Roland JD-800

Pretty easy to use initially, but programming sounds is slightly more involved than a true analogue synth with the 4 tones Software Version is V1.01 and I believe this was the last update (and you may need this version to program the JD-990, but I may be wrong)

OK, low polyphony but look at those sliders and lights! I have some of the PCM cards (Standard Drums, Rock Drums, String Ensemble and Brass). The String card is fab and sits permanently in the JD. The Drum cards are good and I've sampled all the drums so that I don't have to swap my cards around. Given that I always erase brass patches from synths when I get them home it may be a surprise to find that the Brass card is actually very good and will be sitting in my JD-990 for now.

Very good for non-realistic sounds. Pianos not great but strings (both 'real' and 'analogue') are fab, as are basses (tweak in some Pitch Random) and some brill pads. I find the aftertouch a tad hard to get going without really pressing the keys. As I don't want to knacker my keyboard I reassigned the aftertouch to my expression pedal (which is a neat JD feature). I use the JD in multitimbral mode which loses the nice effects (distortion, phasing etc), but switch over to Single mode to actually record the individual MIDI parts with all the effects, plus you seem to lose gain from the outputs in multimode.

I did get this repaired once. The volume slider had got scratchy and the Inc down button was a bit 'sticky', plus I had the software updated. That is the only minor problem I have ever had, although I do worry about all those sliders going one day.

I only ever dealt with Phil Delahaye of Delatronics who repairs Roland stuff and is a great chap to know if you have any Roland kit. He's based in North London.

If this went walkies I probably wouldn't replace it with another as I have all the JD-800 sounds plus more on my JD-990. I used to use it as a master keyboard but I now use a PC88 which is great as a MIDI controller and also means my JD's keboard will be less likely to die. I would miss all those sliders and LEDs though.

This box of tricks is very easy to use , I've had it for 2 weeks now and I have covered everything on my own patches.
I didn't get a manual with it so I cant comment , I think the only thing you may nead a manual for is to learn about the FX setup

Polyphony is 24 this is devided by the number of voices each performance uses so it avereges on about 6 note poly.
It has slots around the back for data and wave cards but I don't have any so I cant comment on there quality.
It has a nice light action keyboard but not as light as a cs2x.
The fx section has 2 groups , 1 is for mono the other is for stereo.
You put the fx types in the order that you want them to be used (like guitar pedals)then you decide if the fx is on or off.
So far I can't see how (if its possible) to route different voices thru seperate fx in one performance.

The acoustic intruments sound quite good and its easy to modify them to your desired sound.
The analog emulations are very good and this is why I bought the synth.
The general sound out of the synth is fat and smooth with a high frequency shimmer that you don't normally get with other equipment.
The one thing I cant seem to create is the FAT trance lead sound , it just sounds too smooth? If anybody has a good trance set please send it to me :)
Compared to my poor cs2x , the sound from this synth is amazing , the cs2x just hasn't got the balls for basslines or pads etc.

When I bought it (S/H from a shop) a few of the buttons where sticking and a value slider wasnt working correctly , a quick phone call to Roland and a new slider was here the next day. Easy to fit and now its perfect working order :)
The synth is built very well and sturdy BUT sliders seem more prone to dust than knobs so I wonder how long I have left in the other sliders.

Very good , they where friendly and the service was like lightening

If this synth was lost or stollen I would definatly replace it.

I am fairly new to the synth scene and have only just really got into it over the last year. This synth is definately the prize puncher from my setup (cs2x/a3000/v50/m3r/juno2/poly800) and I find myself using it for a lot of things - its the easy slider controls that do it, why bother tinkering with FM synthesis when you can create the same noise in 1/10th of the time on this box?
So far Im happy with my purchase apart from most of the sounds I have got off the internet seem to be too old to use - more geared towards the sounds of when this synth was first released and not really much of todays style (I AM TALKING DANCE MUSIC THO)

I paid #500 for this synth in the UK, but I have seen you lucky ppl in the USA get them for lots less , its just not fair :(

I think the next synth I will buy will be the rackmount version JD-990 with the vintage board to try and compliment my setup.
If anybody has one that they would like to swap for a V50/Poly800/Juno2/M3R please get intouch :)

