Did Roland Just Release a New Analogue Synth?!

US Yes - Roland SE-02 in Collaboration with Studio Electronics 20/06/17

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Our synth sense was tingling pretty hard this morning when we woke up, so we decided to do a little digging and came across this new analogue synth from Roland and Studio Electronics.

The SE-02! A collaborative effort from Roland and well respected analogue manufacturers Studio Electronics, the SE-02 is the debut product of the new Roland Boutique Designer Series and its analogue!

This monophonic synthesizer engine features three VCOs and a 24dB low pass ladder filter... Nod to the Mini for sure, though not going as far as the Behringer Model D in terms of livery. And of course by the looks of it, a more flexible voice architecture with some additional cross mod (osc2 filter, Osc 3-> Osc 2, Osc3 -> PWM) and dedicated LFO plus the on board delay and of course presets. Plus a 16 step sequencer.

The surprising is that although the SE-02 takes the form of the Boutique series, inside is all discrete analog electronics, rather than the DSP based ACB system of the other Boutiques.

Now Studio Electronics makes some really tasty synthesizers, see our Boomstar reviews for proof, so we really hope that they bring that skill to this collaborative product. Can't wait to try this out.

The words Boutique Designer Series, also seems to imply more to come. Which is interesting in many ways., traditionally Roland being a non-collaborative type of organisation - well until they did the System 500 in conjunction with Malekko.

The SE-02 is listed at $499.

Discrete analog circuitry with knob-per-function interface
Three voltage controlled oscillators with six waveforms
Temperature-stabilized oscillators with automatic tuning
24 dB low-pass filter and dual gain-stage amplifier
Three types of cross modulation (XMOD), feedback loop, and noise generator
Tempo-syncing LFO with nine waveforms
Tempo-syncing digital delay with bypass to maintain analog signal path
Save and recall sounds with 384 preset and 128 user locations
Musical and intuitive pattern sequencer with song mode
Sequence notes, gate time, glide, and synth parameters
CV, VCF CV and gate inputs, plus trigger in/out
External Input for routing audio through the SE-02's filter section
Standard MIDI, USB-MIDI, and USB-Audio
Create a polyphonic synth by using Chain Mode to connect two or more SE-02s together via MIDI