Roland SH-201 vs. Korg R3

[rezfactor]

I'm pretty much settled on getting the SH-201 for its ease-of-use factor. But Korg's recent upgrade to the popular microKorg seems to be a hit with Korg fans. Has anyone compared the two? I'm guessing that the R3 is more capable (plus, it has the built-in vocoder), and that the SH-201 is slightly easier to use. Certainly, the SH-201 looks like more fun, and that's probably enough to push me toward getting the SH-201 over the R3.

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• Roland Fantom X8 w/1GB SDRAM/4GB CF/SRX04/SRX06/SRX09
• Tascam CD-RW900/M-Audio BX5a studio monitors

[Igglethorpe]

Ack! I just looked at it and wasn't very impressed. I need more knobbage on my synths. It may sound great and do amazing things, but if it's user interface sucks then I might as well go all soft synths, which in my mind is the ultimate in convolution.

In any case, I've been really happy with my SH-201.

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Fantom X8 (2.10) 512MB
Fantom XR (2.02) 512MB
V-Synth XT (2.02)
SH-201

[rezfactor]

Thanks, Igglethorpe! I don't like the look of the R3 at all as well. From my recent experience with Yamaha vs. Fantom workstations, ease of use is becoming a paramount feature to me. I've only played with the SH-201 for a few minutes—but it definitely scored high on the fun factor scale. The R3 wasn't quite out yet. Would love to hear more feedback from other SH-201 owners here on what they like/don't like about their SH-201s . . .

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• Roland Fantom X8 w/1GB SDRAM/4GB CF/SRX04/SRX06/SRX09
• Tascam CD-RW900/M-Audio BX5a studio monitors

[Trancer]

Well...at first glance you might think the 201 is just a glorified casio fun box. And part of that is correct...the fun part! And despite it's user friendly layout....it Rocks!! Gives you total on the fly control with no fuss/no muss. I love mine and it sounds incredible cranked up. Midi it up to your X8 and tweak away ! D-beam adds to the fun as well. If your objective here is toward ease of use without the tedious nonsense....this is the one.

Roland Fantom X6 (new version)
Roland Synth SH-201
Mackie 1202-VLZ3 12 Ch. Mic/Line Mixer
JBL EON 10 175w Powered Monitors (pair)
Gibson Explorer
B.C. Rich Warlock Custom
Fender G-Dec w/midi
T.C. Helicon Voicelive Vocal Processor
All Plugged in by Mogami Pro Instrument
SRX Expansion....comming soon

[rezfactor]

Trancer:

Yup. Thanks for that enthusiastic review of the 201! You pretty much confirmed all of my suspicions about it. Was kinda embarassed to admit it, but once I saw that 201 on an A-list performer's stage [Madonna: The Confessions Tour], I was sold! Yeah, that whole ease-of-use/fun-quotient thing is becoming glaringly important to me. I just returned a MINT, I mean, f-cking LIKE-BRAND-F-CKING-NEW, Yamaha ES8 (loaded too, with a PLG150AP and an mLAN16e), that I got used at Guitar Center for only $1,300—and instead, spent over twice that much on a Fantom X8 and a pile of SRX boards.

I had the Motif ES8 for like four days, and couldn't figure out how to do crap with it. Yeah, it sounds real pretty, but I couldn't do a f-cking thing with it. I've had my Fantom for a couple of weeks now, and I'm multi-tracking like a motherf-cker using its on-board "audio tracks" digital recorder. Since it's so easy to record an idea, of course, I'm getting many MORE ideas with my Fantom than I ever did with the Yamaha. And I don't even touch performance mode—it's full, 128-voice polyphony, and full-MFX, all the time, since I'm recording actual audio in my Fantom.

Thanks again for your comments on the 201. Now, I can't wait to get that thing set up with my X8!