Version 1.1, no bugs except for MIDI SYSEX overflow/crash behavior...
forced reboot.
The factory presets pretty much suck...they are for store demos.
The programs you can make are amazing. Big fat chuffy Hammon B-3's,
clunky electric Rhodes, amazing acoustic, electric, and grunge/slach guitars (seriously), and, ofcourse, pads of all sorts. The same sort of moving, pulsing stuff that the Wavestation and K5000 do...
(I'm not sure how the JD creates the effect of motion, but it does.
Ofcourse it is more sublte than a tinkly wavestation sequence or whatever, but it definately moves.)
Very warm, think sound. Probably the warmest, thickest digital I have heard. It reminds me of running digitals like a DX through an analog filter or some high end tube preamp...who knows what Roland did on those A/D converters, but they are hot.

The voice itself is simple...almost a 1990's version of a Juno...
osc, filter, amp. 1 envelope for each, and two LFO's.
(The filter does have 3 modes, and the LFO's have 5 waveforms).

the power comes from simple layering.
This is crude component synthesis...and it works.
You break down a sound according to it's dominant structures, and
model each of those with one tone.

another thing I like, is the almost complete absence of any hierarchy in the tone/voice structure....
64 programs, each program can have up to 4 tones.
thats it.
No seperate splits, layers, combi modes or anything.

It actually makes sense, and is pretty cool in practice.
(Each tone has key zone limits, so you can program splits...)

The live panel is what sets it apart...Tb-acid style knob tweakin...
it's a little quantized, but not bad. Amazing programming speed.
I will never use an LCD window again LOL....
Seriously I think it enhances creativity because you can just bounce around and change things and very quickly mold the sound into the desired patch....very cool.

The manuals are fine.
Nothing seems missing and everything is covered enough.

A pool of 24 single tones inside.
you decide how to use them....
Layer up to four, and get 6-voice polyphony.
Layer none (1) and get 24 voices.

Easy and flexible...the tone on/off buttons are like performance controls...you can add/subtract tones on the fly...
a little like the TS-10's "patch variation" buttons...
this also means you could increase the polyphony for a key part of a song, then turn them all on for a cool solo or something...

Great FX...arranged like guitar stomp boxes, rather than typical multi-bussed workstation FX....
and I think they sound better...you have 8 basic types, not 89 types, you know?.
distortion (awsome distortion...very warm sounding....)
phaser (very nice, like an old analg phaser effect)
enhancer (dynamic high freq exciter effect)
spectrum (fixed reso filter bank/eq thing...very cool)

Stereo chourus...everything from swirling JUNO hell to subtle stereo
spreading....nice.

3-tap stereo delay...simple but useable.

Basic stereo reverb...hell it's reverb. it works and it's simple and it's nice.

easy to use...seperate editing via the LCD/data slider///

It has 2 card slots in the back...PCM wave cards and basic M-256 Roland patch memory cards....
The PCM cards are nice to have...I wont bash them for what they don't do....a minimoog ain't a workstation either, you know?

MIDI, basic controller stuff. Program change remapping, upper/lower transmit, some filtering...great SYSEX on all sliders between, say,
two JD-800's or a 990 (or computer)...

No sequencer, no arpeggiator....oh well.

Amazing sounds.
As I've said.
Great acoustic emulations and beyond (yes...Learn to program!...it can be done...)
Awsome pads, moving, swirling....

some pretty nice squaky distorted acid shit from hell...
I had a delay with feedback at 98%, and just had a knob twistin sound from hell going on...
very cool.
Nice for soundtrack, special effects, odd noises that sound sampled but were synthesized...

I'm glad nobody wants these so I can buy them all cheap.
I will have 50 of them layered together someday...

they are that cool.

this is neato nifty...
you take out like 18 screws...and the whole hood pops up on hinges...
even has a hold-back cable...
every board is one deep...mostly empty space in that steel shell.

EASY to work on. EASY to fix.
Wonderful from a tech standpoint.

After you've ripped open a JV-80 or something, the JD-800 is like a dream...like working on an old 1950 pickup, where you could climb inside the hood..
(seriously).

