Roland XV-5080

Basically it is easy because the interface is still the best.
SCSI works as claimed and the sounds are the entire history of
Roland in one box and a better designed box than Fantom.

Used there is nothing that comes close. New, it was the Video yuppie
market of non players who this was aimed at as a production "placebo" device. As could be expected came the generic overuse at the hands of t.v., radio, and production house employee one of a kind geniuses.

That was great because now this truly musical device is available for the real world of expression by artists at an artistic price.

In theory if you are good with sound design and have any experience with Roland products you do not need the expansions. The older Jv880
expansions sound great.

The best one solution ever made by any music instrument company.

Everything including the power supply and controls are meant to last
over many touring years so then forever in the studio. Generates
very little heat and is light enough for a backpack.

Throw away most of these patches: all the ambience related things and
then you are left with some good examples of what could be done for the entire machine. Remember also that when this module appeared most
people lacked the ability to truly make complex ambient events whereas now all such things are copied to death anyway as they need no musical ability as such. this module attempts to give the aspiring video yuppie everything to fake their way into "power clips" for visual production... to simulate the work of true composers, originators and musicians. Remove all that yuppie fluff and you have
the most expressive one box I know of in this arena and that which we will never hear from say Native plugs and others.

Super solid and look at the original price and you can see why they
needed to uphold that tradition. SCSI works perfectly and translates
AKAI roms faithfully including my own custom setups.

If we need it then it sucks... right?

The one true Issue: same as Fantom. You load up those things you need over scsi... load time is great on this recent operating system.

BUT this is loaded over the User Presets... How stupid is that?
This makes the memory card mandatory for custom setups.

Tranlation of Akai setups.. the industry standard: remarkable including how the machine handles low bit rate sources and the
interpolation of samples across the keyboard.

So then basically after a boatload of virtual plugs the winner of
these options based on expressive response, intelligent response and
sonic detail? hands down its the XV5080.

The only other contender: Akai S6000 maxed out.

Also, we have to wonder a little bit about the audio including the digital signal translation in many of the newer devices.

When companies think that the digital out is a replacement for the audio outs in a sense then that is how things end up sounding like
plastic instead of fine hardwood.... We like steel also and glass.


that is when

Easy to use, good display, logical structure.
Didn't ever need to see the manual. Every question is answered in two minutes looking thru the menu.

The polyphony is 128 which is enough for everything.
The effects are good, but during the studio recording I turn off the reverb and delays (I have better outboard ones). Choruses and other is OK!
MIDI is very sophisticated, almost everything can be controlled from the external sequencer.
Has a lot of patches (1152 not including the expansion cards)
You can use it as a sampler.

High quality of all types of sounds - acoustic, synthetic, etc.
Great expansion possibilities.

I have over 40 synths (you can look at the whole list at http://synthmusic.ru/studio ) but the XV-5080 is my favorite arrangement device, I can do the whole song using only this unit (sometimes I do).
The SRX cards are fantastic.
I have installed:
SRX-11 Complete Piano - one of the best piano sounds among rom players;
SRX-01 Dynamic Drums - very good acoustic drums, with some outboard processing you can make it sound almost "live";
SRX-04 Symphonic Strings - rich, wonderful strings (internal strings are also very good)
I also had the SRX-05 Supreme Dance - nice collection of synth sounds, but a little hard. I didn't use it much - see my setup.
Going to buy the orchestral card.

Sometimes stops playing and needs to be restarted (not a big trouble though).
But in general - I don't have any problem with this instrument.

I didn't ever need it.

One of the best universal machines, I use it all the time, virtually in every work. Very clean sound, rich timbres.
The curious thing is if you have one - you want to have TWO!!! :-D
To use many cards you need at least two 5080's, but it worths it.

The XV 5080 is probably the easiest module to use if you have any experience programming any modules in the Roland JV/XP Series. The bright 320x80 super-detailed display with tons of soft keys {F1-F6) for easy menu navigation, cursor buttons, patch preview Button, patch finder function and INDIVIDUAL BUTTONS FOR access to ALL 13 Parts make this a very comprehensive package, perhaps rivaling any module built to this day (2008).

That said however, there IS an editor available for the XV from the Roland Website, that was created by Roland themselves. There are also plenty of third party editors. In my opinion though, they ALL SUCK (editors I mean). You get more usability from this thing from the Front Panel. Why? Well 100% of the editors do NOT allow you to manipulate the samples on the unit. The fact that the XV can play samples was one of the BIGGEST selling point of the XV5080.

