Roland SH-101

The Roland SH-101 is a monophonic analog synthesizer with a 2 ½ octave 32-note (F-C) keyboard that comes in a very light plastic casing. The SH-101 was originally designed as a strap-on analog synth with an optional modulation attachment that would stick out the way a guitar neck does making it ideal for live performance using the Hand Grip. With the ability to run on batteries, the SH-101 was made in several exciting colors, including red, gray, and blue, and was originally made a pre-MIDI with CV (1 volt/octave cv) and gate inputs found in the rear.

SH-101 is especially cool for techno, ACID, and drum & bass with its sound lying somewhere in between a JUNO bass sound and a TB-303 sound. Even though the features are simple, they are very cool and unique only to the SH-101. It doesn’t have patch memory but features knobs which can be used to control everything, thus making it a very tweakable performance analog synth.

As mentioned, the SH-101 is a pre-MIDI but there are upgrades which can be bought from several analog companies that will allow the user to use the machine in any MIDI studio environment. A CV/MIDI converter can also be used to control it, creating great bass sounds and unique bubbly analog effects.

The SH-101 further features one Voltage Controlled Oscillator with separate levels for all waveforms – square, saw, pulse, sub-oscillator and Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). The PWM can actually be set at a single level or controlled by the LFO or Envelope Generator. The VCF is self-oscillating meaning it can be modulated using the envelop generator, keyboard tracking and LFO. The Envelope Generator is ADSR hence can be triggered by LFO or the gate. LFO on the other hand can be set on square, triangle, noise, and random (sample-and-hold).

The pitch bender is where the LFO, pitch, or VCF can all be controlled individually or together. It has a white noise generator. The LFO creates sine, random, noise, or square wave forms and the characteristic elastic band sound is created by auto or normal portamento effects. The SH-101 further features a simple real-time sequencer, and an arpeggiator with up/down and up/down patterns. There are external clock inputs for the arpeggiator and sequencer, CV/GATE inputs and outputs, and a CV hold panel.

Coming from the early 80s, more specifically in 1983, the Roland SH-101 can be termed as a vintage monophonic analog synthesizer which has the ability to function as a keytar thanks to the optional grip handle, and can also function as a standard keyboard. As mentioned above, it is somewhat a stripped down analog synth.

The SH-101 has been used by famous people MUno Reactor, The Cars, the Human League, Future Sound of London, Vince Clarke, Bjork, Mike Oldfield, Youth, The Prodigy, and Orbital, Coldcut, Sabres Of Paradise, Plastikman, ProtoType 909, Astral Projection, Jimmy Edgar, Aphex Twin, Underworld, Taylor 808, Jedi Knights, Freddy Fresh, LFO, among many more.