Roland JX-305

I for the life of me can't understand why Roland wouldn't make it
so you could accompany the preset patterns with playing the keyboard.
The levels are so grossly unbalanced that it appears that this is one very simple and desirable feature that someone at Roland brain farted on. I got this for writing and composing when my drummer is away.

Sounds GREAT

No I wouldn't buy another. I get something else.

Presets average from sh*te to brilliant. Lots of bass, drums. Not great for leads though (bought an MS2000R for that). Plenty to choose from. Nothing a little tweaking cant fix anyway. Editing patches is easy using the frontpanel knobs. More detailled changes can be made in Editmode. Manuals fine, only used it to look certain things up. The Quickstart manual is handy though (was me first synth).

Polyphonys plenty. Memory can be expanded with a Smartmedia card, only Roland gear apparantly only accepts the hard to find 5volt ones. I got a laptop instead, using Cubase. MIDI functions are fine, though i can only use 8 Midichannels in Cubase. The on-board sequenser...i only use it as a rhythmcomposer, recording an entire song would be hard on your nerves...

Drumsounds are great, so are most of the basses. Some nice effects/ choir AAA sounds. Couple of brasses. Only a few strings though. Works well for any type of music really, though since its pretty much a 505groovebox with keys i suppose its best suited for dance/electro music. I enjoy playing it, keyboard actions good. Always prefer Roland to Korg keys.

Never let me down. Defenitely would gig without back-up using this fine synth.

Only dealt with Roland once. I got my 305 used, and one of the frontpanel knobs was missing. Emailed Roland, and they sent me one free of charge. So thats all positive.

Id definitely replace mine if it were nicked. Worth the 300 euros i paid for it. Havent been playing for that long, own a Korg MS2000R and Alesis Midiverb4 effect unit too. I mostly use the 305 for its drums and basses, composing songs in Cubase. Its a wonderful machine.

everything goes easily when you have the manual

polyphony is enough,keyboard action's a bit spongy but not bad, effects are easy to use, expansion cards smart media 5v! argh!...midi implementation is full..godd on board sequencer

sounds are for dance, techno rave and all that

its on the way to the shop...i accidentally dropped my mc 50 on the keyboard and now the sounds really messed up..like as if the portament got f2#kd up...id recommend it for studio use..the damn thing is soft as a sponge

roland here is good..but i dunno how much this will cost me..we shall see in a week or so

--id buy something better..something built like a freaking tank...

My OS is 1.06 I am looking for the version Information, but i didn't find that anywhere on the web.
The presets sounds ok, some sounds look real, but others (trumpet... are nasty) Editing patches are difficult, because of the little screen, i recommend you to edit patches and song in your PC and then send the data trough midi ports

The keyboard is very thin, i can put a finger between two sharps, obviously is not a professional keyboard (Only the keys)
The midi is very good, you can send all knobs values trough the midi cable to the computer, and control midi parameters. (Cutoff, velocity)

This keyboard is ok to make dance music, i am actually playing with an acid jazz group, the knobs are very usefull to perform live!!! imagine the triton only have four!!!

It looks very hard...

The sequencer is difficult to use but the quantize is very good, you can play a phrase out of tempo, and the JX 305 places it in the right time, amazing, the songs i am doing with this little beast, a good complement for this would be a sampler, and it's done!!!!

Its quite easy to use. Manual is obviosly converted from another language before it was released in English. I use OS ver. 1.06

64 note polyphony, action is standard synth with aftertouch.
Has built in effects, pretty easy to use. 8 part sequencer is pretty good, but i mainly use with computer.

Sounds are great for certin kinds of music. I usually use effects from other sources. Action and everything is pretty good.

FUCKING LEMON! The unit has always been a little buggy, then recently dumped completley.. And i pamper it like all my gear. I recently found threads all over the net that almost everybody that has bought one is running into this same problem i have, about 4-5 years after their release, the wont start-up and the whole harware "mother board" needs to be replaced (basically the brain). This is either a Roland design fuck-up, or strategic maneuver.. whatever it is this board wasnt built to last.. at all. Thats probably why they were packed with features at a low price. At this point in time, I WOULD NOT RECOMEND BUYING ONE, THEIR DROPPING LIKE FLIES! google search for threads of owners of them. I used to like Roland, As I got to deal with them more, I've been forced to utterly despise them! they suck!

whatever...

allthough not as cool, a $99 casio is more reliable than a Roland JX-305

This synth is not the easiest but certainly not the hardest. You gotta read the manual a bit for full ease of use.

This synth has tons of features. ITs great to have the storage card too however the type of card it uses is an obsolete older type 5v smartmedia card. Regular readily available 3.3v smartmedia will not work at all, so you have to hunt down the 5v cards NOW before they are gone forever. You can still find them on eBay but probably not for too much longer. That is the only place to get them and when they are gone, that's it. the old 5v smartmedia cards have been out of production since 1999. So you might want to get right on it and GET SOME CARDs NOW!!
The RPS feature is killler and the mute buttons are very useful in live applications.

