Roland JV-1010

In general it's great right out of the box. However I haven't gotten very far with custom setups but again haven't needed to.

More stuff than I have the time to figure out.

Would probably get again.

Tough to use onstage, as many have indicated, but IMHO the sounds make up for it. I wanted a "push a button and play" unit for live use and this is definitely it.

The expansion interface allows many configurations (albeit one at a time) and you can find most any sound atmosphere in the expansion cards. I haven't even loaded the editing software since I can find a very close approximation already for most any sound I'm looking for.

Indian Trail

Hope its as good as my JX-8P, still cranking with original battery for 11 years now.

Reported to be Roland's biggest fault, I haven't had to contact them yet.

Right now its the most used piece of my stage setup and indispensable for writing/recording originals. Would replace it immediately.

The synth itself is pretty straightforward, however, the product is compromised by the SoundDiver software, which is utter trash. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be any way to get at all of the features from the front panel, so the buyer is compelled to spend more money on software that works.
Thus far I've tried installing this bug-ridden trash from emagic on three systems -- one NT 4.0, and two Win98 boxes (both listed as supported.) On NT it gets as far as the splash screen and freezes. On '98 it starts downloading data from the synth, and freezes half way. It boggles the mind that a company like Emagic stays in business, and a company like Roland bundles garbage like this with an otherwise excellent unit.

32-voice polyphony, a built-in session card, and room for one additional card add up to a lot of sounds in a small (1/2 rack space) package.

This is what sold me on this unit. I had an Alesis QS6 and a Yamaha MU90R and after side-by-siding them with the Roland, I sold the other two and will be buying a second JV-1010 (one for sequencing, one for my MidiAxe).
As others have observed, this product's strengths are in its orchestral type sounds, rather than techno/dance/industrial. If that's what you're looking for, you'd probably be better off with something like the Yamaha MU90R. The strings and pads are among the best I've heard. The pianos and brass are also excellent.

Haven't had it long enough to say, but judging by my prior experience with other Roland products, I'd guess that it's pretty durable.

I've had occasion to try contacting Roland in the past, and my experience is that you might as well not even bother. Roland Canada seems a lot more concerned with their customers, but rolandUS doesn't even have an email address for support.

I would rate this a solid 9, were it not marred by useless software, an inability to effectively program it without a computer, one of the poorest manuals I've ever seen, and, of course, lack of support by RolandUS. Nevertheless, the sounds are excellent, and I still plan to buy a second one. However, I would advise anyone considering patch-management software not to even consider anything from Emagic.

Depending on what you want this box for it's either moderately easy to use or a real bear. I wanted it primarily for it's Sessions board piano sounds since I had installed that board in a JV-880 and I liked it a lot.
If you edit with the box itself those edits are temporary and cannot be saved. Once you change a patch, edits to the previous patch are lost. You can edit efx levels, panning, tuning etc., things that are done 'outside' the patch itself. Extensive patch editing can be done on a computer and saved to user memory with quite a bit of effort- the manual and patch editor are pretty bad. You can't access Performances at all live unless you have a controller capable of bank select messages.

That having been said, if your needs are relatively modest, you CAN work with this unit live, set up a multiple channel Performance in under a minute and get excellent results. User patches saved via computer can be accessed. Performances can be accessed if you have the right controller.

The nicest features for me are that it's a half rack space module instead of needing 2 rack spaces, it has the 1080 and 2080 sounds, it has the Sessions board, it has a card slot.

I'm pretty critical when it comes to new instrument selection. I wanted a very good piano sound source. This box is much more.
There are more realistic pianos out there if you invest in a hardware or software sampler and the right CDROM collection- for instance East West's Steinway B, which is top notch. The piano card for the Roland XV3080/5080 is probably better too- I haven't heard it yet. These are big investments and the JV-1010 is not. Having owned or tried pretty much every piano module ever produced I like the JV-1010 the best just as a piano sound source. The other sounds are, for me, a bonus and many are outstanding, some just so-so. Some guitars, pads, electric pianos are great. Horns are not, strings don't seem as warm as on my old JV-880. Effects are very good.
For my needs the JV-1010 is absolutely the best all around non-acoustic sound source I've ever used, though it doesn't do everything well- but what does?

The verdict is out here. I returned the first unit I had for what may have been a grounding problem. Every other Roland product I've owned has been very reliable.

I've dealt with Roland tech support twice, first time using a PC-to-phone connection and the connection was poor- the helpfulness may have been less than optimal for that reason. The second instance the tech was a pleasure to deal with and was very helpful.

