If there was ever a vintage synth company whose name bestowed a certain retro cool on all the instruments that bore its name, it was Roland. Roland instruments formed the initial spark of the analogue revival, and even today, dropping the words Jupiter or Transistor Bass into a conversation with any synth-head remains an effective way of provoking envy. There is no such luck however, for owners of the Roland SH2, a simple but incredibly useful monosynth that has somehow managed to remain overlooked by the vagaries of fashion.

The SH2 was launched alongside its little brother the SH09 in 1978 and their price was pitched to directly compete with Korg’s MS20 and MS10 respectively. In today’s used market though, the SH2 inhabits a strange limbo, priced almost halfway between simple single VCO monos such as the Arp Axxe, Yamaha CS5, Roland SH101 and more complex multi-oscillator designs such as the Sequential Circuits Pro One and Korg MonoPoly. However unlike both of those more complex synths, the SH2 doesn’t exploit the potential of having another oscillator by adding to the feature list and modulation possibilities, frankly a fair description would be that the SH2 was a dual VCO synth that still thinks it’s a single oscillator design. Don’t let that 2 nd oscillator fool you into thinking that the SH2 is a deep synth, this is still pretty much a one of everything synth, one VCF, one ENV, one LFO etc.

I’d love to be able to say that I experienced love at first sight for my SH2, but I can’t. This synth could hardly be considered a looker, having neither the colourful flourishes of a Juno, or the grey clinical charm of an SH101. The SH2 is heavy, black and severe, and even the 1970′s Rollerball style lettering emblazoned across it doesn’t lend it all that much visual appeal. What you do get however, is one well-constructed synth, which is mostly metal, with plastic end cheeks that have a bit of give, so they won’t crack easily. The keyboard is a 3-octave F-F affair that has a nice springy feel, but is perhaps a little shallow. These keys can be a little bit slow for fast phrasing, and they make quite a racket whilst being played. Despite these mixed first impressions, things improve dramatically on powering up the synth and its two LEDs start blinking (yes just two, it’s still not a colourful synth even when it’s switched on). Something that becomes immediately apparent is that this is a very heavy sounding synth, with a classy, almost American sound that’s quite unexpected from a Roland.

The SH2′s oscillators are very stable and thanks to the use of heated chips, are usually good to go within two minutes of power up which is pretty quick for a synth of this vintage. The oscillators themselves offer a strong full-bodied sound with VCO1 providing sine, square, sawtooth and pulse waveforms while VCO2 is almost identical except that it drops the sine wave in favour of a noise waveform. There is no separate noise source on the SH2 as there is on the SH101 or Juno. The range of both oscillators varies from between 32′ to 2′, which offers plenty of range, but it’s a bit of a shame that there’s no proper octave switching. The two main VCOs are supported by a simple sub-oscillator tied to VCO1 that offers a square wave one octave below. Critics have noted that that this isn’t as versatile as the sub-osc on the SH101 or SH09, but then, on a dual VCO synth, why would you need it to be?

Special mention must be made of the PWM, which is amongst the nicest sounding I’ve heard from any synth. You also have that old thickening trick of LFO modulation of pulse width, which creates a lovely wall of sound. You can also control PWM manually or from the envelope, a feature sorely missed from the likes of the Juno 106. It’s a shame that you’re unable to set up different PWM values on each oscillator, which would have made for some interesting composites, but you can’t have everything.

The oscillator section has a few useful features such as variable auto-bend which offers a bit of front-end interest to a note, and helps to compensate for the SH2′s rather boring linear portamento. Another interesting feature is the ability to turn the bender’s effect on VCO1 off, so bender movements will only affect VCO2. Of course almost all dual VCO synths can bend oscillators against each other, but it’s usually from a knob or a slider, and even then, getting a VCO’s pitch back to the fundamental during a performance could be risky. The speed of the SH2′s bends would be impossible from a knob or slider, so these fast detunes can create some wonderful twangy sound effects.

The tuning knobs in the oscillator section are small and stiff, but at least they are stable unlike the Jupiter 4′s tuning knob. Sweeping these knobs for detuning effects isn’t really viable during performance. It’s clear from their design that these knobs were meant to be set up at the start of the session, and then left alone. One curious feature that isn’t listed in the manual, and might well just be a quirk of my machine, is that switching VCO2′s tuning range from narrow to wide, changes the oscillator’s tuning from the fundamental pitch to a perfect fifth instantly. What this means in practice is that you can go from straight lead sounds to spacious perfect fifths at the flick of a switch. Of course almost any dual oscillator synth is capable of this type of detuning, but so quickly and so accurately? This may be unique to my SH2, but it makes detuning during performance fast and fun, and I like it so much I’m almost scared to find out whether it’s a quirk!

Something that becomes immediately apparent is that this is a very heavy sounding synth, with a classy, almost American sound that’s quite unexpected from a Roland.

The filter of the SH2 is where most of the synth’s critics seem to feel it fails; I however just feel that they are expecting the wrong thing. Make no mistake about it, the SH2 is a distinctly 70′s sounding synth and although it can attain acidic sounds so beloved in dance music, this is not its natural territory. Strangely for Roland, a company whose smaller synths are noted and loved for their cheesy, bleepy sounds, the SH2′s filter has somehow had a little bit of Moog class rubbed off on it. It is a strong sounding 24db filter that easily reaches self-oscillation, but unlike other Roland filters, it is not idiot-proof, frankly it requires some care. The filter is naturally aggressive, and unlike the happy characters of the SH101 or Juno, the SH2 has no trouble growling. If your seeking the kind of sound that Roland are most famous for, then my guess is that you’ll spend most of your time trying to tame the filter. All the filter features that you would expect are there, including variable key-tracking and LFO modulation, but more unusually, there is also negative enveloping of the filter, which is lovely for ambient and spooky timbres.