This unit sounds awesome! The drums are hard and crisp and that's what's important to me. the synth sounds are endless and flavorful.

you can count on Roland gear usually 100%

they can be helpful

I bought this puppy new in 1999 and have loved using it ever since. My only complaint is that the memory cards are out of production for some time now and that's kind of a bitch. You can still get these 5v cards on eBay but i'll bet they wont last for long.
Once all the "old stock" 5v smartmedia has been sold, then all us owners of the JX305 will simply be out of luck when it comes to storage. If you own this machine, get some cards now before its too late. They cost about $45 a piece but they are way worth it. Get em now people before its too late-- Dont procrastinate!!!!
There is really no keyboard on the market tin this price range that even comes close to the JX-305. That's why i simply must give it a FULL 10 for fantastic value even in spite of the memory card thang.

I havent got into editing patches yet the manual is good but the editing patches part i have trouble understanding.

the sequencer is quite easy to use i have trouble copying setup information to different patches ? but that is probally me being dumb.

good sounds a whole general midi type set a wicked strings patch called film octaves.The piano sound isnt great but the electric piano sound is very good

yes

they were helpful,
memory card are #30 a hit !! pretty expensive

I love this machine i would consider replacing it were it stolen.
This is the only piece of midi gear i have.I love the filters twiddly knobs the drum sounds.it is easiest to make repeating loops not very easy to verse chorus type songs
i wish it could make the tea it hepls me make muisc specially anything dancey.
thanks roland

I get annoyed with people saying this keyboard isn't all that, its a gift for the dance music composer and so easy to use.

This really is the best all in one dance music solution that sub $1000 dollars can buy.

This keyboard isn't about realistic sounds, if you want that then only a sampler will really get the job done. For the type of music I compose (ELECTRO, BREAKBEAT) this keyboard is second to none. Again in its price range it leaves them standing.

I have had this keyboard for over 2 years with no technical problems whatsoever. I am not a gigging musician but see no reson why you couldn't use this beast live.

No contact with company ever.

This is going to sound crazy, but trust me if you know this keyboard like I do now. And the killer sounds & grooves it is capable of you would understand my opinion. I will always own the Roland JX305 ALWAYS. Yes there are better keyboards out there (Korg triton etc) But you'll pay for them. In its price range the JX305 is the business, killer sounds easy composition & GREAT FUN TO USE.

the presets are pretty cheesey, and sound flat. there really isn't to many presets that are ready for radio. however it is quite simple to use, once you've explored it a little bit. i can't stand the editing on it, the screen is way to small. the manual is the same as any other roland manual.

the onboard pattern sequencer is good. this is what i like the most about it. nothing good for finnal mix downs at all, but very good and fast for pre-production. you can spit out a good structure for a song, or part of a song, within seconds. but the editing sucks. i usual just keep input quantization on will recording and then make any other edits to it in an external sequencer.

i never really got into patch editing on this thing cause there is to much thought and memory involed (very difficult and de-motivating when you are high). screens way too small to do any major synthesis without jumping back and forth through different pages.
some presets are okay. the rest are kinda lifeless and sound like they was made by roland.

i probably wouldn't ever bring this to a gig.
for some reason when its been on for a long time it always gets an overwhelming ground loop hum and all of the midi controlers will fluxuate data values. customer support didn't know what was wrong, or know how to fix it...

personaly i think its from the crappy wallwart, it gets lots of interfierence from other devices.

very nice for all of the many calls i made for this piece. but there seems to be a lack of people that know what they are talking about at roland.
basicly if it goes beyond the OS your screwed.

if it were lost or stolen, i would be hurt, but i'm sure i'd eventually get over it and replace my loss with something better and more impressive.
but i think it was well worth what i paid cause it really introduced me to producing, and electronica.
i wish it had more knobs and a bigger screen.

i've been playing/producing for almost 5 years now. currently i have a krog er-1, tascam us-428, slow iMac OC'ed 450G3 w/ DP3, 2 Technics 1200's, Rane Mp-24z dj mixer, some numark 2 ch. mixer, an audio tech mic, motu 2x2 midi interface, kurzwiel k2000s, roland sp-808, electrix filter factory, and roland jx-305. (the jx305 is the worst of them all, well right after the mic i guess)

if you or any of your friends are thinking about this one, just keep on walking to something a little more non-rolandish.

I borrowed this synth from a friend. It's a GREAT synth, with great sounds.
However, his particular keyboard went out of tune like a guitar in a desert. Hit it, shake it, change sounds, play it hard, and it goes disgustingly out of tune. It's digital. It doesn't make sense. Has anyone had this experience?

VERY easy to use. As far as an all-in-one dance solution, it dosen't get this good for this amount of money. It's an idea scratchpad and live performance board for me so ease of use was a major factor.

Keyboard action technically stinks, but it's great for programming drum beats and dance patterns because it's fast. Cheap keys are better than weighted for certain types of playing in my book. Make no mistake... it looks very cheap... which I find amusing. Lots of realtime control and modulation. Perfect beginning workstation and controller for the budding dance artist. A great place to start.

The synth isn't VA or anything. Not a ground breaking engine, but highly decent. I can still do experimental sounding things with it. On board effects are not wonderful, but fine for adding a bit to the sounds. Delay can automatically sync to the sequencer tempo. No more math for the delay settings :) The drum sounds are really nice. I originally got it as a drum board for my live shows. Lots of control over the drum sounds. You can build 20 of your own kits. Only drawback as a great and original drum box is the lack od individual outs everyone mentions. Still... not bad for the money at all. Lots of bass. Individual fx levels for each drum in a kit are possible as well as pitch shift and cutoff. Lots of warping possibilities.

