Roland SH-1000
The SH-1000, introduced in 1973, was the first instrument produced by Roland, and probably one of the first compact affordable keyboard synthesizers in all of Japan. It was designed to complement a home organ. Above its keyboard is a wooden sheet music stand. Organ-style colored preset selector tabs are located below the keyboard. All the extra parameter controls are located to the left of the keyboard.
The SH-1000 is a monophonic analog synth with a single oscillator feeding a lowpass filter, an ADSR envelope, and two LFOs. It features 10 Preset sounds, but they are pretty weak. Fortunately you can create your own sounds for some really great mono-synth bass, lead, percussion and FX sounds. Basic square, ramp and pulse-width waveforms are available from the oscillator and the LFOs have sine, square and sample+hold. It has a terrific ‘Growl’ and ‘Wow’ effect for a pretty scary analog sound. It also features white noise, pink noise, portamento, octave transposition and a Random Note Generator. Although there is no user memory, unique sounds can still be quickly recreated or discovered thanks to its simple interface.
It’s a dinosaur! But it’s also a classic piece of Roland history. It has been used by Vangelis, Human League, Blondie, The Band, and Jethro Tull. A little later in 1973 the SH-2000 was released with more Preset sounds (up to 30) but far less flexibility, controls and features. This may have been because the SH-1000 was a little confusing to its target demographic at the time. But today’s synthesists will love the unique sound and nostalgia of Japan’s first compact synthesizer!
28 VISITOR COMMENTS
- Specifications
- Polyphony - Monophonic
- Oscillators - 1 VCO (square, ramp and pulse-width)
- LFO - 2 LFOs (sine, square, sample+hold)
- Filter - 1 VCF w/ frequency and cutoff sliders (lowpass)
- VCA - 1 ADSR envelope gen
- Memory - 10 presets
- Keyboard - 37 keys
- Control - CV / Gate
- Date Produced - 1973 - 1981
- Est. Value - $500 - $1,000
- Websites of Interest
- Resources & Credits
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Images from Wikizik SH1000 Page.
Review updated January 2011
Errors or Corrections? Send them here.
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Very raw 70' sound. It can combine several waveforms (but no detunable - it uses frequency divider). Fantastic filter with "grainy" resonance, 2 lfo's, random pitch mode, good sounding portamento - this synth gives you real ability to control the timbre. VERY powerfull basslines. Sounds cool in high registers too!
There are no factory cv/gate inputs and that's probably reason why it's not popular.
As other synths from "gold Roland period" - always good sounding!
http://www.vintagesynth.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=6 5320
i had a similar problem with the whole no sound thing with my sh-1000
turns out it was a contact issue with one of the preset toggles, the contact had eroded in a way which kept that preset selected but did not produce sound. and inhibited the sound production full stop because a preset was "selected" if you follow me. had the contact replaced in 30 mins, no trouble anymore. hope i have helped!