Vintage Digital & Analogue Studio Effects
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The Roland SDE-1000 represented Roland's entry into the affordable Digital Delay market and it brought quality effects for all of us. The Roland SDE-1000 Digital Delay is a high quality 12 bit digital delay machine with various attractive features including chorusing.
Roland dived into the effects world with a string of great product, the Roland SDE-1000 was their third entry in the world of digital delays, and it brought with it affordability with a great feature set.
The Roland SDE-1000 Digital Delay uses a 12bit system with a less than CD sampling rate, which yields a lower frequency response than CD and is part of the reason for the sonic signature of the delayed signal.
Roland in fact developed and released the SDE-1000 and SDE-3000 together, and both machines are clearly the exact same electronics in terms of converters and sonic performance.
The difference between them is in the memory capacity, and the SDE-3000 has double the memory, plus the display on the front being more informative on the SDE-3000 and more of the controls are stored in the memory of the SDE-3000.
The Roland SDE-1000 sold for US$499 upon release, and the SDE-3000 sold for US$1099, a hefty price to pay for the extra features.
Released: 1983
Quantization: Unknown
Sampling Frequency: Unknown
Frequency Response: 10Hz-17kHz
Dynamic Range: 80dB
THD: Below 0.08%
Signal to noise: 80dB
Maximum Delay Time: 1125 msec
Delay Time Range:
Dimensions: 482mm x 46mm x 310mm
Weight: 5kg
Dry Vocals
50ms Delay, Feedback 0, Modulation Rate 5, Depth 3
150ms Delay, Feedback 0, Modulation Rate 5, Depth 6
Guitar Dry
50ms Delay, Feedback 5, Modulation Rate 5, Depth 7
100ms Delay, Feedback 5, Modulation Rate 5, Depth 6
500ms Delay, Feedback 0, Modulation Rate 0, Depth 0
100ms Delay, Feedback 0, Modulation Rate 0, Depth 0
100ms Delay, Feedback 5, Modulation Rate 0, Depth 0
Guitar Dry
150ms Delay, Feedback 5, Modulation Rate 0, Depth 0
120ms Delay, Feedback 3, Modulation Rate 4, Depth 4
Community Score
USERS
(3 Reviews)
By Chuck
When the SDE-1000 came out it was a revelation. It was an amazing piece of equipment for about $350 when Lexicon and others were selling their DD’s at twice the price. Using this amazing piece of equipment was a joy. The chorus was luxurious and the delay was absolutely mind blowing. I didn’t modulate that much so I can’t speak to that but this was the piece of equipment that blew open the venerable doors to fantastic equipment at an affordable price. Kudos to Roland!
By Cardioid
When I received this delay, I was in heaven. I sat there for days on end with a guitar and played rhythmic textures with the delay providing dotted or triplet accompaniments. I was so intoxicated that I could not leave it alone for more than a few hours.
When I received a synth with sequencer later on, it became even more addictive. I loved the solid feel of the delay and ease of operation far better than the one-box-does-it-all approach of later generation effect boxes. There was only one point to complain. The programmer, which only includes 4 storage buffers, does not remember the modulation settings, only if the modulation was on or off.
I though that was a serious oversight, greatly reducing the usefulness of the programming feature. Other than that, it was one of my favorite pieces of equipment for many years (which is also what lured me into writing this review). Well done, Roland. The next box by Roland providing this much excitement was the venerable SRV-2000.
By Michael Behringer
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COPYRIGHT © 2014-2021 VINTAGE DIGITAL | ECOMMERCE WEBSITE BY RETAIL LABS
ALL IMAGES ARE THE COPYRIGHT OF VINTAGE DIGITAL AND CAN NOT BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION
2 Responses
When the SDE-1000 came out it was a revelation. It was an amazing piece of equipment for about $350 when Lexicon and others were selling their DD’s at twice the price. Using this amazing piece of equipment was a joy. The chorus was luxurious and the delay was absolutely mind blowing. I didn’t modulate that much so I can’t speak to that but this was the piece of equipment that blew open the venerable doors to fantastic equipment at an affordable price. Kudos to Roland!
Hey I’ve had the SDE 3000a and 1000 for a few years and I just use the mixed outputs, can anyone tell me what and how the send and return feedback loop is for?
Also the playmate output and the modulation CV outputs?
Manuel only says it’s used for a wide variety of effects.
If the play mate output can be used for changing times what kind of pedal do you use etc?
Please help fellow delay enthusiasts:)
Mikeo