Roland CDX-1

Would be easy to use if it worked

Has a multitude of effects and a number of mastering functions

The onboard effects are very good

No this machine has never worked properly. The disk drive has problems that will cost you time and crash continuly

Customer support recommended trying different brands of media. I've tried them all, the disk drive in this unit is not dependable.

No the drive problems render this product unuseable

EASY SMEASY. I got used to it and nothing else works as it does.

I take some time to add to reviews for this reason. I did try to get support from Roland and it does depend on whom you speak. This is completely unacceptable for a company that is rolling in our money. Even when I found someone who helped with replacing the drive, that was as far as he could go. They have really turned a nasty blind eye to customers burned on this lemon and I will never forgive the company.

I took it to a Roland recommended repair first and they kept if for MONTHS and didn't do a damn thing but charge me. In a major metropolitan area?? Then I called a Roland guy who basically said of course you could replace the drive itself and there wasn't much to it and THERE AINT A three year old could unscrew the screws and repace it. IF the first Roland answer guy would have told me this I would have saved a few months. However, now the unit will not read RW discs so is basically worthless. Does anyone else know what this is? I will try to hold the blood pressure again and take it to another repair.

By the way about Roland. I also have a "vintage" Steinberger with Roland synth controller and called about one of the synth inputs not working up to par and any suggestions. The dumbass told me to just take it off and get another controller. This is a customized installed at factory controller. Glad I didn't take his advice as these are selling for bongo bucks on e bay, especially with the original, irreplacable 24 pin control cable. Another person told me when I found the original synth controller that was "All I needed. You're ready to rock." I was too green on synths to know that this was a conroller only with no synth tone.

I still keep it and use a Korg D3200 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED as a slave. This still is a quick way to set up ryhthms and all the fanstastic stuff it can do.

once learning the vs and mpc fuctions and partially reading the manual you are a pro

its pretty good all the internal funtions are good the only problem i have is, once you bounce something you can raise or lower the combined sounds so with the finished product you have to rerecord something that you bounced over again

every type of music can benefit from the effect funtions and good sounds that roland in known for, but another problem i have is with mastering, the masters come out some what bassy, and its hard to keep a level sound from song to song even if you input the same mastering levels for those songs

now here is my biggest headache, THE DISC DRIVE IS A PAIN IN THE YOU KNOW WHAT!!!! after hours of recording when the era,s start theres no way to stop this cd eater. After trying to format disc you might get 1 out of every 5 to work properly ,and i said might, and the cd drive also works in slow motion once it passes a certain point when creating recording

they were helpful on funtional problems

i already did and that was a BIG mistake because of the disc drive .ROLAND usa IF YOU EVER SEE THIS REVIEW LET ME TELL YOU , YOU REALLY HAD THEM ALL BEAT WITH THIS PRODUCT, IT HAD EVERYTHING , MASTERING, PADS FOR SAMPLING, WAV COMPATIBLE,TRACK RECORDERING MIC INPUTS BURNING CDS,EVERYTHING , I VE OWNED EVERYBODY STUFF , AKAI,KORG,EMU,ETC, EVERYBODIES CRAP AND YOU HAD THEM BEAT ON PRICE CAPABILITIES EASE OF USE EVERTHING ,BUT I THINK IN YOUR HASTE TO BRING IT TO MARKET SO QUICKLY YOU SLIPPED ON THE DISC DRIVE MANUFACTURER. WHOEVER THEY WERE THEY PUT DIRT ON YOUR GOOD ROLAND NAME , PLEASE MAKE ANOTHER PRODUCT JUST LIKE THIS BUT WITH A MORE RELIABLE DRIVE AND YOU GOT A REPEAT CUSTOMER . (maybe the cdx2)

I have recently done a Midi sysEX operating system upgrade to version 1.5 for my Roland CDX-1 disc lab.
I have been recording audio since my school days back in the early days of MIDI(1984) and i have grown up learning how to use Analogue 4,8,16 and 24 track reel to reel tape machines with old fashioned sync'ing , tape hiss, dolby noise reduction, and whatever else made tape a blast.
THese days i have used ProTools, LogicAudioPlatinum4.6, as well as a Roland VS-880 which i sold off when i got a new MAC a few years ago, So in 2002 i found one of these at my local Long and McQuade music store in the second hand area, even though it was basically brand new, even at that time. So i bought it for $800 Canadian, and i feel that it is definitly a unit where the sum of all its parts adds up to more value than the unit itself, or something like that.
I also scored a 128MB dimm card for $35 canadian, so the unit works amazing for sampling and especially for using the Mastering Effects processor while mixing down.