Haven't gotten to test it in the long run here. Only had it about two weeks. No hang ups or problems yet with the new software version.

Havent dealt with Roland much. I had to take my original model back to the music store as it had a problem with the main board. Since the board has been discontinued for a year, I had a month wait for a new. I took the refund. Not Roland's fault though. All done through the store. And it is out ofproduction.

Well... I couldn't get the original one repaired and I went right out and got a second one. If something happened to it, I would buy yet another. I love it. Easy to use. Sounds great. Full of about 640 sounds which makes for a lot of composing options. Looks like a toy and sounds like heaven. great value. The important thing to remember is... this board is entirely geared towards pattern sequencing. Great for dance or industrial... techno, house, rave, etc. Unless you want to work by creating patterns and stringing them together, you'll hate it. If your musical composition lends itself to patterns and realtime modulation, I think it's one of the best buys out there for the cash price. Definately a 10 for value. I know of nowhere else to get this much sequencing power with such great sounds (particularly drums) for such little cash. Great for doing things similar to Lords Of Acid, VNV Nation, Thrill Kill Kult, or any form of techno from house to jungle.

My OS version is 1.7 and the presets are really cheap according what you can get with some tweakening. Patch editing is really simple and you have more than 30 parameters that you can realtime change. In fact i have discovered some things you can do with this board that can't be found in the manual (the manual is very good and very big). You have to go through pages and pages for some things but most can be done through knobs.

Polyphony is 64, which i think is more than enough, but simply overpasses Snova2, Q and Nords. It has officially 8 part multitimbrality, but since each patch has the possibility to be layered (up to 4 layers) it can really have 32 part multitimbrality (woaaaahhhh!!!). Keyboard action (with velocity and real aftertouch, though someone below said that it has no aftertouch - maybe you don't know what's aftertouch) is the best i've had taken my hands on, but the keys are very cheap (same quality as Casio VL-Tone). Midi is awful and the sequencer is great (many modes of recording: Step1, step2, rehearsal, grid, real time...)

Velocity and aftertouch sensitive, there is no waiting to hear the sound when you play (instant play, instant sound). Highly impressive sounds when edited. I have got a patch called Jp6 that really you could say that is from Jp6. The noise effect and the fat patches from analog synths are really easy to get. I have a lot of them that are much better than any Snova2 sound i've heard. If you have a little idea of programming, this is a beast synth for such a price!!!

Be sure to give it a backup each time you get something interesting. The only lack i found on it is that sometimes it resets without any apparent reason, so you know what to do...

Roland's customer service is great for actual products, but this not one of them. Very hard to find someone helping you about this board from Roland.

I've been using it for a year now, and believe me if i find another for that price i will inmediately buy it. The only thing that i could buy instead of this another one board (cause this one should be in my home studio) is a Waldorf Q or a Clavia Nord Modular. Making music with this one is so simple and with such a great sounds... The only thing i wish is it had is the ribbon controller (if it had that i would say it is teh best keyboard from the nineties).

System upgraded to 1.6
Presets are cool for this type of board. Sounds cheap next to the JP8000 though. I love the editing. Patch editing is nice and the microscope editing is really, really nice. Storage is OK if you have the simm card. The best thing about this board is it's control for live performance. A synth and a sequencer that are easy to use and leave you plenty of room to improvise.

Polyphony is OK. The key board actions is excellent. The effects are decent but patch tweaking seems like a better route than using the effects. They are some what limited. The filters are really nice on this board but with simm synth technology how good can they be compaired to analog modeling?
MIDI ON THIS BOARD SUCKS!!!
Many problems. Standard cake walk files play symbols instead of many drum parts. Select a patch, save it, load a midi file in, save, repeate with another part, previouse parts patch changes. Sometimes the entire board changes patches. It does matter if patch remain is on or off, if bank select is on or off or how you are set up to recieve the patches always get lost. Not every time though. Some sort of bug the QA department missed and there is no update for yet.
The sequencer on this thing is killer. You only get a tracks but for playing live or even writting songs this things way easy to use. The sequencer is the savior for this board. Without it the board is not worth a dime.

For simm synth technology and the price ($600.00) the sounds are great. I dont know of any other boards with all of the features this thing has and the sound for the same money. Velocity and aftertouch are really, really nice.

Most reliable peice of gear I own. I cant afford back up equipment but if I could I would never go out without back up no matter what gear I had.

The upgrade was really easy. No problems at all. Getting in touch with a Roland tech support person alone is difficult. Try finding one that knows the 305 is a feat no mortal man can accomplish.

I would buy another one if it was stolen. No other board for the price with the same features.
I've been playing keyboard for 6 years. Guitar for 14. I have the Korg Electribes (rythem and synth), JP8000, A couple of Samplers and some rack gear. Computer running Cake Walk, Gold Wave, Wave Surgeon and many others.
Nothing to compair it too. There is nothing on the market with all the features for the same price. The next thing close is up in the $1800.
I wish I had the alesis Anrdomida (spell check please). Too many others to list.
Over all rating is really great because the price to feature ration can not be beat. Although it must be dropped down a few notches for the assinine MIDI problems this board with no upgrade help as of yet.

Needs programming...duh! Good starting points here for e-music.The manual is OK, most fun ctions are intuitive for me anyway.

