I can make sense of this numbering quite fast. "Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out!"
Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then, lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.
I still love how, after all the joking fun at the naming sequence, Hainbachhhhh shows up and repeatedly calls it the SH Oh! 2. Great tunes all around. My favorite non-modular monosynth from the 70s.
when i started college in fall of 1979 i had a double major in math and music. the music was with an emphasis in composition. one of the perks was getting a key to the room that held a roland 100 series modular unit. i spent two years messing around with that unit before i changed majors. it was a lot of fun and gave me a feel for subtractive synthesis. a few years later a friend of mine with a film major dragged me to the film department's audio studio because he knew about my synth background and wanted my help with their synth. it turned out to be a dx7. even though i knew nothing about fm synthesis, i had an almost unknown skill amongst the other folks who had used it called "reading the manual" and so i seemed like a synthesis genius, especially after i followed up the manual with massey's *the complete dx7*. i made it possible for my friend to be the only person in the film department who didn't use the presets but had good sounds.
@@AlexBallMusic you might want to check out "Cosmic Prophets" DX7 sampling CD by Richard Barbieri and Jan Linton, or "Music for Aliens" . The DX had its presets wiped
Gotta love Roland's numbering system! I have an SH-09 which I have had since new in 1979. Such a joy and glad I didn't sell it too! Great duet and great video as usual from 2 great UA-camrs!
@@AlexBallMusic Good question. I think they are basically the same synth but the SH2 has the extra oscillator and that nice detune effect you demonstrated. Its amazing (as you would know) the variety of sounds you can get with it. I have used it live a lot in the '80's and it is a nice companion to the RS-09 I own. Even better if you route the SH-09 through the chorus of the RS-09.
Alex! You and Hainbach really inspire me to record music with my synthesizers. I have some ideas for what I want to do with my UA-cam channel, but I will continue to watch and learn as much as I can from you.
Thank you! Love the channel. It's reigniting my old love of synths. I learned electronic music composition in college on a big old Moog many years ago. So much fun! In my college band I played a Fender Rhodes, a Minimoog, and an Arp Pro Soloist. Later, I got a DX27 and a TX81Z, and then later than that I got a Yamaha SY22, which was a neat synth. Now I use a keyboard controller and everything's coming off the laptop, but I miss owning real keyboards.
Glad you're enjoying the trip down memory lane. Was the Moog at college a modular system? ...and talking of the Pro-Soloist, I interviewed its designer in person, Jeremy Hill. It's in my ARP documentary.
@@AlexBallMusic Yes, I LOVE that video!! I've watched it several times. I love all the historical info. The Moog was a modular system - we had a wall of patch cables of different lengths and we had a ditto copy of a piece of paper with all the jacks and knobs on it, so you could draw your patch on paper to remember it. I spent a lot of time trying to get it to sound like Simmons drums, which were really big at the time. I got pretty close! We also had a half inch reel to reel 4 track tape machine where you had to shuttle it - in rewind mode, you couldn't just hit stop, you had to hit fast forward first to slow it down. I didn't know that and the first time I used it I hit stop and sent the reel of tape flying across the room. Good times!
@@AlexBallMusic sounds better, but the 101 fits better in the mix with most things. It took me awhile to appreciate this fact about the 101. Now I have the best euro clone IMO: g storm electro cem vco/mixer and VCF. Part of the reason the minimoog is as revered as ever, I think, is that it sounds great on its own AND fits great in a mix of basically everything. I think the sh-2’s lack of an ability to do this quite as well has something to do with its “muddier” sounding filter.
I've used everything as a live bass synth over the years - Minimoog, MS-20, Odyssey, CS5, Micron, MicroKorg, Mopho, Evolver, MicroBrute, Integra, MODX, System 8, Prologue - and I can safely say that the SH2 is King. Every gig I use it on, it turns heads.
Love this video , my first synth was an SH09 when it was released back in the day and I recently got another one and I love it .. but I have to say the real standout star of the whole clip was in fact “HAINBACH’S jumper “ .. now I want one of those too .