mono X 8/ stereo X 4
Built in Effects, YES it does!!!! killer 24 bit effects, the insert effects resemble the algorithmns from the Boss VF-1 half rack multiFX processor(Orange Box) with 200 patches in the CDX-1, loads of COSM modelled amps, speakers, and tone warping vocal multi fx, stereo patches, instruments, bass guitar modelling, acoustic modelling, I am totally pleased with the quality of effects onboard, i use the POD XT, and the Korg Kaoss Pad 2, as well as the Line6 Filter Pro as my outboard effects processors, so when i am praising the Roland effects processing, i am comparing them to my above mentioned units.
Midi extensive!!!Velocity sample pads,
Onboard 4 track phrase sequencer

the Multi track part is suitable for any kind of music,
the sampler section is useable for music, radio and video production

I have owned it since 2002, so far so good, I do take care of it, updating the operating system whenever updates are available, and all that jazz.

Roland was pretty good about taking my calls about Ram upgrades, OS updates and a few other questions that i sent their way.

It is was lost or stolen i would be sad, since it is part 8 track digital recorder, part audio sampler(and derived from the sp808 sampler) plus there is the Amazing effects processors which i find it hard to live without these days, even though i have an assortment of top grade FX units.
I love packing it up and taking it with me someplace, practically a portable studio, with midi sampling(128MB worth of sampling!!!!)

I compared it to the Roland SP-808ex E

Ok bought this product new. Fresh out of the box. Never had trouble in the first year of use. I do not use the PAD funtion and probably could not if i wanted to , the manual is not much help. I have recorded 3 full CD's using this machine. Each one came out with awesome sound. I had a 4 track analog recorder and it was a piece. Overall this machine is pretty simple to use.

The effect are great, i mostly like the vocal effects. You can do some crazy stuff.

I dont know about others but i have done some really nice acuostic stuff with the Roland. As for my electic guitar stuff it never seemed to give me the depth i wanted in the music. I changed guitars, amps, pedals I even got my hands on a Gidson Les PAul 1972. Still the depth was not their. I edited my brains out. I tweeked the EQ and still was not satisfied.

Ok this is where I have something to say. DO NOT BUY THIS PIECE OF CRAP. I have had media erros all ove rthe place, I have formated CDs and reformated. i have lost countless hours of work due to ERRORS. Its not so much when i change disk, but in the middle of a project. Forget saving crap when that happens. ITS ALWAYS FATAL. I have used it for 3 years now and am almost ready to burn it. I might try swapping drives with a pc drive if I can find on compatiable. IF anyone Knows if this can be done Please let me know.

I never calle them, guess I should. but from what i have read its almost worthless.

Overall this unit can do some great things when it works. But who wants to put a lot of work into something only to have it lost in a seconds time. THis Unit is crap, and the makers should be sued for selling a defective product. I dont believe that they never had problems before they sold it. I think they wanted to get the first chunk of money outa the consumer. This was almost the first stand alone unit with a built in CD drive. SO they got us all........never again ROLAND.....never again

I've had this thing a year and still haven't once been able to multitrack. However, when I had it functioning better, I loved being able to record direct to cd in realtime from the pads and inputs. I've gotten some great recordings out of it and I do love it, but yeah, I too am having the disc drive headache.

I love this compact, all in one design. I don't think we'll see another like for a long time to come... I just hope the next one is better functioning. It may be time to go the MPC route. However, now I got a Fantom X7, so I can wait. This thing is a DIY'er's dream come true when it actually BEHAVES. If they make a better model of this I'd buy it.

This was my first instrument with real effects and that alone is one reason I'll always keep it. The sound quality is above par. I've had this as a live instrument for a year and I love tweaking effects live.

This machine has FUCKED me on some GOOD recordings. The disc drive SUCKS and mine is making these awful crunching, grinding noises. Time to send it in. I'm not happy. But if it can give me another year, I'll be happy.

Haven't done so yet, but I'll update here once I do

I think I'm gonna get an MPC next. Akai is the company to beat. I still love ROLAND, however. Ever since getting my first dinky Roland MS-1 in 1996, I have loved this company's instruments.

I wouldn't recommend this machine. I spent hours on a project, then had quite a few disc errors, and lost much of the work. (I read this forum too late)

In addressing some other problems seen posted, when recording over tracks, you may get a "disk full" message. Make sure that you optimize the disk if you re record often. Refer to the manual for instructions.

