Roland AIRA Compact S-1 // a mini synth with a hidden super power! 

An extra 2 notes of polyphony would have been the icing on the cake.

Thanks, I really appreciate your effort to demonstrate the S-1's sound design capabilities which goes way beyond factory presets. Sounds excellent. Cheers.

An important finding, if you’re a Logic Pro user. Since Roland doesn’t seem to know this (May 2024), I will post this through my favourite electronica RU-vidrs. Having owned the S-1 for about 5 minutes I began thinking about how I could integrate it into my UA/Logic Pro set up. USB-C connection to the Mac. First try resulted in the S-1 taking over completely, no access to UA. The Roland “support” site said that it wasn’t possible to use it with multiple audio interfaces! Accepting the challenge I created an Aggregate Device in the the Mac’s Audio MIDI set up, with the UA as master device. Let there be audio! The MIDI part was a brain twister though. Audio still working fine when I started the S-1’s internal sequencer. But no MIDI triggering the S-1. Double checking the MIDI setting on the S-1 revealed that I had adjusted the chorus, Cho, mistaking the o for a zero. The correct parameter is called CH. Why it wasn’t already set to channel 1 is anybody’s guess. Cool box, lousy support site, as usual. Roland, please fix your extremely slow and unhelpful site Thank you for sharing a helpful video.

A great little machine with lots of power. Well done Roland. 👍🏻

Absolutely adding this to my battery powerd lightweight setup. Tack Bo!

Thanx for your great work Bo!👍 As an old time 101-user (had 2 of them yeeeaars ago) I think there's one point that should be pushed a bit, the basic 101-sound wich it does without flaws. Same as the SH-1a but with a very low pricetag. As I'm missing that sound but never thought it was really worth it with the 1a, this is a nobrainer..... They're practically giving that sound away and you're just paying for som nice extras🙂 Roland is really coming back with their new stuff and people (like me😬) who's been complaining about "It's not real analog" can eat their hats because sound and play-/tweak-ability is what counts. And Roland is delivering!👊

You are a real expert! I bought one. Thank you for this good video !

A nice little box! I'd say Florian will happily include this in the near future in his bad gear series 😅

Just received mine, very helpful video. Thanks!

Like always you are #1 synth advisor / influencer ! Very good camera presence, pleasant vocal formant, clear cinematography, concise product review storyboard.

Great job Bo! This will go right along with the three others I bought😂. I love these little powerhouses.

i think i will get one! thanks for the review. tack så mycket!

Great video Bo! As usual!!!

exactly what I need to create while traveling. nice one roland

Muchas gracias a roland por hacer llegar estas herramientas a manos de todos.... Ya tengo t8 y esperando que llegue S1... Me encanta como unas cosas tan pequeñas tienen un corazón tan grande ❤❤❤

this was the first purchase from my disappearance bo! - you did a nice job introducing this little machine. i'm excited to add it to my microstation. hopefully we will reconnect soon.

I just sold my T-8 and J-6 as they were just to limiting but no denying they were fun. This on the other hand looks amazing, the ability to create your own waveforms is probably the best feature I´ve ever seen on one of these mini synths. Ordering this now.

I just got one today it’s pretty awesome

I was going to buy a behringer ms-1 but this, with battery power, portability and effects kind of seals the deal for me. I have the t-8 and I love it.

Looks more versatile than anything else in that price range, got to get one.

Sounds great!

The tilt function absolutely blows my mind.

Thanks for the demo, brilliant job. Looks like a winner. Will get one to use during work breaks / whilst travelling to experiment with at least, although can quite easily see it fitting in amongst the rest of my gear to contribute to the 147 as yet unfinished tracks I have on the go.

the volca series was what got me into hardware back in around 2013 so i see the allure of this little machine, i'd be intrested if i didnt own a sh-01a already :) beautiful sound!

Just the product i need🎉

This will fit right in with my E4, TR-6S, and JD-08. Yes!

From a synthesist's perspective, this is the most interesting Roland thing since the D50.

Nice vids as usual. Are the effects digital or analogue, can it play midi notes from outside?

Hi Bo, it's me again. I would just like to add one thing to what you said: "Buy one of these". If you're into synths, you can't justify not owning one. And if this is your first synth, you can't justify not owning one. It's simply too inexpensive and too powerful to ignore. I have a lot of synths because of you; but this one has been with me constantly since I got it. I can't really say the same for the XD or the Hydra or anything else that I have. They may be amazing, but they're not as convenient and capable. Just sayin'. Thanks for making me purchase one. 🖖

I didn’t expect I would be interested in roland synth. Great sounding and innovative. Great job. Bo as always stellar.