Great FX, card slot allows a lot of patchs and sequences to be stored. Get back up cards from a camera supply store, specify 5 volt and save a lot of $. Find a good place to store the little things! These cards are real small and easy to misplace!
The board is a bit flimsy, but kept the price down.

Realistic ? hmmm, I like ripping synth sounds from a machine I can afford...It has been a great tool for me and I will just hang on to it. The FX are pretty smooth, the real phrase function is great and loops in an amazing way, less need for a computer or tired loops from the net.Face it, many modern players settle for loop CDs, this thing is worth it for the looping ability.

Hmm, a backup of course. This unit is not steel ya know.

Free OS upgrades from Roland. No problems in 2 years.

I own a lot of stuff and this has the typical Roland feel in a mix.I have had a lot of Roland gear. THE jx305 HAS BEEN GREAT FOR PUTTING TOGETHER IDEAS! Using this unit has been rewarding and I believe that since production was limited, someday you will see it has achieved the status as other Roland gear. As soon as these are hard to find and "the next big hit" from a major player reveals he used one in a mix...hehe.
These were sold for as low as about 400.00$ a year ago and now are going for more than that used.
Sure, it's not a 2-3000$ box and has the groove sign on it, but thats just marketing. Fact is this unit has been part of mixes by players like Infinity 303 and others. Hey, I have a few tunes on the web... http://mp3.com.au/alien-mbc

The presets are a mixed bag, but you can tweak them enough to sound great. Everything is easily edited, and simplistic. The manual is typical Roland...but there's lots of Diagrams, so that helps a bit. It's got amazing drum sounds and plenty of effects and the whole sound set from the 505, plus some real instrument sounds that aren't bad. I like Roland's piano sounds a lot.

Polyphony is nice, but some stuff occasionally cuts out. I like the ability to prioritize notes so that the main things stay in and it cuts other stuff out first. SM Slot...I don't have a card though...someone want to sell me one? I really enjoy the sequencer. The effects are downright nice, and I enjoy how they can fill out a sound and make a drum kit sound like it's right there in front of you.

Some instruments are good, some are okay, and some of the sounds just plain out suck...but for the most part they're good. It's expressive and nice, and it's amazing for the synth-rock stuff I do. It would work with almost any music I can think of. It's got nice string sounds, but the attack level is a little off for me...but that's personal preference, and you can change it with the knob.

It works nicely, and I'd gig without backup if I had to...

No opinion...never had trouble.

If I lost it, I'd probably buy something newer, as it's a little older and some things now have nice features, but if you can find one cheaper than what they listed for ($1200 US...yuck!) then get it! The list price was insane, but I think that for the value, It's worth at least 3/4 of that. I use it with a D-50, RM1x, and MG-1, and i love the way it integrates into that rig. Computers are bad!

I'm using 1.5 I think, the latest version is 1.6 but I've been having trouble getting it installed.
The presets range from amazing to terrible. Basic patch editting is easy (just turn the knobs) but getting into some of the more advanced options requires lots of scrolling and alpha-wheel nonsense. A patch editor (I use Sound Diver) helps out visually by letting you see what everything does, but removes the hands-on immediacy (not to mention being laggy as f*ck with an SB Live).
The manual is daunting at first, although the QuickStart is a really nice touch. Once you've gotten your hands dirty and mucked around a bit, the manual will become a valuable reference as you dig deeper into this seemingly endless machine.

64 voice polyphony, 8-16 part multitimbrality depending on how you look at it. Keyboard action is fine, as long as you're not expecting a weighted action piano wannabe. There are a slew of effects; a dedicated reverb, delay, and one insert processor that covers 30 some phat FX from distortion to slicer, compression to eq. They're generally quite easy to use, although you are somewhat limited by having only one MFX per pattern. The biggest thing lacking here is assignable outputs, cause with only one pair of stereo outs and one multi-effect at a time, a lot of sonic mangling is out of reach.
MIDI is well done, although certain details leave me with the impression that this box wasn't designed with the serious MIDI composer in mind. MIDI channel settings are hardwired, and splits use up more sequencer tracks, meaning that if you want to use it with something like, say, a JV-1080, you'll never benefit from its 16 part multitimbrality. Also, there's no way (that I've discovered) to program different Bank/Program change commands for switching to different patches in your other modules, which is really too bad because the sequencer is intuitive and powerful in a live setting, and with a couple more improvements to the midi engine this could have been the definitive master sequencer for live work.

This thing is built for electronic music. Techno, trance and hip-hop are what it does best. You can do some decent drum & bass with it, but the drum sounds aren't quite up to par. In fact, ignore the preset DnB & Jungle kits, House 2 has better snares and kicks, and you can mould the other sounds to suit what you need. The effects are for the most part studio quality, although a few of them are absolutely useless. Radio tuning? Vinyl simulator? Please! Save em for a freeware audio plugin, and give me a multi-band compressor or another MFX processor.
Velocity response is quite good, and when you play with velocity curves and various other patch parameters you'll find a world of cool shit you can create. Aftertouch is pretty jumpy, although I haven't played another keyboard with aftertouch so maybe they all like to jump from 0 to 100 with the weight of a speck of dust falling on the keys. For the *cough* who said there was no aftertouch, maybe you should try hitting edit while selecting a preset to lean on; aftertouch is an option that is not enabled on most of the presets.

