Another day, another generously-priced software emulation of a vintage synth from California-based developer Cherry Audio.
Just a few months on from the release of Mercury-8, the company’s take on the beloved Roland Jupiter-8, Cherry Audio has unveiled SH-MAX, a new plugin that brings together elements of three more classic Roland synthesizers in a single instrument.
A series of vintage analogue monosynths released throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, Roland’s SH series kicked off with the SH-1000 in 1973 – Roland’s first synthesizer – and culminated in the beloved SH-101 in 1982. Cherry Audio’s SH-MAX looks between these two milestones for inspiration, capturing the “bold sound” of the SH-5 while bringing in unique features from two other SH-branded instruments, the SH-7 and SH-3A.
SH-MAX recreates the distinctive architecture of the SH-5 with dual oscillators, tempo-syncable LFOs and ADSR envelopes, and its dual-parallel multimode and bandpass filter sections and a flexible five-channel mixer are joined by ring mod and sample & hold functionality. This is complemented by features from the SH-7 – autobend, duophony, and filter FM – and an additive-style, divide-down oscillator lifted from the SH-3A.
Cherry Audio has nabbed a few more elements from other Roland instruments, including a Touch effect inspired by the SH-2000 that lets you assign up to four parameters from a choice of 47 destinations to an external controller with poly aftertouch, and an old-school four-channel step sequencer based on the Model 104 from Roland’s System 100. You also get Drift and Slop controls for the oscillators, filters, amp and envelope generators, designed to introduce analogue-style vintage character.
Unlike its hardware ancestors, SH-MAX can be 16-voice polyphonic if you want it to be, but you can also take advantage of monophonic, duophonic and unison modes. There’s a veritable buffet of effects onboard, spanning compression, reverb, distortion, delay, flanger, lo-fi, tape echo and more, all of which can be modulated and combined in four independent effects chains: one for each of the synth’s three signal paths, and one global master effects layer.
Cherry Audio says that SH-MAX is capable of producing “everything from massive leads and thick basses to lush pads and exceptional sound effects”, and the synth is packed with more than 300 presets to help you get started right out of the box.
In our review of Cherry Audio’s SH-MAX, we said the plugin “offers power, warmth, charm and usability in a highly convincing virtual analogue reproduction with real heart and soul”. “It's hard to overstate exactly how good this thing sounds,” the review continues. “It's deep and detailed, and has a unique sense of warmth, which you could clearly mistake for being real analogue, if it wasn't for the presence of a computer screen and a mouse!”
Available for macOS and Windows in AU/VST/VST3/AAX formats, Cherry Audio’s SH-MAX is priced at $59.
Find out more on Cherry Audio’s website or check out a walkthrough video below.
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