Would you recommend this to a beginner? Guitar player for 24 years - good understanding of music, haven't played keys in a long time.

I have always considered the SH 101 to be predominately a Bass synth, just wondered how a mono bass patch and a unison patch sounds. Good to hear all the wonderful bells and whistles but I can't find one video that concentrates on bass sounds. I'm surprised no one else has bought this up.

Ciao, this sounds really good.. personally i've own my roland JD-XI Synth.. many greetings from Brunswick in Germany and please stay safe 🙂

Thanks for this! Can the various d-motion destinations be recorded into motion sequencing in one take?

Really looking forward to playing around with the high cat 😁

honestly i just picked this up on a whim, i got a volca bass given to me some what recently and i was thinking of hooking both of these up to my MPC One. maybe try to sequence thru the MPC? Or just use the mpc as drums and additional layers IDK! I just think it could be fun to have a couple small external boxes hooked up that I can tweak live. umm editing this part in after. The Waveshaper is freaking AWESOME!

Seems like the best value Aira Compact. Glad they are continuing to make these. Can’t wait for what’s next. Perhaps we will eventually see a mini semi modular 😱

Trying to think what -3 and -5 will be, maybe a separate FX/mixer, or a sampler or a modular, depends what Volca gap they think needs filling

i was always into VST and nots sytnhs, few weeks ago a friend came from canda and broguht this one with him. oh boy what a joy , amazing little machine with great sounds

Got my t8 yesterday getting the s1 next month

can you have the parameters recorded in the sequencer but the notes to be sent from external midi (not coming from the internal sequencer)? ps: to work like a complex modulator for 8 parameters

Hey :) I want to start making synth sounds and I’m thinking about buying the S1 .. could you please tell me what else I need (apart from a laptop) to start making tracks?😊

Interesting to see how much more hands on control there is on this little thing as compared to the verselab 😓. Would be cool if these devices could become midi controllers for devices like the verselab.

Bob dropping the eats...I mean "heats" all Superbooth weekend!! What's coming Friday & Saturday?? 😎

Verkar det! Ha så kul i Berlin!

I understand that you create your own/new sounds with this device but say I want to create a “song” using one sound for the lead and a second sound for the bass, can I do that and then use the sequencer to record them both [the lead on one track and the bass on a second track] and then listen to them, playing together as in a song? I ask this, because on all the videos I’ve seen so far on RU-vid [regarding the S-1] everybody mentions how you can create and modify the sounds/waves to your heart’s content but it seems to me like, they then only sequence that ONE sound, yes they add different pitches and different waveform here and there in the sequence BUT it IS the same sound - am I hearing that right? Please clarify. Any insight appreciated. Thank you

11:47 D-Motion = Tilt Control! (Do you have to hold down the button to make it modulate? or can you toggle it)

How do you set it for the percussive sounds at 11:12?

Will it respond to Pitch bend and modulation wheel information if i use a keyboard controller? I lot of these compact synths don't or only partially do. I'm Using a M-audio and a Arturia controller. I'd like to know before i buy. TIA

With this box I feel like all the aira compact line designed just right for me ❤

how can i cancel the point next to the pattern?? and return to the previous state?

Looks and sounds pretty nice! Zen or acb? Pricerange? Another good vid, Bo!

Quite useful for mobile setup. I didn’t expect new mini device from Roland. Nice point regarding menus, they should remember last chosen menu option, like in other Aira devices. D-motion in my opinion is gimmick.

Returning my Crave still in its box now.

You can play it like with controller and spits it left and richt?

Also.....hoping they make one in this line that had finger pads..... Maybe a sampler? Or even just a controller to hook up to all the others that also has some basic effects on bored.

Hoping to see a layout-improved JD-Xi 2.0 of sorts using ACB + some digital synth plugins from cloud. A JD-Xa 2.0 featuring the same would be very cool. With nice oled oscilloscope would be 🔥

Oops I've mysteriously misplaced 200 dollars

How about the noise via usb ?

Just ordered one today.

Once you get this playing through some nice monitors and synced up with a drum machine or groovebox or both , it sounds great and is alot of fun, especially for the price!

This looks like the pick of the litter

anyone knows if it can be connected to Ableton and record its sound in Ableton? What do i need to do it? Tnx

Can you plug guitar pedals into this?

11:17 drum synthesis possible! good.

10 min ! best point

What do I do with my volcas now? 😢

Purchased 1 and was quite disappointed it only shipped w/ 16 sounds/patterns. The out of the box fun factor was quite low. Had to jump into the manual to learn how to copy stock patterns/sounds to and then clear the note data. Quite lazy on part of Roland to have 64 slots available and only ship the unit with 16 presets. Quickly returned

Hi it have spits?