Hoo boy, I wish I could afford a backup to have lying around. Pretty reliable, although the internal memory is prone to complete obliteration due to power bumps. Buy a SmartMedia card and religiously archive anything important to you. Believe me, it is not fun to be on stage starting a set only to have some idiot raver kick a power cable and toast your entire setlist. The cards are a bit pricey (if you can even find a 4meg card nowadays) but are WORTH EVERY PENNY! Other than that, I've had a speaker fall out of its housing due to the massive bass I was pumping, and crush 3 keys, and my cutoff knob dettached from the circuit board from 2 years of intense, daily use. Both were fixed by my local repair shop for under $80 total (although the replacement keys took a freakin month to ship in), which seemed pretty fair to me.

Well, Roland discontinued this bad boy almost immediately after releasing it, which makes me a little bitter. The MC-505 (virtually identical to the 305) has a more recent OS and they still publish tips & tricks for it. I've never really dealt with Roland directly though so it's hard to say, other than that they should manufacture replacement keys on this continent so they can get here faster. They published an OS upgrade on their website, but their silly MIDI file player doesn't seem to like WinME, so I haven't installed it yet.

I'd be really choked if somebody stole this thing. It's been by far the most fun for making music out of all the instruments I have owned or do own today. Realistically, I might buy an MC-505 and a controller keyboard, mostly for the assignable outputs which would make recording & mastering sooooo much easier. Other than though, this thing is worth every penny I paid for it. I've been playing piano for 17 years now, bass for 10, and producing electronic music for about 4 years; I own a Juno-6, MKS-20, SP-202, SP-303, various stomp boxes & rack effects, a mixer, and two comptuers. It gets way more of a workout than all the other pieces combined.

My software version is 1.01. The presets are some good enough, the most very poor (specially the imitations of real instruments), and a little are brilliant. The fact is that they are four-shaped patches and that you can edit them realtime as you play. The manual is very good for first users of a synth, i think is good for professional users too. It's very clear.

The polyphony is much greater than most of its competitors. Only Yamaha has the same polyphony with similar quality of synth.It has a interesting Multi-fx option, but you can only use one effect per song (why?). Midi in, out, thru, but no expansion posibilities. It has a real good sequencer, very editable (you can edit the strength of pulsation and velocity note per note) and it's velocity-sensitive with aftertouch too.LFOS, filters of many kinds, ADSR envelopes, 53 kinds of arpeggios, legato, dual, split, portamento, tremolo, overdrive, 16 rps patterns at the same time playing with the other 8 parts.

The thing i cannot understand about a synth is those people looking for a synth sounding like a real drum or like a real piano or like a real violin. Why don't you buy a violin? or a complete set of drums? This synth doesn't sound like a real instrument (nor those patches supposed imitating real instruments). Most patches in the category of "real instruments" are really bad. But go to the bass section or the rythm section. I don't know how good sound a Jupiter 8, but if it sounds better than my edited patches, YEAHHH! IT'S REALLY GOOD! You know about the typical Roland sound? Yes, that's there. You choose a patch you think must go to hell and try to edit it. Since it has four shapes, you can mute three shapes and sound only one and oh! what a great sound in that shape! It happens in most patches.The worst is the preset patch, the greater sound you can reach when edited. Copy the good shape to the other three shapes and edit all of them at the same time (you can do it separately too). Th patch will sound as fat as you can. Trick: Pass the patch ten thousend times to the Overdrive Mfx section. The patch will be Ulllltrrrrafffffatttttt!

I wouldn't use it without a backup. The memory card slot is for anything. Nothing has happened to me by now, but who knows?

When I was going to buy it, I asked them by e-mail for more information than that poor web. I'm still waiting their answer (i think i will never be answered by Roland). No need by now of the technical service.

I'd buy the jp-8080 instead of this, but my budget is limited. I only own this gear, but i have proved many other synths from Yamaha, Korg, Waldorf... and Roland's sound is simply the best. I wish it had a vocoder and an osc sync option. Why not ribbon controller and controls for sound modulation? I wish Roland will release something more analog than what's now in markets, because the steps to follow is not to emulate real instruments or old synths. What makers must do is to develop new analog or digital types of synthesis that may be modulated by all those precious knobs that lights the real music.

Super Easy to use. It comes with a quick start manual, that basically
walks you thru everything you need to know. It's layout is fairly simple
yet also limiting(more on that later). You can't do much editing to the
patches, but the keyboard comes with pretty useable sounds off the bat.
If this is your first sequencer or real keyboard, it's your best option,
because you won't get bogged down with programming, you can just work on
the music. Mixing is simple, too. All screens are fairly straightforward.

The keys unfortunately feel very cheap, not weighted at all, but they
respond to velocity well. The effects are alright, but you can only use
one effect per sequence(limiting!), the lo-fi emulator[bitcrusher] is
great, especially if you dig hiphop. Roland kind of left the owners of
this unit in the dark, it's discontinued, there are no expansion sounds at
all, but there is a flash rom slot, to back your patches and sequences up.
The sequencer is very user friendly, mixing is a breeze, although if you
use EQ it takes away room for using any effects.

The only sounds in this unit that sound good out the box are the drum
sets(808,909, Hiphop, House, etc- all well done)and the organs. Everything
else recquires a little modification, and some sounds are still left
completely unusuable. The Bass sounds are seriously hurting on this
keyboard. This keyboard, being a groovesynth is aimed at the dance crowd
and I can't see it being used for anything else.