I'd buy the JV-1010 again in a new york minute. I don't think anything gives you what this box does for the price. It doesn't get in the way of creating, once I set it up I forget about it and sink into the source- with any luck.
I wish I could program it more easily, but I can deal with that.

Yikes. Im new to the world of making music electronically..Im finally getting Cakewalk down really well, so I am a bit of a newbie as far as the computer music making goes..but as I see many others have said, the manual does nothing other than list the patches for you. It only served to confuse me more than help me. The software for editing patches is still leaving me in the dark for the most part. Again, I cant stress the poor quality of the manual enough..Im what one might call a "midiot" and it took me forever just to get this thing routed from my keyboard into Cakewalk..what would normally be an easy task.

It has what it needs at this price. You can edit the sounds via included software..if no computer, no editing. Again the software is not the most user friendly IMO, but its there.

I found this module to have some very usable sounds. I dont do techno/dance stuff and it seems most modules and computer related music products are geared towards that...so for me, I was pleased to find that about 80-85 percent of the sounds on this sucker were suited fine for my style with the rest being electronic dance sounds and just plain garbage. Not a bad ratio I think. Some nice acoustic guitars, good pianos but maybe a bit too bright for some, good strings, not very good drum sounds, but than again this isnt a drum machine.

no problems yet..only owned it for 2 weeks though.

no dealings.

If it were lost or stolen I dont think I'd buy it again...not that its bad or anything, its just that it isnt earth shattering. I would probably save for a Triton Rack or something like that. However at this price range..for a quick fix of new and high quality sounds that you can use well into the future this is one hell of a buy.

This thing is actually really easy to use. I think am one of the 7 people on this planet who dont use a computer in the studio, so i have not checked out the software that came with it. But when i want a piano, i pull one up. If i want drums, i pull them up. Pretty easy to get around in.

It has everything i need in a "workhorse" synth. The 64 voices are more then enough as it is not the only thing i rely on in my studio. The reverb and chorus are nice and dont take away from the sound of the patch. I love the "Session" board. It was nice of them to think of adding it.

I bought the 1010 to "round out" the sound in my studio. I own alot of older digital synths (ie: DX-21, VZ-1, K1r) and got the 1010 for its drums, pianos, guitars, and strings. If you are looking for synth-type sounds, this has a few good ones here and there. I rely on other boards for those sounds. Where the 1010 really shines is in its "basics". The pianos are bright and expressive, the strings and pads are full and lush. Great electric pianos, too.

I have had mine for about 8 months (bought used) and it does what its asked to do when it is asked to do it...hope i dont eat those words.

I have never had to deal with Roland about the 1010, but they had loads of crap online for the D-10 (when i first bought it), and for that i am forever grateful.

If i lost mine (and it IS small enough to lose), i would get another one. It is the one synth i know i can rely on for just about anything. Super simple to use and for the price i paid, the best piece i own for the money.

The basic features of this little thing are easy to use, but the manual is only usefull as toilet paper. But when it comes to tone editing there are some good tutorials on the net, for instance check http://users.netconnect.com.au/~ahair/jvxp/ --> Educational.
I really wouldn't mind paying some extra bucks for a "real" manual!!
Sounddiver isn't very exciting, but it does edit indeed.
The presets sound good.

The features of the JV-1010 are very good, it's very nice they've pre-installed the session expansion board, which containes very good sounds. It's expandable with one extra board.
There's no onboard sequencer.
The onboard effects have lots of parameters which is very nice :)

The sound of the synth is really great. Because it contains so many different patches you can use it for all kinds of music.
Most of the sounds are very realistic, but the piano's are sometimes to "sweet". Of course you can add some extra boost with sounddiver.
The onboard effects are also very great, though you can only use one EFX at a time. The reverb really adds a dimension to the sound.

When this thing crashes it's often bad cables/software so I trust on it. I use it on gigs most of the times.
Of course you always should make a backup of your user memory.

The Roland site could be more informative to users, people who already own the instrument. Maybe a new PDF manual?

I own the thing for over a year now and YES I would buy it again. This is what they call "value for money". My only problem is I play the synth live through a Roland RD-100 stage piano, which has very low velocity output. Therefore, I have to re-program almost all of the sounds I use to get them right. It would be nice if you could change velocity sensitivity with a few button-pushes.

Easy to use preloaded sounds. All editing available only with computer.

Has a lot of different futures.But difficult to understand how to use them properly.