Polyphony

The polyphony is 128. Unlike the days when most modules and keyboards featured 64 notes or less, 128 is MORE than enough, and will STILL be more than enough twenty years from now given the specs of 32 parts. You will typically use 64 notes of polyphony at any given time. Bottom line is, unless you plan on writing for an orchestra the size of the Soviet Red Army, you have little to worry about.

Effects

The Roland XV5080 has 90 high quality effects built in. Some of these were ported over from the JV Variety. However, with the addition of COSM and SRV effects (completely redesigned), you won't feel as if any corners had been cut in this department. Unlike the JV series, there are 3 MFX. With clever programming, you can manipulate some of the inner workings of the parts (TVA, LFO, Resonance, etc.) to create imitation effects.

A lot of people complain about having sixteen individual effects. My response to them? Get a life. The sounds on the XV sound stellar enough that a large amount of effects really aren't needed. Some of the OLDER sounds however, do rely COMPLETELY on the effects to give them their unique quality (i.e. Phaser Clavs vs Clav w/o effects). With the addition of the separate Reverb and Chorus controls, the 3 MFX should be MORE than enough in practice. Even WITH 32 parts.

Examples of effects include SRV Reverb, Chorus, Delay, Stereo Chorus, RSS, COSM Distortion, Gated Reverb, Spectrum, Enhancer, etc.

Expansion.

The XV5080 outclasses every other Roland synth, even the Fantom XR, to which by comparison, is only lacking USB (Okay, so that is major, but read on). The XV5080 has SCSI. A lot of people using gear with SCSI do not know this, but they DO make a LOT of SCSI Card Readers, which can allow using CF and SD cards of up to 32GB as a Solid State Hard Disk. Since the 5080 can read .Wav Files and write to PC disks, you can essentially drag and drops samples onto the card from your PC!

The XV5080 can access up to 128MB on Smart Media cards. These are getting harder and harder to find. Honestly, you only need one, maybe two. You can easily drop these things into a Card Reader (I have one built into my Windows XP and Vista PCs) and drag and drop them onto your hard drive for more secure storage. You can burn them to CD from there to if you like.

You can ALSO expand the XV5080 with 128MB of RAM or FOUR SRX Boards (EXCELLENT sounds you can access right away. There are thriteen to choose from) AND FOUR SR-JV cards from the 1990s. There are NINTEEN SR-JV cards to choose from. Many of them sounds great as well. If that isn't enough for you, you can load any of Roland Formatted, Akai Formatted or .WAV/AIFF formatted CDs into the XV5080 via SCSI CD-ROM.

The only TWO disapointments with the XV5080 in terms of expansion are: #1) No USB. This would've made the XV5080 perfect by FAR. The absence of this however IS understandable. The XV5080 debuted in 2000-2001, and USB 1.1 was the standard. Plus, at the time, USB wasn't so standard. SCSI had a huge following and Roland intended for new customers AND customers who were upgrading from older SCSI laden S Series samplers (i.e. Roland S760). The second flaw (and I am still scratching my head at this one) is the fact that you cannot directly hook the XV5080 up to your PC by SCSI. You cannot because the Roland XV5080 is programmed to be the MASTER on any given SCSI chain. The XV5080 and your computer will try to grab control of the SCSI bus. You are not going to go very far!

EVERYTHING on the XV5080 can be controlled by MIDI - EVERY FEATURE. Period. It can accept every MIDI command. I've controlled the parts from my CM Labs Motormix as a joke and it surprisingly worked. Don't be a dweeb. Read the manual. There is plenty of information about MIDI control and parameters described in minute detail.

Provided you have the right SRX Boards, SRJV Boards, Sample CD Roms and RAM, there is nothing to complain about. With all of the choices out there, fully expanding, you would only it and some DAW software to create an entire album. Seriously. This module can handle ANY type of music thanks to its sheer programmability and expansion options. Please Google some information on the SRX boards and SRJV Boards to bet an even better ideas. Most musicians who purchase a Roland JV or XV unit always keep at least one in their rack. I'm NEVER selling my Roland XV5080, and I have some soft synths and samplers.

This is a sound module. If you are one of those types to scratch up your rack with screw drivers and then expect to sell it at its MSRP in eBay give years later, get a clue, go to anger management meetings and stop buying rack modules. I mean it too. Please!

Many people have Roland D50s from 25 years ago that work just fine.

I have heard horror stories about Roland Customer support. I only had to contact Roland once about information regarding S760 updates when I had one. They were nice, helpful and respectful. Perhaps I lucked out.

