Post
by realtrance » Thu May 06, 2010 4:40 pm
I've always given Roland credit for offering a variety of options at a variety of pricepoints, and this is another one, where little things, like the battery operation, etc. fit it into a slot that will fill someone's needs that something else doesn't.
Having said that, however, it astonishes even me that Roland is so completely sitting on their laurels in terms of basic technology. How hard would it be for them to create oscillators that don't alias at higher frequencies at this point? I can get that on a $3 (US) App on my iPhone. How hard would it be for them to implement even 2 VA voices alongside the PCM synth they're selling? They did that in 1997, it's 14 years on now. I can see the reasons for a battery-powered synth not having an LCD, but how hard would it be for them to even provide an LED at this point, like the SH-32?
It's a synth built by the marketing department, basically, it's as if Roland engineering and music production have all gone on vacation. Maybe it's due to the fact that they have a high-end/low-end audience as well, but it's been a long time since Roland's created something for the market that exists somewhere between the expensive, Fantom/V-Synth etc. category and the SH-toy category. Like, 14 years.
Even I'm getting tired with that fact.