Possibly the first synth of the Pet Shop Boys as well - check out their early promotional appearances before the breakthrough rerelease of West End Girls.
I own every analogue Roland mono and poly you can think of and I have to admit SH-2 is one of those synths that will make your neighbors hate you! It is armor piercing and insanely phatt... at times too phatt! :D
@@AlexBallMusic Well for synths it's just a Roland JP-8080 rack model that I use with CuBase, mostly for fleshing out ideas. I'm a Bass player so I have a lot of those sitting around waiting for some creative attention. I used to be in a space rock band called Farflung, we toured with Hawkwind a few times back in the 90s. Love your videos. Your energy reminds me of Nik Turner, charming, witty and extremely talented. Keep up the good work!
Roland's SH numbering is actually insane. What gets me the most is the SH-01 (Gaia) next to the SH-01A; you'd think the A is some minor variation from the 01. Nope - they're *completely* unrelated to each other, and entirely different machines. Literally bonkers. Awesome video, Alex. 😃
I’ve been playing synthesizers since 1976 and its cool that Arp,moog,korg and roland each have their own distinctive sound.I can tell immediately when a analog roland hits a note.even oberheim has its distinct sound.
Intro once again has me in stitches. Everything I ever thought about that numbering. The jokes (and the knowing look cueing up the bad joke) crack me up every time. I have a reconditioned SH2 from Ko (Modeless Factory) in Japan. He offered to add oscillator sync to it via an extra red push button but in truth I rarely use that (I had it on a Rogue but the Roland is rather more polite sounding). Lovely machine, nonetheless.
The joke was begging to be made. 😉 Interesting to hear about the sync. Is there an envelope to modulate the synched oscillator? Without that there won't be much to hear. The sync on my System 100m is fantastic, although my Odyssey is probably the best.
@@AlexBallMusic The sync is on osc 2 - I guess he added it to avoid the "detune" sound really, not to scream and wail. To get it to scream a bit just switch off the bender lever from osc 1, play and use the lever, which then just affects osc 2. Or twiddle the osc 2 tune knob - but the level has a more profound effect. It's not Ody or even Rogue territory but it works. The SH2 is quite a chilled sounding synth but I guess there's a place for that. Ironically it doesn't get used so much now I have the Roland Cloud version...
Last time I go to an unknown website after a couple of spliffs! The Hun confused me until I saw it was a joke. The wrap-up music was wonderful. and inspiring. I think I'll go get a drink. :)
SH5 is by far the best mono synth Roland ever made. It’s almost two SH2’s. The SH7 released in late 70s was their flagship of the range but the SH5 knocks spots off it.
The SH-5 is probably the best, yes. The envelopes are a bit slow and the 1, 2, 7, and 09 are snappier but it's got the best sound. I often wonder why band pass filters or filters in parallel or series (like the SH-5) weren't more common. They open out the possibilities so much more.
Great video again Alex. This Hainbach guy is your most convincing character yet!
😆
he got the hair wrong xD
The wig wasn't as convincing as mine.
Moscht convinsching.
🤣
Hainbach:The dub bass you can get from playing the filter!
Laptop speakers:
Hainbach bass: 20hz
Laptop speaker: choking at 200hz.
Hainbach: 'The dub bass you can get from playing the filter!'
The windows in my room when i play it over my KSD C88: 'I want to break freehee!'
Well even listening on headphones you could barely make it out. I think UA-cam's encoding is to blame here.
Humans: All the good stuff like the bass you can feel but barely hear!
Algorithm: Meh, because bandwidth
I could barely make out this part even with modest hi-fi separates and subwoofer.
I can make sense of this numbering quite fast. "Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out!"
Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then, lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.
@@AlexBallMusic Would this be funny at all had we not read Shakespeare?
@@AlexBallMusic lol, lobbest. Was this truly a verb? and snuff it. the latter being a very dire outcome for your foe
The Roland synth naming skit at the beginning is the best UA-cam content ever made; I will fight you if you disagree!!