I now need to figure out how to mix to a CD-R, the 'checking disc" message has been on for about 15 minutes.

Wouldn't replace it.

The CDX-1 is fairly easy to use but I read through the entire manual once before I attempted anything other than trying out the demo disc. They level controls are good and simple. IT's very easy to tell what tracks are active via the red and green lights. I like the ease with which you can apply effects. I'm a little put out that you CAN apply effects to the master (good) but I have not figured how to monitor those effects (bad). If there is a way to do it - I haven't found it.

Presets are good in my miniscule experience except that I have to apply noise reduction to quite a bit of input just to get rid of the machine hum. It's very easy to modify a patch for this work. Patches in general are easy to edit.

The manual is great until you want details on the mastering tools. It looks like the writers were up against a deadline and started summarizing. The index was very sparse. It was hard to find anything other than major functions.

Fantastic features. You can start recording and create and actual CDR from this machine. Recording is very clean. Rythym selections are beyond what I could ever ask for. Patches are plentiful. I love the automatic punch in functions. I can make a 5 minute solo seem flawless with that feature. It's to the point that I don't even put up with an iffy tone. All of features are easy to use after a quick trip to the manual.

I have been using this system to successfully record traditional Celtic music but with it's flexibility I have been able apply Rock and Jazz feels at a whim. The pad effects are chiefly responsible for that.

As I said once the machine records very cleanly but there is still a small machine humm involved. It's quite easy to create a noise reduction patch that eliminates the noise with a minimal impact to the performances.

Here is area where the CDX-1 gets blown out of the water. Disk errors. That's it in a nutshell. You must backup your discs! To me it's not a gamble about getting a show stopping media error. You WILL get it. I've lost many hours of great performances due to the CDX drive. I almost wonder why they didn't use the same drives that PC's use. The technology has been there forever and it is tried and true. This CDX-1 drive technology is hideous. On top of that there are no defragment commands available. That would be nice. IT would also be nice if the machine could isolate what it deems to be disc errors and allow the user to work around.

A disc error is almost always fatal. Very low marks for dependability.

Customer support is amazingly quiet about the major and well known errors with this system. They claim that I need to take the machine to an authorized repair center to have the drive looked at. Fine, I can do that. It's reasonable enough. What was particularly frustrating was that would not accept any responsibility for the horrible drives they installed on an otherwise great machine. Business is business. I don't suppose I should beat them up for speaking the company line as politely as possible.

If someone were to steal this machine I would say thank you, collect insurance then get some piece of equipment with functional disc memory. Since this was my first digital home studio, I'd say the experience soured me. I can't get the media errors out of my nightmares. DO NOT BUY THIS MACHINE! save the heartache. If you insist on throwing away your money I'll sell you mine. Works as good as the day I bought it. As for all the wonderful features, they mean nothing if I can't record. My overall rating reflects that.

By the way, I found that the TDK high speed discs fare better than every other brand I have tried. Not guaranteed to work but better.

I have it for about a month- If you used that type of hardware before,you should not have any trouble- exept trying to find right CDRW type and if you did trying to format that CDRW- I gave up and bought 2 formated discs on EBay, not cheap at $10 a pop-but it's all i need since it writes CDR's flawlessly-That would be the biggest problem with this unit still love the other things it has :)

must say exelent Cosm effects - sampling time is great-i have 128 RAM just took it to PC place and they tried several untill right one was found -128 mb is a must have !

I ran all kinds of groove boxes through it's cosm effects- good potential , once again you would pay good amount of money for that type of sampling capabilities...Multitrack is easy to work with

I gave it all 9 s for the lack of hard drive and painfull CDRW formating process- but it's a good thing - if it was flawless i could not afford it at $1,400 :(

Never had to deal with them exept trying to get manual- they suck at that, trying to sell you manual on the product that was sold once already - every one else has free PDF out there -shame on you Roland

If it were lost or stolen- Yes i would buy it again :)

this is an update to my earler entry. still having problems finding memory for cdx-1 unit oempcworld turned out to be a pain in the ars. they made me feel like a criminal and made the buying process seem like i was buying a skyscraper from donald trump. christ, the card was only 44 bucks. will try another vendor. i found high speed cdrw's at all places radioshack. x12 speed made by philips. a 10 pack was about 15 bucks. staples had the audio cdr's required to burn cd's priced at about 10 bucks or so for 10 cds. this unit CAN NOT operate at it's full potential without a memory upgrade. i will forever curse roland for this important oversite. so far 60 dollars down the drain and no workable memory. roland should re-emburse me the lost cash. if something is wrong with this unit, i will certainly make an issue of it with roland.

