally assumed that VA synths mathematically generate their waveforms in realtime or use some form of look up wavetable system. In many ways the SH-32 sat between 2 synth design paradigms on one hand it sounded similar to a virtual analog (VA) synth, on the other it had much in common with sample based modules ( romplers/S&S).īoth synthesis techniques are digital, but due to their sound generation method, are suited for different tasks. The JP-8080 on the other hand has a rawer tone, more synthesis functions and more high end. I drew some parallels with my XV-5080 and JP-8080, but the XV sounded way more polished and hi-fi, with masses of options.
It sounded similar (but not the same) to a few other pieces of Roland gear I had experience with. I’ll admit at first I didn’t really “get it”. With all the front panel controls and a small footprint I was inquisitive to its capabilities.
I picked one up on the cheap as I thought it would be an interesting addition. Years later, in timeless Roland tradition, it began to gain my attention. I’d been rather busy with other synths at the time and I didn’t see much reason for me to justify ownership. The SH-32 was one of those synths that passed me by on release. I’m pleased to announce the release of my latest soundset – Shapeshifta for the Roland SH-32.
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