It's built to tour. Built to last. the side panels can get beat and scuffed up. but they do their job....the panel, sliders, etc. are always protected. I have never seen one that had any moderate-minor damage to the panel or display....he design works well for damage protection.

Well, I dO have a backup, but yes I would.

I have never tried...sorry I have no info on this.

If it were stolen I would buy another.
I have been playing since about 1975. I own much gear, really pointless to list....typical live/studio/home studio set up...

I love the sounds, really hate nothing about it.
Everything MUST have some limits, especially consumer products...
or you could never afford them...

I think it is as powerful as anything out there, with the right "pilot"...I'm saying it is a performers/programmers instrument...as such the presets suck and it doesn't come to life until you really get into it....

I wouldn't change it a bit...thats what new models are for...

It is part of my music....

Nothing else I need to share at this time.
I hope my rambling comments help you in your decision making.

Take care.

Very easy to program. Time-consuming (x4 tones)...it would be nice if the sliders were relative (i.e. if you make "active" all 4 tones for any given parameter, they would "lock" at their present value, instead of all jumping to the same value...

Fine for a '91 model, I suppose.

Great, big, flashy Roland pads...actually great for Foley/Sound FX/dub work, I have found...Actually I don't think it sounds all that different from any other synth you'd demo in a music store...
they all have the same sort of "big, flashy crap"...

Here we go. I recently bought this off of Harmony's classifieds.
Overall, it seems in good shape. It has been used, obviously. Some dings and scratches. No signs of major damage.
After 2 days, it died. Finally on a whim I re-soldered the main power leads to the transformer, and it lives again...
As a tip on any older kybd...crack the case and check the solder!

I'm guessing this is a symptom of crappy work at the factory 10 years ago...just check to make sure, before you get mad and spend $300 getting it fixed.

Also, mentioned in another Roland review (a JP-8000 I believe)
the JD-800 will go crazy, lock up, and put on a wild flashing light show when the Midi stream gets too dense. A power-off/"reboot"
fixes everything. (I was demo-ing a bunch of Sysex patches from a PC when this happened.)

?
I will say their websites tend to suck...IMHO

I've always wanted one, so now I have one. I knew what I was getting, and am very happy with it.
Infact I plan to buy more (!) ...*if* I can verify the condition a little better before hand. Nothing less than a "9" next time...
condition-wise this one here is probably a 6.5-7.
I hate little scratches and dings...but I'm a pickey bastard..LOL

If not, I will figure out a way to repaint the case...the lettering will be tough...possibly lazer-cut dry-transfer labels?

Uh, unless you are someone that understands programming a synth the old-fashioned way of grabbing a knob or slider for the SPECIFIC parameter, this guy would be VERY intimidating. If you want to just pull up the patches and play or tweak a little, it's fairly easy. I don't know of a bona-fide patch editor for it, but with the entire front panle covered with controls and a dedicated editing display, I don't think it needs one - would probably slow me down anyway. Manual - the first manual I have EVER read from Roland that was genuinely usable. It's separated into 2 parts; basics and advanced.

It is 24-voice polyphonic - wish it had more, but it sounds huge enough with what it has. There are 3 global effects for the whole thing, typical of Roland stuff since the late 80's; Chorus, EQ and Reverb. In single mode, it has 5 additional ones you can put in the order you want, and use or not use them. They are Enhancer, Distortion, Phaser, Delay, and Spectrum. It would have been nice if they had included more types of effects, ie. Rotary, but you can't have everything. The quality and controllability of the built in's are good, obviously a dedicated effect unit would do better in this category, but this is a synth first. No onboard sequencer - this is a SYNTH! What is extremely cool about it is that it can send and receive controller info for perameter changes for EVERYTHING!. If you have a sequencer that can record and play back all this stuff (makes the data stream very heavy) it is fantastic to really do on the fly morphing of sounds. Great for electronic music.