I've never had a problem with it and I've had it for over a year. Moved
with it 3 times, one time cross-country and not a single glitch.

I've never needed to use customer support, but I am slightly annoyed that
Roland abandoned this unit, with no upgrades or expansion capability.

Once again if you're looking for an affordable place to start with dance
oriented music, this is it. If you already have a seperate sequencer(ie Cubase
or Logic, etc), A weighted keyboard, sampler or VA unit, you will only
be disappointed with the general quality. If it got stolen, I would save
some money and get an Access Virus or a Novation Supernova2.

Easy to use. I like a lot of the presets. Patch editing is easy (especially if you use a KNOBBY by ENCORE ELECTRONICS). The manuals are in-depth, long and tedious. I bought a VIDEO OWNERS MANUAL for my MC-505, and it is very usuable with the JX-305.

The effects are actually pretty good (although I don't use them much).
It's easy to play (not weighted at all). It does have a sequencer, but alas, mine goes unused.

I don't use it for "real" instruments (it has a GM set), but they're in-line with the GM set on the XP-30. I use this board to play Dinosaur Progressive (ELP, PINK FLOYD et al), not groove. It doesn't have aftertouch, but reacts well as-far-as velocity is concerned.

Very dependable.

Roland support is good (once you finally get through, that is).

USED, sort of... I bought it at a GUITAR CENTER blowout... it had been opened to be photographed for a MUSICIANS FRIEND catalog, but never on the floor. I use it along with ROLAND MC-505, XP-30, JD-990, JP-8080, XP-10 and a YAMAHA TG-33 (and 2 Roland A-33 76 note controllers. I would definitely replace it if it was stolen.

The manual is pretty much straight forward. I was making patterns in no time although it does take some getting used to at first. The preset patterns are not all that great in the Rap/Hip hop section i'm not so sure about the other catagories since rap is all i know, but i guess it would get the job done for techno/trance since i guess that's what is mostly designed for. editing pathes is simple yet effective. creating a song template is a peice of cake.

It has 64-voice polyphony and the keyboard action is fine. The effects are magnificant and you can apply three effects at the same time (reverb, delay, chorus, ect.). It doesn't have any expansion boards but does accept 2mb or 4mb smart media cards for addition memory for storing user patterns, songs, and patches. It has full MIDI capabilities. ONly one MIDI channel for the rythem sections but is dosn't matter since you can create your drum kits. The onboard sequencer is great in my opinion. It has 4 modes or recording: realtime, step 1, step 2 (grid), and M-Scope. you can record different things in realtime such as pitch bend, aftertouch, cutoff, resonance, LFO, ect. sequencer is set up in loop recording which I enjoy. I find this keyboard alot better than the MC-505 and alot cheaper. it has all the same patches and patterns of the 505 but is has an additional 120 or so patches. the only thing its missing, is the D-Beam, but it's overrated and useless. The jx-305 has a keyboard and pitch bend/mod wheel to replace that. Plus it's much cheaper in price for some reason.

the sounds are dance orientated and not very realistic but who the hell wants realistic sounds, this thing isn't for classical music. has nice synth sounds but then need tweaking. after a few months, you really start designing your own sounds which sound amazing and it's like you descovered a whole new board. The drums are the best. 1000 times better than the drums kits on the yamaha Rm1x or any yamaha product i've heard for that matter. if you looking from drum sounds, look no further. LIke I said, the effects are great. It contains most of the sounds that Cash Money's Manny Fresh uses. I think Manny Fresh uses this Keyboard and possible Dr. Dre has sampled a few sounds from it here and there. The keyboard reacts nicely and is velocity and aftertouch sensitive.

Very reliable. I've had it for a year and nothings ever happend to. i've takin my keyboard to the studio with me several times and everything has gone smooth as a babies ass.

Never have dealt with them

if It were stolen i'd pick up a used one probably because i think this model is discontinued. It is definatly better than the Rm1x, the 505, 303, and anything eles in its price range. if you've got about 1000 or less to spend on a board and you wanna make some rap/hip hop, trance, techno, house music, then get this board and you will be very satisfied. if you've got a lot more money then go for a Korg triton ($2100). otherwise i suggest the JX-305.

Im using the first sortware version and I have the board for almost 2 years. It is an absolute breeze to use. Anybody could have this machine playing your own original music within mins of getting it out of the box.

64 note poly aint bad considering most of your an modeling synthts dont gennerally go past 24. The key action I found was nice and sharp with good after touch and velocity control. The effects are really good but you have to really mess with them to get the best out of them. I found that using the multi controls on the effects was a very clever idea, allowing you to change the strength and character of the effect in real time. being able to save your data to card is another nice touch. No wating for disks to load. All right there when you need it. however I did find on occassion that the temporary memory wasnt allways sufficient for my needs. Allthough that too was a clever idea. Having your ideas in a temporary memory before saving them and being able to play other patterns and not worry about losing whats in the temp mem. Midi use is just damn good. what else can i say about that. The looping sequencer is just to damn good, IF, you are into making dance music. i wouldnt rate to highly for other uses but it could be done, after all, all forms of music are reapeated over and over again anyway. The push button muteing function is awsome especially if you are playing live, wether you be a performer or DJ. Its so easy to use its just unreal. The knobs are good not only for real time movements but you can record the movements in the sequencer. Nice 1.

most of the sounds are really good and the potential for creating new sounds is really good as well. The pianos are punchy, really great for dance them pianos. And the basses wether it be synth of guitar are good too. Some of the pads are great, but some are naff. The strings "film octaves" (pI88) has to be heard. Bloody brilliant! Its fun to play and as mentioned before the velocity and after touch is very responsive.

