Roland JV-1080

good

good

Ok, wow some of these reviews are annoying as hell. This box needs massive respect. And i hate roland! I bought a sh-201 a while back because i wanted to like it because i loved the interface. WORST SYNTH IVE EVER PLAYED. TOOK IT BACK WITHIN 48 HOURS, theres 80's preset keyboards with lusher tones. Its a shame the same ammount of love didnt go into there other gear that went itno this. I think the real question is are you good enough to use this monster. and judging from reviews some people arnt. If you just want presets then skip this beast. If you actually know how to program patches then oh my god get this one. The soundcards are great but honestly other then the 60's and 70's card i can program just about anything else i can imagine without them. id say though that the vintage synth one isnt too bad. because of the solina sound alone. i cant seem to get that close without it. No, dont expect drums. actually dont bother. but it more then makes up for it in other areas. I judge a good synth by if i can put my akg's on and close my eyes and play a tune and believe im listening to a track. if its too hard to believe that then the sound engine is too weak to bother recording with. so why bother. i have no problem doing that here. the dx7ish bell string stack pads are insanely beautiful. these reviews are sad. but also great for me. as this means that jv's will stay on the low end for at least a few more years. keep it up guys you keep buying those dx7's. id take a jv1080 over that anyday. hell i will eventually get another. and possibly two. i had the jv-1010 for a while. also great sounds as almost the same sound engine minus a few features. but in my opinion the jv-1080 is the perfect place right in the middle. not too much not too little. just right! ive owned tons of gear and have been playing and programing for over ten years. i have better things to do then list the gear ive owned or own. i will say this. out of all the gear ive owned or own. other then my moog rogue that i picked up in the nineties when they were still cheap. (175) this is one of the best values ive ever owned.

good

eh?

good

It's easy to use, I took the manual only a few times. If You're familiar with Roland soundmodules - this would be piece of cake...

The polyphony is 64 voices, which is acceptable even now. Effects, are OK, but not as good as Yamaha in my opinion. The MIDI response is quite fast so lags are not noticeable.

Nice piano, not gorgeous sampled grand, but nice sounding patch. I think it's very playable, and cuts well in the mix. Other sounds are different in quality - many are usable, many are crap. But they were made for all kinds of music - from pop to techno, so its soundset was a good balance between these kinds. If You want to use this module to one kind of music style, just extend it with many additional SRJV cards...

It's well build, but watch out for the buttons!

Never use it.

I think it's one of the best choice for that price...

Presets are pretty good. As many have remarked, piano sounds fine in a live mix, but whenever I let it play by itself in rehearsal, band members laugh at piano sounds. Strong suite is lucious pads and strings. Editing is pretty easy, as the LED interface is long and multi-line, with ample control buttons. Manual is pretty awful, but if you're persistent, you can figure it out.

See above. I'm not a big fan of reproducing much in the way of other instruments aside from piano, so I have no real opinion of guitars, horns, etc. Anything that doesn't do good pianos isn't going to get more than a 7 from me. Still, if you're familiar with Roland's products from 1980 to 2000, it is what you would expect: It's great for being a true synthesizer (fat pads, strings, etc.).

Bought it used; seems pretty solid-- all of its many buttons and outputs still working fine.

Has three pairs of audio outputs, which can be handy. (I run clicktrack from rhythm channel out to drummer alone.) If it were lost or stolen... I dunno. These things still bring $300 used, which seems high for what you get-- and don't: no onboard sequencer, like you get with the Alesis QSR. But if you want an outboard synth that is pretty easy to edit...

Very easy! I've used a korg 05 r/w, this one is easier to tune ! I don't use a editor, don't need it. I use softsynths to get that "hook"sound. I use the 1080 for filling up the mix. The manual..... yes there is a manual....

Just a 7 rating hee, for nowadays this module has a bit "old"specs. Only 64 polyphony, midi-timing gets bad when you sent a lot of contoler-data. But for the money: good thing!

