Roland SE-02 Review – Sonic LAB

Roland SE-02 Review – Sonic LAB

The Roland Boutique Designer Series SE-02 analog mono synth
made in conjunction with Studio Electronics – a three oscillator monosynth with 24dB ladder filter, delay, sequencer and USB audio.

Check our Awesome MAX4Live Synth: http://bit.ly/wavejunction

Subscribe to Sonicstate on YouTube for new content!
http://bit.ly/SonicYTSub

Watch Sonicstate’s Exclusive Series:
Sonic LAB: http://bit.ly/SonicLab
Meet The Makers: http://bit.ly/SonicMakers
Sonicstate Performances: http://bit.ly/SonicPerformances
Sonic TALK Podcast: http://bit.ly/SonicTalk
NAMM 2017: http://bit.ly/SonicNAMM2017

Website: http://www.sonicstate.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/#!/sonicstate
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/wwwsonicstate
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/sonicstateuk
Podcast/iTunes: https://goo.gl/4uOFA5

50 Comments

  1. Ruxi Wang on November 4, 2021 at 8:44 pm

    oh i love that old-man dance music outro.

  2. Ari SYM on November 4, 2021 at 8:45 pm

    The *_Micromoog_* *_Model_* *_R_* !

    Sounds great and I love that it’s possible to store/load presets. If you are in a song band, maybe it’s the perfect budget minimoog-ish for the stage.

  3. Nick Kaniak on November 4, 2021 at 8:46 pm

    the knobs wobble….

  4. Adam Griffiths on November 4, 2021 at 8:49 pm

    I’ve watched lots of your videos and they’ve been helpful and informative. I’m also not normally pedantic but please, please it’s MOCKED not MIMICKED. Mocked means take the piss. Mimicked means copied.

  5. Vurt_NexusMods on November 4, 2021 at 8:52 pm

    Doesn’t even track over 1 octave for me, even after calibrating it.

  6. Seekthetruth3000 on November 4, 2021 at 8:53 pm

    I love synths with a lot of knobs.😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

  7. Okan Gon on November 4, 2021 at 8:53 pm

    what a waste of a great effort by a silly form factor.. why does it have to be so small, charge $50 and build something adult size.

  8. My Mockumentary on November 4, 2021 at 8:54 pm

    urgh… wobbly knobs….

  9. Thom Broom on November 4, 2021 at 8:56 pm

    at 20:14 electronic music at its roots…thanks Nick…

  10. DK on November 4, 2021 at 8:58 pm

    Can you please just make sure your vocal and your synth are at the same level.

  11. Troy Franklin on November 4, 2021 at 8:58 pm

    such a poor chord progression melody that was used

  12. Donald Metz on November 4, 2021 at 8:58 pm

    Mine came in the mail today….just getting my first hands on……im so green…..i play drums/guitar/bass/sing…… Been trying to build a little keyboard corner in my basement rehearsal hall… I have Soooooo much learning to do…..its crazy.

    327.00 delivered used off reverb

  13. Starship Ghetto Byrd on November 4, 2021 at 9:01 pm

    Liable to order one any day now….. awfully tiny, tho!

  14. Jason Perry on November 4, 2021 at 9:03 pm

    Has Roland forgotten how to make analog gear? It took BEHRINGER for us to get new decent affordable analog gear that pulls directly from Roland’s wonderful past. In this case, Roland brings in another company to design the SE-02. Seriously WTF?

  15. nickademuss42 on November 4, 2021 at 9:03 pm

    jiggly knob central, kind of ruins it

  16. Gdawg68 on November 4, 2021 at 9:05 pm

    The knob deal: they are fine, I actually use mine a lot. To solve the visual thing: use a sharpie and put a dot of=r a short line where the indicator stripe down the side is. Works great!

  17. FRED THE BASS PRO on November 4, 2021 at 9:06 pm

    So many joysticks could probably perform a fatality trying to dial in a patch

  18. John Adams on November 4, 2021 at 9:08 pm

    The small size of this synth is of some concern. Small Pots. SE has a thing for small stuff. I’m not much of a fan of 2 Osc sythns, but this synth sounds good, it has PATCH memory. Currently 399 at Sweetwater. I suppose a musician can work with this in their home studio, save patches, then take it out to a gig and play it through a controller or other synth. This is worth serious consideration for an inexpensive sound source to add onto another KB that can use some help.

  19. awpMusic on November 4, 2021 at 9:09 pm

    wobbly knobs have put me right off this

  20. Kevin Kirchner on November 4, 2021 at 9:10 pm

    this is awful to watch, listen and follow. why not really going into the machine, working with it, finding sweetness, preparing your clip show before again boring the world with the maximum unsexy? no machine’s so bad it would not deserve a little more attention and showtime stolen by an old lame loser telling the bottom what’s shit about shit. no one needs that..

  21. Jay Keel on November 4, 2021 at 9:10 pm

    I can’t believe SE put their name on this POS. My kids have toys with knobs that don’t do that.
    Shameful…

  22. Anders Svensson on November 4, 2021 at 9:11 pm

    Tiny Tiny Tiny !

  23. Sil A on November 4, 2021 at 9:12 pm

    Wow 26:00 , I know lots of people will often point to a sound and say "woah! boc!" but that patch right there was so boc damn

  24. Robert Michalscheck on November 4, 2021 at 9:13 pm

    Talk,talk,talk.

