Roland JD-800

Sliders are quite straightforward and it probably impresses people in music shops because it takes absolutely no talent or creativity to create some rather exciting sounds...

Everything is quite well but don't use it in multi-timbral mode... It is not made to sound good in multi-timbral mode. The effects aren't bad but don't come close to a Korg's.

This is a pad synth, and if you know what you are doing you can get good basses. This has absolutely terrible pianos and drums. This this a special synth meant for special sounds. One can do very amusing things with velocity and aftertouch...
However, I have a Korg O1/W and I think the JD-800 had half the sound quality. I sold it and while I miss it, I like my Korg better. Other than pads, it doesn't sound that good... It can be very abrasive on the ears.

It has never had any problems and in fact has neat self diagnostics. It's a very pretty synth, very pretty.

Never had a problem.

Given the chance to spend $1300 on synths, one can do much better, if one already owns a controller. Speaking of which, the keys are not comfortable like on a Korg.

The preset sounds are great!! But Roland, as well as other companies, recycle their samples for too long, (like the piano or pseudo-fairlite samples) Making patches is very easy, a patch editor would be harder to use than front panel.

Unfortunataly, the synth is only 5-way multi-timbral (6, including analog drums). The keyboard action is, very good, as for a lot of Roland Synths. The Distortion and Phaser effects are welcome, (I hope Roland will understand one day that Reverb, delay and Chorus are not enough). As for Spectrum and Enhancer, they only beef the sound the way it should be on a analog synth. I own the Drums and Percs I PCM Card and it made my JD-800 very useful in sequencing situations, the drums sound very good. One bad thing about the unit is only 64 sounds in internal memory, the double could be acceptable As for the sliders, their move can be recorded over MIDI Sys-ex and played back with a sequencer. It does not have any sequencer in it.

The sliders improves expressiveness of the unit, even if acoustic emulations are a bit deceiving. This machine is perfect for progreesive rock keyboard players as well as for Dance/techno composers. The on-board effects are very good, the reverb is particular and can be disturbing sometimes.

Roland synths are very reliable. Sotware is very stable. As far as I'm concerned, the most useful switches and sliders(Filter Cutoff!) got un-calibrated so I had to replace 2/60 faders, 4/8 switches after buying it. It seems to be a bit fragile, but the case is almost all-metal and seems to be hard to scratch

Receiving the faders and sliders for Roland took more than 2 months!!

It is a very expensive synth, but I think it Woth it I love the sound, the user-interface, (I love the look too!) Distorted guitar patches are very, very, very good. It is, as far as I know, the only intrument that can emulate analog sound and feel that is technologically up-to-date. The sound is more interesting with the spectrum and enhancer effects (they are unavailable in multi-timbral setup).

The preset sounds are great. From lush & glittery pads, analog basses with resonance to excellent sounding digital creations. All synth paramaters can be accessed from on-board sliders & knobs. Editing of this sort has not been available since analog synths of yesterday. Two manuals are included: Basic and Advanced. I didn't find them too difficult (even though they are Roland), but I'm an engineer. <g>

24-voice. 16-part multi. Keyboard action is great...the best I have ever played on any 61-note velocity & channel aftertouch synth. The built-in effects depend on whether or not the JD is in single or multi modes. Single: Rev, Chorus, Delay, Phaser, Distortion, Enhancer and Spectrum...Multi: only Rev, Chorus and Delay. All very easy to use. 64 patches are held in internal memory with an optional 64 on a RAM card. 108 total waveforms (mostly digital/analog/percussive). Extra waveforms can be added via a single PCM card slot. The only thing (only?) missing from the JD is more polyphony, more waveforms and more effects. (An arpeggiator would be great also!)

Imagine playing and tweaking sounds at the same time? This is a digital synth with the ease of control that an analog synth provides. If you're looking for 'realistic' sounds, then this synth is not for you. Users include Paul Shafer, Shep Pettibone (Madonna), LFO, 808 State and me. Excellent performance synth. Is it the ultimate?! (Not including the Waldorf WAVE =')

When lots of tweaking and MIDI data are being thrown at it, the display will lite up and say, "MIDI Error." But, that's no problem...afterall, this is not the synth to end all synths. Great as a controller to a larger MIDI set-up. Excellent build qaulity. Metal on the bottom...metal on the top. There are too many synths being built these days that their casings are entirely made of plastic.

I knew about it more then the guy that sold it to me. Oh, you mean from the company. There are some card sets, but mostly it has been surpassed by other more expandable Roland synths...most notably the JV-1080 (I own that one too =').

I would definitely buy it again. The JD is a synth that will keep its value for a long time. I love the control...I love the sounds...I love the look of it...I just wish for more polyphony. This is a classic in the making.