Roland JV-1010

You MUST use the Sound Diver software to really do anything with this unit, but that is a good thing to in my view. I hate trying to program Roland synths using their own menu-driven control panels and tiny lcd screens anyway. The Sound Diver editing software is not the easiest, but it does the job. The sound pallet is vast and sounds great. Manual is useless (a Roland trademark).

64 voice polyphony. Effects sound AWESOME. Can accept one expansion card, and has the Session card already built-in. I have the 60's and 70's Keyboard card. Editing via Midi, but can also be hooked up directly to a PC or Mac serial port.

This little unit sounds AWESOME . Very very versatile with tons of sounds on demand.

Should be reliable. I've never had a problem with Roland stuff.

Roland support is pretty good. Never really had to call them much.

I would buy it again. This unit offers great versatility and a small footprint.

For a bread and butter synth you can't go wrong...the patches are sweet for the price....you can't go wrong...
This synth is really designed to be integrated into a digital environment--if you don't use it with a computer and/or software sequencer it's kind of a pain to really take advantage of new sounds--basically you can't create new user presets without the use of soundiver....but that isn't a bad thing is it?....

manual sucks my big ass toenail...if you want to become more confused, read the manual, and try to understand how to use it with LOGIC....

editing patches with soundiver is good...

polyphony ok...
built in effects...probably better to use external effects anyways...
expansion slot is nice....

Midi horns always suck....the rest is ok....but its still midi...

ya...its a sweet little stable thing...except the power knob seems a little sketchy....

does roland have custmore support?....

I'd buy it again for my first synth...its definitely worth the price for the sounds, the overall amount of manipulation of sounds through editing....

If you don't have a computer (unlikely if you are reading this review, heh), don't buy it. The manual is a pointless (though nicely laid out) waste of time -- unless you've never seen a MIDI cable before. The included Soundiver editor/librarian is a bit of a beast, but I suppose I'll figure it out in time.

Holy moly -- this thing has a LOT of sounds. I got a brain cramp just looking at some of the patch layouts in Soundiver. It's got the goods.

I disagree about the piano sounds -- they sound "samply" compared to my aging Kawai K-11. The strings rule, as do many of the synthy sounds. The default patches do cool things with aftertouch, and the box just flat sounds great. The builtin FX even sound good.

Looks rugged enough ... we shall see.

Hope never to use it.

This is a great bargain if you have the patience to get to know the unit and a computer to make the introduction. It simply has no competition that I know of in its price class.

You need a computer to play this thing. The sounds are 10. It is difficult to just choose a reverb or chorus or effect and turn it up or down. You have to go deep into the thing. That is kind of bad.

I wish it had more simultaneous effects.

Great sounds

I'd buy it again.

The manual, as everybody says, is extremely bad. Also, as many point out, there is no documentation of the SoundDiver software (used for editing patches and performances). The help in SoundDiver is good though.

It is extremely difficoult to find out how the effects, parts and patches work in the SoundDiver.

The polyphony os OK. It can be insufficient when working with strings and sustained pianopatches, but otherwise it's usually enough.

The effect implementation is bad. I can't understand why others like it (email me and tell me!). The effects might be good, but only one effect can be used at once. Reverb and chorus can be used for all parts.

The expansion cards avaliable are too expensive. I wouldn't buy one of these, I would rather buy a new synth.

There are both good and bad instruments. None of the piano sounds are very great, at lower velocities they just sound mixed up and too un-sharp. The regarded 64-piano session-sound, that many likes, has a kind of "bug", it has a metallic sound in the attack at higher velocities. If you want good piano sounds, buy a digital piano.

The string sounds are good, but there is not many variations of them (I bet they are all built on the same waveform, or at least very few).

Some orchestral sounds like flutes and oboes are good.

When it comes to the synths there are not very many that are good. It has hudreds of pads, it would be sufficient with 10 of them. But it has only a couple of synth sounds that work well with low-pass cutoff-filter.

The distortion guitars are good, but still, not very much variation. I guesse all of them are built of few waveforms.