Overall: great. Not every categorie is as good as the string section, but I like the synthpads, the basses, the guitars and the e-piano's. Drums are bad, sounding very out-dated. I bought the piano and the drums/bass expansions and I must say that those realy power up the potential of this machine! I'd really would like more fx-processors, but maybe one day i'll get the 2080...

No problems yet...

Do not have had any customer support experience yet.

I like this machine. I bought it used, for the price was very low. I also own a proteus 2000, they really complete each other. Proteus is more agressive and hard, 1080 is more soft and warm. I also looked for a korg trton/trinity, but my older 05 R/W was a bit hard to understand so I desided to go for a roland... I only wanted this thing to have more user-rom. And why are the expansionboards so expensive? They don't offer a complete new engine, just waveforms...?
This machine doesn't inspire me, it just offers the sounds I need. When it gets lost, I'd look for antoher one, or maybe the 2080.....

I use Logic Platinum for Mac 4.8.2. The presets sound generally very good indeed but the piano sounds sometimes lack lustre
I have only ever edited patches within the Roland. My dream would be to find somesort of software editor for the Mac which I could use instead of fiddling with the buttons on the ROland
The manual is absolutely terrible. God, what a waste of time that is. Totally confusing, I can never find what I want (try looking up "bulk dump" in the index) and when I do find it, it's either very technical or only tells you how to go half way( again - bulk dump - gets you half way but how do I get the information back from logic? - I know now but only found out through trial and error - 2 years of trial and error - lesser men would have crumbled....)

Polyphony is 16 patches and/or 64 voices whichever limit is reached first
I have the 19" rack version so no keyboard.
Effects are good but what really counts is the performance mode (that's Roland speak for "playing more than one sound at once in a sequencer") Here the effects limited in their use because you have to group patches through them. I think this is because there is only one chip per effect but I'm not sure
Expansion up to four cards and two data cards. Never used this though.

The Rhodes is absolutely superb. Drums are OK. There are very good pads ("Dissimilate" springs to mind - where do you think up something like that?)
The piano sounds are a bit duff.
Good for dance, pop.

very reliable.
I don't play live any more but yes I would use it on a gig without a backup

I've tried to get through to ROland but how do you do it? As always, once you've bought their product, they couldn't give a monkeys.

If my baby Roland 1080 were stolen I would dedicate the rest of my life to hunting down the miserable criminal who did it and make him (or her - I'm not sexist) eat his (or her) own genitals. Although I might let him off if he gave me a brand new Virus Indigo.
Definatley worth the price I paid (even 3 years later - I don't know why the guy accepteds such a low offer - although he did have two of them...)
I've been playing for 3 years (with the Roland).
What I love about the 1080 is it's excellent sounds and I hate, repeat HATE the manual. Stupid thing.

Ive owned a fair amount of hardware in my time, but like most bedroom producers, Ive always been on a budget. The frustration that comes from that, obviously, is that sometimes you cant afford the toys with all the best sounds or features. So you settle for something that isnt spectacular, but it falls under the "good enough" category. The Roland JV-1080 isnt one of these. As a matter of fact, I found myself cursing all the times I wasted money on mediocre equipment when I could have easily bought this beautiful monster and saved myself a shitload of cash. It truly is an enormous relief to find a synth with sounds that dont make you cringe. Quite the opposite, almost all the sounds coming from this rack module got me truly exited about production with the same enthusiasm that I had when I had first began working with music. Thats not to say all the sounds are amazing, but even the mediocre ones are very workable provided you know how to work them to your favor.

It has 8MB of sounds and like I stated before, it offers a lot of expandability with 4 expansion slots + 2 data card memory slots. You can get up to 42MB of sounds by adding any of the JV-80 expansion cards. It also has plenty of effects and filters, motion control and extensive MIDI implementation. Speaking of effects, even though this is the secong Roland unit I have ever owned, I have to say that they are one of my absolute manufacturers for quality effects. Ive owned an SP-808EX which I used mainly as a sampler and the effects on it where by far some of the best Ive ever heard. Even with the increasing evolution of software effects (especially VST and the ever popular WAVE series), software effects get bent over and spanked compared to any effect I have ever heard coming for a dedicated Roland unit. They are just way too rich and full, especially reverbs and delays.

