Roland JX-3P

this thing rox. just plug and play.

i think its only up to 6 notes but you can plug just about any controller into it and it works fantastic. its basic note on/off setup is fun as hell and fyi its the same platform as the gr-77 (the original synth box for use with the g-707)

the strings sound is pretty pimp,and the filter flow has a nice moog style. if you know your way around the programming(or the pg-200) you can make some nice weird sounds of some fat octave-layered basses.the rest of the presets are pretty hokey pokey now though(im sure they were sooo cool in 1983)and if you try to play a bunch of notes with your presets it gets kinda muddy,especially in mono

it craps out oncein a while and its really touchy about other electronic stuff, those who own one know what i mean. Its not as bad as it may sound though, sometimes all you gotta do it give it a quick slap on the side of turn it off for a few seconds and it as right as rain. i have 2 just in case(there so cheap now its ok to have 2) plus i get more settings that way.

no need. its a real workhorse and its just so comfortable that i never felt i needed to have it 'fixed'. i did do some mods but everybody gets tempted, right? :P

if they got stolen id flip
i think they should re-issue them for a nice reasonable price. wouldnt that be cool! 'Roland Vintage Series' itd would be nice competition for older moog model reissues.

presets suck, totally outdated and unusable..but whats all this talk of PG200's..this baby is a cinch to programme without one.
hit write,select a perimeter and whack up the slider..job done.

chorus fattens up the sound,basic MIDI,cool little sequencer that you can overdub..

presets are bad,no velocity/aftertouch (who needs it?)
crazy sounds can be wrenched froM the 3p..

100% ROLAND,100% RELIABLE

never had to use it

had one nearly 20 years ago,with pg200..got nothing out of it as I
knew nothing about synthesis..would not get rid of it again..a classic!!

Editing pads with this piece of analog pussy is quite an enjoyable experience. (assuming you have the PG200) Although I never had a manual, it took me about one day to fully get a hang of the jx-3p.

The keys are ok to me, I've never actually needed velocity or aftertouch for my music. MIDI is crappy, though. But what can you do.. The chorus isn't very expressive.

PG200 is a very nice add, though it could have a bit bigger pots.

les fattos maximos!!!

The JX3P is a nice and handy synth.eventhough without the programmer
PG200 sounds can be edited really fast.The PG200 is more an ergonomic
helping tool.Not a must,but speeding up editing a bit.

The presets are of its time.It is wasted air to talk about their
usability nowadays.

This mashine was one of the first with MIDI.Of course a rudimentary
MIDI Implementation,but it has MIDI.
Also it has a kind of one track sequencer.More an arpegiator as a
sequencer.Really a simple sequncer,but also really simple to use.
A nice tool.Also it has a build in Chorus.Well,this Chorus sounds good
but is lousy in Parameters.At least you have only an ON/OFF Switch.

The rest is historical anlog synthesis.With good filters,Crossmod. and
Sync option.

This is na hybridsynth.Analogsound controled by Digital.Not a bad
symbiosis.But the Parametersteps are a little to rough.But this was
in any synth of this league of that time.
The sound itself is fat and very flexible for a two Osc.device.
It can produce some weird sounds via Crossmodulation and SYnc.
So it is a kind of anlog two operator FM synth.
As FM synths live a lot about their EGs,so it must be said,that the
FM has with Crossmodulation the right label,because the EGs of the
JX3P are typical anlog and to limitated for real FM.

Nevertheless a quite good sounding synth,not only analog,as we know it,but also a kind of stoneage of FM.Very flexible in its borders.

Still in good order.

Roland has usually always a good support.Also when the machines are
20 years old,they try to help the best.

Interesting synth,not a knob diddler,like the JP8 or JP6.
Nevertheless a very valuable tool.
It sounds a little thinner as the JP8/6,but this is no limitation.
I myslef prefer more a linear synth,because each synth will pass a
mixing console and there I form their "fatness".
So I prefer a synth,wich is "fat" linear ovr the whole freq,bandwidth.
This means at least,less work on the console.
If lost,I would try to get a similiar one.
Only for pure nostagica I would try to get a JX3P again.

