New in a box, ladies and gentlemen is an early 2000's Roland SH-201. Just pulled it out after finding a review from a guy who specializes in really bad keyboards.


He's RIGHT!

Another piece of equipment I bought (From George Kaye) and never plugged in...until today.


UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Look them up.

Then have a big laugh on me!


R.

Well, I just watched some demos briefly, also read 3 good reviews from “ordinary people”; as I see it when it comes to synths, it’s hard to judge what’s good and what’s bad as they give you their unique sound, how to apply this sound then it’s another story. Also, I think, it’s hard to focus on different areas; for example, to play some jazz or bossa and then to create some EDM music or to work with synthesizers. As we agree that there are dozens kinds of medical doctors, somehow we expect a musician to perform everything.

It‘s a purely electronic sounds synth. I‘ve never been interested in synths that don‘t focus on acoustic instruments, so even though I‘ve been a Roland fan for many years, I‘ve never heard of this one.

In fairness, I’ve never given much time of the day to other people’s opinions about keyboards. It either blows MY skirt up or it doesn’t..!

But then again, I’ve never made a keyboard purchase without extensive research and hands-on time. Well, apart from my current BK-9, which I bought sight unseen. But as a direct successor to my G70, I knew the bones were good, even if the skin had changed (getting used to no touchscreen took a while!).

I honestly think, unless you are a hardware junkie or need an analog type synth for live gigging, software synths offer amazingly close to analog sounds at a fraction of the price. For the same price of an analog Prophet 5 or a few Eurorack modules, you can load your computer with almost every high end software synth there is! Plus that huge (depending on your monitor) display area certainly makes understanding and controlling the signal path much easier to visualize.

There’s a reason we moved away from Polymoog’s and OB-Xa’s. If the current generation of kids wants to find out why for themselves, who are we to tell them?! 😂

Sometimes, I enjoy laughing at myself for all the old junkers I've collected.

In fairness, I only plugged the damn thing in once.

OH, Well...


R.

Gifted my old DX7 to a friend recently. Had sat in the flight case untouched for at least 20 years! The foam had all rotted, and the battery (he tells me) is dead, hopefully he can get it running.

Now I’ve only got three or four more dinosaurs to pass on!

Got me an old DX-7, TOO! Man, when it was new, I thought I was "DA MAN"!

Good times back then....at least what I REMEMBER was GREAAAAAT!

Diki, we need to spend a day or so reminiscing!


R.

We might need a bit more than just one day! 🤪