Roland GAIA SH-01 Review Sonic LAB 

Nick you have the best synth accordian face I've ever seen at 9:30 - nice demo and love your work!

All the hate on this, why? People forget that the same things were said about the SH 101 back in the day. I think the Gaia is fantastic for the price and will one day be a classic once Roland stops production. I’m keeping mine.

I'd just like to say how much I value your reviews. Always informative and free of the egocentric hype that bedevils so many reviews. Thanks, and keep 'em coming.

Excellent review, just bought a Gaia and love it.

Can you not layer 2 patches like on the 201?

Great review. Just one history lesson to make: It was Roland, not Access Virus that actually coined the term 'Super Saw' on the JP 8000 (JP 8080). All the best and keep up the good work

Have been using one going on 10 years now. Very nice. 👍🏻

Sonicstate always has the best reviews.

This is a great concept to have controls similar of old analog Rolands (I'm just sitting beside a Juno-106 right now). Hope more VA synths come with knobs and sliders for each section as an option to lcd displays and shortcuts.

i love my GAIA!

@Rbrownsword Actually, if you watch near the beginning, he mentions the 3 seperate synths in one, each with it's own oscillator, meaning that you have access to 3 oscillators =per voice= :). Unlike other 3-oscillator-per-voice synths, each one here has it's own filter, adsr ,ar, mod, filter, etc.

I love my Gaia,such a wicked synth,worth every penny.

I played with one of these today. Couldn't stop fiddling with it. It feels much higher quality than the SH-201 (which isn't all that bad in its own right), and has a pretty nice layout. It's definitely performance oriented... very easy to tweak the sound on the fly. I was really impressed. Good sound, nice layout. I will own one of these one day. One of the things I liked about it is that the LFO has a pretty wide range. Other synths that I tried had less.

Great review! You covered all of my questions, really.

We were just using a mixing desk to run the signal into camera if I recall. For live, you'd want some kind of amp - Roland make a few decent keyboard combo amps - I dont know their names off the top of my head.

@0:58 are those strings made with waveforms or a preset?

could anyone offer me a contrast of this bugger vs. the JD-XI?? what will I be missing out on if I got the JDXI? i'm leaning towards it because of the drum machine capability mainly.

It looks and sounds excellent. I hope the alasing will be resolved by the time it releases. The GM sound bank is a nice touch!

Absolutely fantastic review

Excellent review !

Fantastic review. Many thanks.

i walked into a shop today and did the ultimate synthesist test. How easy is it to make a cool sound from a synth youve never touched before. Nord Lead 2x, Novation Ultranova, Waldorf Blofeld, and the GAIA. Needless to say i was totally at home with the GAIA inside 10 minutes and it is now sitting on my studio desk right now. Its the most intutitive synth ive come across.

Just ordered one of these :D Can't wait 'till it arrives :D

I'm looking into getting one of these to also use as my MIDI keyboard, how would I swap between the computer receiving the MIDI data and recording the synths??

@sonic Not being able to locate a dealer with the Gaia, Venom, and Ultranova which one would you recommend for a newbie at synths but wants something that will grow with my understanding?

How do you import the sound after you finished it to the virtual studio like Ableton, FL studio or Reason ?

How many patch storage locations are there? And how many phrase recordings can you have?

hey guys, wich synthe do you think is better, Roland Gaia or M audio Venom???? please help me.....

what can this do for dubstep? I've got some guys asking about playing synth for our band and I want to know if this can drop some heavy bass

does this roland have a standard piano voice? is it heavy or lightweight?

can you sequence this synth from your computer DAW?

Great demo and great piece of gear for its standing. Can you connect an additional midi keyboard and assign two different sounds to both simultaneously?

Around 5:04, probably the coolest sound I have heard from this keyboard. Time to do that on my A6!

excellent review, is it possible to loop in the built in recorder or does it just play through the sequence once?

can you split patches on the keyboard?

just ordered one of these oh god i cant wait to play it along with my korg m50!!!!!!!!!