There are a lot of different sounds,but seems internal patches has small sample rate. There are extremely poor high frequnces in spectrum of sounds,so instruments sounds not bright enough (like recorded onto chip cassette recorder).Especially it concerns to all Drums/hi-hats e.t.c.

I Hope so.

I'd like to be able to get more documentation from Roland's Web Site.
Especially, examples of sound editing.

This module is packed with features, but they are difficult to use. As has already meen mentioned the manual sucks and doesn't explain anything, and you have to use a computer. For me this is not a problem, but it is really hard to use the provided software to edit a patch. If someone would explain the abbreviations and what they do it would help. I've only had this box about 3 weeks and really like the wide variety of presets it has and the depth you can achieve by editing, but I have no idea what most of the parameters do.

64 voice polyphony (4 voices for each of 16 channels). Each patch supports 4 sounds in various structures + LFO + envelope + filter + effects. Only 1 effect per patch + chorus and reverb. Can be expanded with one expansion board. Nice sounding presets. only 4 voices per channel can be limiting. A lot of patches are SOLO and only 1 voice per channel. You'll need the manual to look up how many voices per channel for each patch.

Supports most MIDI messages and controllers. Doesn't include sequencer.

Very nice sounding patches. Even with the difficulty in editing this is a good unit because you may not even need to edit to get a good patch (especially with your choice of expansion boards).

Effects are very good. Patches are very dynamic. I don't like the percussion as much as my Korg X5D. For example, the base drum hits are not hits, they are the sound you get from a drum set kick, and sound muffled. This is bad for classical and march or anything that needs a good resonant base drum hit.

This unit will boost my compositions up a notch, the depth it has is amazing.

Haven't had any problems with it yet.

I have no idea.

I will be a lot happier with this unit when I finally learn how to program it. Other than that, I am really glad that I got it. I will really help in my multimedia authoring. The only thing that I regret is that I won't have the time or skills to get the full potential out of it.

Not the easiest synth to use. The people at Rolad who wrote the manual should be publicly crucified. Its not hard to play presets, but editing is difficult, and setting up performances is rough as well.

This module has space for 1 expansion board, and has the Session board pre-installed. Cheesy three digit LED. Only 1 stereo pair of outs on this synth. Hmmm... How am I going to process and eq 16 different channels of sound over 1 output? Answer: I'm not. 1 output is very limiting on a multi-timbral synth like this. Over 1000 sounds on the JV-1010 make it well stocked, but how good are the sounds?

I like the strings, basses, and pads. Nice for little backround bleepy things, but the synth leads suck. It's good for the more mundane sounds that all songs have, but weak on the evolving textured stuff and the huge hard leads that make industrial music so dark and evil (or maybe just misunderstood). If you are into electronic music, you must understand that this little half rack is an all purpose unit. Therefore, 85% of the sounds will be wasted on you. I play Industrial/EBM/Synthpop (goth stuff), and I don't get inspired on the JV. Sure, the occasional patch is good (VNV Nation use one of the presets on Praise the Fallen), but most synthy sounds are a let down. As an all purpose unit, this module could be (at least somewhat) useful in any type of music, rock, folk, electro, triphop/hiphop, etc...
I find many of the sounds to feel flat when I play them. Not flat as in off pitch, but flat as in lifeless.

This thing crashes on me every week or two. Least dependable of all my synths. I don't gig right now, but if I did and I needed this thing's sounds, I'd get an XP-30 or a JV-1080 instead. I wouldn't gig with it at all.

They send me nice magazines...

I wouldn't replace the JV-1010 if it were lost or stolen. I think a multi-timbral synth with only 1 stereo pair is a waste. For the money, it is very useful, but I can't imagine using all 16 channels at once. I can't even get one track of drums to sound right, since the bass drums tend to be much weaker sounding than the cymbals. Of course some external eq would fix that, but there's ONLY 1 OUTPUT!!!! ARG!!! If I add bass to the drums, that pretty string patch on midi channel 3 will become a garbled ugly mess.
Having said that, the Techno board has a great Industrial drum kit. How I long for seperate outs...
I have a Korg Prophecy, Roland, XP-10, Alesis NanoBass, and a MOTU MicroExpress. The JV-1010 provides most drums for my songs, as well as pads, arpeggios, basses, strings, and assorted other sounds. I'm tempted to upgrade to a JV-1080, but I don't think I like enough of the sounds to spend the cash.
Overall, the JV-1010 helps me make music, but it doesn't inspire me to make music.