Roland JV-1010

I'll be brief because everything has been said. This device needs software that works and has a manual. Soundiver 2.0 is a pain. I downloaded version 3 but it crashes my W98 system.

I only use the software to do what I bought the unit for - tune it in different temperaments. Wish I could do something to get rid of the FX, biut it's all so complaceted...

I bought it becasue it's the only unit I could find with harpsichords and stuff like that, on the Super Soundset 07 card. They would be OK if I could get rid of the FX.

My son messes around with other keyboard stuff & it's OK for what he does.

We're both only interested in messing around live at home.

The really serious problem no-one has mentioned is the dynamic range. I managed to set Keyboard sens. to "heavy", but all the pianos seem to be stuck in the range mP to mF. This makes it TOTALLY USELESS for anything remotely classical.

Don't know if the expressiveness thing above is a fault or a bug, because there isn't a Roland site that accepts questions from a .fr email.

See reliability, above.

If it were lost or stolen, I'd put the insurance money towards something else. I'ts taken me 2 years to get not very far; I was new to MIDI, can normally handle technical/computer stuff, but not this thing.

Using XP. Plug it in, hook up MIDI conections, and you're flying. Easy front panel interface, but I use it at home in a studio so I really haven't touched the knobs in a while. Gets a 7 because editing is so confounded. Won't respond to any computer inquiry on the part of the included "Sounddiver" software. However, I tweaked with one of the user presets, and the 1010 saved the changes...and Sounddiver had no clue as to what I was doing. While I am using MIDI connections and not a serial input, I really don't reccomend youtry to do any serious editing because the software is just unusable.

Enough polyphony to handle my Jazz and Orchestral stuff, but nowadays that isn't a problem with a lot of modules. Probably would be better with the orchestral board in it. I use it to create backup tracks, etc. for vocals all laid down in Cakewalk. All patches are easily accessable from cakewalk, so no problems there. So far have just used your general controller 91 reverb on all of the patches, and it does fine. However, running the mix through a reverb processor will flesh everything out a little better. Like others have mentoned, OUTPUT IS LOW! However, using it in a home studio is no problem. This doesn't have the meat to stand up at a live job, but, I've never needed it for one.

Very good sounds for what I do. I utilize mostly the conventional instruments for Jazz, Orchestral, instrumental stuff, so I'm not as up on the analog/synth/pad sounds like others are. Good pianos, excellent organs and rhodes. Guitars, esp. the Nylon from the session board, are excellent. I could use a more convincing upright bass, however. Strings, etc. are great, and brass holds up. All respond correctly to modulation, etc. with correct vibrato according to the situation. Turn up the mod wheel on a few of the vibe patches and you get that nifty tremolo.

Problems: Levels. Some patches are a bit louder than others, though a few volume adjustments take care of that. A couple of the woodwind samples are out of tune with the rest of the box. Hitting F4 on any of the solo flute patches in an ensemble is instant death without selective pitch tuning. Also, the drums are somewhat blase- single samples, no velocity switching. I tend to replace them with good soundfonts in cakewalk.

Only problem has been one freeze up when using the front panel. But, I don't really use the front panel anymore. I suppose once again for the giggers this could be a drawback on a big solo section.

Never needed to call.

Yes, I would replace it, esp. for the low cost nowadays and the fact that almost everything I've done is based on the presets in it. Overall, it's a great module and does everything I ask it to. Reccomended for the weekend warrior or the light user who wants to get off of their soundcard and into the module world.

For my purposes the JV 1010 is very easy to use - Just dial up a patch and that's all there is to it. An LCD would have been nice but I understand that some corners had to be cut in order to keep costs down. As far as multi-timbral/performance mode operation, I'm not sure because I don't use it for that. I was able to get the included version of SoundDiver installed on my computer without any problems (that is more than I can say for some other software).