It's an honor to see The Sweater King appear on this channel.
Ja.
My granny had that exact same jumper in 1974, it is a beautiful jumper 👑👏
I still love how, after all the joking fun at the naming sequence, Hainbachhhhh shows up and repeatedly calls it the SH Oh! 2. Great tunes all around. My favorite non-modular monosynth from the 70s.
Actually LOLLED genuinely out loud at the naming convention. 😆
😉
Have it as plug-out in my System-1 and love it
Actual tears of laughter at the names bit 😂
Think Microsoft hired the same team to name the editions of Windows.
Me too, great stuff! Doesnt happen very often...😂
You are not only a very talented musician, you are such a funny comedian. I regret the day I sold my beloved SH-2.
Thanks!
Didn't realise you'd had an SH-2. Do you prefer the SH-101 or SH-2?
@@AlexBallMusic the SH-2 is much better sound wise. The 101 is pure fun though
I agree!
One of my favourite things about the SH2 is its utterly utilitarian, brutalist aesthetic. I think it looks gorgeous.
Yes, it looks bad ass!
Hainbach, that's one epic sweater.
The best on the Tube.
I think it came with his SH2.
Fun fact: the SH in SH-2 stands for SCHECSHY HAINBACH
Yesh.
Schtonking Hootersch.
sexual healing?
obviously, it stands for Synt Hesizer
when i started college in fall of 1979 i had a double major in math and music. the music was with an emphasis in composition. one of the perks was getting a key to the room that held a roland 100 series modular unit. i spent two years messing around with that unit before i changed majors. it was a lot of fun and gave me a feel for subtractive synthesis.
a few years later a friend of mine with a film major dragged me to the film department's audio studio because he knew about my synth background and wanted my help with their synth. it turned out to be a dx7. even though i knew nothing about fm synthesis, i had an almost unknown skill amongst the other folks who had used it called "reading the manual" and so i seemed like a synthesis genius, especially after i followed up the manual with massey's *the complete dx7*. i made it possible for my friend to be the only person in the film department who didn't use the presets but had good sounds.
You read the manual?! Witchcraft!
The DX is hamstrung by its presets. All the best sounds are anything but those. Hats off.
@@AlexBallMusic you might want to check out "Cosmic Prophets" DX7 sampling CD by Richard Barbieri and Jan Linton, or "Music for Aliens" . The DX had its presets wiped
The SH-numbering sketch was absolutely hilarious! 🤣
Gotta love Roland's numbering system! I have an SH-09 which I have had since new in 1979. Such a joy and glad I didn't sell it too! Great duet and great video as usual from 2 great UA-camrs!
Cheers Kevin. How does the 09 compare?
@@AlexBallMusic Good question. I think they are basically the same synth but the SH2 has the extra oscillator and that nice detune effect you demonstrated. Its amazing (as you would know) the variety of sounds you can get with it. I have used it live a lot in the '80's and it is a nice companion to the RS-09 I own. Even better if you route the SH-09 through the chorus of the RS-09.
@@AlexBallMusic I've both. They have their differences sonically and functionally but they're definitely siblings
@@TDRKB I've been curious about pairing mine with an RS09
@@jimharris6389 It sounds good through the input and ensemble mode
I usched the SH-2 on "The Schperminator'.
One of the phattest things ever made. And remember, there is nothing like vintage roland saw with a sub oscillator)
Yeah, square sub and one saw is always a pleasure. :)
The 70s Roland ladder is almost moog-ish so this combo throaty saw+ sub and this filter really shakes the ground !!!
@@AlexBallMusic Square sub and one saw plus juicy VCF = Pure bliss.
Great video! As always, incredibly funny, entertaining, and very well made!
Alex! You and Hainbach really inspire me to record music with my synthesizers. I have some ideas for what I want to do with my UA-cam channel, but I will continue to watch and learn as much as I can from you.
