Roland RS-101, SH-1000, SH-2000 and SH-3A, Contemporary Keyboard 1975

Roland (from left to right) RS-101, SH-1000, SH-2000 and SH-3A synthesizers from inside front cover of Contemporary Keyboard magazine November/December 1975.

Scanned from the second issue of Contemporary Keyboard, this is one of Roland's earliest ads from the magazine, and includes four of Roland's 1973-75 collection of synthesizers/string ensembles.

It also features Roland's first free demo record - something I've never been able to hunt down, but have this inkling an MP3 is sitting out on the interwebz somewhere. If anyone has an idea where I can get a copy, please contact me.

One other thing that interests the amateur graphic designer in me is what looks to be latin text below the record image at the bottom of the ad. Looking similar to the 'lorem ipsum' text often used by computer layout artists as a temporary substitute for real text (so the client will focus on the design), similar 'lorem ipsum' text was apparently included in the Letraset catalogs of the 1960's and 70's - often used by advertising agencies in print layouts for the same reason. Did they just forget to replace the text? Or maybe the ad agency thought the relatively low-res printer would keep the text from being legible?

But I digress.

Vintage Synth Explorer has some basic reference material on the SH-1000 and SH-2000.

The site also has information on the SH-3A, which, according to a quote on Synthtopia, was put into the market after Moog sued Roland for the original SH3’s filter design.

Surprisingly, there is just bits and pieces of information on the RS-101 lurking around the Internet, even at the usual synth hangouts, but you can find the instruction manual at the Roland Vintage Gear Manuals Web site. In fact, take a look at this site for a wack of different user and service manuals. Great stuff.

BTW, Sound On Sound has a great article on the early history of Roland online. Definitely check it out if you haven't already.