Im not using any software for this keyboard...but the presets rip it up for what I do. Ambient, autechre, eno-esque rock, organ type music... The Planet patch sounds like some low-rent VanHalen 1984. I don't have the PG-200, It dont matter. Id like one of course. you need one if you are going to create yer own patches. The manual is thin, but still good to reference from time to time...

polyphony=6.. I kinda dig the keyboard action. Its not too springy yet not like a digital piano. The chorus is okay on some stuff. The LFO trigger rules! The mute thing is somewhat useless, but again, it depends on what you use it for...if you want to accentuate the melody, there you go. There's upgrades and tricks...search the web. MIDI..havent tried. Get something else for midi. I dont care what the heck anyone else says...THE SEQUENCER IS EFFING COOL! Again, you gotta just use it for the right applications..I like to hit the write key... play a phrase and have it play and then play something over that in harmony. its awesome if you want to get some sped up delay, weird moog ARP sounds. I use it mainly as a noise maker..Like some Tandy Commodore 64 spitting out data....the sixty dollars and 8 hours of soldering was worth it just for that!

FAT BASSES!!! ANALOG FAT! Some stuff on here is thick. Blizzow! The instruments arent that realistic, like accordian or whatever...yet, Pulsar is realistic to me...and planet. AND THATS GOOD! If you want reality get a newer roland or a triton and then refinance yer mortgage, the prices on those are ridiculous. I read that the singer from Crap Bizkut (..ZzzZzz) bought the Triton. and that guy who played on Eminenya...Why would you want the same keyboard as those fools? Fuck that go buy a car with 2grand..buy a tube mic pre or sumpin...Chorus is okay. It works on some things like strings or whatnot. No Velocity ...Like I said look for something else that does that. I want it to blip beep and well...Bleep,

Can I Depend on it?? hmm sort-of.. When I got it nothing really worked on it. My friend (who is alot better at electronics) went thru it and soldered all kinds of sh!t. It had a crack in the circuit board. So we voided the warranty (ha-ha) and rigged some stuff... It works great! The pitch bender doesnt work, Im not much of pitch bending guy...But I want to fix it when I have more time. Ive never called on Roland for anythin' so I dont know. Id really on it. Cause its like an Atari inside. I could probably put it back together...Id use it as a backup...If it broke down Id grab the mic and Michael Winslow it.

Ive never called roland and theyve never called me...I dont think they have my number...Im not in the phone book. Upgrade? why bother. I try to fix everything myself...dont be too afraid with this thing. GET A SCHEMATIC! Its tough to work on without it...Luckily though, the circuit board is printed, so you can kind-of make out what each thing is. Don't shock yerself!

If is got stolen I would be madder than a muh-fukka... Life goes on...but it would be tuff without it. I would definitely get another. Probably not as cheap. I own another Roland, Yamaha dx7, Casio. Chord Organ...rhythm ace...a mountain of other stuff. Why do you ask?...Do you want to borrow it? I love the JX3P cause it simplistic, it does its job well and with ease. If you are like me, looking to add textures to your Numan rip-off song...pick this up. Im serious. If I want to play serious piano...you know rag-time... that sort of thing..I turn on my other roland for that special aftertouch. MAN the effin Moog Cookbook Roger Manning Jr uses it. So just buy the damn thingg! Anthing else I wish it had?? Wooden sides would be cool. I wish the chorus was more control-able. I wish you could store sequencer presets on-board. I wish mine would pay its share of the rent, the slouch.

I have also a Juno-60 but this is easyer to handle. Press only one button and you have directeley a sound.

For a board from this age it's a normal thing. The effects are on stage whitout pg-200 difficult to handle

very fat sounds !!!!!

I can trust my jx3p. it's a good one.

It is a good company I have also a roland juno 60 roland jsq60 roland jx1 roland xp10 >>> so i think it's a good company. Good sounds and easy handling.

I shure don't want to miss it. It is a nice one. It's my little friend. I am playing now about 13 years.

I'm going to talk about my experience with the JX-3P coupled with it's programmer the PG-200. Put the two of them together and it's a 10. Keep them apart and it's the 3 in the result.....

Only two osc, but great env, lfo, filter, sync features. Spenf the time with it and it can spaz out 100%. Not good for pad sounds, not great for lead sounds, FANTASTIC for crazy JX-3P only sounds. You need the PG-200 to really do this.