Awesome review man, kinda reminds me of the ARP Quadra. I do have a question though, does this synth have more than one oscillator per synth or do you have to use more than one synth in the Gaia to get like fourth and fifth monophonic sounds? Cheers mate.

another great review!

@sonicstate, thanks for this review. I'm stuck between this gaia, ultranova, and the m-audio venom. for a total newbie, which would you recommend? the vocoder for the ultranova is a plus, but both of the others seem really good too. have any advice?

also can you sync the effects level with the lfo?

Nick, thanks again for an informative synth session. I have one question: can this synth be used as an audio interface as you are suggesting at 10:12? This is not featured in their specifications. Thanks in advance for your reaction & keep up the excellent work! You and that Japanese guy (too bad he's not subtitled) rule the tube as it comes to product videos. Cheers from Belgium, Van.

so whats the better synth today for the same money?

Great review! How would you compare the gaia to the ultranova? They are of course very different synthesizers, but what would you prefer?

very nice review:) im just wondering, could you please tell me how to use the tempo sync buttons?

does the phrase recorder quantize note data?

Fantastic review. I've a Slim Phatty and I play it throug guitar (GK3+GI20). I need a keyboard controller. But I really don't know if I buy a simpler Akai MPK25 (I use live and already have a APC-40) or If I buy a Mopho KB, the SH-01 or wait for the minibrute (I saw all your review). I don't know if gaia is fat enouth (I use synth bass lines). Could you help me?

Great review as usual, thanks very much :-)

Can I get the same sounds in a Roland SH-201?

i don't know wich to buy im about roland gaia sh 01 and roland sh 201 which of them u think it's better anyone who could ask my question

im looking into buying one of these..looks awesum fun! quick question tho.. what sound system setup would u recomend i play it through to get a decent live sound? in other words, what were you using? :)

7:15 I think you forgot it's a digital synth :) I do really love your reviews though, it's good how you go through all the functions of the synth.

Very well done ... loads of information!

does it have battery? does it have external speaker? like our phone...?? thx :D

I use a Traynor K4 Keyboard amp for live shows when using the GAIA. About $900+tax, for 300 watt amp, including a 200watt subwoofer - massive sound. You can also switch between tube amp and solid state with the click of a button. It's a bit expensive but it really does justice for the synth.

what about that "bit crash" distortion mode?

@V100BB by cheap synths do you mean stuff like this one? What have you got? :)

What would be better this or the microkorg

Which is better, SH201 or SH01Gaia?

Sorry if this is noob, but this vs microkorg, which one would be better for a beginner?

again another awsome demo well done....i gotta say i was told to hang on for this by a good guy in a manchester music shop......wow..........i was guna buy the korg r3 or microkorg, or miniak........got to say miniak was the best sound and microkorg for vocode.......but the GAIA what a machine......10/10...just wish it had vocoder...the sound is awsome

brilliant review :D

Very good review...:)

@WoodenToaster No they ditched that with the change to fewer keys (no doubt to move in on the small synth market set by Korg with Microkorg and R3), and the change to 3x 1OSC layers instead of 2x 2OSC layers. Both makes sense to a degree - more portable and easier to edit. So they took a different path with this, for both good and bad.

@dana4261 61 keys? And you're planning on pressing each of these 61 keys at the same stime are you?

how many presets?

@TotallyNuss didnt understand ur post sry..do u like the gaia or not?:)

Thanks for preview

great review

addendum: i mean can i use it as a soundcard for softsynths?

@spudleyification tap the tempo out...you have a tap tempo button, also you can set it to midi sync

oh boy, just got an interest in this piece and thought for a second that Bit Crash effect read Brit Crush, guess somebody gonna go make some money off that one lol.

HI, Thanks for the the vid! Which is better This or the virus

Good review! And I liked your brother in Shaun of the Dead as well!

this is fucking amazing. when is it coming out to sell? i live in cali

@Envergure even most of the portable analogues and even a lot of modular synths are subtractive models, an additive or fourier synthesis requires at least 512 separate sounds, controlling those via individual dedicated ADSR envelopes gives you a total of 2048 parameters, so analogue synths capable of additive synthesis have to be very complex. AfaIk the only synthesizers capable of additive synthesis are digital ones.