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• Roland Fantom X8 w/1GB SDRAM/4GB CF/SRX04/SRX06/SRX09
• Tascam CD-RW900/M-Audio BX5a studio monitors

[Trancer]

Right On...
The guy at guitar center tried to hook me up with a killer deal on the Yamaha as well. Floor model at an unbelievable deal. So I played around with it and said Hell No...can't get anything done on that thing. Keyboard might be a steal but engineering school won't be...lol! So I got my X6 instead and have yet had a lot of time to dig off into it yet. But at least I could understand it in the store to a degree. I'll have to get with you on how you record all of your stuff on it without going computer. (Noticed the listing for external cd burner). I'm trying to decide right now if I want to go with a PC software recorder route...or look into one of the Roland stand alone home studios instead. I've at least had some exp. w/ one of those before. I noticed you will be doing film score type of music. I'm trying to get the Trance/Dance genre down as well as some new age on the side. Just really have'nt found a whole lot of great patches for that yet. Maybe that World Xpansion card would help with that. I also will be doing some mix work using some metal/rock/industrial parts all molded together. I'm a Guitar guy going way back...but always knew one day I would jump head first into the Synth scene. It's been one of those secret loves I just could'nt keep away any longer.I'll get back at cha later.

Roland Fantom X6 (new version)
Roland Synth SH-201
Mackie 1202-VLZ3 12 Ch. Mic/Line Mixer
JBL EON 10 175w Powered Monitors (pair)
Gibson Explorer
B.C. Rich Warlock Custom
Fender G-Dec w/midi
T.C. Helicon Voicelive Vocal Processor
All Plugged in by Mogami Pro Instrument
SRX Expansion....comming soon

[rezfactor]

Trancer:

Hey, man! That's funny about the Motif he tried to sell you! Yeah, I gotta admit, I just f-cking hate f-cking computers. I mean I have like three powerful desktops in the house, each loaded with multiple gigs of RAM and Terabytes of combined storage, but I f-cking hate 'em. So for my writing, I wanted it keep it real f-cking simple.

For trance, however, you probably need the precision of a full-featured DAW and a computer-based sequencer. I know that for film score stuff, it is far less important to hit every beat EXACTLY "on-beat" but for trance/electronica, that's critical.

Also, yes, I plan on gettiing that Tascam CD recorder (haven't gotten around to ordering it yet). I picked that one since it has coax digital S/PDIF I/O that will directly connect to the Fantom's same S/PDIF I/O. Yeah, I'm really kinda proud that I'm doing this end-to-end without a computer. I'll eventually have to break down and get a full-featured DAW, since I'll eventually need add more tracks to my scores later. Eight tracks is probably too few tracks for your dance compositions, but it's great just as a scratchpad to get your ideas down.

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• Roland Fantom X8 w/1GB SDRAM/4GB CF/SRX04/SRX06/SRX09
• Tascam CD-RW900/M-Audio BX5a studio monitors

[Trancer]

All in all, I felt the same for quite sometime about the whole computer thing as well. Finally gave in and started crash cramming these last few years trying to play catch up. Same shit happened with the whole digital photography boom. I was a pretty decent photog. when all that came around and was even so old school I was still printing fiber fine art prints right up until about two years ago or so. I hated seeing all the old methods disapearing. But anyway...I just picked up my first piece of the puzzle at guitar center today. Kind of a perfect way to get my feet wet so to speak. I got the Digidesign Mbox2 mini with Pro tools LE 7 software. I'll load up the software on a new Dell E1505 Inspiron laptop and try to get after it. Salesman at GC swore by it as a starting point and told me it would give me way more tracks (32) and way more precise control and production tools. Compared to the little home hard disk recorders like the BR-8 etc, you get tons more for the money...it's just all computer operated. And the bonus to it is the fact that as I progress and move on up into the bigger and better stuff they say I can still use all the applications I already have now as long as it's Pro Tools. So we'll see how this goes. Take it easy and talk to ya later!

Roland Fantom X6 (new version)
Roland Synth SH-201
Mackie 1202-VLZ3 12 Ch. Mic/Line Mixer
JBL EON 10 175w Powered Monitors (pair)
Gibson Explorer
B.C. Rich Warlock Custom
Fender G-Dec w/midi
T.C. Helicon Voicelive Vocal Processor
All Plugged in by Mogami Pro Instrument
SRX Expansion....comming soon

[rezfactor]

Well, I played around with both a Roland SH-201 and a Korg Radias today at Guitar Center Hollywood. I'm getting the Radias.

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• Roland Fantom X8 w/1GB SDRAM/4GB CF/SRX04/SRX06/SRX09
• Korg Radias [coming soon]