If I were to die, I'd ask them to drop an XV5080 in my grave. Yes, it's that serious.

Have not had to open the manual yet, so I cant comment on how user friendly that is, but at this stage, I dont think I'll need to for quite a while to come. All the screens and controls are quite intuitive, and once you work out the specific navigation quirks of this synth, the combination of well laid out data and a kick ass LCD screen make hands on editing pretty easy. That said, if your more of a computer person, then you can download the official PC/MAC based editor software for free (I found it in the support section of the Roland UK site). Standard stuff here, just set up your midi connections and your off. OK, sure the XV 5080 doesn't come with a USB port like the Fantom or 5050/2020, but as long as you have a half decent midi interface, its not as big a deal as you'd think.
I agree with previous reviewers that some of the sounds are slightly dated, but with over 1000 to start with (not including expansion) I've already found a pile that I love.

This is why you'd buy this over any other roland product.
It is clearly built as a peice of serious studio gear, capable of up to eight channels of analogue or digital(through the RBUS connector), as well as optical and coaxial digital outs. The scsi port works hand in hand with the xv's ability to store and replay samples from external sources.
What else?
SCREEN - ONE OF THE BEST THINGS ABOUT THIS SYNTH. Plus, the 2U size means your buttons and controls arent scrunched together like on the Fantom rack.
Polyphone is a nice big 128, and the unit has two Midi Ins, as well as an out and thru, allowing up to 32 parts in performance mode.
Also has a memory card drive, which could come in quite handy for importing sounds or backing up/storing patches

Some of the sounds are a touch weird, especially when playing them on a weighted keyboard. The response and shift between the matrix on some of the acoustic instruments isnt totally convincing. May be a case of tweaking the sounds in the matrix/tone editor to smooth over the inconsistancies...

Have had it 24 hours...but feels fuckin solid.

Roland support in australia from my experience has been great. I haven't needed it yet for this particular product, but when I was setting up my si-24, the telephone support was great. However, the aussie and american websites still dont have much of a support/download section at all...

If it were stolen, I'd by one if I could get it at the same price. The original RRP of $4995 Aus is way too steep for what it is, but I wouldnt pay five grand for any rack synth, regardless.
Overall, the build quality and features set this at the top of the pile, even though newer units are now comming out. As far as roland goes, its still the flagship, even with the fantom xr trying to grab attention. If you dont like the sounds, well then edit them, replace them, or add some new boards. Load on some samples, and voila! Its exactly what you want it to be. Totally customisable to meet your individual end...

Software version unknown
You may have heard, the 5080 has been discontinued and replaced by the Fantom XR. BUMMER!Although the Fantom has 6 SRX slots , USB, and a sampler- it's fairly useless with a tiny screen ( 1 space rack) and only 4 outputs, no SCSI, no RBUS.Back to the 5080. This is Roland's best MIDI module period!There are tons of sounds, most sound dated, but hey, this is a synth program your own!
The 5080 is extremely easy and logical to navigate, I have never had to open the manual once- very intuitive soft key operation. A large display helps.

128 voice polyphony gives you plenty of room-link 2 together as I have and you have oodles of voices.
The SRX expansion boards are excellent (see my review of the 1st nine boards in the samples section at this site)
the MIDI is very responsive, FX are excellent for a synth.

This units really shines when you fill it w/ expansion boards, fill the RAM and SCSI it to a CD ROM drive. The 8 outputs are completley configurable and the FX can be routed discretely. The RBUS allows 8 discrete digital outputs!
All MIDI parameters respond well and can be saved.

This is a true Roland piece- very well built and relaible- it has never crashed. Its awesome for both studio and live usage- MIDI, links, and splits and performances are a breeze to set up. Do know that earlier versions will not play the SRX boards correctly.

Roland can be very snobbish when dealing with them,I advise solving your problems with a friend or research the internet.
I have two issues with the 5080: It's a bitch to upgrade the OS- takes about an hour. You can't copy Performances.

I would replace if lost- no doubt- there is nothing on the market that even comes close- even the Triton.
My work demands very fast access and usable sounds that I can instantly save and recall. With the SRX boards and the flexible output routing the 5080 fills and pays the bills.

After reading some reviews on Harmony-central I came to realization that most reviewers are posting to rave about the gear, not many counter-points of view. I'll try to level-set your expectations, to provide some information that may help you decide OBJECTIVELY. Let's begin.