this unit should come with a free scrip of prozac, too many hard to find after market items, and from what i've read from folks on this site the cd drive is reject material. mine hasn't crapped out yet....but anything machanical has a life expectancy. large internal memory is a necessity. am i making my point here?

i've been heard to utter some pretty expressive sounds using this unit. they are,in fact, very realistic sounds too. the cdx-1 has alot of killer metronome clicks. i'm going to compose an entire cd from samples made from all of these choice metronome clicks. wow! ther's a grammy in them thar 'nomes. fortune is mine.

don't rely on this thing to get you up in the morning. (although i can count on it more than my last girl "fiend":)

i kinda wish somebody would steal this stinker, it would give me a good reason to shop around for something a lot better. the new tascam 24 channel digital recorder looks interesting and the price is right. i would like to hear about other peoples nightmares with this oversized paperweight. email me.

Pretty intuitive to use. Editing patches is easy. The manual is a good reference.

The built-in effects are pretty good. It can accept more memory. I haven't used the MIDI.

I don't have much experience, so to me it sounds pretty good after using a 4 track cassette recorder.

The unit worked fine for a about a year, with frustrating intermittent medium errors. It is indeed very picky about which CD-RWs you use. The problems got worse until now where all it says is "Reading Disc Information" upon inserting ANY or NO disc at all. This message continues forever. The unit does not work any more. I have seen many other reviews cite similar problems. I wish I had thought to buy something with a hard drive.

I called Roland once about the above problem, but the guy didn't know much about the unit and only suggested that I send it to them.

Would never buy another one of these. I want something with a real hard drive. I do like my other Roland products (drum machine, BOSS effects pedals).

I BOUGHT THE CDX-1 CHEAP(I GUESS BECAUSE IT'S A DISCONTINUED ROLAND ITEM) AND IT'S A GOOD THING(I BOUGHT IT CHEAP). I WOULD HAVE NEVER PAYED EVEN 700 BUCKS FOR THIS THING. CAN'T FIND MEMORY THAT WORKS. THE TAG ON THE BOTTOM SAID IT WAS A FACTORY REFURBISHED UNIT AND ROLAND COULDN'T EXPLAIN THAT.(I THOUHGT I WAS GETTING SOMETHING NEW HOWEVER, I DO HAVE THE UPGRADED SOFEWARE VERSION AND THE MIGHT EXPLAIN THAT). ROLAND WILL ONLY TELL ME THAT "HIGH SPEED" CD RW'S ARE NECESSARY(MAXELL SONY MEMORX ETC.) FOR TRACKING. RICOH AND MITUBISHI DON'T EVEN SELL IN THIS COUNTRY(USA). THE MANUAL IS TYPICAL OF ALL MANUALS BUT DOES EXPLAIN,IF READ CAREFULLY, HOW TO USE THIS UNIT. WHAT'S WITH VIDEO'S ANYWAY? CAN'T READ? THE PRESET GUITAR AND BASS SOUNDS ARE OK BUT DON'T THROW AWAY THE EFFECTS PEDEL(S). THIS UNIT WILL BE MORE THAN ENOUGH IF YOU DON'T HAVE ONE OR ANY. I RUN THROUGH A MIXER FIRST ANYWAY AND CAN ADD MORE EFFECTS IF I CHOOSE TOO.

AS I SAY BEFORE, DON'T GET RID OF YOUR PEDALS. HARD TO FIND MEMORY THAT WORKS AND HAVE TRIED TWO DIFFERANT CARDS NOW. MAYBE SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH MY BABY BUT ROLAND CAN'T EXPLAIN. THE FACT THAT YOU CAN EDIT WAV FILES ON THE UNIT SHOULD MAKE IT A BREEZE TO PLAY WITH. I WILL AGREE THAT THE 128MB OF MEMORY SHOULD HAVE BEEN ENGINEERED INTO THIS UNIT FROM THE GET GO, OR SHOULD HAVE BEEN OFFERED AT A GOOD RATE FROM ROLAND. ROLAND DID RECOMMEND A MANUFACT. FOR MENORY BUT THAT WAS AFTER THE FACT AND I MAY HAVE TO GO TO THEM (OEMPCWORLD.COM).
THEY(ROLAND) ALSO SUPPLIED THE SPECS FOR THE CARD WHICH WERE DIFFERANT FROM THE ONES ENCLOSED WITH THE CDX-1. NO COMMENT ON MIDI, I HAVEN'T TRY TO USE IT YET.