It is OK. There is a bug in the OS that makes it hang sometimes, but this can be fixed with software updates via SysEx.

I've only been in contact with the Swedish customer-support. The e-mail support is rather good, answering time is average two days, but they seem to be done too quickly and are not very qualitative. There are phone-support too, but it is almost impossible to reach them (line occupied).

I don't like it very much, it is not enough for me. But maybe it is a good module for that price. Forget it if you are making electronic music. Then better buy that new Korg for example, you just need to add $350.

Might be good as a first all-round module. I would definitely buy another module if it was stolen.

Welcome to email me if you have any questions (tw@linkoping.mail.telia.com)

Easiest piece of gear to use I've ever seen.

(See the other "expert" reviews)

Sounds as good as my JV-1080 (Maybe better..)

Never had a problem with Roland gear.

Never needed it...

My review is considering this unit as a portable PC sequencer driven device, which is what Roland DESIGNED it to be? I'm frankly shocked at the lack of understanding displayed in the reviews I've read expecting it to be some great sounding easy to use (without PC control) live performance unit. Why in hell would anyone want THIS unit for live keyboard playing? IF I was a keyboard player, I would have a synth (like my no longer used JV-1080) with all the performances programmed, not a mess of cables and wall-warts interconnecting a Midi controller and synth module(s). You guys remind me of the Dinosaur guitar guys who have to take 3 40lb guitars, 2 amps and 10 effect pedals to a Gig to get the same sounds I get with my Line-6 and Fly guitar (TRUST me, the audience won't notice if every sound isn't exactly perfect, but they WILL notice if you spend 5 minutes between songs fumbling with your gear..) I think this module is an incredible bargain if you use it as intended. If you're expecting the same features as a rack-mount unit that costs $1,000 more you'll be disappointed (DUH????) Even I know this and I'm a just a dumb GUITAR player.

Very easy to use as an instrument but I havn't really explored the software editing yet. I imagine this will be fairly straight forward. Ive just downloaded a copy of jvedit to experiemt with. Getting it to work with Cubase 3.7 might be a different matter.
The manual looks professionally produced but is less than useless !

All the features you'd expect for the price. I know its asking alot but I'd really like a digital output so that I can connect it to my sound card for clean hard drive recordings.

These range from good to excellent. I was not entirely convinced about the Grand piano that everybody raves about but I really do like the tenor sax. The synths are great.

Looks well made. I only use a PC for sequencing music but would use it live for one specific sound only.

Had no contact yet.

If it was stolen I might but it again. I would consider comparing it with a SW1000XG sound card which is only slightly cheaper.
My doubt about buying it again is really base entirely on the fact that I like to have my music creation & mastering entirely within the digital domain.

The manual sucks. But wait! Don't throw it away! You'll need it to refer to every time you need to choose a patch. Onboard editing is impossible, and the software is difficult.
Presets are OK.

Polyphony is good but gets used up quickly by complex 3- and 4-voice patches.
I still haven't gotten effects to work, but the ones used in presets are all right.
I'm glad it has that expansion slot, but the cards are a bit expensive.

Great sounds! Read other reviews about the volume problem. I agree.

feels good

I'm returning it and getting a SoundCanvas.

I have to mention that the JV-1010 is my very first synth, so my opinions are based on a very limited experience with other synths. However, in my opinion the 1010 is eee-asy to use! For patch navigation the dials on the front give quick and easy access, and the category banks make patch navigation much easier...the display is pretty crappy, it would be nice to be able to see the name of the patch, but it's on a minor detail...
The sounddiver program is excellent, I strongly recommend people to check it out. I've never edited patches before in my life, but sounddiver gives a great visual representation on the signal flow of the patches, and when I got over the interface I was tweaking patches qith ease. Being able to experiment and tweak on 2 computer monitors has got to be better than pressing tiny buttons on a pissy lcd screen.
The manual really does suck, but as it's been said, can't really make too many complaints for the price.

I just use it for the great presets and the ability to tweak patches...I have a home studio set up and I don't use it live so I don't need massive polyphony or anything like that...the onboard effects are great.
Since I'm on such a tight budget I don't need 20 expansion slots.
So basically, for what I'm doing (desktop music production) it's got everything I need.