Patches are created by using up to 4 'Tones' at once, so sonic capabilites are virtually endless. Roland put out a bunch of sound card sets for the JD - I have most of them and they sound great. I especially like the strings and brass sets. The internal sounds are great as well, and they primarily went after the typical synthesizer tones for the internal ones. Between the card sets and internal sounds, I can recreate just about anything with it. The velocity and aftertouch sensing are very controllable for each patch/sound that expressivity can be customized to a great degree. I have had countless people think it is a vintage Moog, Sequential, Arp etc. synth with some of the sounds that I have emulated on it. The pitch random parameter really makes it have the old oscillator drift characterstic. The only thing about trying to make it sound vintage is the overall sound quality of it is so clean that you almost need to run it through a tube preamp of some kind to dirty it up a bit. Even though it is fully digital I have never had trouble to get fat sounds out of it. All the patches that I use I have either created from scratch or done some huge tweaking of the presets. Since each 'tone' in a patch can have it's own keyboard range setting, velcotiy cross-fade, etc. sound complexity can get really interesting.

I bought mine new when I worked for a dealer (at cost!) and will NEVER, EVER part with it!!! It has been banged around quite a bit, in typical Roland fashion has not had any troubles from that, and doesn't even have many dents in it. I have always transported in a hard case, so it has been well protected when I'm not playing it. The only difficulty I have ever had with it is I have had a few of the center black keys break up at the pivot point. (I am very heavy handed when I play, especially the piano-type sounds) I had the thing for about 5 years befor this happened though, so I would atribute it to normal wear and tear from my playing style. After I replaced them (were about $5 each) I got a different board to use for piano so I wouldn't destroy any more keys. When I talked to Roland about it, they said they had gotten complaints for this problem from a few other players, and it was for the same reason. Since then I haven't had any problems.

I called Roland about the key problem, they passed me around a bit before finally telling me to go to my local dealer and just ordering the replacement keys from them. It only took a couple of weeks to get them once they were ordered, so parts response was pretty good. Unfortunately it was typical Roland fare for customer support, which from what I read and hear is the only real complaint anybody has about them.

Lost, stolen broken beyond repair I might kill myself (NAH!, just find another one. If someone stole it, they better run to the other side of the galaxy to keep me from finding them. In my opinion there never has been nor probably will be another synth like the JD. Yeah, Roland made a rack version of it, but programming it is a pain in the butt, and that's partially what made this bad boy such a great board. So many of the factory patches are inspiring both musically and sonically, there are times that I can spend hours just messing around with it by itself,a dn I have so much other gear to work with!

i dont have a sequencer that suites it yet, i tried seq-303...i laughed.
the presets are nice a little overbaord but display its capabilities well.
patch editing was a dream i had it down in mins.
no manual ...so far no need..well see.

five effects i believe...not sure on polyphony...actions fine.
mine came with a drums perc. expansion card (and data card) ....ive used it
very little, though they sounded great.
All midi realtime capabilities youd expect.
no on board sequencer....simple and powerfull.

Instrumints are mainly veriouse synth voices but some piano and organ and natural
sounds.....all feel very nice...(hoping for some phatter anologue leads saws but may be i just
need to search a bit more).
This board would be excellent for all forms of music.
effects seem great, so far.
amazing controll over aftertouch.

its been to a gig or two before i got my hands on it and it seems to be running
like a caddy.
Ide use this on a gig with a drum kit and outbaord fx, alone.

i would buy it again in a heart beat.
ive been playing guitar for 7 years and making electronic music for 3 or so
and i also own alisis hr-16, samson mix pad 9, roland u-20, and a pintium 133
(all ive needed) full of great programs.....rebirth sound forge etc.
I love the sounds it can produce and i hate nothing.
nope.

Believe it or not...a well-written manual! Divided into a new users book and a reference volume. Th unit is a breeze to operate and fun fun fun to program on.

No sequencer...but excellent performance characteristics. Very expressive and warm. Good aftertouch and controllers. Does not try to be all things. Bright display, hard to get lost on it!

Would give it an 11 if I could.

Stellar. Mine was trouble free until I lost it in a fire. Grabbed a used one in the same month, and so far it is also trouble free.