THIS IS GOOD ENTRY LEVEL WORKSTATION FOR ANY MUSICIAN IF IT HOLDS UP TO USE. BUT WAS PROBABLY DESIGNED WITH THE DANCE DJ'S IN MIND. THIS THING WILL SAMPLE, BUT ANY MIXER/RECORDER WITH CD BURNING CAPABLITIES THAT ONLY HAS TWO RECORDABLE INPUTS AT A TIME SPEAKS FOR LIMITATIONS. IF YOU HAVE A BAND, OP FOR A UNIT THAT WILL LET YOU GO AS HIGH AS 8 SIMLE INPUTS AT A TIME. USE ANOTHER MIXER IF YOU HAVE TO BUT THIS UNIT IS FOR THE SINGLE MUSICIAN. THE EFFECTS ARE "GOOD".

I HAVEN'T USED IT ENOUGH TO HAVE BREAK DOWNS BUT REVIEWS ARE NOT GOOD. I WOULD NOT USE THIS UNIT AS A RELIABLE RECORDER OUT ON A LIVE GIG. THERE ARE TOO MANY THINGS THAT APPEAR THAT CAN GO WRONG WITH IT.

ROLAND CUSTOMER SUPPORT IS SO SO. I THINK IT DEPENDS ON THE REP YOU TALK WITH.

IT'S A GOOD THING THIS A DISCONTINUED PRODUCT. I'M A LITTLE UPSET THAT I BOUGHT IT BUT I GOT IT ON THE CHEAP AND IF THE DRIVE CRAPS OUT AFTER WARRANTY IT GOES ON THE TRASH PILE. ROLAND MADE A BIG MISTAKE BY NOT INCLUDING THE 128MB IN THE UNIT OR BY NOT BEING ABLE TO OFFER IT TO THE PEOPLE THAT BOUGHT THESE(CDX-1). HAVING TO GO TO A DIFFERANT VENDOR FOR MEMORY IS, AS I'M FINDING OUT, AN INCONVIENANT NIGHTMARE. NEXT TIME I WILL BUY A DIFFERANT BRAND. ROLAND HAS LET THE PEOPLE DOWN WITH THIS STINKER.

never seeing a digital recorder before i was lost instantly, so i bought the 5 pack video which helped but the guys voice will put you to sleep. i still never fully watched all the videos but they where good

i couldnt get the midi to work which pissed me off, everyone i asked didnt know either.

i bought a dr-20 mic with it becuase it was suggested and me not knowing shit about this type of stuff paid 100$ for that mic and my vocals where shitty. i just paid 500$ for a audio-technica mic and when i plugged it in it sounded the same. i dont know if im doing something wrong but payin 1,200$ for a recorder and 500$ for a mic youd think youd get a more studio sound. ive heard a 2$ computer mic and song sound better.

always save everything. ive had medium errors on disks here and there. sometimes u get into a rhythm and when your recording your vocals and the disk will be searching for the spot your at and it takes a long time and u get frusterated. i dont have to many errors but it being a brand new machine i was pissed that i did have some. oh and the discs are expensive as hell, almost 10$ for a 5 pack usually

i looked online but no one knows nothing

im not satisfied with this product at all for the price i paid. it is a good product just not worth the price. if i had to again i would only pay 200$ for this thing

Totally easy, if you know how to work a four-track it will be a breeze!COSM effects are awesome for VOX or guitar. Get the 5 video manuals, it'll be twice as fast to learn. Look on ebay if Roland is out! :)GET THE 128MB DIMM!! you will get almost endless sample time!
they sell for $49. on ebay

COSM rocks and there are alot of use locations for your own EFX settings.sequencer is as easy as a groovebox (MC-505,SP-505,etc.)
Midi can control external midi units like drum machines,synths-
can also record midi from other synths!AND PLAY THEM BACK WELL!!

pads are cool, resampling w/effects is great,too
this is a well rounded unit, can be used with any style, I do
electronic/techno/EBM/synthpop so I record my synths-n-beats
then my VOX, a little sound effects, master, burn,done!! :)

I have heard alot about this unit crashing, but mine has not.FOR THOSE NOT INFORMED ABOUT DISCS FOR THIS UNIT, CHECK EBAY OR RADIOSHACK
I FOUND THE CORRECT KIND THERE FOR CHEAP! LOST SAMPLES??? MTC ERROR??
DUH!!!!!!!SAVE YOUR STUFF EVERRRRRRYYYYYY TIME YOU CHANGE DISCS!! EVEN
IF IT IS JUST TO CHECK DATA!! YOU WILL LOSE IT IF YOU DON'T!!!!!!!!!!