Presets=bad. Some are funny, but only the electric pianos make me happy. But the mod sections (PG-200 please) can make some fantastic sunc based sounds. The filter is thin, nasty, yelpy, squelchy, zappy, just great. It's different to the Juno filter, the 303 filter, it's a unique JX-3P filter that sounds great.

I beat the crap out of mine. Dodgy keys can be fixed usually by sticking cereal box cardboard under the keys. right now the power supply is half connected to the base from when it fell off it's stand. Other bits have fallen off to, but it still goes.

no problems here........

If you get it cheap with it's programmer it's a great sounding unique quirky little synth. I nearly bought a second one. But GET IT CHEAP!!!!!!! And you need the programmer, without it I'd probably never bother.

If you don't have the programmer,which I don't, It's not a hands on analog expierience. you are limited to editing one parameter at a time,not a problem for me! but might be for others. but is simple anyway and getting good souns does'nt take half a brain(I have a quarter)

well I don't need to repeat what others said,the midi does suck though, the sequencer is fun but useless and the editing is DOPE.

the presets kinda suck with the exception of the organs, synthbrass
the strings are awesome I don't care what anyone says! the sounds you create though are phenominal!

I've been depending on It, gig w/o backup well
I have a casio cz-1000 and korg x5 theytwould not be able to take It's place!
I'd buy another cause they're so cheap and underated! if this had wood sides and mad knobs It would be a 1000 bucks easy but instead get one for under 200 and laugh at your friends juno! I believe I can depend on It And if it dies I'll buy another

they probably would'nt give a shit if I had a problem!

I've been playing synths for about 5 years, have a korg x5, a casio cz'1000 and my roland, I chose this over a bunch of differnt crap
I could go on and wish It had whole bunch of shit, aftertouch, arpegiator,built in BJ vaccuum beer cooler roach clip mousetrap,microwave but I won't, but couldn't they have built in the programmer?IT's dope shit at the right price.

Using its original OS hehe what os? The presets? Everybody knows about the presets of this little beast. Editing patches? Not hard at all when i first got it I had NOOOOO idea how to even run the thing, it was my first synth...but after a few minutes I figured out editing and started writing my own pads and stuff. The patch editor? a whole lot easier and right at your finger tips for real time control. The manual? Ancient, just simply ancient but is thurough.

Polyphony? about 6 notes which is good enough for me on this old device. Keyboard action? no velocity and no aftertouch (but hey i dont have to really lay on it to get loud hehe) but the keys are fine (fixed a few key activators meself). Built in effects? only 1 and its chorus and thats all you'll need with this baby. Expansion? only if you know how to jurry rig. Midi? since its the first roland synth with midi its only simple note/pitch bend sensitive midi. Onboard sequencer? Small and helpful for the techno sequences.

instruments? somewhat realistic but more imaginitive than real. Music? I say dance/techno/new age maybe rock if your good. Onboard effects? a really expressive chorus. just sounds good with my playing especially then long attack pads. velocity or after touch? forget it. get the upgrade chip.

Reliability? thick compact and well built... I'd take it with me anywhere and not worry about it.

Never had to call.

Yeah i'd get me another one. I've been playing this thing for about 5 years now. I own a n364 which jsut doesnt compare as far as analogyness. I have a pg200 programmer with it and an alesis quadraverb effects processor and this thing just simply sounds beautiful. I love the pads, I hate the fact that it has no display (oh well). I compared it with a juno 106...and i wouldnt mind the juno106...but the jx3p is soooo much cheaper and concise. I wish it had a display, better midi and multitimbrality (wow that would be nice). Oh it helps me make music, as a matter of fact i even made 4 mod songs on the computer using samples of this thing and it sounds GREAT. Nothing else i'd like to share cept this thing you definitely got to get...cheap and easy and good sounding.

Very easy to use with the pg200, all the controls are laid out for you.

Every thing is pretty good except certain aspects of MIDI. If anyone can
help please contact me; how do you select a MIDI channel that the JX3P
will respond to? And can you use the PG200 to 'realtime' alter patches
whilst the keyboard is responding to MIDI?

Sounds are great, lots of warm analog pads and not bad at most other sounds

So far so good, seems very reliable.

Never dealt with Roland.

Holds it's own when put against my Korg Z1 and Roland JP8000, quite
unique sounds.