O.K. Let's start this review of the JD-800 with a summary: I love the JD-800. Would I ever sell it? No. Would I hunt someone down if they stole it? Yes! Would I comb the world to find another one? Yes! Would I buy it again? Absolutely!

Now that I've got that out of the way, let's get on with the review.

The JD-800 came out in 1991 and is one in the middle of a long chain of synthesizers based on Roland's 4-tone (oscillator) architecture now used in the their JV/XP series. There are probably some odd twenty (or more) synthesizers that Roland has made over the last fifteen years with this architecture. And while the JD-800's implementation is more simplistic than Roland's current JV/XP implementations, sometimes more is not always better.

For starters, lets talk about the JD-800's sound. This keyboard sounds wonderful. It is probably the last keyboard that Roland ever made that has its own character. While the JD-800 does not have oscillators (its wave generators use PCM waveforms as their raw source), it has an incredibly rich, warm analog sound. Strings, pads, clav, FM Rhodes, and beautifully moving, swirling, and haunting textures are what this synthesizer excels at. The factory presets are all very useable. That is, if you turn off the bucket of reverb that Roland programs into all their patches (on both old and new synthesizers). And most of the presets can be turned into completely new sounds with only a few tweaks of a slider. This is, without a doubt, the easiest synthesizer to program that I have ever owned. (By easy, I mean not just easy to use, but easy in the sense that it is very responsive to adjustments. You don't have to spend hours programming to get unique, warm sounds.)

The JD-800 can generate many of the sounds that current virtual analog machines can. But because it uses PCM waveforms as its raw oscillators (approximately 100 waveforms are provided), the JD-800 can produce sounds that you wouldn't have a hope of getting from a VA machine. You might be tempted to think that the availability of only 100 waveforms is limiting, however this is not the case. The waves are saw, sine, pulse, noise, plucks, bows, and other sounds that are designed for use as the raw starting point in building sounds. You do not play these waveforms. You use the waveforms to create original sounds. Having more waveforms available would actually take away from the creative process. This is the problem I find in Roland's current JV/XP synthesizers (some of which have 1500+ waveforms in them). You can scroll through waveforms for hours and not get anywhere. The sheer number of waveforms is debilitating. In the JD-800 there are enough waves to create original sounds, but not so many that you can't remember where and what every one is.

The JD-800 was not designed to mimic acoustic instruments in all their splendor, it is a synthesizer. Its sounds are unique and original to itself. The beauty in this keyboard is its simplicity, flexibility, and ease of creating and modifying sounds. The key reason for this is the JD-800's front panel, which is laid out with an individual slider or knob for almost every one of its parameters. (Hello Profit 5, Oberheim OBx, and every other great analog synthesizer.) The other reason is the JD-800's simple, yet flexible architecture (more on this later).

Let's talk about the JD-800's user interface (something that every keyboard vendor seems to have forgotten about except for Korg in their wonderful Triton/Trinity series.) The JD-800's interface is simple, direct, and a joy to use. It has LARGE analog-synth-styled buttons that are used for selecting patches and for accessing system programming features. Many of the buttons light up, giving feedback that a function is on or off, or that a mode is active. Envelopes, LFOs, filters, and other parameters are adjusted with dedicated sliders and knobs. Want to adjust the decay of the filter envelope? Just

Features, features, features. By today's thousands of patches, 64/128 voice, built-in sequencer, built-in arpeggiator standards the JD-800 pales in comparison. But this is not why I bought (or why you should buy) a JD-800.

The JD-800, according to Roland, is 24 note polyphonic. In typical use however, the instrument gives 8 voices of polyphony. To arrive at this conclusion, I took the total polyphony available in the JD-800 and divided it by 3. This rule applies to all Roland JV/XP synthesizers as well because they share (approximately) the same architecture as the JD-800. The reason for this is that the JD/JV/XP synthesizers allow up to four tones in a patch. Roland states polyphony by tones in a patch, not by notes played. A patch using only one tone will give you 24 note polyphony on the JD-800 (or 64 note polyphony on the newer JVs and XPs). But to do anything rich and interesting, most patches use three tones. Thus, the divide by three rule. So yes, you can take Roland's 64 voice monster synths and divide their polyphony by three (giving you 21 voice polyphony). This is what you are actually going to get in real use.