The features are there when using SoundDiver but otherwise the feature set would be awfully light. The JV1010 is intended to be used as a preset sound source and for computer sequencing though and it works fine for that/

This is where the JV1010 really shines. The JV1010 has a very good piano, great pads, good strings, IMO it has the best classical acoustic guitar (of any I've heard) and good emulations of classic D50 and JP8/JP6 sounds.

Seems solid - Roland has a reputation for that. Every once in a while after changing patch categories it will "freeze up" and not allow you to dial through the patches in the new category but just turning it off and then on again will correct this. For gigging, I'd recommend saving all the patches that you intend to use in the user bank and then you won't have to switch banks while performing live. This should circumvent the problem.

To sum it up, I like it overall. Admittedly, I'm not a very demanding user though - I just wanted it for a compact source of good preset sounds...and it delivers that. Pair a JV1010 up with a virtual analog synth and many electronic musicians would have most of their bases covered.

I'd also like to add that I've read a lot of user reviews claiming that the JV1010's sound quality is poor compared to that of the JV1080/2080. I disagree! I've listened to the presets on the JV1080 and I don't think that there is a discernable difference. Yes, there is some variance on the volume levels on some of the JV1010's presets but nothing that makes it unusable. I've also read users say that for the same price as a JV1010 you could get a used JV1080 but I wouldn't. The JV1010 has the Session expansion sounds (plus I got the Techno card as a free bonus) that the JV1080 doesn't have plus the JV 1010 is less than 1/4 the size of the JV1080 - the JV1010 is much nicer for taking to gigs and practice.

I feel compelled to respond to the previous post that bashed the JV1010 and mentioned the tweakheadz website. The guy who runs that site is unquestionably an expert on electronic music and he runs what certainly must be the best website out there for synthesists of all levels. Any question that you post is answered within 24 hrs - honestly, I don't think there is anything else on the net that can compare. So, if "the Tweakmeister" recommends the JV1010 then it's gospel truth as far as I'm concerned. In addition to that, the JV 1010 got a very favorable review at www.sospubs.co.uk and even beyond that I am quite capable of using my own ears to know that the JV1010 is no slouch. I think that many of the critical reviews of the JV 1010 come from people that paid full price for a JV 1080/2080 several years ago and now they just can't bear to think that the JV 1010 pretty much offers all that and more for such a low price!

I (like others) think I have the latest OS loaded, but since the editor for this DOES NOT work with windows XP, I have had to go back and forth with an older computer to edit this piece fo junk.

Forgot editing this monster. Put it back in the box and wish for a million dollars.

The patch editor does not work with xp, works ok with windows 98, what a drag.

Manual, you call that included piece of slim a manual. WHAT A JOKE!

Lots ot polyphony (64), no keys. The effects are there but who can find them.

I can be expanded, but the best thing to do with this unit is to expand it to the trash can, or if you can't get your money back from the sales person, but it on e-bay, work it up big time, and hope some joker buys it.

Some sounds are ok, but the output of this tin box is almost nothing. I put it on my mixer, ran the gain up, and if you listen in between the extremely high signal to noise ratio, you may actually hear some sounds!

The pianos are so weak, I thought the outputs were destroyed or broken, it is that low, and poor.

You should hear this sucker hiss when you turn you amp up. If you have tinnitus, and need a white noise generator, this would do the trick.

Well, unfortunately as bad as the unit is, it seems to be reiable. Weird.

If someone stole it, I laugh in the guys face, and tell him what a dolt he is. In case you haven't noticed, I hate this piece of junk. What was I thinking?

Run away from this. Don't let tweakshead talk you into this piece of rubbish, he must own stock in the company! It's just that bad....

I'm using the latest OS, I suppose. The presets sound great, especially the guitars and synth pads. Editing patches is a pain, even with the included sound diver program. It's much easier to take an existing preset and modifying it than making a new sound from scratch. But I didn't buy this module for that. The manual is OK, I think. I don't really look at it much.

Polyphony? 64 voices it says, I think it depends on the patch you use. The built-in effects are adequate, but I would want to use an external effects module for recording. Effects can be accessed through sound diver software or front panel. You can drop in a JV/XP expansion board of your choice, if you desire.