Critics of the SH2′s filter have noted that, like many other synths of the era, the SH2′s resonance can kill off the bass pretty damn quickly. That is not to say that the SH2 can’t maintain a decent low end when using high-rez settings – it can, it just requires careful programming, forward planning, and a knowledge of where you will be taking the filter during the performance. I should also mention that there is also an external input to the filter, which includes a variable envelope follower for interesting movement. Okay, I’ll concede that a single filter input and not much else, isn’t quite as exciting as the MonoPoly’s many back panel interfacing options, but it’s still very inspirational to experiment with external treatments from this dirty 70′s sounding filter.

The envelopes of Roland’s monosynths are well regarded for their ability to provide snappy responses so desired by those seeking strong analogue bass. I can confirm in this respect the SH2 doesn’t disappoint though it has to be said that that the attack speed falls someway short of the likes of the SH101 or Juno 60. An appropriate adjective for the SH2′s envelopes might well be “bonky” as opposed to the “razor-sharp” 101 response. I’ve always felt extremely tight attack times to be a bit overrated, though people do tend to obsess about them. I don’t think that many people would be disappointed with the SH2′s envelopes, though, those seeking a monosynth to make percussive effects as food for their sampler would probably be better served by a Pro One or SH101. The manual quotes the SH2′s attack time as 1mS, which is the same as the quoted time for my Bassstation, and I can confirm that they do feel like similar envelope responses, though the oscillator power of the SH2 is streets ahead of course. One could argue with Roland’s decision to leave the SH2 as a single envelope design, but at least you are given a full set of options on how you use that envelope, with gating of the VCA to free up the ENV to allow for less conventional filter shapes as well as negative enveloping and LFO triggering of the envelope. Like all these old Rolands, the SH2 makes the best of what it has.

This synth is a consummate bass provider, and is packed full of heavy but direct sounds.

The LFO is pretty standard for its time with decent routing. Sine, Square and S&H waveforms are included, and although there is no trigger as on the Juno or SH101, there is an LFO delay usable on the sine wave only. This isn’t great but it’s better than nothing. The LFO is good enough I guess but I feel that Roland missed a trick by not incorporating the superior LFO from that contemporary of the SH2, the Jupiter 4. The Jupiter 4′s LFO varied from almost imperceptibly slow speeds to audible ranges for frequency modulation. The addition of FM could have made the SH2 a far more desirable monosynth than it currently is, with a far wider range of sounds.

So that’s what it has, but what can it do? Well, this synth is a consummate bass provider, and is packed full of heavy but direct sounds. Amazingly, the SH2 can get very close to certain classic Minimoog basses. Although it might have trouble fooling an experienced user, potential buyers of 2-osc Moogs such as the Rogue or Prodigy should know that the SH2 could give them very similar sounds, whilst also providing many of the Roland staples. The SH2 can do very convincing static 101/303 sounds, though any drastic filter movements tends to reveal the true source, the hi-rez sounds, while not quite as acidic as the 101, are a good deal fatter and tougher.

I’ve read some criticism of the SH2′s lead sounds as “scratchy”. I disagree, but I can fully understand the comment. The SH2 is not a natural lead machine and though good leads are in there, the sweet spots are far less common than the likes of the Pro One or even an Alpha Juno. Normally I would say to someone who complains about lead programming on a monosynth to blame the programmer, not the synth, but I have to concede – it can be a struggle to maintain finesse with SH2 leads. As always, a bit of careful programming and forward planning goes a long way. Leads that the SH2 does seem to excel at however, include slightly pitch-modulated woodwind (think Boards of Canada) and growly mid range Moog leads (think Daft Punk’s Da Funk). The SH2′s dual-oscillators can be put to good use in producing chorused or heavily detuned pads, which can sound as smooth or as heavy as you choose. One of my favourite things to do is to use a languid evolving pad to hold open the VCA while pumping drum loops through the filter. The results can be so huge as to potentially form the basis for an entire mix.

Final Word
I can understand why the SH2 remains one of Roland’s forgotten synths; it is a little indistinct. It doesn’t capture that classic (perhaps clichéd?) Roland acid sound as well as the Juno or SH101, it lacks the class and colour of the Jupiters, the anorak appeal of the SH5 or the self-contained pleasures of the X0X boxes. Yet this is still a very useful synth and shouldn’t be overlooked by anyone seeking out a low priced, high quality workhorse mono, it’s certainly a more serious proposition than its little brothers the SH09 and SH101. OK, admittedly, the SH2 lacks the programming potential of the likes of the Pro One and MonoPoly, but you’d have to pay a bit more for those instruments, and even then I doubt that even those synths could provide the kind of simple direct bass sounds on offer here. I would guess another reason for the SH2′s lack of popularity, quite apart from its relative rarity, is that those in the know play them, enjoy them, don’t make a big deal about them and would never dream of letting them go. I would also hazard a guess that more than a few artists with aspirations of a Minimoog keep an SH2 around to give them some of the best impressions in the business. All I know that I’ll be keeping my SH2 around for it’s heavy bass, I love how it sounds, and who knows maybe one day I’ll even start to love how it looks.

-Araby

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