On the JD-800, polyphony is not really an issue. As I said before, the JD-800 is not a generic one-synth-fits-all type of synthesizer. It is an instrument that allows you to create wonderful icing. You cannot use the JD-800 as a main keyboard. This is not my purpose for it and it was not Roland's either when they designed it. The JD-800 provides incredible warmth behind a piano or chilling ambience in a soundtrack. A Fender Rhodes (or nowadays a Yamaha P200) it ain't. Most of the time I only play four to six voice chords and linear parts on the JD-800. Its sounds lend themselves to this style of playing. (Picture the way Lyle Mays supports his grand piano with an Oberheim four-voice and you've got the right idea.)

Now we come to the JD-800's architecture. At first glance, the JD-800 seems rather simple and inflexible. Looking at the front panel you would think the following: 1 tone generator, 1 multi-mode filter, 1 amplifier, 2 LFOs, and 3 dedicated envelopes (one for the tone generator, filter, and amplifier respectively). While it is true that this is the basic architecture of a tone, a patch is comprised of four complete layers of these. Thus, a patch may actually have up to: 4 tone generators, 4 multi-mode filters, 4 amplifiers, 8 LFOs, and 12 envelopes. Ah! Now we're talking about some powerful and unique synthesis capabilities! And now you can see why the JD-800 makes such wonderful analog pads. ...all those yummy LFOs to play with!

I want to mention a few subtle, but important features that make the JD-800 sound more organic (read: analog) than you might think, it being essentially a digital synthesizer.

Pitch Random. Each of the four wave generators incorporates a Pitch Random parameter. This parameter introduces tiny or large amounts (depending on how much you apply) of randomness to the pitch of a tone each time a key is played. What's the point? This point is that this is exactly what happened in old analog synthesizers. Their oscillators were always randomly out of tune as they heated up and cooled down. The fact that the oscillators were always marginally out of tune with themselves is what made old analogs sound so warm and organic. Pitch Random on the JD-800 is even better because you can control how much out-of-tuneness you want. To make a string sound really fat, all you have to do is select a sawtooth wave, copy it to three wave generators, and apply different amounts of Pitch Random to each generator. Voila! Instant fat, warm, organic synth sound! Newer virtual analog machines don't even do this. (There is no rocket science here, just an unusual display of forward thinking from Roland.) Thus, even though the JD-800 is using sampled analog waveforms, it sounds very analog indeed.

Random Sine Wave. The LFO's on the JD-800 have th

In a single word the sounds of the JD-800 are "amazing". Lush. Warm. Moving.

The sounds the JD-800 does well: strings, pads, anything that moves, rolls or swirls, clav sounds, special effects, analog horns, flute sounds, breathy sounds, lead sounds, some amazingly DX-7 like Rhodes, percussion, and glass sounds.

The sounds that the JD-800 dose not do well: acoustic emulations, piano.

The JD-800 will work in all types of music. It is a wonderful supportive instrument for acoustic instruments and symphonic tracks due to its random pitch modulation sources that make it very organic. The JD-800 would also find itself very much at home in jazz, pop, and electronic music styles. I recommend the Strings card set to anyone who does not have it. Search the world for this card if you must. You'll be glad you did.

The sounds are very responsive to keyboard velocity, with a nice evenness from soft to loud. Some of the sounds get a little muddy in the lowest octave and a little tiny in the highest octave (depending on which waveforms are being used). This is actually part of the instrument's analog character. (The effect is quite similar to tracking the filter at quarter-step intervals across the keyboard.) In an odd way this makes the sounds even more expressive. Most of the sounds however, can be played quite well across the entire keyboard.

There is simply nothing else to compare a JD-800 with. Its sound is all its own. Therefore, I give it 10. (Has anyone figured out that I like this thing yet?)