Always enjoy your videos and demos. This one was quite entertaining. Love the numbering bit. Rock on!
Thanks Tim!
I love my SH-2 :) Thanks for another great video Alex and Hainbach
Ah, you could have joined the end jam then!
Entertaining as always, Alex. Lovely collab at the end there!
Thanks very much!
Ball+Hainbach. You made my day!
Cheers!
Excellent and fun to watch as always ! That's another synth to look out for :)
Yeah, a cool one. No Emu Emulator though. 😉
Dynamic duo! Awesome and inspiring.
Cheers!
Haha, one of your best. Big fun to watch and of course informative and nice sounddemo.
Hello Alex: Thank you very much for this. The SH-2 sounds amazing. Also, I really liked the wit you bought to the naming scheme.
Cheers Ian. Thanks for stopping by.
Brilliant, couldn't haven't demonstrated the SH paradox better!
some similar sounds I get with my sh3a! Love this- Thanks, Guys!
Still never played the SH3A or SH2000.
Knocking it out of the park again with that song at the end! Such a juicy sounding synth isn't it? Lovely stuff.
Thanks. Yes, grubby and powerful and beautiful. Very nice little mono.
Hilarious video as always!!! 😂 My very first synth ever was the SH-3A in 1980.
Alex!! Rolands has a unique timbre, I fell in love with this sound a long time ago. Thank you for video🍧
Thank you, I agree! 🙂
There's zero shortage of amazing synth channels. Great work! Love seeing my man Hainbach here.
Thanks! Yeah, was a pleasure to have him over.
Comedy and synths, what's more to ask for? You are the best!
😉
Lovely 2-ette... thank you!
It's awesome to hear two musicians combining their creativity to create something they probably wouldn't come up with alone creating a unique piece
Excellent Alex :) Well done.
Thank you!
Hilarious and tantalizing. You guys work well together! It’s the synth used for the iconic sequences on Duran Duran’s “The Chauffeur”.
2 right! Really enjoyed thiSH ~ and that intro sketch lol well done
wow this was well put together, acting editing filming and the music, subbed will be playing catch up now.
Thanks. Welcome aboard.
Man, that bit you did with the guitar through the SH-2 was awesome! Would love to hear that made into a song!😁👍
Thanks. Do enjoy a bit of envelope following!
Thank you! Love the channel. It's reigniting my old love of synths. I learned electronic music composition in college on a big old Moog many years ago. So much fun! In my college band I played a Fender Rhodes, a Minimoog, and an Arp Pro Soloist. Later, I got a DX27 and a TX81Z, and then later than that I got a Yamaha SY22, which was a neat synth. Now I use a keyboard controller and everything's coming off the laptop, but I miss owning real keyboards.
Glad you're enjoying the trip down memory lane.
Was the Moog at college a modular system?
...and talking of the Pro-Soloist, I interviewed its designer in person, Jeremy Hill. It's in my ARP documentary.
@@AlexBallMusic Yes, I LOVE that video!! I've watched it several times. I love all the historical info. The Moog was a modular system - we had a wall of patch cables of different lengths and we had a ditto copy of a piece of paper with all the jacks and knobs on it, so you could draw your patch on paper to remember it. I spent a lot of time trying to get it to sound like Simmons drums, which were really big at the time. I got pretty close! We also had a half inch reel to reel 4 track tape machine where you had to shuttle it - in rewind mode, you couldn't just hit stop, you had to hit fast forward first to slow it down. I didn't know that and the first time I used it I hit stop and sent the reel of tape flying across the room. Good times!
Great 2ette Alex and Hainbach
Pure class🤗🙏🙏.. again..
ah this is so great! I have the sh-2, this is inspiring to dive into it again!
Yeah, fire it up!
Hahahaha hilarious intro!!!! Yes the SH-2 is a wonderful synth indeed. Love mine!
Amazing vid and collab! And that machine sounds freakin awesome (I like the sound really much more than most famous SH-101).
