Roland SBX-1 Sync Box Preview
Roland has been pretty busy this year with the release of their AIRA line, new guitar pedals from BOSS (their sister company), and new portable electronic drum kits like the TD-1K. While all of these new products are certainly exciting and generating a lot of buzz, there is one offering from Roland that could see a lot of use on stages and in studios. The Roland SBX-1 is a synchronization box that allows you to connect your digital and analog gear all together to a master clock. This has obvious benefits for the AIRA line of products, but this is also a great little box for anyone looking to get all of their synthesizers, drum machines, and even modular systems all synched to a master clock. So essentially you can use the SBX-1 as the master clock, or as a central MIDI hub and use any one of your hardware pieces or computer as the master clock. In addition to being a hub and MIDI master clock, the SBX-1 has features for improving your existing instruments. One feature I really liked was the shuffle button. This trigger helps to add a little bit of swing to your instruments which is great on something like the TR-808 which does not have swing built into the control. This could be a fun experiment on your synthesizers or other MIDI controlled instruments and devices as well. You can select between an 8th note or 16th note swing pattern, but if you are experiencing issues with the timing, you can use the SYNC button to get your source synced back to the master clock. There are CV/Gate output jacks on the SBX-1 so you can control the tempo of your analog and modular synthesizers from the SBX-1, or your computer if you choose that as the master clock source. MIDI notes and CC information are converted into CV/Gate information so you can control some interesting parameters. One last feature to note is the LFO. You can create LFO signals in the SBX-1 that are synced to either the internal clock or tempo from an external source. You can register up to five types (three types with Aux) of different LFO settings and output these as CV signals simultaneously from three channels (CV/Bend/Aux). You can also register up to five types (three types with Aux) of different MIDI notes as trigger settings and output these as gate signals simultaneously from three channels (CV/Gate/Aux). Needless to say, the SBX-1 will give you many options for not only synching your MIDI controlled devices, but also providing dynamic performance control with CV/Gate and LFO options. The Roland SBX-1 is set to be released later this year and retail for around $499. If you have any questions or comments on the SBX-1, feel free to post them in the section below. For a great selection of Roland gear be sure to visit UniqueSquared.com. SLAM!!