Roland rocks if you take the steps to call them,plus they have support
for all of those people who say their CDX-1 crashes. I am shocked that people are dissing this unit for missing/lost data. JUST BACK IT UP EVERY TIME and you will be happy. To save important samples just record them on a track and save it to your CD-RW, it wont lose that!

I have recorded my album for my band SEVERA. I have remixed my songs,
remixed other bands, sampled vintage analog synths, resampled them with effects, all on this unit!!!god it can do soooo much! CD burner inside is the best! Yeah, I would by another if this unit was stolen,etc. I have a ton of recordings on CD-RW's that would be collecting dust! Buy it for cheap and be successful!!!!!!!!!!

Unit is fairly easy to operate for basic operations. Layout pretty well thought. I don't want to get into this too much because it is overshadowed by the lack of reliability of the unit and/or media.

Should have come with 128 DIMM. Stupid to have to go buy it separately.

FX are pretty nice. Sound quality is probably fine although there is detectable digital sterility. Tube preamps etc. But again, don't want to get to far into this because a great sound won't do you much good when the unit craps out on you.

Completely unreliable. Disc errors. Medium errors. "Not CDRW" errors when it IS the correct CDRW and worked the day before just fine. LCD screen fragments into jumbles. Insanely picky about which discs work. Recommended discs are impossible to find in my whole state and can even be difficult to find on the internet (ie 2 bucks for one cd. 13 dollars for shipping. Yes you, Amazon.con.) Can't find the "recommended" discs anywhere. Does Mitsubishi even manufacture these?
Every time I sit down at this machine I feel like it is probably the last because I think it will die any minute. It's bad when you are actually surprised when it works properly.

Never called them because problems started the day after warranty expired, so what do I expect them to tell me.

Never again. Wish I hadn't in the first place. The thing is crap and I do know what I'm doing and I am using "the right cds". It would be cool enough if it worked, although even so, there are limitations of writing to discs such as limited space and not being able to use a track that corresponds with the sequence track you are using. This sucks and is very confusing.

All I want to say is at the end

All I can say is stay away from this machine. I've had mine for a year and it's getting it's third service on the Cd drive. It's just out of warranty so when it goes again there's no way im going to pay to fix it. I will never buy a roland product again . fuck you roland

I repeat STAY AWAY FROM THIS THING AND FUCK YOU ROLAND

Roland is a monster company. Great stuff, easy to use, and affordable. In fact, I love Roland stuff. But ... In December of 2001, I got a Roland CDX-1, a Roland Fantom, and a Roland drum machine. In that sixteen months, I've recorded thirty songs to final master on CD. The CDX-1 was, probably, the first of its kind to offer digital mastering tools, a built-in CD-RW drive, and a sampler. Since it came out, however, others have offered similar products ... Zoom, Korg, Tascam, etc., and they addressed a few problems of the CDX: it should have had a hard drive and more RAM. Also, you can't erase tracks. You can erase sequences and samples, but not tracks. And you can only record a song of about 23 total minutes, divided by the number of tracks you use. So, if you have a five minute song, you can only do four tracks (times five minutes each). And now, just sixteen months after buying it, my CDX-1 is kaput. Won't format or even recognize CD-RW's I previously recorded. Love Roland, but hate this.
Jonathon Burket

Presets are good for recording but a bit low for Master levels.
Since the music I make is traditional, I find very few uses for Patches.

Here is the failure of this device above any other. The disc drive has problems that seem to be chronic. One can never be sure when a medium error will occur - except to say that you don't have to wait too long. The medium error suggests that your discs are corrupted. I have had to many Medium error problems for me to believe this.

If you get a medium error. All the recording you did is lost. Try to use one CD rw per tune to minimize your loss.

I contacted customer support and they told me exactly what I needed to know even if it did not correspond exactly to the manual.

This thing is typical Roland. All of the buttons are function buttons. It helped to have a Boss JamStation JS5- this thing works similar. The manual is set up exactly like the Boss manual. If you understand the typical recording terms, this thing is easy to use.