The JD-800 is built like a tank (metal on the bottom and metal on the top). The side panels (which have a new-age curved look) are plastic, but are re-enforced with steel plates inside. All the sliders and buttons have a solid feel to them. This keyboard is a little heavier than most of today (a good thing which is further indicative of the build quality). I have taken this keyboard on gigs. Yes, I would and do depend on it. The only downside (as with all Roland products) is that the jacks on the back panel are soldered directly to the PC board. However, they are on a "jacks" board that is separate from the main synthesizer board. At least if you step on a patch cable, you'll only crack an auxiliary board and not the main board.

I have had no problems with my JD-800. It is now nine years old so that's not bad for an electronic instrument! I have also run all the internal diagnostic routines and it passes every one with flying colors. Thus far, my JD-800 seems to be a healthy beast. (Note, to put your JD-800 into diagnostic mode press the "Multi" mode button. Then, press the "Exit" button, the "Left" cursor button, and the "Right" cursor button all at the same time. Your JD-800 is now in diagnostic mode. Cycle through each test by holding the "Exit" button and pressing each bank number button and each patch number button. Each test gives you instructions in the display. To exit test mode at any time, hold the "Exit" button and press patch button eight.)

I would have given the JD-800 a 10, but I have a thing against all vendors who don't bolt I/O connectors to the cabinet of professional equipment. It is just so likely that at some point a cable is going to get pulled or stepped on. Therefore I give the JD-800 a 8.

To those that have read my XP-30 review, my apologies. These are my comments about Roland from that review verbatim.

For customer support, forget Roland U.S.A. They have been awful every time I have contacted them. "Customer? You're a customer? How dare you waste our time!" Roland Canada is a different story. (And I'm not saying this just because I am a Canadian.) I have found Roland Canada extremely helpful. People call you back when they say they will. Their service technicians have helped me debug problems over the phone. Their sales people have helped me track down hard-to-find, out-of-production items. Roland Canada gets the thumbs up as far as I am concerned. So if you need support, don't call Roland U.S.A., call Roland Canada!

Another plus for Roland is that they have been in business for a long time. And it looks as though they are in no near sign of going out of business (something that you *do* have to be concerned about with keyboard vendors). Roland also has support and their own service centers all over the world. This is yet another plus. I found out how important support is when I bought a Yamaha P200. I almost bought the Kawai MP 9000 instead, but Kawai had no local support. Soon after I bought the Yamaha, I did have a small problem with it. (For those of you that don't know what a P200 is, it is a digital piano that weights mucho pounds!) Yamaha sent someone to my house to fix it. No kidding! They gave me absolutely superb customer support. Kawai could not have provided this kind of support.

For customer support (despite Roland U.S.A.) Roland gets an 8.

And now we have arrived at final judgement day. By now, you have probably figured out that I like the JD-800. Its sound, ease of programming, and its look (all those sexy sliders, buttons, and lights!) put it in a class by itself. Because of these things my overall rating for the JD-800 is a 10. I use it in all my music. It allows me to create sounds that are distinctly "me".

In an age when every synthesizer looks and sounds the same, I was delightfully surprised by the JD-800. (And a Roland synthesizer too! Never thought I'd own one of theirs. I always thought Roland stuff was kind of toy-like. But the JD-800 has changed my mind.) I bought my JD-800, in show-room condition, from a high-school teacher who bought it for his school but never used it. I paid the give-away price of $600 Canadian dollars for it (approximately $360 American dollars.) I would have happily paid three times this for it.

To any owners of JD-800s who are letting themselves get taken in by hype and marketing: DON'T SELL YOUR JD-800. You'll miss it sorely if you do.

Excellent. End of story.

Low polyphony with the biggest sounds is a bit of a downer, but the sounds are just unbeatable.

Very easy to get new and wonderful pad sounds. this is the instruments forte.

Prog rocker's delight! Big pads are what this machine excels at. Also does very good monophonic stuff for soloing.

Never had any problems!

Never had any

this is irreplaceable. If it got nicked, I'd buy another like a shot.

Don't kid yourself that this is an analogue synth. It isn't, but the sounds are wonderful and easy to use.

one is for sure: the JD is really fat, but i can`t understand why nobody`s editing the special part. i just hear the factory sounds ( i-can`t-dance-like ) the JD is really able to create fat bassdrums and ultraclear hihats and other neverheard percussionsounds. so try it !!!!!!