Roland SE-02 Review - Sonic LAB 

Like an idiot I sold mine and now I miss it everyday. Probably gonna buy another soon. It just sounds so good, and the x-mod + noise + feedback + delay feedback gives you some gnarly sounds. Almost Ms20 like.

Dorian James But Arnold has only said that in a couple movies....

9 times, not including variations. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27ll_be_back

Dorian James i thought i was the only one who waited for it.

Personally, I was waiting for “sing song harmonics”

Lol

❤👍🏼

ha yeah

yeah put me off instantly shame as the synth has great potential

Do you mean that the knobs are wobbly?

That knob wobble is downright scary. C'mon guys, for months all I've heard is how the build quality will be so much better than Behringer's offering. Haven't noticed wobble like that in any of the Behringer D videos. Just saying!

May be it's due to it being a demo unit ... ?

What is the other type of band beside a song band?

@@s3nsec0rruptr80 Rubber band

@@s3nsec0rruptr80 rubber

Hi, is this one better or tha actual little keyboard they have is better ? I am guessing this one is because I can hook it up to another one of my 88 keys and get more notes ? Thanks

I have two - on one of them the some kobs have a way better feel than the other, for some reason. Both function/sound the same, but one has a better build quality than the other.

mark aprill Good. I am considering getting one. The knobs on the D 05 feel weak.

@@josephwright5921 knobs on the D-05? did you mean the little joystick? i've had my d-05 for a while now and my only complaint is that tiny little joystick. It's never felt loose, It's just too tiny for subtle changes in partial balance

love my se-02's (i've got 2). Se-02 blows away all the other boutiques and volcas. Only prob is the stepping on the filter.

I've been seriously considering one of these

Mine has very wiggly knobs, but it doesn’t bother me

I’d love to hear the result

xD

i LOLd

Yes. Quite funny. I had to replay it a few times. LOL. I can't stop laughing.

Saw + ramp = PW, yes, but only as long as the oscillators stay in sync and you only modulate the phase - when they are detuned, they'll eventually and inevitably drift to the point of cancellation, which PWM wouldn't (unless you turn the knob "to eleven")

Sort of , but only limited and fixed depth, I did try it (after reading your comment) and it sounded OK but not quite the real deal.

You're right. It's definitely not as controllable as it would be if it had a dedicated function for it, but it is real though-zero PWM, which is uncommon, and you still have another oscillator to stack with it. It sounds great with a pulse or saw wave paired with it, and it gives you sounds you wouldn't otherwise have. It's a work around for any synth with a Saw and a Ramp and no dedicated PWM control, so it also works on a Minimoog, and its clones.

Dropping in to say that SE since made an update that adds proper PWM as a per-patch setting and it sounds rad.

I’m trying to decide between this and a Pulse 2. Any thoughts from your experience? I owned an SE-02 for a while and sold it, now I miss it everyday. Can’t decide if I’d be better off with the Pulse 2 because of the amount of features it has. I do think the SE-02 sounds a little better.

Smart guy I wouldn't use that peice of crap to wedge my door open with

Sam Lowry It's a budget Mono, though. So there are going to be SOME limitations.

Too bad for you, sausage fingers.

I'm seeing the same thing. It looks like interlacing to me, but usually that's constant throughout a video. It seems to cut in and out on this one.

It is interlaced video after compression for yt. No idea why they did it like this and then didn't deinterlace before finishing.

pcuimac Yes i know what you mean. I like the waveforms on dreadbox stuff. They have alot of personal character.

Strictly speaking about oscillators when comparing analog vs digital by such people usually shows a large degree of ignorance as to how signal path functions. The way the cumulative envelopes, filters, VCAs, etc. (even mixers) all function and sound varies widely in the analog domain and is not necessarily easily reproduced in the digital domain. Likewise, you will never get the sound of high quality transformer tubes via analog compressors etc. through any plugin, no matter the processing power.

LOL. The reason the waveforms look like that, is because there is a high-pass filter either in the synth itself or somewhere between the synth and the oscilloscope. It's most likely in the synth to correct for DC offset, which will help minimise unwanted clipping of the signal. The "LOL" isn't because you're not aware of this though, it's just that analog isn't better, just different, and in any case, we're at the point now where good VA should be practically indistinguishable from real analog. That doesn't mean this is always the case. It doesn't help though that people like to compare apples to oranges. Someone will pick some random softsynth, and go out of their way to tell the world how its sound is thin and crap, and junk compared to their Minimoog, and declare digital/virtual analog/VSTs are a waste of time. Every synth is different though, a Korg Minilogue doesn't sound like a Minimoog, nor does it sound like an Oberheim OB-X. Even with VSTs, something like Massive doesn't sound like Repro-1.

Niten Dōraku . Very true there are many elements to an analogue signal path which will overall shape the waveform before it even reaches the VCA. Or sometimes even the VCF/s .

Good VAs model the imperfections.

Well it's good for Behringer.

Behringer quality going up?? - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Gmdnby0dPco.html

The "knob wobble" on the SE-02 is no worse than the "slider wobble" on every Deepmind 12. There were people who got the DM12 and the first thing they had to do was open it up to connect the keyboard ribbon to the main board. That guy is 0 for 2 on the new DM12D. "Behringer quality is going up" is something yet to be seen, IMO. That particular tree is full of cherries to pick.

Better than paying more for less. Roland are using cheap parts as well.

Robert Saint John incorrect.

can kutlu Only the 'tented' knobs are wobbly. But it isn't a deal breaker. I love my SE-02. All other knobs feel solid.

it's because they are made to be operated by tweezers or chop sticks not actual real sized hands

It does sound good. Really good. I'd still get one despite the knobs and routing/sequencing limitations (if I were on the look for a 3 osc. monosynth).

They look like the exact same knobs as the ones on the JX-03, which I have, and those are rock solid with absolutely no wiggle. Not sure why they look so unstable on this one.

can kutlu try the unit in a store to make your final judgement. I have had this unit since launch and im not worried about the knobs. Yes there are a couple of wobbly knobs but the build quality is solid.

Agreed, I have a black Keystep and love it as much as it is possible to love mini keys, but I would sell it in a heartbeat for a Keystep Pro with 49 full sized keys (also in black color please, Arturia!).

minikeys on the keystep are great! what about a black version with 61 minikeys (same keys as the existing version, they are great) and real mod wheel and pitch wheel, and a few knobs of maybe some touchstrips ...keep everything else except the sequencer and add some stuff from the beatstep pro..like the 16step buttons and some basic sequencing functionality. and a CLEAR SEQUENCE BUTTON!! in one sentence. Take away the pads from the beatstep pro and add 49 or 61 mini keys...call it KEYSTEP PRO!!! thanks

Nicholas Bryant This is a review for the SE02, not the Keystep. You can control it with any midi keyboard or synth you want. Doesn't have to be the Keystep. What a weird comment.

Facts. With polyphony and quarter inch jacks!

hmm, thats very odd, It didnt disply those issues on the check we did here. Sorry about that

Luckily your excellent review is only really affected by this in the beginning of the vid, when you turn the knobs. Thanks for all the great reviews and previews! :-)

Electric Hillbilly KORG did it on the Minilogue.

Depends, I personally like to have the unit around for at least a couple of weeks, so I can tinker with it now and then, with a few deeper sessions. Then when I feel I "get" it, I'll start the camera rolling.