Awesome. The majority of presets are great, especially the pads which will just bring a tear to your eye. But where this synth module really shines is in the expansion. There is availability for four expansion cards within the guts of this unit and if you think the presets sound great, the sounds coming from the the expansion cards are truly amazing. I own the "House" expansion board and for anything one ever interested in making deep or tech house, this expansion card is a must have. My good friend and production guru, DJ Midi of www.djmidi.com , has released some beautiful house tracks on the uk dance circuit using this unit as the core of is studio. Hes also running the "House" exp card as well as the "Vintage Keys" and "60's & 70's keys" exp cards... all containing awesome quality sounds. Need more convincing? Its also used by the likes of Faithless, Hardfloor, Scanner, Roni Size, LTJ Bukem and Apollo 440. Hows that for credibility.

Ive only owned this unit for a short while but my experience with Roland, along with the majority of anyone who has owned Roland hardware is that Roland makes reliable shit. I dont forsee anything but good solid years of use from this synth module.

Well, Ive never needed cs support but from what Ive heard, they arent exactly the greatest in this department.

If it were stolen, there would be a deep painful wound left within a void in my heart. Then Id leave a deep painful wound on the bastard that took it from me. This is one of the most popular digital synthesizers ever to come from Roland and for good reason. Its a solid piece of hardware thast has been around for quite some time and its tried and true. I paid $500 for a brand new one in the box off ebay and you can find them new or used anywhere from around $400 to $550. If youre looking for pristine quality sounds and an affordable price, look no further. As with any hardware, however, I would seriously test one out at your local music store to make sure that the unit is right for you.

Easy to use if you know your way around the roland architecture. Display is smaller than the later models (2080) but read on!!

Polyphony is 64 "parts". Patches can and do frequently use more than one "part", so in multi-patch mode ("performance mode" in roland speak) polyphony is affected by that.

The strength of this machine are the very good built-in effects -- the settings are incorporated into each patch.

Not that the 2080 has more of these effects (you can run 3 of them in "performance mode" as opposed to 1 in the 1080). But the 2080 is a little more sluggish in reacting to MIDI data!!

Very good for its architecture type. See comments re effects above.
The 1080/2080/whatnot have a ;arge selection of add-on ROM boards. They are a bit expensive.

If I could rate it 11 I would! I have never seen a synth module withstand as much abuse as the 1080.

No idea.

Worth every penny (bought a couple of the new).

The interface is a pain to get around having to keep on pressing the Parameter key when trying to select varouse settings in preformance mode.

I havent run out of polyphony yet so it seem to handle things ok as far as thats concerned. Having only 3 efx in total at once is limiting but 6 outputs helps to get over this. The expansion side of things are a bonus here but they wouldnt replace geting a module for each sound set for me as whats the good of have so many sounds with very limited efx and only 16 parts although the expansion cards are very good.

The sounds are great they have a good depth and top end and sit well together in the same mix. I dont like the reverb very much and like the Yamahas reverb much better, having said that it does the job.
The reaction of the sounds are very expresive to my playing and makes you want to play some presets for hours.
It wouldnt replace a analog synth for this but some sounds have some warmth in the basses.

Totaly reliable what can I say It hasnt let me down yet! I do data sys ex dumps to and from about 20 times during making a peice of music with it and it hasnt crashed or lost any data at all.

Roland know their stuff and they have helped me a few time with no fuss?

If it was lost or stolen I wouldnt replace it with another JV1080 but I would with a JV2080 due to its EFX and Editing enhancments.
If anyone wants to create a pro sounding peice of music then geting either of these modules will do the job although its recomended you use this as a big gap between other equipment.
Given its drop down in price I think you couldent do any better than get a Roland JV1080.