Most of the instruments are pretty good. I feel the guitar patches and some of the orchestral patches could fool the average listener. IMO, it's best suited for instrumental/new age music, but one could really use it for any kind of music they desired. Onboard effects are great for casual playing, but I would disable them and use external for recording because they will color the mix. It is very responsive to playing. Most patches respond to mod wheel and aftertouch. The only problem I have with the sounds is there is a lot of variance in volume across the patches. I've had this problem with other synths, but it is still annoying for flipping through patches.

I can depend on it for my home studio uses, and I use the term studio very loosely here. I've dropped it once, and it works fine. I would probably gig with it.

Support is pretty good. I bought this second hand and got the module/manual/power supply but no CD!. I had to order one from Roland. The customer service rep said it was backordered and wouldn't ship until a week later, but I recieved it exactly one week after calling them.

If it were lost or stolen, I don't know what I would get really. Maybe something easier to use? I think I got a great deal considering I bought it used and it works perfectly. I've had this unit for almost 6 months now, and I still enjoy using it. It is pretty good all-in-one module. I would avoid using it to do entire tracks, even though it's entirely possible to do so. Compared to other ROMpler modules, it's a great deal for me. Everything else was either too expensive or didn't sound too good to me. I chose this module because it had the sounds I wanted and I could afford it.

I just wanted to add that I've never had a problem with sound quality on this unit, I think maybe people select a loud patch, hear clipping and say it sounds bad. It has a a very light hiss if you turn the volume all the way up, but that doesn't bother me in the least. I guess it would if I wanted all my music to sound sterile and boring but that is not what I'm about.

It depends what you wanna do with it.
If you're just wanna play the presets without editing or changing effect, it's easy to use. Select a category (piano, guitar, synth, etc), and scroll through the sound.

But, problem, you'll have to look in the manual to see the name of the sound you're using. The screen only indicate the number.

No editing is possible with this board only , you'll need to hook up the JV1010 to your computer.

Manual is very bad, and hard to understand.

Great features for the price. Tons of sounds.

You have all the sounds of the JV 2080/1080 + the session card.
You can also add a SRJV expansion board. But, beware: even though the sounds are the same then in the 2080, they DON'T sound the same.
The converters are not the same, they sound bad. And effects are cheap. It is not a very bright sounding module.

Only one insert effect on Midi channel 1 + Reverb and Chorus on all midi channels.

Effects are horrible (especially the reverbs), and bring down the overall quality of the sounds.

Only two outputs (lest and right).

You got all the Roland JV sounds:

A.Pianos: session piano is a must!
E.Pianos, rhodes: poor, but ok in a mix
Clav: ok
Vibes, bells: great
Organs: good
Guitars: so and so.
Bass: so and so
Synths: great, there's so many! Amazing pads.
Strings: ok, you can add the Orchestral board if you want more
Ethnic: cool
Drums: forget it

Overall: great set of sounds. A little bit dated. We heard them so many times. So 90's... but, classic, and classy!

Solid as a rock!

You've got all the great sounds from the JV2080, but at a reduced quality.
The converters are poor, dynamic is bad and outputs are low compare to other synths.
The effects sound very cheap, especially the horrible reverb.

I bought mine in January 2000. I sold it 6 months ago. It's not a professional synth module, but a good way to get started and to have a taste of the great Roland JV sounds. And it expandable.

Very good value for the price.

Do not buy this unit for live work. The problem described by the first reviewer is a hardware problem, and Roland are unable to fix this. It's also left me playing nothing in live situations. This is the mail I got from Roland support when I requested for a second time that they tell me what was wrong with my unit:

This is a hardware limitation with this unit. Because it was primarily
designed for use with a computer, the developers didn't put processor
priority on the front panel controls, but on other internal functions.
We investigated the possibility of fixing this, but have found that
there is no modification either hardware or software that is feasable to stop this from happening.

The unit itself is excellent, and contains all the features of its larger JV series brothers.

The sounds on this unit are very good.