Pattern+Patch saved together? Waveform editing? How very Sonicware 8-Bit Warps!

This unit looks pretty great... Even if the keys look like they came off the piano/calculator toy I had when I was 4.

Hello, great demo, my feeling from the very few material that is now available on line is that S-1 sounds a little bit crunchy, kinda dirty sounds, noisy and metallic. SH-101 on which it is based on, was a rough synthesizers, not exactly the type of sound i like more. I'd like to get on of these gears to play and sketch musical ideas, tho with no wasting time in programming the sounds. That's why J-6 is more attractive to me at the moment.

I saw it right away from the green color on the tool which was something new and cool😅. I don't have any of the small Rolands, I have a few Volcas and it seemed superfluous to have anything else closely similar, but I think this S1 will be my next purchase!😏

Excellent! Will you also be making a video about the new Aira Compact J-6 Chord Synthesizer?

All the big youtube dudes releasing their vid on the s1 at the same time. Must be a contract with roland telling them when they can post

But then you won't know the original setting of the previous step if you go back. I don't think that menu is too bad to mess with. I have a J-6 and now I want this one SOOOOOO bad. Also you can hold note, then draw and chop, then you'll see it live on the nts-2.

Bob is eating this one up 🤓

It's obviously a digital device. But it sounds super bright to my ears in this walkthrough? So not for myself. But it certainly adds a good number of features and sound design for the price and indeed size.

Every time i see a new compact Roland i'm interested. Then i look at my MC101 and just use that instead. This looks like an awesome little box though, with just enough wierd, annoying design choices to make it a proper Roland. Roland continues to be simultaneously my favourite and most hated instrument company 😂

I historically find Roland gear more trouble than it's worth, but this has some really interesting/intriguing features that may make it worth getting. Especially curious about the drawing/chopping waveforms.

Will Roland wise up and add a MIDI Volume feature? It's silly to NOT include this standard feature that has been in nearly every MIDI synth for 40 years.

Seems like a great little starter synth. I would have used the hell out of one of these back in the 90s. Instead, I used terrible samples I made from household items and a cheap mic.

Ah! A new Roland "Volca" :) Sounds nice. I hope they'll do a D50 next.

so it can OEF dope

When does this come out??

The D-Motion device seems a bit daft! If they wanted a novel controller a version of the old D-Beam would've been far cooler.

Why !?!? Why do I watch this CHANNEL !!!???!!! I'm not made out of money, Bo. Like, there has to be an end to the purchases at some point... Okay. Just this one last time. 🤑🤞 "Complexer"... You cheeky devil.

Want that but with a Juno acb

Don't worry in a year from now it be on Bad Gear

1:38 *may 2022

Korg and a TB3 Roland and I own mostly korg but the Roland is more direct to get EDM sounds better reverb as well and Boss looper 505 and my digital 6 track studio boss - very powerful The master vol= neighbours complaining

Appreciated this nice review. Spent a couple hours with it and it really annoyed me that it only has 16 sounds. Everything else must be done from scratch. I have a Digitone too while it costs about 4x more it comes with some 500+ sounds one might reasonably expect the S-1 to ship with more to offer than just 16 sounds/patterns. Like put something in all 64 slots like bass, pads, leads, FX perhaps. This was the main reason I returned it. The little black keys for sharps and flats that have grey letters for secondary functions were super hard to read. Back to sweetwater it goes.

Kinda sounds like the dac/amp is really letting it down. Is the processor that's working the ACB magic really up to the task?

Ça pourrait assez bien remplacer mon juno 60.

Here we go again

з кожним роком драм-машині и грув-боксі та і сінтезатори ! стають все меншими і меншими! і це є добре!! але мені більше подобається Elektron Digitakt// every year drum machines and groove boxes and synthesizers! are getting smaller and smaller! and that is good!! but I prefer Elektron Digitakt

$49 ? Wow that's an amazing price ! I'll get one for sure, maybe even 4 or 5 for a great multitimbral setup.

Im holding out in the hopes they come out with a analoge version in this line. 2 oscillators would be fine, each with a sub oscillator.......but 3 or even 4 full oscillators would make it a smash hit! Then make it so it can sample itself/the sound u made then transpose it up and down, allowing u to free up the oscillators for other sounds to build an sample and save to keep going......that is my dream

When they first released this devices I was skeptical and the lack of sound design capabilities made me kinda angry. I’m not into plug and play synths like the microlight or these first ones. Now this new one kinda reminds me of the Volca Series, and I think they should’ve taken this route from the beginning.

However. It sounds ok to me.