This unit comes with 640 presets stock which sound better than my old JV-1010-even though it is supposed to be the same. I also purchased an M-512e memory card, and the Video Manual. Editing patches is not too hard once you get used to the instrument panel. My unit did not come with a patch editor (computer program). I got this used so I did not have the manual. I since placed an order with Roland USA for $12.00. I hope it is worth the expense. I recommend the video manual. Although it is only 88 minutes long it does cover the pasic operation of the JV-1080,

There is 64 note poluphony on this synth module. The problem here is that depending on the patch the actual poly varies based on how many of up to four source sounds are used. The Reverb (8 types), Chorus, EFX (40 types) of built in effects are maximized for each patch and although may have some flaws, are basically usable. The module accepts 4 sound expansion boards from the SR-JV80 series and is basically the reason I purchased it. I previously had the JV-1010 which only had 1 expansion bay. The unit also utilizes battery backed up ram cards which is a good feature. I store my own patches on the cards. Overall I would say I am satisfied with the module's features, and ease of operation.

With 640 patches onboard and the availability of 4 expansion boards this unit has a lot of sound variety availble. The sounds range from fair to excellent in all categories so the module can be used with virtually any music style. If anything there is some slight redundancy in patches that could have been eliminated. I would rather have 1 excellent accoustic piano patches than say 12 that are only average at best. But, as anyone will tell you who owns a JV/XP, the best sounds are on the expansion boards. I plan on creating a lot of my own sounds so I am more interested in what the programming capabilities are versus the stock sounds.

Well I only had it a short while but it works for me. The 2 rack space module is very sturdy-a lot like a VCR, or Home Stereo Amplifier. I would use it without a backup.

If you have questions or problems with Roland Equipment it is best not to bother them with it. I don't think Roland has a good Customer Support operation at all. (I'd give them a "0" if I could.) Other synth companies ie Yamaha & Alesis, have their product manuals online in PDF files to download for free-Roland WAKE UP!!!!

If it were lost or stolen I think I would replace it with the JV-2080. It is worth the money I paid, and I does verify my dissatisfaction with the JV-1010. I don't think I hate anything about this unit at all. But then again there is nothing to love either. The module will be 50% of the centerpiece of my sound system. (The other 50% is a Kurzweil K2000VP.) I basically bought this unit because I had a JV-1010 and was unhappy with it. The JV-1080 is what I should have bought from the start. I think that this module is exactly what I needed

An annoying habit of Roland seems to be the production of poor manuals for their excellent equipment. I use a Roland A-80 to drive my JV-1080 and the manual for that is awful too! The big problem with the JV-1080 is the poort user interface (another Roland trait!) although it was improved upon with the JV-2080. There is a good video manual for the JV-1080. I bought it and it shows how to work your way around the unit and this has proved more useful than the bloody manual ever will!!! This video is about $25 (US) and was produced jointly between Roland UK and Roland USA. Well worth the extra outlay.

This is a fine synth module and is suited to either live or studio work. I only use mine at home these days but one thing I did find when I was using it live, in with the guitars and stuff, was that I had to boost some of the patches to get them to "cut" through. It's a very intricate unit, if you're not careful when you are editing you can completely lost in pages of menus! The expansion board idea is brilliant (you can add 4 extra boards in) and that's the main reason I'm giving it 9.

To be honest I've never been a huge fan of Roland sounds. I'always found them lacking the "bite" that Korg and Yamaha seem to excel at. The JV-1080 sounds are not in the same league as the killer patches on the Korg TR-Rack but there are a lot of very usable sounds all the same. The presets are OK but they require some tweaking to sound really good. I agree with the reviewer who said that this module is a gap-filler...the sounds are not great on their own but when you blend them with other sounds they work really well. Check out some of the expansion boards though, there's some great patches on those.

In true Roland style, this is a very reliable piece of kit. Had mine since 1997, no problems at all.

Very good from Roland UK and local dealer.

The JV-1080 is almost a de facto standard instrument in many studios and MIDI setups in general. It has sold in large numbers and it's not difficult to see why, it's a reliable and useful piece of kit BUT it does seem to lack something...the Korg TR-Rack blows it away in my opinion but I'll be hanging on my JV-1080. I recently "rediscovered" it and found it too useful an instrument to part with. If you're looking for something non-intrusive and to compliment your existing setup you could far worse. If you're looking for more sonic excitement look elsewhere.