Cherry Audio launches SH-MAX plugin combining three classic 1970s Roland synths

Cherry Audio launched SH‑MAX on February 11, 2026, shipping a software instrument that blends three classic 1970s Roland designs into a single plugin for macOS and Windows. Priced at $59 and listed as available from Cherry Audio’s website and authorized resellers worldwide, SH‑MAX supports mono, duophonic, and 16‑voice polyphony while, in Cherry Audio’s words, “captures the bold sound of the SH‑5, while incorporating features and aesthetics from the other models.”

At the core of SH‑MAX Cherry Audio centers the SH‑5 (1976) architecture: dual oscillators, two tempo‑syncable LFOs, ADSR envelopes, dual‑parallel multimode and bandpass filter sections, a five‑channel mixer, ring modulation, and sample & hold. The new plugin also folds in SH‑7 (1978) functionality such as autobend, duophonic operation, filter FM, and syncable VCOs with extra waveforms, plus an additive/divide‑down style oscillator drawn from the SH‑3A (1975). Cherry Audio additionally cites expressive touch from the SH‑2000 (1973) as a design influence.

Cherry Audio built modern workflow features into SH‑MAX alongside the vintage circuits. The onboard sequencer is explicitly inspired by the System 100 Model 104 (1975) and is syncable to project tempo; Gearnews highlights that the sequencer can also send MIDI notes to a DAW timeline. The plugin responds to expressive performance input, with Gearnews noting that “SH‑MAX responds to polyphonic aftertouch, which can be assigned to a number of parameters. Almost every aspect of the synth can be assigned to automation, and the synth’s built‑in sequencer is syncable as well as having the ability to send MIDI notes to your DAW’s timeline.”

On the front panel and feel, SH‑MAX offers three retro interface themes styled after the SH‑3A, SH‑5, and SH‑7, plus optional vintage controls that add drift and slop to oscillators, filters, the amp, and dual envelope generators. Gearnews reports more than 300 built‑in presets at launch, and a 100‑preset expansion by James Dyson is available for $9.99. Cherry Audio emphasizes that SH‑MAX “honors its lineage while taking full advantage of modern software capabilities, supporting mono, duophonic, and 16‑voice polyphonic operation for rich chords as well as earthshaking unison timbres.”

Cherry Audio’s engineering approach is framed as meticulous. Dan Goldstein, Cherry Audio’s Chief Technology Officer and the “driving force behind the DSP of the vast majority of the company’s instruments,” told Attackmagazine that their process is hands‑on: “What we are trying to do with every one of these is turn every single knob and move every single switch and every single slider and figure out exactly what’s happening internally with the circuitry, and measure what it does to the sound, so that we can replicate that. It is first and foremost a very tedious and frankly boring process a lot of the time. It is not exciting work.” Attackmagazine adds context on the era: “Big and beefy, these early analog monos were more like American synths than what we would come to expect from the clean and polite Roland of the 1980s.”

SH‑MAX follows Cherry Audio’s recent Mercury‑8 release and continues the developer’s string of vintage Roland recreations. The new plugin packs the SH‑5’s distinctive oscillators, SH‑7 modulation and duophony, SH‑3A additive character, an expressive touch layer, and a Model 104‑inspired sequencer into a single, DAW‑friendly instrument.