thank you Deleted 93925bd! Wonderful machine for sure!

Nice! Listening again now. Second time through.

It reminds me of when I first got my SH-2 and went through the manual, recreating all the example patches. It was a great learning experience.

There is something very special about the sound of early Roland synths. I also like how they share so many of the same parts. It ties them all together, like an extended family.

One thing the SH-7 has that’s missing from my own Rolands are those triangle waves. Wow, do they sound sweet. The SH-2 has a sine wave, which is nice, but no triangle.

For ring-modulation and VCA modulation, I need to resort to a Moog MF-102 and Vermona Retroverb Lancet. With that fundamental Roland sound in place, I can get similar sounds from my instruments as the SH-7. Even so, it’s never quite the same, and would still love to have one someday.

Actually, there are no early Roland synths I wouldn’t like to have.

Thanks for sharing.

Thank you very much Maison Vague. It is nice to receive a comment form a synth guru like you. Have watched couples of your videos since many years, like the promars and jp4 duet and the jp4 solo with the memory man. Early Roland are the best! You can also check my 2 other similar videos of the Korg 770 and Maxikorg. You should appreciate them too. Cheers

Very nice indeed! Thanks for posting this!

Thank you Flavio! The SH-7 is very nice. It was fun creating with it for this demo. My pleasure!

There's an SH-5 for sale in Toronto
https://paulsboutique.ca/product/roland-sh-5/
$4300 U.S. at todays rates. $5500CAN.

I have GAS for this, but it is passing (gas).

Too rich for my taste.

As a business I am pretty sure they would add 13% HST on top.

Wondering if any SH-7 owners can comment, asking prices on these are insane and I do not see these selling for the prices I see listed on reverb or ebay or anywhere for that matter, what is one actually worth? I found someone willing to make a trade but that trade would equate to me paying about $4k which is a lot, just not sure if it is worth it? Seems like an amazing mono but not sure if it's $4k amazing or not, lol!

Definitely find out about the service history and confirm its actual condition in person. $4k US is a reasonable price if you don't need to have it serviced. If it does need to be serviced, it could be anywhere from $500 to $2000 depending on what's wrong with it.

My SH-5, while in excellent cosmetic shape, had problems with its keyboard contacts (they'd corroded), transposition knob, tuning stability, power supply filter cap, and 2-3 more minor things I cannot remember. The previous owner did not disclose any of these problems and claimed to be unaware of them - in other words, all the typical problems involved in buying vintage synths from people you don't know.

I think they are worth it. There are so few of these things for sale that it's not really possible to assess the market value. Put it in the same price as a Moog re-issue, or similar and you are in the right ballpark I think.

I mean this is really the issue, it's not local, they never are, I do plan to probe the guy and try and get video on it and service history . He says everything works but the bender is broken off, pretty common and not a big deal but with vintage I have learned they almost always need some kind of service even if they say it's working. The cheapest I see listed anywhere is $5k plus shipping from Japan and I can guarantee that will need service after arriving from Japan. It seems like a cool synth and I know they are fairly rare, I'll probably do it since what I am trading can be easily purchased again.

As an SH7 owner, I can’t not see you finding an equivalent mono sound among the synths you have. In other words, impressive collection !

Hi. If interested, PM me: there's a unit in Switzerland for sale.

Considering all the lovely synths you can get for less money in today’s market, I feel the SH-7 is not worth the $5k+ it’s usually being listed for. That said it’s a fantastic synth with some fairly unique options, a fantastic basic sound and a superior ergonomic and visual layout. It’s a joy to use. As much I love it though, I wouldn’t pay today’s asking prices.

With regards to service, it’s a well built and very stable instrument. Most issues should be an easy fix if it’s been stored well. I would avoid units with corrosion on the rear jacks, it’s an indication of bad storage. It does contain a small amount of rare components like divider for VCO-1A.

The comparison to the SH-5 is pointless imo, they’re simply too different to say that one is better than the other. I’ve owned both and played them side by side on many occasions, and they’re different in most respects; the basic sound (VCOs, VCFs, envelopes) is very different, they have quite different audio paths and completely different modulation options, and they lend themselves to different types of sounds.

The Alex Ball demo was awesome as usual, but only shows a little snippet og what the SH-7 is capable of. Here are some further examples:

Chords (multitracked):
https://on.soundcloud.com/T2Aq9X5u7HRw3hL18

Drums crafted with SH-7:
https://soundcloud.com/pokelok/20230.../s-2iv1FrfvxRk