Once again, see Ease Of Use.

It seems that I'm not the only person to have been strung along by Roland support over the "stops responding to MIDI data" bug.

It's a no brainer. I use it for live performance as part of my rig. I gave it a 5 because of a serious problem it seems to exhibit. (that other 1010 owners I've spoken to also have noticed). If you switch between patch to performance to gm, etc. and cycle through the modes, it will from time to time stop responding to MIDI data. It's a problem because there's been times when my group stops playing and I have to play a part and nothing has come out of the box! Embarrasing to say the least. I've gotten into the habit that if I am going to play something on it, before my part comes up, I'll twitch the pitch bend lever or something and see if the MIDI light turns on. If it doesn't I'll turn it off and back on to reset it and that fixes the problem. I've also downloaded the operating system update from the Roland website and installed it but that hasn't fixed the MIDI bug.

Tons o' sounds and room for an expansion card. I know some people here have complained about the DACs but in a live situation, it really sounds pretty good. When you're in a 6 piece pop band playing through a loud PA to 600 extremely drunk college kids, you can't hear any DAC problems. I gave it a 7 because some functions are impossible to use without the use of a computer. For example, changing effects, delay speed or the tempo of a synth sound that has motion (like one of the pulsing basses or something). Also, you can set performances and all with the computer but when you turn the unit off, the performances go bye-bye. Not good for a live setting where I want to set up my own performances.

Like I said, the sounds are pretty good for live use. I use a Kurtz MicroPiano for my piano, though. But the organs are decent and the clavs pop. There are tons and tons of synth sounds and they sound good. I use a lot of string sounds for stuff and the synth stuff. Sounds good. A more serious problem, this unit has extremely weak output. This is easily, the most amped unit in my rack. In my mixer, I always set this to 8 or 9 (to leave some room to boost it for a solo or something) and then set all the other synth's volumes relative to this one. Really, I'm not kidding. At times, the volume can sound almost non-existant. Also, sometimes the volume differences between patch catagories can be wide. The synth catagory is easily, like, 40% hotter then the piano catagory. The Orch catagory is louder then the piano, but softer then the synth, and so on. If you set the volume based on the piano and switch to a synth...look out! You might get hit with a beer from the soundman. I set my volume to the synth and I can always boost for the softer stuff (pianos and strings, etc....that's why I set the mixer to an 8 or 9 for this channel-to leave room to boost it). Also, the clavs really need the keys to be slapped to trigger them sometimes. My favorite clav is #09 (with the phaser going!) but you have to lay into the keys or it won't trigger. When you have to play all night, you don't want to lay into the keys. It can start to hurt after a while! Manufacturers...here's something...for live gigs, it helps if the sounds respond to lower velocities! For critical studio recording, maybe the other people here are right, but in a live situation, it sounds damn good and gets the job done.

This is tied into my ease of use thing. It never died on me, but it's tendency to ignore MIDI data randomly is not a good thing for a live gig.

Roland is Roland. They suck. I own a ton of Roland products, and when I do call for service, they leave me on hold for like an hour hoping I'll go away. When they do pick me up, they offer no answers. Interesting quick story: I have a D-50 and use Voice Crytal sound cards. The D-50 display always blinks "Battery Dead...replace"(for the sound card). I called Voice Crystal and asked about that. They said that the sound cards now are ROM (hard wired and don't use a battery compared to the old cards that used a lithium battery). The Roland units don't see a battery and think it's dead. They've contacted Roland about this and Roland isn't too friendly or supportive of 3rd party sound support (which is weird, since that's what makes a synth useful after the company chooses to stop supporting it...which in Roland's case it pretty frequent). Roland refused to give Voice Crystal the exact line in the D-50s Operating System that controls that so they can disable the warning. So, as long as I can remember, before it tells me the patch name, I always have to see "Replace Battery..." That should tell you something about a company and it's support for it's customers.