The 101 has some advantages (clockable LFO / sequencer / arpeggiator / better bender) but the SH-2 sounds better, I agree.
@@AlexBallMusic sounds better, but the 101 fits better in the mix with most things. It took me awhile to appreciate this fact about the 101. Now I have the best euro clone IMO: g storm electro cem vco/mixer and VCF. Part of the reason the minimoog is as revered as ever, I think, is that it sounds great on its own AND fits great in a mix of basically everything. I think the sh-2’s lack of an ability to do this quite as well has something to do with its “muddier” sounding filter.
Epic show
An SH-42 would really be the end all synth wouldn’t it? It would be the key to life, the universe, everything...
Be careful using it though. The improbability driver can cause unexpected effects. Just keep your towel handy, and - most important - don’t panic.
Mark King's favourite synth.
But you would still have to build another one to know the question.......
@@Magnus_Loov I think the ultimate question was asked by the EMS synths like the VCS3 and the Synthi AKS haha!
I bet Stevie Wonder would have loved to have an SH-42 on his album "Songs in the Key of Life" 😅
Welcoming and warm episode :) And synth ...
Thanks
Great opening sketch!
Had to be done.
this was my favourite synth of all time
It's a goodun!
@@AlexBallMusic always wondered if the sh-5 and sh-7 were the sh-2 with more controls
Just brilliant
Thanks!
You are a truly talented person! I laughed very much.👍
Thank you.
Great stuff funny sketch and the music was great!
Cheers Jorge.
You are like Ying and Yang, different yet perfectly harmonising.
Thank you for this video!
Thanks.
Love the patch names!
The track at the end is beautiful too
Thank you!
I've used everything as a live bass synth over the years - Minimoog, MS-20, Odyssey, CS5, Micron, MicroKorg, Mopho, Evolver, MicroBrute, Integra, MODX, System 8, Prologue - and I can safely say that the SH2 is King. Every gig I use it on, it turns heads.
That's high praise indeed! Interesting.
Love this video , my first synth was an SH09 when it was released back in the day and I recently got another one and I love it .. but I have to say the real standout star of the whole clip was in fact “HAINBACH’S jumper “ .. now I want one of those too .
Brilliant SH timeline intro 😄😄😄
TR series next. 😉
the SH-3 was my first analogue synth!
Big fan of the SH-2!
Possibly the first synth of the Pet Shop Boys as well - check out their early promotional appearances before the breakthrough rerelease of West End Girls.
Still never even seen the SH-3!
The Korg MS-20 was the Pet Shop Boys’ first synth.
Do you mean the 3A?? It was my first one as well.
@@titovalasques No, Matt has the rare 3!
Oh my god, the naming intro is pure comedy gold 🤣
Very cool vid/review, and may I say, probably the least weird one I've ever seen from you.
Ha, good to know. Must have had the weird level turned down slightly, I'll crank it back up.
well done chaps!
I own every analogue Roland mono and poly you can think of and I have to admit SH-2 is one of those synths that will make your neighbors hate you! It is armor piercing and insanely phatt... at times too phatt! :D
Yes, sometimes you have to take out the sub or one of the VCOs. Gets pretty beefy!
I always gaze at my instruments after watching one of your videos Alex.
What's in your collection?
@@AlexBallMusic Well for synths it's just a Roland JP-8080 rack model that I use with CuBase, mostly for fleshing out ideas. I'm a Bass player so I have a lot of those sitting around waiting for some creative attention. I used to be in a space rock band called Farflung, we toured with Hawkwind a few times back in the 90s. Love your videos. Your energy reminds me of Nik Turner, charming, witty and extremely talented. Keep up the good work!
watching your video like taking me back to 70's watching 'sesame street and hear the carpenter album.... very the retro spirit
A magical time no doubt.
Amazing ! Thanks for this wonderful Vid ! Thanks God I have one too 😩
Roland's SH numbering is actually insane. What gets me the most is the SH-01 (Gaia) next to the SH-01A; you'd think the A is some minor variation from the 01. Nope - they're *completely* unrelated to each other, and entirely different machines. Literally bonkers.
