Roland JV-1080

This is a wonderful machine to just set down and play. The presets are mostly useable as is w-out tweaking. There are sounds for almost any style of composition (very useful to songwriters who write in a variety of musical styles)
Editing patches is hard - but that's the price you pay for such a deep machine. I have had this machine for 2 years and have barely scratched the surface. I can make this machine sound like any synth I've ever heard!
The manual (is that what that book is supposed to be?) is useless.

The JV-1080 has 64 notes of polyphony but that can go quickly in the lush sounds you can create!
The effects are good overal (I wish you could assign them individual in performance mode).
Expasion is incredible - check out the boards while you are in the store. These are some of the best sounds available.
This is an increadably deep machine. The longer I own it the better I like it. Whenever I want a sound I just find one (from the large library of onboard sounds) or create one. I seriously doubt if I'll ever need to buy another module for syth sounds. Whenever I go to the store and encounter a cool sound on another sythesizer I go home and recreate it on my 1080.

accoustic pianos - ok electric pianos - excellent organs - wow! (good variety and useful! - rock, gospel, and church (try Cathedral and Doos with all four voices added)) brass - good (solo trumpet is excellent but tbones and fhorns are poor) wwinds - ok (oboe is nice and saxes shine but none of them really sound real - the wwinds on the expansion orchestra board are outstanding) bass - very good (nice variety) guitars - very good (well programed acoustic and electric) pads - excellent (lush!!) syths - outstanding! (Korg Killer (my opinion)) rave/sndfx - wierd
The weak sounds onboard are supplemented by excellent expansion boards (e.g. accoustic pianos and wwinds).

Absolute tank - I've used it constantly for 2 years traveling every week w-out a hitch (no pun intended).

N/A it just keeps working.

I would definately buy it again it is worth every penny I paid for it!
I love when I buy something and it is even better than what I expected. In my life only two things really shine in this category - my Mac and my JV-1080. If you are looking for a workhorse of a synth buy the 1080. Wishlist: 1.more polyphony - 64 notes go quickly in mixes 2.a bigger screen 3.a manual - no a real one Roland! (I have not even found a 3rd party manual) 4.multi-effects that will allow you to assign different effects to each voice in performance mode (e.g. distortion to guitar, chorus to epiano, and gate to drums) 5.editing software to make up for the little screen 6.multiple midi ins (so I did could bypas my powerbook without having to redo my setup - don't know if this is possible but it would be very nice) 7.more time to spend with my JV-1080!
This machine helps me make music and helps me make music better.
One of the best things about the 1080 is it meets needs (well) that I don't even know I have. Whenever I discover I have need of a certain type of sound it is either already on my 1080 or I can create it with my 1080.

Pianos--Tinny, leave a bit to be desired. Can be made usable with a bit of tweaking. "DX7-ish" sounding electric pianos (nice, if you like that type of thing). Nice rock organs. Guitars/Basses--Nice acoustic guitars, just need a little beefing up. Great electric basses. Distorted guitar samples are OK (I distorted guitar samples, so get another opinion here). Horns/Saxes--Nice ensemble horns, solo horns could use a little work Strings--Great strings--it's a Roland! Lush! Lush! Pads--Yahoo! Synthy Stuff--Ow!
Great sounding machine!!
Editing patches can be a pain because it requires paging thru lots of menus, but at least the capability is their to edit LOTS of parameters.
Manual--It sucks!--It's a Roland!

64-voice polyphony, chorus and reverb can be applied, along with a third effect (phaser, flange, etc). Will accept four expansion cards.

I use the JV to do funk, R&B and hip-hop styles, and it works pretty well for those, especially with the expansion boards.

I would say that it is very dependable; it is definitely built like a tank! The only problem I've had is that every once in a while it will lock up, but shutting it off and back on solves the problem.

I would definitely buy it again--in fact, if I could afford to, I would buy a second one and load it up with expansion cards.
The better I become at playing keyboards, the more I like this box. Their aren't really any total loser sounds in it, they just need somej tweaking. The expansion boards that I've tried are fantastic. I have the Keyboards of the '60's and '70's board, which offers some of the nastiest B3's, wurli's and clavs ever heard. The Dance board offers great synth basses and nice hip-hop drums, also hip-hop, trance and techno loops for those who are into that type of thing.