Roland SH-201 vs. JP-8000
- Thread starter Kojak
- Start date
mome rath said:tee hee some crazy lady on KSS did the same thing in one of her threads that she was getting crapped on
she signed in as a new member claiming to know the lady personally and said how awesome she is and how awesome all her crappy gear was ... only problem was that she typed exactly like the she did in her other posts, leaving no spaces after any punctuation and spelling things incorrectly
She never came back after that.WHY DO YOU HATE WOMEN???OK!!
C
Cruel Hoax
Guest
Here are some ideas for the original poster. I own a V-Synth and use the VA engine. I do not own an SH-201. I have played a JP-8000 fairly extensively (though in a rock/industrial context, not trance, which I do not make.)
The VA engine of the V-Synth sounds pretty good.
Pros: separate triangle and sine waveforms; feedback and crossmod oscs; supersaw (I guess), COSM blocks, 8x16 mod matrix, separate envelopes for each oscillator as well as for filter and Master volume envelope; layout is straightforward and easy to tweak, variable Structures, osc sync, smooth random LFO shape available, quad Step Modulator mini-sequencer, ability to realtime-record into arpeggiator, decent Multifex.
Cons: Zipper noise when tweaking; aliasing in upper registers; Hi-quality oscs drop aliasing but are not free-running; only one LFO for each osc; interface relies too much on touchscreen, no vocoder.
The sound can be quite aggressive when programmed well, and the COSM effects integrate well (using a comb filter to fade in an upper octave, controllable realtime, for example). Often, the interaction between apparently simple component parts can yield very satisfying complexity (using a feedback osc as the controller in a crossmod setup produces nice harmonic changes as you change the harmonic content of the fdbk osc, whether via LFO, aftertouch, etc.)
The SH201 seems to eliminate a lot of the quirks of the V-Synth's architecture, while simultaneously addressing a couple of its shortcomings. The SH dispenses with the variable Structures, crossmod and COSM blocks in favor of a set structure with variable filters. Understandable. It does away with the display (good design decision) but retains some commands as obscure button-presses: "to set a split point, hold the Cancel button and press the Tap button. Then press a key while holding the Dual/Split button, then press the Cancel button again." Hmm.
It has few onboard presets, and I'm really conflicted about that. On the one hand, I can generally get where I'm going on my analog synths without too much time spent tweaking, and I think it's a good idea to have various "archetypal" presets from which you can select and tweak into place realtime. It's more than I could do with my CS-15, and I got to be super-fast with recreating patches when I was using it regularly. Did me a world of good. On the other hand, I like to save presets that I use on each song, so that later if I think (upon listening) that "that bass part is great, but needs a touch more chorusing," I can recall it, tweak it a bit and rerecord. Can't do this on the SH without a computer, but -for me- it wouldn't be a deal-killer. Might be for you, though.
Pros: Simple, knob-per function interface, much of V-Synth engine included, Mix knob, rather than dual osc. level controls, nice arpeggiator, two LFOs globally, rather than being limited to the V's single oscillator LFO, single filter LFO, etc.
Cons: No crossmod osc, use of Cancel key as "Shift" key is cryptic and counterintuitive, Mix knob, rather than dual osc. level controls, no COSM or MFX blocks, wall wart power supply, poor keybed.
Hope this raises the signal-to-noise level in this thread a bit. More, hope it helps you make the right choice for you.
-Hoax
The VA engine of the V-Synth sounds pretty good.
Pros: separate triangle and sine waveforms; feedback and crossmod oscs; supersaw (I guess), COSM blocks, 8x16 mod matrix, separate envelopes for each oscillator as well as for filter and Master volume envelope; layout is straightforward and easy to tweak, variable Structures, osc sync, smooth random LFO shape available, quad Step Modulator mini-sequencer, ability to realtime-record into arpeggiator, decent Multifex.
Cons: Zipper noise when tweaking; aliasing in upper registers; Hi-quality oscs drop aliasing but are not free-running; only one LFO for each osc; interface relies too much on touchscreen, no vocoder.
The sound can be quite aggressive when programmed well, and the COSM effects integrate well (using a comb filter to fade in an upper octave, controllable realtime, for example). Often, the interaction between apparently simple component parts can yield very satisfying complexity (using a feedback osc as the controller in a crossmod setup produces nice harmonic changes as you change the harmonic content of the fdbk osc, whether via LFO, aftertouch, etc.)
The SH201 seems to eliminate a lot of the quirks of the V-Synth's architecture, while simultaneously addressing a couple of its shortcomings. The SH dispenses with the variable Structures, crossmod and COSM blocks in favor of a set structure with variable filters. Understandable. It does away with the display (good design decision) but retains some commands as obscure button-presses: "to set a split point, hold the Cancel button and press the Tap button. Then press a key while holding the Dual/Split button, then press the Cancel button again." Hmm.
It has few onboard presets, and I'm really conflicted about that. On the one hand, I can generally get where I'm going on my analog synths without too much time spent tweaking, and I think it's a good idea to have various "archetypal" presets from which you can select and tweak into place realtime. It's more than I could do with my CS-15, and I got to be super-fast with recreating patches when I was using it regularly. Did me a world of good. On the other hand, I like to save presets that I use on each song, so that later if I think (upon listening) that "that bass part is great, but needs a touch more chorusing," I can recall it, tweak it a bit and rerecord. Can't do this on the SH without a computer, but -for me- it wouldn't be a deal-killer. Might be for you, though.
Pros: Simple, knob-per function interface, much of V-Synth engine included, Mix knob, rather than dual osc. level controls, nice arpeggiator, two LFOs globally, rather than being limited to the V's single oscillator LFO, single filter LFO, etc.
Cons: No crossmod osc, use of Cancel key as "Shift" key is cryptic and counterintuitive, Mix knob, rather than dual osc. level controls, no COSM or MFX blocks, wall wart power supply, poor keybed.
Hope this raises the signal-to-noise level in this thread a bit. More, hope it helps you make the right choice for you.
-Hoax
I've had the JP8000 for about 8 years also. Amazing keyboard, right from when I used to do techno stuff to now. I don't use it as much for hiphop but it still has great sounds, and is a good learning tool for figuring out how to work LFOs and stuff like that. You can make some pretty amazing sounds with it. As for VSTs, there was a JP8000 vsti that i came across about 4 years ago that worked great, had an identical layout and similar sounds. I'm sorry I can't remember what it was called, but it was freeware at the time so perhaps you can still find one floating around if you search hard enough.
For what the used Jp8k's go for I would pick one up.
For what the used Jp8k's go for I would pick one up.