Roland SH-09

Roland SH-09 Image

It's not great, but it ain't bad! A very stripped down monosynth from Roland's classic SH-series. Its single oscillator only has PWM, ramp, square and noise waveforms. It has a similar architecture to the SH-101, the VCA can switch between gate or envelope, the VCF is pretty standard, and there is a sample-hold function which is great for voltage controlled filtering into acid and back! Another cool feature is its external input which will allow you to filter external audio through its VCF. Because they are pretty old now they will most likely have some functional problems like sticky keys, and noisy knobs and signal. It is used by Orbital, Vince Clarke, BT, Conemelt, Josh Wink, Banco De Gaia, Mr. Oizo, Ladytron, Jimmy Edgar, Dave Holmes, Freddy Fresh, OMD, and 808 State.

Roland SH-09 Image

46 Visitor comments
Kenny
July 22, 2009 @ 1:10 pm
Wicked machine! Totally reliable, solidly built.. I also have a 101 and I think the only thing that makes the 101 over the 09 is the features - sequencer, arpeg, etc- In terms of sounds it's limited but does what it does very well. I would always head to the 09 instead of the 101 for those deep warm basses.
Yes, probably over priced these days (picked mine up for £100 over 10 years ago)
Also a great introduction synth for budding sound designers. You can quickly get a feel for and learn what each control does and as there are few controls the un-initiated don't get too lost :-)
Micke
July 2, 2009 @ 2:21 pm
Also used by Dave Stewart/Eurythmics, Boris Blank/Yello, The Sound,
Cabaret Voltaire, Vangelis and Fabrice Quagliotti of Les Rockets.
Papasolly
June 17, 2009 @ 3:16 pm
Saw Brian Coogan (NOLA) using it this weekend in conjunction with a nord electro. Had an amazing range of bass tones.
daan
June 3, 2009 @ 4:42 pm
this thing is just too freakin' groovy 'n funky.
most fat basses i've ever heard coming out of a synth.
Michael Dow/Portasound
February 23, 2009 @ 5:44 pm
One of my mates gave me his a few years ago. All i paid for was the postage, and what an absolute gem he gave me. We use it in our tracks (Portasound) and live on stage, i've used it for leads and basses in dance/techno tracks. and ive hooked it up to my tb303 on stage and had it playing the sequence along all hooked up to midi.

It's a truly awesome synth, and many of my mates have told me it's warmer than an sh-101 (ive not used one to compare). But ill agree anyway. I bloody love it!

Buy one if you can! I'm sure you wont regret it....

Oh and one last thing... EXTERNAL AUDIO INPUT!!!! Very fun to play with, i've been running electric and bass guitars through it for some great effects. I even ran myself playing halo 3 into it with the filter LFO going through that sweet analog filter

Lovely
 
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  • Demos & Media

  • YouTube Thumbnail
    Video 1     - Roland SH-09 Analog Synthesizer

    YouTube Thumbnail
    Video 2     - Roland SH-09 - demo by WC Olo Garb

    Audio Clip 1 - Demo basslines for techno/house styles, from the Future Music CD, issue 53.

    Manual - Roland has made manuals for most of their products available as free PDF downloads.

  • Specifications
  • Polyphony - Monophonic
  • Oscillators - 1 VCO with selectable ramp, PWM, noise or square waveforms
  • LFO - switchable sine, square or random waveforms
  • Filter - cutoff/res/env
  • VCA - ADSR
  • Arpeg/Seq - NO
  • Keyboard - 32 keys
  • Control - CV / Gate
  • Date Produced - 1980

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