Edirol SD-80

I use this unit as a GS-MIDI module to do small gigs together with a Roland GS-64 Expansion module. I have about 200 GS-midi's that also operate the vocalizer, reverb, chorus, and guitar-effect processor. It was a great disappointment to me that this unit has only a small GS soundbank and a huge 'native mode' I can't use unless I reprogram all my midi's, but in that case my GS-64 won't work anymore, because of the different commands.
I found the manual not very easy, still don't know how to get a second drumkit on channel 11 in GM2 mode.

128 voice polyphony.

Most of the GS sounds are far inferior to the GS-64. Bad piano's, laughable acoustic guitars, thin electric guitars, dull snare, thin TRS808.
The cymbals and hihats are good. The GM and Native drums are similar bad the GS kit is the less worse drumkit I can live with.
Volume balance is also very different compared to other soundmodules so I had to remix a lot of files.

All Roland gear seems very reliable to me.
The blue display looks cool but is heardly readable on stage. Anyway don't need it since all gear is controlled by the midi sequencer/player.

I wouldn't buy another one. It's only together with the GS-64 that I get a fat sound. I do music gigs now for 40 years and 8 years with MIDI.
I like the GS-64, only the cymbals are synthetic and 'thin' sounding.
There aren't so many compatible GS modules than the Roland ones otherwise I have to reprogram my midifiles to get the right sounds.
I often use two drumkits the same time and that makes me stuck with GS.
I wished Roland had made it more backward compatible and had the number of the GS soundpatches as least the same as the SC88.
On the other hand there aren't that many professional 19" GS units and all Roland units sound about the same.

I used this module with Mac OS 9.2.2 with Cubase 4.1. I bought thos unit and returned it the following week. For some reason, Roland decided to omit the acoustic bass #33 that plenty of programmers used since the first SoundCanvas, and now have a bass patch in it's place that sounds like the left hand on a Rhodes. Since I have tons of songs that needed the original bass sound, this module was no good for me. The manual and editing are pretty easy on this, but the SC-8850 with it's screen is WAY easier.

This thing has lots of features. The sound is overall very good. The drums are better than most drum machines. The cymbals, as in all drum machines I've heard, are only okay. The strings, synth-bass, and organs are top rate. The acoustic piano is okay, but not outstanding. If you are just starting sequencing (you don't have a custom library built up) or you want some extra sounds, this is a good module. It just has no acoustic bass sound that's usable, that's all. The unit has a good high end transparancy that's very good. There's some nice air in the sound, it's way less grainy than the stuff that came out before the SC-8850 and it's siblings.
Also: This could be a major flaw for some people. It has no user memory, every time it powers up is resets to factory. So all your tweaks need to be stored via sys ex if you're into that. The SC-8850 has user memory, so you can turn it on and play.

This would be great for anything you didn't need a "normal" acoustic bass sound on. Like for funk, rap, hip hop, it'd be great. If it had the ol' patch #33 acoustic bass I wouldn't have returned it. All the features that are normally adjustable with the SoundCanvas line (velocity, note limiting etc) are there, and it comes with a decent editing program. The SC-8850's screen is way easier, though.
This thing sounds clean and clear. The high end is so hot I was actually able to roll off some of the highs on the channels it's on, so the hiss ended up being very acceptable.

All this Roland stuff is what I call "Bic lighter - technology". It's crappy, light plastic that, like the new cars I hate, seems to work flawlessly to my amazement!
I shake my head and this stuff keeps working.
That being said, you're nuts if you don't have a backup.

Roland is a huge company, and don't assume the people you get in touch with are really experts. With this type of stuff I figure you're really on your own after you buy it. I contacted them a few times and they were only sorta usefull. Don't count on them, you've got to figure this out yourself or by asking around.

As I said, it took me about an hour to pack this thing up and send it back. It sounds great but by eliminating acoustic bass patch #33 they lost me.
I found a few other people on the internet who said the same thing. When I contacted Roland they said the "SD" meant it was no longer a "SoundCanvas", so that the sounds were different.
If you don't need that patch, I'd recommend this thing. The overall sound is fantastic.
A used SC-8850 is by far a better way to go. Or the SC-8820 or SK500, all from Roland and all discontinued.

If users want to use all of its ability, it may takes around 1 week to understand its various functions. Owner's manual book is required.


My aspiration behind buying SD-80 is to play midi karaoke files. At first I thought its sounds were quite dry, not depth as much as it should be. However, when I learn more how to adjust, my karaoke experience with SD-80 is more enjoyable !!!

The design is quite modern, totally different from the previous model like sc-55mk2, sc-88pro.

This feature involves a lot when I make a decision to buy it or not.

GS sound 6/10

GM2 sound 9/10 ( It is the best-ever with jazz songs)

Native sound 8/10

XG sound 7.5/10


All the sound packed in this box are excellent !!, except the drum set in classical and contemporary mode. the drum in classical and contemporary is not a good choice for rocks.

However, solo and enhance mode is the best choice for jazz songs.

Like the other models, when I close the song immediately, some of the sound in each part might still run. Then I need to switch-off this unit to reset it before playing another song.

It takes 4-5 days to get answer back through e-mail

Only classic song and jazz song is suitable!!! Nice sound, modern design. A little bit disappoint with the sound for rock

The manual didn't give much help in editing and creating patches. However, messing with it I got the hang of it.

128 note polyphony is cool. The multi fx are wild (like the guitar sounds!). The drums will plow you rump. The "silent bass" could blow your speakers if you aren't careful. The solo sax patches will make you wanna go date your wife again. Having 128 places to put your own patches is terrific. My mom was listening to a clarinet solo produced by this machine and she thought it was real.

