Roland SH-4d - Brutally honest thoughts on a fun synth

I've had the @rolandglobal SH-4d for about a month now. Giving my honest thoughts on this tabletop synthesizer, who I think it's for, and the problems that I see in its design.

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Chapters:
00:00 Introductions
00:29 Pros first ... Lots of sounds!
01:31 It's a bit confusing
01:56 Filter and other things
02:44 A little more context
03:26 The Rhythm section
04:21 Playing a couple beats I made
05:01 Running on a battery, without an indicator
05:41 It's great as a tone box - SH101 sounds
06:36 Navigating presets - More sounds
08:02 Shaping a Juno sound
08:53 The Effects Section
10:39 Whoooops - Reloaded the pattern by accident
11:59 Back to the effects
13:05 Adjusting TONE MFX
14:12 A subtle gripe with the effects
15:27 Sends work on individual drum parts
16:58 Pattern wide MFX
18:42 Visual Arpeggio
20:32 SH-4d excels at being a 'tone' box
21:09 Size comparison to other devices
22:15 I'm less excited about the sequencer
25:44 I'd rather pair it with a Digitakt or MPC
26:08 Quick note on polyphony
26:37 The lines are blurry for what this box can do
27:37 Kinda feels like the software was non-negotiable for the design
28:02 Similarities to the Juno-X etc
28:56 I wish Roland would support iOS devices
30:43 Quick thoughts on the D-Motion
31:36 Deep sound design is limited
32:07 Final thoughts

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[teftymusictech]

Thanks for watching! If I got any info incorrect, drop the correction in the comments 🙏

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[koalemos]

Yeah, I need y’all to keep downplaying this thing so I can get one used for $3.

[whoadog]

I think the 4d is great if you approach it as a multi-timbral synth to pair an Elektron box or similarly powerful sequencer. The drum engine allows for some pretty deep sound design. Ten years ago everyone was using a Blofeld for this use case. We would have killed for this amount of knob per function control offered by the 4d. It’s safe to assume we will get two major updates from Roland + bug fixes. I’m happy with my purchase.

[TeleporterM]

What Roland should be doing is upgrading or doing a new MC 707 successor

[NSW-yexw]

I recently picked one of these up very cheap and nearly new. Installed V2 firmware and dug deep. This is without doubt the best synth I have ever bought for the price. It really is amazing and sounds fantastic. Don't hesitate, just buy one!

[rayderrich]

Another great talk, and thanks for saving me the money.

[rexcellencemagee]

I bought this about a week ago, and the sounds are great! The 101 really sounds like a 101, and the Juno sounds fantastic! I agree it’s a little confusing at first but it’s for most purposes a workstation although they don’t say that. There’s a lot packed into it, and it’s the most fun I’ve had with a synth in a long time. I agree with the other gentleman saying pair it up with a digitact or something, I’m using a Blackbox, basically the same type of product but smaller. With those two things it would make a great only package, but I’m a freak and have way too much gear but if I didn’t have all this gear, I’d keep those two! I think that says a lot! By the way, the shimmer reverb is as good as it gets! Completely adjustable in every way. Great video!

[trickfall]

Good points, there's a couple of things I'd like to see changed, or added, but overall I really like this box. I love sitting on the couch without having to deal with a power cable and making jams and if I come up with anything I like I just plug a USB cable into my MacBook and can multitrack a performance.

[eyesintheskies]

First synth I lusted over was the sh-09 so this has picqued my interest. They’ve certainly crammed a lot in and sure there will be a load of updates. This will make a great travel companion for long journeys!

[edgarcortes]

Great walkthrough, keep them coming! 
I find the vast amount of features, sound and hands on control of this machine really compelling and without much competition for the size and price and will definitely pick one up. Roland's workflow to me is, as any other piece of gear, get to know it and it clicks; saving patches and patterns before clicking out is already second nature to me thanks to the boutique workflow. 
I own a Boutique Roland JD08 and a Boss RV500 reverb pedal with the same "Roland workflow quirks" and I love them both. Neither of those units get much YouTube love and it would be a shame see this unit get dismissed on what seem like very minor cons expressed in reviews.

[jeremydbjbjbjb]

I just got one of these and can +1 most of your observations (the saving stuff particularly). Roland seems to be in a good place these days about providing meaningful updates to their gear over the lifetime of their products, which was, possibly at my peril, part of my internal calculation when deciding whether to get this or not. But it sounds really good, if you need a little Roland in your life, which I did. I'm still learning mine (unboxed yesterday), and I'll probably be using it mostly under DAW control as a synth, but let's see how the timeline of my frustration lines up with Roland's firmware update timeline... Thanks for this great overview.

[AnthonyHarwood]

I really like this synth a lot, even with its shortcomings. Hopefully Roland firmware update will address some of them. As-is, it's still a keeper. Thanks for your review.

[robertsyrett]

Glad your channel exists to give some brutal honesty.

[HT-]

I think the SH-4d is quite amazing. I received mine today, for $550 on the Labor Day sale. I must say, I am blown away. It looks beautiful, and feels great with its metal front panel. The Korg M1 buttons are much better than on the M1, the buttons are really beautiful on the SH-4d. It makes me want to get the Jupiter-Xm now for those buttons alone... But I digress. The SH-4d is an amazing sonic powerhouse. And for $550? It's unbelievable.

[RikMaxSpeed]

I’m actually really happy with this synth, gives you lots of hands-on control, a great sound engine, and a very straightforward sequencer - so easy to create grooves. Overall a great sounding and really approachable groovebox.

[monodux]

I have to say, I pretty much ignored this when it came out, but now that I'm hearing it, I'm blown away. Sounds amazing. I think for me it would probably be worth the tedious routing stuff.

[castelmau]

wow..a honest review, thanks! not so often on yt

[saltlampgaming]

23:43 not sure if anyone’s clarified or you’ve figured it out yet but, if in the shift pattern settings if
You turn smooth to on or off this doesn’t happen, it only does in auto mode. I thought that smooth was in reference to the quantisation.

[AndyFirebladeMuza]

I was almost ready to get one of these but, I had doubts. I watched stacks of vids and almost all of them sang it's praises. They ended up being out of stock and have been in limited supply since. This vid has justified my doubts. I will wait for a software up date and see how it is after that. For now I will stick with my Hydrasynth, Crave and old MC-303 (for Drums) all sequenced with a Zaquencer or Korg SQ-64.

[ZozillaThaGreat]

Great review, corect me if i'm wrong but i'm not sure that on the juno x and jupiter X / XM, you can edit drums on a per sound basis ...
I do think that people sees this as a "i'm gonna do a whole track on it" witch it can, but i must not agree with you on the fact that for me IT is a great scratch pad / soundesign tool, sure the hydrasynth / minfreak and xd are great (i do own an xd and try theothers) but this sh 4d has that multi layer and drum part that can creat sounds as a whole : crazy (FX section top notch and modulation limit compensated by multitimbrality, motion record, ect !... )

As for lofi i've found the best is put 3 and 3 on setting for solid lofi patches !!