  25. Thom Broom on November 4, 2021 at 9:15 pm

    at 18:16 this made me by SE-02….love it…takes me back to Front 242 concerts in the late eighties…

  26. MP MI on November 4, 2021 at 9:16 pm

    So is this in exact a Roland minimoog?

  27. Josh Uhlman on November 4, 2021 at 9:16 pm

    Those knobs look like absolute garbage.

  28. alphabeets on November 4, 2021 at 9:16 pm

    Those waveforms don’t look at all like they should.

  29. Chaitanya Bhagwat on November 4, 2021 at 9:20 pm

    A firmware update brought a dedicated PWM digital LFO, controlled by the value knob. it’s more versatile than the xmod on osc3

  30. VR 4EVER on November 4, 2021 at 9:22 pm

    Those wobbly knobs though…..a Moog is build like a tank!

  31. MrMassproduce201 on November 4, 2021 at 9:27 pm

    Do the knobs send CC? I’m looking for an affordable synth that can double as a knobby midi controller

  32. Herman Simms on November 4, 2021 at 9:28 pm

    Great review but it’s a cheap knock off of Roland’s anolouge gear. I wont buy one it’s a Fisher price Mickey mouse toy. I’ll buy one if I see paul Hartnoll from Orbital recommend one

  33. Bobcatt22 on November 4, 2021 at 9:28 pm

    My Logitech joystick has not that kind of slop even after years of use. Is this a feature?

  34. Tulio on November 4, 2021 at 9:29 pm

    Now I am in a dilema… Behringer Pro-1 or Roland SE02 ?

  35. Xavier McCloud on November 4, 2021 at 9:30 pm

    I can’t see ANY reason to justify the price of most music instruments. it’s sad how grossly overpriced things are.

  36. buibuibui Estudio on November 4, 2021 at 9:30 pm

    Yo my dudes which is the better synth Korg Monologue or the SE 02

  37. Mikael Schloenzig on November 4, 2021 at 9:30 pm

    Can´t get over the fact how much "saw" on top you can hear(and see) in the squarewave mode and this one is so "sawsounding" it hurts ,old synths feels more true to a real square waves.Is it just me ?But a really dislike the fact that it sounds unclean and makes the sonic possibilities much "narrower" with being closer to a saw than clean square.

  38. Philip Tompsett on November 4, 2021 at 9:30 pm

    I still can’t believe that the finest and industry standard review channel doesn’t have a far higher subscriber count. It’s the ‘go to’ for serious reviews. Thanks for another fine example. Ordered one accordingly.

  39. seravenerdi on November 4, 2021 at 9:31 pm

    the knobs look very flimsy when you were touching them. Are the pot necks plastic, and not bolted onto the face panel ?

  40. Dream Logic on November 4, 2021 at 9:31 pm

    I really like this but I’m concerned about the 1/8" outputs. I think I will wait for the next model.

  41. Kornel Kabele on November 4, 2021 at 9:32 pm

    this is what you are waiting for (I presume your next question, as my next question is does it do pulse width modulation) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyqj-u6Kgms&t=21s

  42. bobbfett.musiclab on November 4, 2021 at 9:32 pm

    I still love my se02. The waveform and range knobs wiggle a little, but that’s because they go down to the lower board for technical reasons, they never felt unstable. I saw some guy showing stepping in some demo, looking closely, he had snap on in his daw, recording stepped automation, embarrassing, turn snap off please. You have to se it for what it is, they crammed in a minimog like, fully analog synth in a pocket format, that sounds really good, with patch memory and full cc control, wich is crazy achievement. They make a lot of fantastic euro rack modules, so they know what they are doing. They added pwm in a later update after this review, and some other features. I add an overdrive pedal sometimes for added warmth. If you don’t like the format, buy a mini Moog or a behringer, if you’re a keyboardist you won’t like this, the knobs are far too small, for my mini studio it’s perfect with the patch memory and cc, try to find that on a minimoog for this price, or at all. Just my 2 cents.
    Br bobb

  43. Nathan Lambertson on November 4, 2021 at 9:33 pm

    Mimicked for sayin those words? We love you, Nick.

  44. Sebastian Sundance on November 4, 2021 at 9:34 pm

    26:25 "I’m gonna get carried away there.." 😀 😀 😀 Please do, Nick!!! Sounded lovely!!

  45. ADSR Collective on November 4, 2021 at 9:35 pm

    great review – and awesome jam at the end too!

  46. Peter Walker on November 4, 2021 at 9:36 pm

    It’s a really nice bit of kit. Tim Caswell put so much passion into this thing, I think it’s his magnum opus.
    He nailed it!

  47. yiğit ersöz on November 4, 2021 at 9:38 pm

    nice shirt man

  48. Troy Franklin on November 4, 2021 at 9:40 pm

    Can it not be polyphonic with the keystep 37?
    or its just not capable. Maybe chord manipulation could get you there?

  49. Rhizosphere on November 4, 2021 at 9:40 pm

    Ridiculously tiny form factor, good if you’re under 12! Playing with one recently I found it impossibly hard to turn the tiny knobs with their tiny adjustments. Really hard to do a single adjustment, as turning one knob you rub against adjacent knobs. Look how big Nick’s fingers are up against the knobs. I reckon this would get really annoying after a while. Great shame as the SE-02 sounds great.

  50. turfoid on November 4, 2021 at 9:41 pm

    Its cute. I seen it up close. Very cute

Leave a Comment