Roland

K-25M keyboard enclosure you’ll
have no pitch or mod wheel facility. I
hope Roland launch an SE-02
specific enclosure, with proper pitch
and mod wheels to get around this;
perhaps they could put a
rechargeable battery in there as well!
Of course, if you’re using any other
MIDI controller with wheels, you’re all
set and most parameters/dials
receive/transmit MIDI CCs too.
It’s amazing how much Roland/SE
have crammed into the available
space. There are 37 dials, 15 flick
switches, 22 multicolour backlit
buttons for sequencing and parameter
selection, a two-digit red LED for
patch numbers/parameter readouts
and function selection (with scrolling
messages for longer function
descriptions), plus a red LED for
tempo and a green LED to show that
the envelopes are being triggered. The
switches all feel solid, though the
knobs are of the plastic shaft type
and have some give. I was worried
that they would be hard to use
Now for the very well-featured
sound engine. Firstly the Oscillators
section. There are three very stable
and nicely fat/precise-sounding,
temperature-compensated VCOs, with
an auto-tune function that pulls them
into line if they drift out (you can
force tune the SE-02 when in Patch
mode by pressing Transpose/the Value
dial). Each VCO has six MiniMoog-
style waveforms (a throwback to the
MiniMoog’s front panel) and VCO2
and 3 can be detuned against VCO1
to add richness and beating/detuning.
These are wide range oscillators that
have footage options from 32’ to 2’,
plus each VCO has a ‘Lo’ option so
accurately due to their small size and
close proximity to each other but they
work okay, though it’s quite easy to
knock neighbouring dials when
tweaking. For performing, you’ll find
classic control onboard including
glide with linear and exponential
modes, octave up and down buttons
(with a large +/- 3 octave range) and a
‘wheel mix’ dial that allows you to dial
in how much of the LFO and XMod is
triggered by a connected Mod wheel
over MIDI. Under this dial is a
clickable value dial used for quickly
scrolling through parameters and
patches and for saving – something
I’d have loved on my JD-XA!
THE SEQUENCER
Everyone likes a decent sequencer onboard their synths, but not all sequencers are created
equal and many don’t offer adequate functionality. The SE-02, however sports an excellent
sequencer with plenty of versatility. The only real downside is that it’s limited to 16 steps
– but with its versatile features, you can get some continually evolving results happening.
You can lock one parameter to each step, change the first/last step for different feels and
fills, change the scale, add shuffle, mute notes in and out, change gate time, add glide,
change the direction of play (forwards/backwards/forwards-backwards/random) and you
can key-trigger and key-transpose your sequence on the fly (using the K-25M keyboard
only currently, not over
MIDI). Also you can store
128 sequencer patterns
onboard and build 16-part
songs from them, with 16
songs in total available
onboard. It’s basically an
MPC-style song mode
where you insert patterns
into your song and tell the
SE-02 how many times you
want those patterns to
repeat. Once again, I’d love
some of these features on
my JD-XA. Finally, let’s not
forget that the sequencer
sends out MIDI and there’s
per-step trigger out too.
THE ALTERNATIVES
Novation Bass
Station 2 £399
This fat-sounding
25-note synth from
Novation features a
two osc + sub osc
DCO engine, two
LFOs, aftertouch and
velocity, a sequencer,
and a versatile
multimode filter.
https://uk.novation
music.com
Waldorf Pulse 2
£377
This is one great-
sounding DCO-driven
desktop synth that’s
super portable, with
a powerful mod
matrix and
multimode filter,
plus 8- and 4-note
paraphonic modes
for chord playing.
www.waldorfmusic.
com
Moog Mother-32
£609
Featuring a single
Moog VCO, this
semi-modular
desktop/rackable
synth has the classic
Moog sound coupled
to a dual-mode Moog
ladder filter (LPF/
HPF). Includes a
32-step sequencer.
www.moogmusic.
com
Sonically, it’s quality and can
go from warm and smooth
to harsh and aggressive
Reviews | Roland SE-02
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FMU322.rev_roland.indd 84 08/08/2017 14:04