Roland SH1000 monophonic analog synthesizer demo

Bob Weigel of Sound Doctorin' ( http://www.sounddoctorin.com ) works through some of the circuit design and plays through the variable settings on the Roland SH1000 classic vintage monophonic synthesizer, the first unit shipped from Japan by the Roland Corporation in 1973. This one has the potted modules which were replaced at some point with non-potted circuitry it appears. We scrapped one unit because we had no front panel and many switches were broken etc. I think I'll use the guts to slap into maybe an EP10 of the same year though somehow :-).

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Roland
• SH1000
• monophonic
• analog
• synthesizer
• synth
• demonstration
• technical
• discussion
• lead

[69grunger]

what do they cost is 500 too much

[sounddoctorin]

@69grunger seems to be about the going rate for one that works these days.

[TRaddcliff]

still have it?

do you wanna sell it?

[sounddoctorin]

@TRaddcliff I still have one. It's been a bit of trouble now and then. Some bad connection that I keep thinking I've solved, then it resurfaces! It's setting above the Minikorg and I'm trying to get set up to do this long video shoot through composition thing. Hopefully will get it done this winter then I might think about it since I have an SH3a. I don't know though. I really love some peculiarity about the 1000's sound. I want to get it in some stuff first anyway.

[Mikemaniax]

What does the "Random Note" button do?

[sounddoctorin]

@Mikemaniax As I recall it samples off the NOISE amount to create a sample + hold kind of effect. ie. the noise voltage is essentially 'random' and the more of it you introduce via the noise volume the more the randomization of voltages being sampled with the lfo clock to the Pitch CV.

[PHAEDRIDER]

@sounddoctorin yes, basically a " sample and hold" .. in fact almost the same exact thing. when the noise level is turned down one can actually " play" keys with it on .. but i've found it more fun to just let it spit out its own madness into delay love love love my sh -1000

[sounddoctorin]

Anything can happen of course *but* I think considering their age, the overal service record on these is pretty good. Mostly problems that a novice can trace (intermittent connections) of they do go bad. The switches eg. are in series so if ANY of them fail it'll take out those afterwards as I recall. They must be kept clean. Occasional bad solder joints etc. Probably some electrolytic capacitors fail though most were good in mine. an esr meter reads them on the board. Good tool to have.

[pixusbubblejet]

you look like you have electrical engineering experience.

do you recommend buying SH-1000 if you have absolutely no engineering experience? dont these things need regular maintenence and repair even if they are in good condition? i like real analogs but im worried about maintenance problems

[sounddoctorin]

yeah it's always possible to midi adapt it. I love the way it transitions. In that early simplicity of design lay some really expressive attributes.