Awesome video, Alex. 😃
Don't look at the TR series then.... ;)
@@AlexBallMusic 😂 I'll do my best to avoid their numeric sorcery
@@DaggerThrasher It starts with 77 and gets less logical from there. 😉
@@AlexBallMusic Why, Roland, WHYYYY
I’ve been playing synthesizers since 1976 and its cool that Arp,moog,korg and roland each have their own distinctive sound.I can tell immediately when a analog roland hits a note.even oberheim has its distinct sound.
THAT INTRO SEGMENT HAD ME IN TEARS
😉
Intro once again has me in stitches. Everything I ever thought about that numbering. The jokes (and the knowing look cueing up the bad joke) crack me up every time. I have a reconditioned SH2 from Ko (Modeless Factory) in Japan. He offered to add oscillator sync to it via an extra red push button but in truth I rarely use that (I had it on a Rogue but the Roland is rather more polite sounding). Lovely machine, nonetheless.
The joke was begging to be made. 😉
Interesting to hear about the sync. Is there an envelope to modulate the synched oscillator? Without that there won't be much to hear. The sync on my System 100m is fantastic, although my Odyssey is probably the best.
@@AlexBallMusic The sync is on osc 2 - I guess he added it to avoid the "detune" sound really, not to scream and wail. To get it to scream a bit just switch off the bender lever from osc 1, play and use the lever, which then just affects osc 2. Or twiddle the osc 2 tune knob - but the level has a more profound effect. It's not Ody or even Rogue territory but it works. The SH2 is quite a chilled sounding synth but I guess there's a place for that. Ironically it doesn't get used so much now I have the Roland Cloud version...
Last time I go to an unknown website after a couple of spliffs! The Hun confused me until I saw it was a joke. The wrap-up music was wonderful. and inspiring. I think I'll go get a drink. :)
Damn, collab of the month
oh dude that was awesome 1:55
Just scored one of these days ago. Killer!
Ace!
That SH-2et is magical!
Thanks Paul.
Gotta love those Dr. 110’s hi hats!
Yes indeed. 🙂
So musical!!
The SH-2 sounds like Boards of Canada in a box, excellent sound!
Loved your German pronunciation, Alex!
Danke schön.
@@AlexBallMusic büdde büdde
I loved my SH-2. WISH that I still had it.
With Alex on his SH-2 and Hainbach on his SH-02!
The German equivalent. ;)
The bit with Hans Gruber was great!
Lol!
The names in the beginning was pure comedy gold 🤣🤣🤣
hahahahha!!!! AWSOME!!!
Hey, I just subscribed to your channel. Great stuff!
Whoa, Doc himself in da house!
Ahah doctor mix here
dr in da house😅
So lush 😍
ahh love you dude
Cheers Carl.
Awesome
An SH-2'et. That made my day.
Actually, I think we made an SH-4!
Hainbach and Mr. Ball in the same video wopwop!
Hainball.
Love Hainbach too... The three synth musketeers, Alex, AudioPilz and Hainbach..
ive had an sh2 for a couple years now - its a good synth.
Nice!
SH5 is by far the best mono synth Roland ever made. It’s almost two SH2’s. The SH7 released in late 70s was their flagship of the range but the SH5 knocks spots off it.
The SH-5 is probably the best, yes. The envelopes are a bit slow and the 1, 2, 7, and 09 are snappier but it's got the best sound. I often wonder why band pass filters or filters in parallel or series (like the SH-5) weren't more common. They open out the possibilities so much more.
@@AlexBallMusic The SH-5 was also very intuitive with the visual layout clearly showing the routing of the different signals.
kool jam
Thanks Adrian.
Now that is a hilarious SH-timeline, LOL! And we will never know why... Nevertheless most of the SH's sound great. Well done Alex, hats of again mate!
Cheers JP. 🙂
the start of this was freakin hilarious.
Nice!
Énorme !!! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