No good brass or strings unless you carefully edit and make your own patch. The piano is better, but needs to be edited. The user area took a couple of months to perfect, but I'm happy with the sounds. The factory guitars are very realistic.

I use it in my studio. I don't travel with it.

Hard to get answers. I've been trying to find out how to store FX, modulation and other stuff. I finally gave up.

I'm glad I got this machine. If I could have afforded an XV5080, I would have rather bought one of those. But, can't complain too much. For the money, I'm satisfied.

Im running OSX 10.3.8 and I had no problems with the set up, although I had to download the drivers from the website, that wasnt a problem at all and it integrated perfectly. I havnt edited anything yet because i just wanted to have a large library of sounds quickly to accomodate my set up. Since im using a Powerbook, the CPU wont be able to accomodate huge numbers of software synths and so this was very good for using as backing tracks etc. The only negativity is that the screen is abit hard to see sometimes.

Polyphony is 128. you can also put effects like chorus, reverb which is again useful if u want to save CPU power. There is no expandable options but its great for what it does. Just a bunch of sounds, integrates perfectly.

In general the sounds are pretty good. I wont go far as to say that this machine would rival a Yamaha motif or Triton extreme, but pretty close for the price you pay for it. Piano as mentioned above isnt that impressive but u shuld use a softsynth or Motif for really high quality synths. but overall the sounds are very useable, bass guitars, drums are also very good.

very reliable and my one was a multi-voltage unit which is very useful if u travel around alot. Hasnt broken or any problems, ive had it for 7 months.

havnt really dealt with them so i dont really know. But i refered to their websites alot which was very informative.

if it were stolen, i may buy another one, depends on my money circumstances. If i had the money i would buy a Yamaha Motif-Rack ES but this may be a more cost-effective option.

Its pretty straight forward though Im using OSX 10.3.5 and you have to download a driver from the website. But besides that it integrated perfectly with my Logic setup.

128 polyphony, though i havnt used it that much to really test the polyphony....so cant really comment.

Pretty decent sounds although the Piano is not impressive. A very good array of sounds, like a good general collection but if you want a specific sound, say a really good piano sound, then u shuld get a software synth or something but in general the sound is good.

decent, hasnt broken or anything.

Well i havnt contacted them but edirol has alot of updates etc and good help on their website.

it helps with my composition and if it got stolen, i would buy another one.

I use this sound module to play back midi files from
sonar(2.2XL)Once you load the instrument list into Cakewalk the rest is so easy.I've started converting all my midi files into Native mode.Wow!What a difference.I don't do very much patch editing since in Native mode you have over 1300 sound.That's plenty for me

The polyphony is 128 voices,more than enough. It has built in effects that you can edit from the software editor.Again very easy once you know how to do it(Roland's owner 's manuel always tewll you you can do it but most of the time you have to find out how on your own).It has two midi outs and 2 ins plus USB connectivity.Very usefull

I found the instrument very realistic(specially in native mode the enhance or special sound are awesome)We play every kind of music from oldies to rock and this machine makes some of my musicians friends envious. We don't use the effects very much since we use the sd-80 for our back-up music.My wife plays the keyboards and I play the guitar so we apply effects to these instruments.

It's a Roland. That should tell it all. Very reliable. We use it for gigging without a back up and I'm not worried at all.

I.ve dealt only once with Roland in the pas whe I bought few years ago and SC-7 second hand. I've sent them an email asking if I could get an owner's manual(I was willing to pay for it) they told me It was not avilable anymore.Three days later got a manual with no charge.

It it was stolen I would buy one right this minute.It is worth every cent I've paid for.I've been playing for about 25 years mostly in a duo.Our set-up is this one Soar 2.2XL on laptop computer>Edirol SD-80>Yamaha EMX 2000(200 watts per channel)into Pulse 600 crossover>PW 600 watts subwoofer and pulse TL 12 speakers(250 watts) wich give us about 1000 watts wich is more than enough for our venues.My wife has a XP-80 and EM-305 both Roland keyboards and I have a US Stratocaster and a Hamer Duotone that goes int multi-effect pedal into the board.So we have a ver ynice and clean sound.

Overall, the access through front panel is quite easy. Variables and parameters can be quickly changed through a dial knob. However, the LCD display has a very narrow angle of view, making it very difficult to read from different angle(I have to adjust everytime whenever I'm standing or sitting).
It comes bundled with ONLY 1 SOFTWARE: SD-80 editor, which takes time to learn to use it. Software doesn't come with manual either.
It seems that they're assuming all of their users are expert.
Manual is not very helpful.

Polyphony is outstanding, I haven't had any problem with it yet. Plus, its USB interface implementation is excellent.
I haven't explore all of its feature yet, but again the difficulty of use and the lack of manual support has hindered me. Maybe fellow user of SD-80 can help me to find the tutorial on how to explore the capabilities on this module.

Overall, the native instruments have excellent sounds.
But I am very dissapointed with the piano sounds, especially when played in GS mode. The piano sounds very unreal. My Sound blaster Live armed with piano soundfont can outperform this module easily.
Even though Edirol claimed it as a GS compatible unit, it only has limited compatibility with previous Roland module. MIDI files that has been arranged for SC-88,SC-88 Pro,SC-8820 & SC-8850 will not playback properly on this unit (will result in missing instruments and effects). If you are looking to use this unit to playback your old GS MIDI files, better find SC-8820 / SC-8850 on ebay!

I would say this unit is very reliable. I haven't notice a single glitch or technical problem since the first day of use.
The build is very robust and neat, reflecting its Japanese-quality build. Looks nice and stylish on my desk. It has optional metal pad to use it as rack-mounted unit.

I once e-mailed their technical support, but never got any reply since.

I regret that I have dumped my SC-8850 for this unit.