Took a run at my local gearstore tuesday last week. Despite it being plastic, it feels quite robust and nice. And while it's shaping up to another synth everybody loves to hate - not because there's anything wrong with it, it's just not a 20 year old Roland analog, ergo "crap" (does that then apply to Access Virus too?) - it sounds really nice and warm for a VA! The effects section is REALLY good! And all in all a super choice for any1 wanting a well sounding, easy to use, VA!

Where is the chorus FX?

It was fun! We need more new synths with this many knobs & ease of use. ;)

not too many physical synths have both super saw and pulse waves. im sold on this synth! altho, i wish it looked more like the sh-201.. i think the gaia is kinda ugly.. but, its a synth so its not what it looks like.. its how it sounds!

great vid. cheers

Is there anyone who has compared GAIA with microkorg or Korg R3. I need a very friendly but powerfull synth but I still can't decide. Thanks.

I am a Minimoog fan, not a Minimoog widow... I loved this stuff!

This is a serious bit of kit. Miles better than previous vas like the SH-201, jp-8000 etc. It has all the great new features and it doesn't break your back when moving it. I loved old analogues and some digitals like the JD-800. This synth blows them all away. The tweaking feel good factor just goes on and on. You can dial up great sounds from nothing, just like on a prophet 5. Only,10 times more complex and with effects. There are also several performance controls and beams which are fun, but which cloud the issue, really. This is basically a programmer's dream. Simple, effective and great fun. When working with the 3 osc separately, you dial up stuff worthy beyond a matrix 12. It is a well made synth but the build isn't strong. It won't take heavy knocks, not that any synth will, really. I can see these becoming classic and sought after when Roland pull the plug and return to making sound packed romplers again.

the layout is really nice!

how can the sound of a video about music stuff be crackling i gotta ask.

Also, it doesn't really stand out much in this video, but I found the low boost to be pretty impressive in person. It's limited in some ways, but I feel like it's one of those things where the limitation forces you to be creative. I haven't wanted a new Roland this badly in... well, decades, probably.

LOL I've owned this synth for over 5 years now and didn't know about these hidden settings. I really should learn to RTFM 🙃

@Keybern where do you read me saying this thing is analogue?

the sh-201 , the Gaia and the System 1 aint the same at all but they got huge classic soundpatch's that bring the exact cloned sound then the OG synth IMO . it's tru that sometimes some patch 's spund more like the synth sounded on the CD but that more the sound designer fault .

Sonically, this synth reminds me of a Novation K-Station which was released how many years ago?

That credits music is insane!! What is it?

Very cool thanks for sharing 👍

love the design of this, makes a refreshing change to not have any lcd screens

@SilkMeatball it loops...i use it to have it running in a sequence then create a synth sound to match the seq up.

@sonicstate i wasnt meaning that to be harsh! from the looks of it, it's got the same core programmable architecture as the SH-32 does / did - with a third oscillator - and adding some things that the SH32 didnt have (the keyboard, obviously, and the D-beam) and cleaning up the 32's rather cluttered interface a lot!

Not a bad synth you can get some nice dxish progressive pad sounds scapes from this. using the 3 filter and 3 amp envelopes for each oscillator. Its a shame about the waveforms sounding so thin thou.

how much € ?

oh gawd thats another beauty. Is it cheaper than the SH-201? If it is i might save up for this instead. Only starting out with synths, so it seems good.

Love the review. Tremendous way to demo a synth. I feel Roland have been losing its vision since the XV series. In my opinion this synth is closest to what Roland does best. It is the ideal first true modern synth for anyone to play and learn how to program and is better than a Korg or Yamaha in this context. Roland has a tendency to be gimmicky but there is more meat than cheese here, finally! I wish they would continue in this direction. Did I mention how much I enjoyed this demo?

You're right! But Mopho fascinates me, and the minibrute too. I wonder if buying the MPK takes me a half money yard away from this synths. I wanted just one keyboard at the stage. By the way, I think I'll get the MPK because it is very usefull... and will keep the Mopho dreams quiet. Thank you!