The Roland SH-101 Analog Synthesizer

The Roland SH-101 is a vintage monophonic synth from 1983 that could be used as a standard keyboard or as a keytar with an optional grip handle.

It’s a fairly stripped down synth, offering:

  • 1 VCO with separate levels for saw, square and suboscillator
  • 1 LFO
  • Self-resonant low-pass filter
  • 1 VCA
  • 32 note keyboard with arpeggiator
  • Clock, CV & Gate control voltage jacks

The Roland SH-101 was pre-MIDI and has no patch memory, but has knobs for everything, making it a highly tweakable performance synth. It was made in several colors, including gray, blue and red.

Famous users include Bjork, Vince Clarke, The Cars, Future Sound Of London, Human League, MUno Reactor, Mike Oldfield, Orbital, The Prodigy, and Youth.

Roland SH-101 Resources:

  • Roland SH-101 on WikiPedia
  • Gordon Reid shows how to make a brass lead on the Roland SH-101 at SOS
  • Video demos via DinSync

video via DINSYNC

2 thoughts on “The Roland SH-101 Analog Synthesizer

  1. Nice video's. Still, nothing bad about the so called vintage models; most of them can still pack a usable punch. But when it comes to Roland I'm still in love with the sh201 model. I don't really need one since my DAW can do all I want, but should I ever have some cash to burn its high on my wishlist:
    [youtube zwmiZ-Jai4I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwmiZ-Jai4I youtube]

  2. Nice video's. Still, nothing bad about the so called vintage models; most of them can still pack a usable punch. But when it comes to Roland I'm still in love with the sh201 model. I don't really need one since my DAW can do all I want, but should I ever have some cash to burn its high on my wishlist:
    [youtube zwmiZ-Jai4I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwmiZ-Jai4I youtube]

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