It is very fully featured. The sampling station has permitted me to take samples from the internet and craft background tracks- and the 4 channel sample system allows more than one channel deep in samples. The COSM modeling is excellent, and the microphone and guitar filters and effects are very good. I do have to use a little pre-amp for the guitar parts to get enough volume, but that is no problem. I have not used any of the MIDI yet.
Recording to CDRW can be a little slow, but unless you are taking this thing on the road, it is not a problem.

I only record Rock, so the sounds that it evokes are perfect for me. The filter set is much larger than I though before purchase- I was pleased. This gives me the ability to apply delay and doubling for individual channels to give a nice fat sound.

So far so good.

I had to call Roland twice for a problem, and they were great. If you buy this unit, make sure that you get the correct CDRW media. Roland recommends Ricoh and Mitsubishi CDRW media- and Ricoh has just stopped making platters. Sony, TDK are the correct replacements, and you cannot use a platter with a length of more than 650MB. If so, then the features will not all work. Do not use Memorex or Imation media! It will not recognize it. When I spoke with support, they were great and I was not on hold at all.

I would suggest it to anyone that is trying to create music at their home.

I'm not an engineer of any sort but I found the CDX-1 easy to use after a few days. The manula has very little depth but walks you through common features. Same as every other Roland manual. Essentially you plug in a microphone, check levels & hit record.

I recorded a band using the CDX-1. I made sure I had enough formatted CDRWs, used 2 tracks per song (4 songs per CDRW) & had no troubles with the CDX-1. There's no need to burn onto CDR as you go.

The sampler's OK, but it's time-stretching sounds awful. The unit needs more inputs too. The audio tracks are linked for any bouncing so you only have 4 tracks to work with. Same deal with the sequencer. This was very frustrating at first. Cool COSM patches. I haven't turned on my guitar amp to record for months.

Best suited for a one-man operation. Good for electro & dance music. Audio comes out as good as it goes in.

Works great so far. I have confidence in Roland. Once after a long session the CD drive was quite warm so I quit, but it had worked perfectly until that point.

Dealt with Roland to learn more about the chip for upgrade. Went through my dealer. They were both great.

Great piece of gear for the price...does everything all in one box. I wouldn't hesitate to buy an upgraded model with more inputs and better bouncing. The current model I would replace if stolen.

As a degreed electrical and computer engineer and someone who's done
multitrack recording in both digital and analog domains
previously, I did not find the manual or the product particularly
intuitive. Even with the benefit of the manual, it was difficult
to determine how this piece needed to be used.

Working to the CD-RW is slow for one. In addition, there is no way
to estimate how much recording time is left on a CD-RW when you
begin a take. In my recent experience with this, if you do several
takes and seek to redo them, keep in mind that the previous saved
take stays on the CD-RW until you go into utilities and tell it to
clean up the CD-RW and release used space. This is annoying in
two ways--one, the reclaiming of unused space takes about 10 minutes if your CD-RW is nearly full. Second, when you begin your next take, the unit gives you no way to predict if you have enough space left on the CD-RW for the next take. Until this became clear to me, we would invariably have a take where the CD-RW filled half way through it, and I had to stop the band, apologize, and indicate that the CD-RW had filled and that we'd have to start again.

Here's how we had to record their demo as a result of this arcane setup: Record a take onto CD-RW. Play back the CD-RW to see if it was good. Play back the CD-RW again to create the "master track" in internal memory. Then, play back the master track to burn to a CD-R at 1x.

Only then could we endeavor on to the next take because we needed to free up the space on the CD-RW for the next take lest we run out of space due to the unknown recording time factor. True we could've optimized the CD-RW each time...but that takes as long as recording the song to CD-R after mastering.

As such, I do NOT recommend this unit if a) you plan on using it with a full band, or b) you want to record multiple songs in a session. This unit's setup really pushes you into a "do one song at a time" mode of operation.

If you already have one of these, you may be able to make your recording session sane if you have one blank CD-RW for every song you plan to do. If you have that, then you can do the mixing and CD-R burning later without wasting the whole band's time.

The internal effects and inserts are interesting...however, I would not recommend using htis unit if you are trying to create a demo tape for a band. This unit works much better for a one man show arrangement.

The lack of a hard disk makes it a complete pain in the ass.

That the unit only has 2 A/D converters makes it very limiting for use with a multipiece band. Do not buy this
thinking you can do separate tracking for bass, drums, guitar and voice simultaneously. You can lay down one track, or at most two tracks at a time then overdub the rest.


