roland

One Random Note: Roland SH1000

Josie performs a one-note jam on a Roland SH1000 courtesy of our friend Merce the cat. Here are some more detailed photos.

The SH1000 was perhaps Roland’s first keyboard synthesizer. It had a single oscillator and filter, along with an ADSR, two LFOs, and separate noise sources. It’s look is more like an electric organ and demonstrates the conceptual bridge between these instruments, even if their architecture and playing techniques are quite different. As our feline friend demonstrates, it is particularly good for drones or unique bass tones.

[The SH-1000] 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.

http://www.vintagesynth.com/roland/sh1000.php

It also paved the way for later classics like the SH1 and SH101.

CatSynth Pic: Ed and PJ (Roland Boutiques)

Ed and PJ faithfully guard the kit of Pete Dolan. (Photo submitted via our Facebook page.)

we see three Roland Boutiques on the shelf, along with the original boxes arranged in a colorful pattern. Among them is the JP-08 that we have here at HQ. Two of the keyboards are (wisely) under dust covers, and the identity of the third is left as an exercise to the reader.

You can see our many posts featuring the Roland Boutiques here.

#808Day and #WorldCatDay

Today is both 808 Day – after the Roland TR-808 drum machine – and World Cat Day. As a bonus, the date works in both American and international formats. Is there a greater confluence of this blog’s core themes than this date? 😸 🎹

The picture above was from an old Reddit post. We have featured a few cats with the TR-808’s successor, the TR-8, such as this post from 2017, courtesy of adrianhalo on Instagram.

They have a very different look – the TR-8 was part of Roland’s AIRA series with the glowing controls. The sound and technology is also different, but both instruments have found their way into a great variety of music.

CatSynth Pic: Coco and TR-09

Coco gets ready to program her Roland TR-09 drum machine. Submitted by Daniel Warner via our Facebook page.

The TR-09 is a recreation of the Roland TR-909 as part of the Boutique series. It has the original controls and layout of the “909”, but in the Boutique form factor; plus some modern additions like USB.

You can see Coco’s previous appearance on CatSynth here.

CatSynth Pic: Roland JD-Xi

Beautiful white cat with Roland JD-Xi synthesizer. Submitted by André Luiz via our Facebook page.

The JD-Xi is a small affordable synth that includes analog modeling, PCM-based sounds, and a vocoder. It seems in some ways similar to a couple of the Boutique line, though its interface is closer to that of the AIRA line. We at CatSynth are particularly curious about the vocoder features…

CatSynth Video: Drum Machines, MicroBrute, Kaoss Pad and more

This has to be one of the sweetest things we have seen in a long time! From our friend Kamal Sabran via Facebook. We see a young man and young cat, who clearly love one another, playing a drum machine. There is also an Arturia MicroBrute, a Korg Kaoss Pad, and some cool retro devices including a reel-to-reel tape recorder and analog oscilloscope.