One word...Great!
As I mentioned, this is my first synth and I can see now why this module (1080 and 2080) is revered so much. The session patch is awesome, and I can't really see any major weaknesses in any particular sound category (all synth horns aren't that good I guess).
I definitely agree with the volume problem, the lineouts are very weak. In fact I've got the outputs routed to the mic inputs of my ax44 for my DSP Factory.
Aside from that quibble, the sounds are fantastic

Very sturdy, as I said I don't use it live. Looks like it's gonna live longer than me

Have no idea, I try not to get involved with any form of tech support, it' just too frustrating for anyone involved.
Besides, I don't see myself having any problems with this module

I really want to bring up the ratings for this module, I think more and more people are buying it for home studios and the ratings it has been given don't do it justice for this situation (in my opinion). It's got everything you'd need for a home studio and it's small and robust. The sounds are top-quality, and gives small time aspiring producers (like me) a real opportunity to kick it with the big guns for a budget price. To me, the only flaws are the small screen and the volume problem, but these are only minor. In the end, the value for money and the excellent sounds make it an unbeatable bargain.

Well, not easy to use at first. The manual, as others said, total joke! At least it didn't tell me how to program the patches I wanted in Cakewalk or other sequencing program. It took me 5 hours to figure out how to set things. The whole controller 0 thing just drove me crazy. Glad that I found some user patches for cakewalk that made my life much much easier!

If you ever tried to read the manual, you're wasting your time! I believe Roland should have done a better job with their user manuals for all their products.

The Soundiver software that came with the unit, I have NO idea what is it for!!! The manual says nothing about it!

Well, 64 polyphony sometimes still not enough for my string ensemble arrangment. Eventhou 4 parts with 4 notes playing at once, but each part and note has 4 voices (for higher quality sound), it turns out to be 16 voices used for only 4 notes playing simultaneously. That's already 1/4 of the max. polyphony. I'm not complaining about 64 voices not enough, for this price, I can't expect too much. However, for the higher model 2080 is still 64 voices?! Definitely not enough!

I'm quite happy that they include the session board in this little box, 1000+ patches to use, that's more than enough for most people already! I also bought the Orchestral board, extremely powerful! So, I should say the expansion slot is really useful, but if Roland can make it 2 rather than 1 expansion would be much much better. But again, at this price, just can't expect too much.

I bought this unit mainly for the session board's St. Concert Piano sound. It's totally unbeatable! Amazing sound it has, and it sounds just like a Yamaha to me. Great for any types of music especially pop and newage. Just the 2nd register above middle C sounds too bright to me. Also not enough velocity layers, can't totally express the whole dynamic range of a piano...but it's way better than other piano sounds I've heard already (include Triton, Pro Piano, Yamaha, Ensoniq, and Kurzweil). Other patches are really cool too...like those synth sounds and strings. Percussion sets are great too especially the house drum set! If you just wanna spend some money for a great piano module, this is the best choice eventhough it's not solely a piano module!

I had it for 2 months so far...no problem at all...however, I might only use this unit on a gig for just the piano sound...polyphony is still a problem.

Don't know who to call and so on if I need help.

I first bought this only for the piano sound, but then I realized how good other sounds are. If this unit were stolen or so, I'll replace it with a JV1080 or JV2080, so I can have more expansion capability. At this price, I can't ask for anything more than what it has now. One thing I really need to say about the orchestral board is that everything on it sounds incredible espeically the Oboe and strings. It really worths the money!

Just one more thing about the jv1010, the line-out is not loud enough, even everything on my Cakewalk shows at top volume and velocity, when I record it from the JV, on my Soundforge, it only shows maximum to about -5dB even my line-in on my soundcard already crank up to 100%. Too low of volume output plus not so good DA converter, really has some hiss in the sound. Hope this is not the case with 1080 or 2080. But I'm very very happy with this unit. The more I use it, the more I love it. If Roland could change some of the stuff I mention above, that would be very awesome!