Ahhhh...hmmm...I have a Korg 03R/W and I love it. If this was to get stolen, I'd maybe look into getting another one of those. The output is extremely hot (one of the hottest I've ever heard...I rarely turn the volume up past a 5th of a turn) and it's really easy to program performances and save them. It sounds good also and you can access all the efx and all from the front panel. Sure, I can't install the oh-so cool Roland Jazz Scat soundcard, but to be honest, since I put that in my 1010 I've never used it, either!

I'm a non-keyboardist looking for a few decent strings, pianos, and
organs, mainly to complement arrangements.
As such, I liked most of the acoustic pianos, and 3 or 4 of the string
selections. The organs were a big disappointment -- the distortion
present on some of the more aggressive patches was particularly bogus.
As with most digital distortion, it seemed to ride along next to the
basic sound, rather than integrating with it. Very nasty.

Editing without a pc was not even worth looking into -- it was very
unwieldy.

What I really found myself wanting was a way to simply kill the
over-the-top ambience (some of the presets are positively awash in
reverb.) There's a simple on/off button on Roland's 770 drum machine.
The inclusion of such a control on the front panel would have been
a big plus. Its absence, and the difficulty of the editing functions
in its absence, is really what pushed me to return the unit.

Roland's manuals have always needed work, and this one was no
exception. Not as bad as some, but still not very helpful.
For ease of basic use, the unit is wonderfully straightforward --
a couple of knobs, a cable hookup, and away you go. Using it in
any more advanced way, however, is nowhere near as easy.

A lot of this stuff doesn't apply, since it's a module. As I didn't
fully explore all of the advanced options, I'll pass on rating this section.

As I say above, I liked the strings and pianos. The organs fell down.
A lot of people above seem to like the guitars, but as a guitar player
myself I don't generally think synth guitars sound much like real
ones (I suppose the string and piano players out there might similarly
disagree with my liking the depictions of their instruments...)
Even real electric pianos sound like crap, so why would I even audition those presets -- a Frampton tribute?

I similarly have no use for "analog" synth patches, or for most other
individual instrument sounds, so I don't have any real opinion of those, either. Digital banjo, anyone? Gimme a break.

The basic sounds need less heavy-handed effects. These are obviously
targeted towards selling the unit during an in-store demo ("WOW! AWESOME!") but the fact that getting rid of them so that you can
replace them with your own is rather difficult for a dabbler such
as myself really hurts the unit's apparent ease-of-use.

I'm impressed when any synth sounds even remotely like anything it's trying to emulate, and the 1010 does have more than a few decent sounds, so I'll toss it a "6" for the nice job on the pianos, and move on.

Didn't have it long. It would occasionally have a brain-dump when
switching between modes and/or patches, but no more so than any other
digital device. It worked fine when left on one setting -- no drop-
outs or odd noises.

Never had the pleasure, tho their web site is decent -- so long as you
bear in mind that you need to look under the "Boss" subheading for a some stuff. No opinion of the human side of their customer service.

I returned mine. I needed it for a very narrow, specific range of uses, but despite its simplicity, I found that it wasn't quite what I I wanted.

I liked the unit's layout a lot, but when one attempts to go beyond
the very simple and intuitive basic operation, and start to tailor
the presets, it's a different story. A simple ambience on/off switch
probably would have been enough to convince me to keep the unit.
Unfortunately, it was not there.

Created to be used with a PC Editor. Useless manual

Everything seems ok with the editor. a Plus with one SRJV80 slot. no problems with MIDI.

Only the sounds from Session board are good. Due to low cost cheap DACs and effects, the sounds are all mediocre. No character, doesn't inspire. You get what you pay for. If you don't need all the sounds, get a JV880. its the most quite compared to JV1010,1080,2080,XP60,X80 (really).

Rolands are OK.

N/A

bought this as a temporary module to save up for a better one. despite its weakness, its really worth it. You get what you pay for. the noise is unbarable. good for 1st timer I guess. I own quite many stuff, Alesis QS7, Yamaha SY77, 01/w, Wavestation etc...... The only synth I still keep is Wavestation. because the sounds inspire you to create. good quality DACs.