via this auction
"The Roland SH-3A is the best way and cheapest way to go if you like that 70's Roland Sound and classic styling and cant afford a Roland SH5, System 100 101/102 keyboard and expander which are the only other synths in the Roland family that all share the same styling
The Roland SH-3A is a synthesizer made in 1974. It is actually one of Roland's first analog synths and is distinct from all other analog synths for its ability to do additive synthesis, allowing the layering of five of its oscillators/waveforms. Though the oscillators cannot be independently tuned, just the fact that five waveforms can be layered, and at different levels, makes for a distinct and fat sounding synth. Along with this are several other features which set the SH-3A apart from other synths. The ability to use two independent LFOs (including sample and hold) to modulate the VCO, filter and VCA allow it to sound more like a modular synth. In fact the circuitry of the SH-3A was later used in Roland's System 700 and System 100 modular synths and they all share a very similar sound. There is also a nice sounding PWM (chorus) control on the 8' waveform and both white and pink (rare) noise for those old school synth swooshes a la OMD in "Electricity". Also the SH-3A contains several expressive controls like the glide button and built in ADSR curves allowing quick programming of bass, brass or lead sounds at the turn of a switch. The 24db filter (called "growl") is rich sounding, can go into self-oscillation at high resonant levels. Overall it's an extremely nice, organic sounding filter. Also the envelopes are super snappy -- this a real, discrete analog synthesizer we are talking about here!!! sample and hold function is my favorite
The Human League used the SH-3A to great effect on their first two albums Reproduction and Travelogue, and Vangelis and Kitaro have used it live and in the studio.
analoguesolutions offer a modular mod for the SH3A for only GDP149 installed (CV (1.2V/Oct), Gate, VCF CV ins. LFOx3, EGx3 CV outs. VCF audio in. VCOx4, Noisex2 audio outs) link here"
