Jon Holland - Soft Landing (Roland GAIA Demo)

LIKE: JonHollandMusic
A "LIVE IIMPROV" on the Roland GAIA SH-01 Synthesizer using the built-in Arpeggiator. (This is a digital synth that does a nice Analogue Emulation) ALL sound is coming live from the keyboard and it's built-in effects. I did no preparation.......just a rough 5 minute plan of what chords I might use...and off I went to hit "record". I kept thinking of the movie "IINTERSTELLAR" for some reason the whole time I was doing this.

[@JonHollandTV]

Still love this synth for what it is. Every synth seems to have SOME use. You just have to want to dive deeper. Thanks for being here and listening. :) A crazy amount of cool tools coming every day in hardware and software. This IS the golden age of the synthesizer. What synths are you guys diggin' these days and why? - J

[@aubrey5495]

so warm and chill vibe love the posibilities of gaia1 ,and you played it so well x

[@tapetwo7115]

I love this. I cannot believe i discovered your youtube channel until now...I still to this day listen to the Vectorman soundtrack. Only so many composers knew how to really make good sound on the Genesis. Thank you for everything.

[@bangerbangerbro]

Yeah I've definitely searched him before but never found this YT channel for some reason. It was only this time that I searched for an interview (looking for a 1995 one I had read before that was on some basic html site) and found one from 2013 that pointed to this channel. The 1995 one actually isn't an interview of just him but a few people at blue sky about different elements of the game. In the 1995 interview he says he used GEMS himself but in the 2013 one he says he just did the composition and passed it to someone else to set it up with GEMS.

[@JonHollandTV]

​@@bangerbangerbro Hi Guys. Thanks for the support. :) I don't really want to start a game music discussion but just to clarify.......(not sure how you interpreted the "2013" interview) I did in fact create the entire music soundtrack and all of the sound effects using GEMS on MSDOS/PC (to create and program the Sega Genesis "sounds") "and" a Mac Midi Sequencer (Passport Master Tracks Pro....as I recall) as the Midi Keyboard "front end interface" and composition tool . I probably used some preset FM sounds that were already in the GEMS sound patch library (thanks Jim Hedges and Sega people) as a starting point to make my own sounds. I was mostly on my own after Sam Powell at Blue Sky showed me how to use the system. I think most game composers for Sega Genesis were working this way. This video explains things perfectly: KZbin - "How to make Sega Genesis music (in 1994)" Cheers, -J

[@zalternative1]

@@JonHollandTV I swear FM Synth suits Vectorman so damn hard. I also found out recently that you actually didn't even use the PSG channels from the sn76489, the FM channels juggled all of the instruments alot. Was this a design choice to exclude using the PSG channels?

[@verisimilitone]

Lord do I love arpeggiators; makes any jam session grounded. Fuckin' love the progressions you chose. Forever will love the genius behind Vectorman and Ms. Pac Man

[@BarryGrueter]

Yeah for sure, sounds great 👍 thanks for sharing 🙏

[@Heyjonjohnson]

Just bought a Gaia yesterday, I have wanted one ever since I saw them back when they first came out. Great example of what can be done using just the instrument.

[@JonHollandTV]

Thanks Jon. Just a small example of it's capabilities and tone. Alot of bang-for-buck here. :) -J

[@SheerSonic]

So pretty, sounds like you're floating adrift in space. Always love hearing updates from you Jon, still surreal to see someone who created some of my favorite childhood music still in their element, doing what they love. Inspiring, and always cool to see your process. :)

[@JonHollandTV]

Thank you honestly. Hang in there.....to paraphrase the Daniel Day-Lewis movie: "There Will Be Music". :)

[@LarsenEirikMiinea]

I am four years late but it is beautiful. It has an oddly warm tone for being such a dated digital Synth (albeit Virtual Analog), nowadays the difference doesn't exist anymore, but for the era in which the GAIA came out here it is not obvious, tone that I haven't heard in any other demo of the same Synth which was also discouraging me from a possible purchase... It would be a gift for a special person. I would be curious to know how it fares even for more extreme sounds perhaps even running it through effects such as saturators of various kinds... In short more experimental and less conventional uses

[@dwaynecarroll6098]

Beautiful! It always amazes me when people dis this synth. It’s a very capable creative tool.

[@dwaynecarroll6098]

This is outstanding!

[@closystem8]

I love this magic sound! Roland GAIA SH 101 is a little gem , never leave my studio...I own others synths, big monsters as Prophet12, Accelerator, Nord Lead4, Rolands, and a lot of semi-modulars Moog and Dreadbox, modular synths...but this little beast sounds great I love it forever!

[@danwilson6849]

Love it.

[@Numocron]

Wow man this is so cool I love it. :D

[@wavester46]

This little synth was released during the boom interest in analog synths and was put down for being digital sample based but it really is a great tool for learning about synths and can produce some interesting sounds. I like to midi it to different analog synth then it really shines because they compliment one another.

[@retavlika]

Magic music

[@AquariusC]

Awesome stuff :)

[@JonHollandTV]

Thank you for checking it out! :)

[@jojo1865]

this is truly bueutiful

[@JonHollandTV]

Thanks....my therapy for crazy times I guess....lol...Cheers - :)

[@jeroenfigee]

Put a trumpet in there and you got a Mark Isham track :-) I'm thinking; Vapour Drawings . . . . Really cool track. Enjoying that synth a lot, and it is packed with options. Got mine a few years back. . Thumbs up + subscribed.

[@shin-ishikiri-no]

Melodic and interesting. Wondering when your album will be on the market. I'm quite shocked that you aren't on SoundCloud.

[@Apegacorn444]

you demonstrated the capabilities of the roland gaia so perfectly! i am fully persuaded to buy one after seeing your video. only problem - costs about $1100 in my country... is it worth it? i dont have an income at the moment :/

[@JonHollandTV]

I think it is a very useful instrument and it's design is very well thought out, especially for what I paid a few years ago. (Around US$600 as I recall) It makes sound design fun and quick. (Very important factors for me). A few new polysynths in that price "range" have hit the market in recent years that may offer an alternative for you. check out....(Analog) - Korg Minilogue XD and Behringer Deepmind 12. .......And digital/ virtual analog: Modal Cobalt 8 and Argon8.....also....Korg Wavestate and ASM Hydrasynth (Amazing but more money)....check them out. I don't regret my purchase of the GAIA...it has it's own sound. I hope that helps a little. Good luck. Cheers - J

[@Apegacorn444]

@@JonHollandTV thank you so much! im off school for a while so researching your recommended polysynths will give me something to do. Yes, the instant accesibility to sounds and creativity really drew me into the gaia, I totally agree with that. Thank you again!

[@ConwayBob]

@@Apegacorn444 -- I hope you find a nice Gaia SH-01. I've seen them go on Facebook Marketplace and eBay for as little as $400 in the USA. Shipping could be a problem for some of them, though.

[@wavester46]

Save up for a ASM Hydrasynth and maybe try and pick up a Gaia on the used market.

[@krel3358]

can you tune your music to 432 hz?