The pad features seem to be the neatest thing in this product, but for our use we did not leverage them at all. This may be a decent box for a one man show sort of operation, but if you have a band that you want to record, keep shopping.

n/a this is a digital recorder. The sound quality was good.

Beware that the mic metering is not necessarily accurate. When we first tried using the mic inputs off the board (due to the inexperience of those involved), there was a great deal of distortion despite the level meters being well below clipping and no clipping lights on the input channels flashing. If you're recording from a mixing board be certain to use the line inputs.

I was recording a full band demo tape for a 4-piece rock band hoping to go direct to 2-track with the mix for a live feel.

Despite my better instincts, the bass player wanted to use this
unit to improve the quality of the recording. It was a big mistake
and slowed us down tremendously.

So far, so good. Got the box first and waited 2 weeks for the video maunals...so I am just now "Getting" it on a few topics. Wish the "Special" CD RW highspeed 4-10x digital audio" Discs were easier to find.

Loaded. Drums, sampler, looping, the whole thing. Probably would have cost you 10 grand or more 5 years ago to have this much control.

Drum sounds really lack realism. The rest of the effects are excellent.

New, no use record as yet.

Had a couple of questions. They answered no probs.

Learning to love it. Seeing some limitations.

Been pickin 25 years, own many guitars, this is my first digital recorder.

They should make this baby come stock with the 128 Dimm in the future, offer SUPER cheap upgrades to all the folks who got the smaller version and get real with the recording time. 10 minutes sounds like a lot, because, hey who's writing songs over 10 mins? Souza??? If you are working something up, take after take on a long jam, its just not enough memory. A larger Dimm would allow for live recordings of concerts etc. Right now, you'd have to have many initialized RW discs ready to go if you needed to record an hour or so.

Never having a recording machine I purchased because son has been recordinng studios in NYC and Two songs cost as much as the machine

I thing the Manual is good but for someone who never tried one before a Video could help to expalin the basics more. IN General Very easy to use. I can't get the machine to record. I wil call Roland On monday

I would recommend a larger monitor screen

Guitar effects are well done

My First Roland Product, machine seems well made

The manual is written in very simple and clear procedural language and with a nice road map that helps you decide what path you want to start down on when using this very multi-purpose machine.

All 3 things I wnated it to do well are very easy to do: Recording tracks, mixing them down and then burning my mix to audio CDs I cna take and listen to on other systems is really easy. The burn process is 1x (real-time) but considering how many playbacks one typically does in composing/recording a finished song, what another one? I have yet to use the onboard sampler but I plan to. I suspect once I have loaded a few choice public domain drum samples in WAV format files that I have downloaded burned to a CD I can load in the CDX-1 to assing drum kit sounds to the 8 pads I will be able to make it replace the old Alesis SR-16 analog drum machine I was thinking of using in the past more but never had the track s to lay out a well built stereo drum track.

I have to admit, I'm not a big Roland customer. Most of my songwriting and recording is guitar-bass-drums type of stuff. I've used Fostex 260 4-track cassette multi-tracker in the past. That said, I am VERY impressed with the onboard effects. The insert effects are all well-crafted and reminiscent of Boss effects and Roland amps I have used or played around with in the past (even with the default patches, no editing, just select one and go) and how well they are tailored to what I do. The loop effects include the few well-chosen essentials (reverb/delay/chorus/doubling). The doubling is really cool. I have used it to free up my recording time and open tracks by doubling vocal and guitar tracks I used to try to double manually. Some of the patches are cheesy and silly (whoever uses Seagulls) and the Bass modulator was not bullet-proof enough in its pitch tracking for me to want to decide to leave my Fender P-Bass in the case. However, the majority are simple, tasteful and well designed to be very functional and easy to use without a lot of fussing or wasting my time.

I've only had it out of the box and really actively in use the last 2-3 days, but I don't see any reason why it shouldn't work well. The CD-drive is the only heavy-use fragile/mechanical part to it and that looks built like a tank. I don't really play out and can't forsee any reason why I would take this if I did. I wouldn't mind having a nice suitcase to store it in but I'll have to come up with that myself.

Thankfully, I haven't had to use it.

This is the kind of features for home recording I used to only pipe dream about. I feel like I now have the goods. I'm glad I bought it.

Manual is self explanatory

Multitrack recorder, phrase sampler, cd burner recorder

I'm still experimenting with this unit. However, writing to cd is very slow. It takes forever. Other than that, is excellent. If it were lost or stolen, I'd propably check for the Roland SP-808ex instead, because it has an isolator and more sample pads.