I would use this keyboard on a gig without back up and it is on the hole quite reliable but it does have have some shocking faults. You get some noise from thelights when they flash on the board when choosing certain options. its most noticable through headphones. And there are a few bugs in the operating system. It has on occasion gone dead quite when ive selected sounds and has continued to scroll through patches all by its self when playing patterns. and it has frozen on me alltogether twice. But all in all the faults dont appear to often. I have some freinds that share the same problems.

Ive purchased a few extras from them and asked a few questions and found them really polite and helpfull. Ive not needed to get it repaired so i cant comment on that.

Im considering buying another one. they are that damn good! Ive read the other reports and Im astonished that there are so many complaints about it. If you ask me you stupid americans just dont know how to use it properly.

For the most part, the presets are weak. I didn't find most of them remotely enjoyable or usable.

Editing patches is fairly straightforward, but there are a lot of buried menus to wade through. If you're the type who wants lots of knobs, this is not your synth.

The instruction manual is fairly basic. It's not great, and it's not horrible. It covers the basics without going into in-depth explanation.

This is a 64 voice, 8 part keyboard. I don't play piano, so I can't really comment on the keyboard action.

Built-in effects include reverb, delay, and multi-effects (phaser, chorus, etc.). Delay and reverb level can be adjusted for each part (although the drum section is counted as one part, so drum effects are global), but multi-effects are global, i.e. you can't have flanger and chorus going at the same time. The only effect I was really happy with was delay. You can do some wild Aphex Twin-ish ambient with it.

The on-board sequencer is pretty weak, and it has timing problems in song mode. If you want to change, say, a snare drum part, but leave the rest of the pattern alone, you have to create an entirely new pattern. If you don't mind loop-based sequencing, then you probably won't have a problem with the sequencer.

Forget using this machine for realistic sounds. If you want to write classical music, buy a sampler.

As far as 'analog' sounds, I didn't find it that impressive. The sampled waveforms cover all of the bases, but they can get downright tinny sounding when you go too high or too low in the octaves. The filter is pretty weak, too. There's a very audible digital stair-stepping when you adjust the cutoff on resonant patches. You can't get clean filter-sweeps out of this machine unless you're not using any resonance in your patches.

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I wouldn't buy this synth again. In fact, I'm planning on selling it and getting an Access Virus. I don't hold a grudge against Roland or their Groove line. I'd buy a Groove product in a second if it did what I wanted it to do. I just want something with a little more 'oomph', and a lot better ease-of-use.

the 305 is very easy to use. it is perfect for somebody who wants to get into electronic music and doesnt know were to start.the presets were pretty much made for that "electronica" sound, however some are annoying. but, editing the patches is easy, so why would you want to use presets anyway. my only complaint is with the piano sounds which are pretty damn bad. there so out of tune you probably wouldn't want to record a song using them. the manual is very good and explains everything. which is why i say its easy to use.

the effects are good especially the delay .the only problem is you can only use one effect at a time. sequencer is good and easy to use.

if it were stolen i probably wouldnt repace it. only because thers so much other shit coming out. i recommend the 305 to anybody looking for there first piece of hardware.

Software Version 1.00

The manual leaves little to be desired, but once you get the basics down you can pretty much dive right in.

Dailing up presets (and realtime editting of them with filters and ADSR), and using the internal sequencer are fairly simple tasks.

Editing presets gets more complex, but probably not much harder than any other keyboard.

The features are the main reason I like the board.

It has 64 voice polyphony, and the keyboard action is okay.

The internal effects are usable, but the bonus here is that it has reverb and delay and you can also add a 3rd multi effect (like distortion or flanger).

The internal sequencer is loop based, and only 8 part. But, you can mute and un-mute those parts in realtime which is a cool feature.

The keyboard is pressure sensitive and responds to after touch, and you have a pitch/mod bender.

The arppegiator is very good. You can set it to use Up, Down, UP Down, ect. and also set the style. The style will let you chose between 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32 Notes, and 30 or so different patters like slap bass, chord, and more.

I would probably give it an 8.5

In this area I feel the keyboard is lacking.

The sounds are not of the highest quality. They also lack the full, punchy feeling I would have liked.

You are dealing with mostly synth bass sounds, electro leads, strings, pads, and some brass and keys.

The pads are actually very good. The bass sounds lack the punch. Leads are... Okay at best.

The drum sounds are actually pretty good too.

You can produce some good Techno/Dance, or Industrial music with these sounds, and some editting of the sounds but; I think something like a Nord Lead or Access Virus would be much better.

I would actually give the sounds a 7.5

I don't know about that. The keyboard is pretty noisy. I get a lot of hiss out of it when the volume is all the way up. When I do some edit functions and lights are blinking on the keyboard I hear a pulsing buzz out of the right side. A friend of mine has the same problem, must be a design flaw.

Does that mean it isn't reliable? I guess not, but it isn't a good thing either.

I spoke to them once about the problem mentioned in the reliablity section. They directed me to a service center in my area.

If it was lost or stolen I wouldn't replace it. I would get something like a Korg MS2000, Nord Lead, or Acces Virus.

I like the features, and the sounds where better than average.

The noise that mine produces makes it nearly impossible to record with.

I would give it an over all rating of 7.5

I have had my JX-305 for about a year now, my first real synth. Overall I am happy with this machine but I do find a few things quite limiting. For me the patch edit is quite easy and makes for the creation of some killer sounds, but the operative word here is some. You do not have complete manipulation of sounds just by using this synth on it's own. Granted there are all kinds of knobs and such and quite tweakable, but not completely changeable. I like the fact that this synth is geared for very electronic music. Some preset sounds are quite good but a lot of them really get on my nerves. I always try to create my own and will be adding some new mudular sound devices to do what I completely want to do.

The manual sucks in my opinion. I admit that I do not have much of a background when it comes to the editing(chapter 9) portion of operations. I still do not even know what a checksum is. I am just now gearing myself up to connect the JX-305 to outside machines. One thing I really want is a KORG Kaos Pad or other Rolands sound modules.

I think the drum sounds are exellent. I mean, one can create a really mean sounding dance record just with the JX-305 by itself, so there is a lot to like about this synth, if you can get past the manual. I have been reading other people's quotes about the manual and can't figure out why the thing was so easy for them. I think the manual is quite vague. It doesn't give you enough refreshers on previous things that it mentioned. I still do not know how to record via M-Scope and have not been used that much looping technology. I need to really sit down and go through the manual again. Everytime I try to, I get so frustrated and just try to figure things out on my own. I feel like I am trying to decipher hyroglyphics. The manual sucks!!! I also am not great when it comes to math. I really need to meet someone that knows more about the technical end of it.

I just added the 4 megabyte card because when you use effects and such, it takes up a lot of the JX-305's availabe user memory. I had up to 7 songs and my memory was all ocuppied. I like to use a lot of effects and that is why I will be getting more mudular machines in the near future.

Oh, I paid $700 for this. Hey, for less than a thousand dollars, it is really quite good. There are some limitations though, like the stupid manual!! I need some patience please. I mean, this thing is geared for trance and Techno and so far I have written mor New Age, some Hip Hop, and Synthpop, but no a lot of loopy stuff, because the manual explains it so poorly. OK, enough

For the price, You still can't go wrong. Although, it may be harder to find it as Roland didn't really push it that much. No sales pitch here, just some honest observation.

It has 64 note polyphony, which is good. Keyboard action is good, aftertouch and all that, keys respond to amount of pressure, also a wide range of effects: Flanger, E-Q, Distortion, Slicer, Gate-Reverb, Enhancer, Limiter, Phono(with lp and ep modes, also built in background noise, kind of corny though), Phaser, and others. The effects have submanipulation capabilities to them as well. For the most part they all sound very good. However, when writing with them they take up a wide range of the memory.

Expansion capabilities are very much there. You can interface with other keyboards, the computer and many other sound modules. You can use another board to control the JX-305. Oh yes, all the midi-capability is there. Someone said that this board was not expandable, I do not know where they are coming from. There is an onboard sequencer and it is pretty good, if you ever are able to figure it out!!!!! It is somewhat complicated. I see that some people say they figured out how to use the JX-305 within hours. I have had the thing a year now and there are still operations I do not know how to do! Someone contact me please

Oh, it reacts. The preset intruments run a range from the very eletronic to orchestral and acoustic sounding instruments. Some instrument sound very realistic, like some of the ethnic ones. Sitar sounds like the real thing. What I like about this synth is that most sounds are not original and also tweakable. I have filled up my entire user memory portion with rewritten patches and such. Now I am creating more of a file on the smart-media card. This helps a lot with the memory. I really do not use too much in the way of the preset sounds, but I do use some from time to time. The patch edit lets you manipulate and create, recreate, but not 100%. I think the groove box gets in the way of the synth part a bit. The Groove box(rhythm portion, drums etc. are awesome!!! I said this before.

Onboard effects are great but do use up a lot of the user memory.

This keyboard works well for all types of electronic genres. I am convinced that a lot of the rap and hip hop being produced out there comes from this synth or other Roland related synths, groove boxes etc. The groovebox is awesome and also allows for the patch edit to manipulate the drum sounds and such. RPS is great but the manual is hard to understand in this section. Appregiator is wonderfull. Somewhat hit it right on when they said Phat!!!

The reactions to aftertouch and velocity are good but sometimes they annoy me. Well, atleast you can go back and specify how much of an amount of these effects you want

Yes, overall I think it is quite dependable and I would use it in a gig all by itself. It is that comprehensive. I would rather have a backup because I think it is just smart to use one, but by itself It should fare quite well.

Never dealt with them before, but plan on doing so now as I intend to unlock all the capabilities

If it were lost or stolen, I would probably buy another Roland synth, one somewhat like this one. I have been playing music all my life and have had some other starter synths but this one is my first actuall professional synth. I chose this one because it was rather economical. I wanted to be able to do a wide range of things with one keyboard and the JX-305 certainly lets you do that. Sometimes it helps me make music and other times it gets in the way. Overall I am quite happy with it and it will be used in the studio. Now I feel compelled to buy some other gear as well