Running the latest version of SW. Presets sound OK, usual Roland stuff. Most "dance-oriented" patches are dated or plain old. If you are buying it for Dance/Trance/Techno productions you are most likely buying a wrong piece of gear. It can probably be used for some of the aforementioned purposes but would not be my primary choice. It works well for pads, FX, and some piano sounds. The rest of crap, e.g. orchestra, brass, guitars, organs are disposable and unimpressive. Strings are nice but spend some money on sample libraries if this is your primary purpose for this unit.

If you're buying it for presets, its similar to buying Ferrari to drive around the parking lot in a first gear, never going over the 5MPH.

Editing patches is just as idiotic as the rest of the Roland Rack-based gear. I personally hate modules for that exact reason, but having no room to stick another keyboard module, I had to opt for this. Expect to spend a lot of time getting familiar with navigating the screen menus. For live applications, this is a problem - especially if you want to tweak something like ADSR on the fly. This is what I miss about the XP60.

Haven't used patch editor - I'm always hands on. Since I am not a big fan of having to dive through 30 pages of menus just to get to a parameter, I dislike the module gear for that exact reason. Being objective, though, if you spend enough time with it it will become a second nature to you.

Roland manuals always scared me and I tend to use them only when need to find something specific. Don't expect to sit down with the manual and learn it in one day or find all of the answers. Keep a bottle of your favorite migrane-relief medication handy, you'll need it soon enough.

Being objective, this section deserves 9, if compared to other rack modules. My experience with this particular unit only registers measly 4 points.

Poly is 128, but not true. Built-in FX are cool, but if you're buying it for FX only, you're wasting cash. Use of FX is surprisingly straight-forward and very easy. I only wish the rest of the synth was the same way.

Has expansion capabilities and I am using 3 of the SR-JV series cards in it. I must note that SR-JV series for some reason sound "cold" when used on XV. WHen I used them in XP 60 - they sounded a lot warmer. I also notice "digital crunch" at the tail of some SR-JV patches. Smart media slot is a great idea but implementation is lousy. The reviewer below echoes my complaints about the expansion and sampling facility of this synth. It's just not well thought-out or possibly a hardware limitation. Nonetheless, it's a compromise you have to consider. I, for one, am not willing to "settle" for mediocre quality for a pro-level product. It may be acceptable on a $100 cassio keyboard, not on this unit.

MIDI implementation is compliant with MIDI2 - you have up to 32 MIDI channels, which is nice.

No on board sequencer, I would not spend too much time crying over it.

Piano, Pads, FX, Strings, some Organ - are OK. I like jupiter pads and various phase-based pads. Goes nicely when combined as backing for my Virus. Pianos sound can varry, depending on factors such as what are you using to control the module, the attack/release setting for your key velocity and mood you're in.

It could probably work well for Jazz, fusion, rock, latin, film score. I could use it for some techno/ambient/trance/prog or other electronic styles but don't expect it to be the primary. Well, maybe on some tracks.

On board FX are good but I'm not frothing at the mouth when describe them. Better than average, let's put it that way.

roland gear definitely reacts to playing. you can definitely express your musical feeling on it.

This section deserves a 9, adjusted to 7 for re-using 80% of patches that are over 7 years old! Most patches came from XP/JV series and have been in use for ages. I was expecting some new sounds, as I was buying a new unit. What it turned out to be was mostly old crap, enclosed in new package.

it's built like a Roland - reliable.

Dealt with Roland on several ocasions. Have to agree with the condescending attitude. However, was able to get most of the answers on first call.

If it was lost or stolen, I'd try to get my homeowners insurance to pay for it and then buy something else. It's probably worth more than what I paid but not to me. I am putting mine up on e-bay.

I've been playing for some time now and have used over 20 different synths (that's just hardware) in the last 3 years. I currently own Triton Studio, Virus KC, Supernova II, JP8080, JD800, Korg Z1 and XV5080.

I love the pads and FX on this synth. I do enjoy some piano and strings patches and some of the ambient-type sounds. I hate the manual, the way some parameters are hidden and/or named, general confusion and learning curve associated with the roland equipment.

I compare it to Triton Studio and for my music, Triton is the #1 choice. I chose this synth because I started to miss the XP60 pianos but after getting NI Kontakt with piano sample library my nostalgia was relieved.

I wish it had more knobs and buttons, even if it meant adding an extra 1U or 2U to the footprint (well, faceprint actually). Roland went to town with a 6U JP8080, yet they gave this one a tons of menu instead of making parameters easily controllable via knobs. If XV was laid out like JP8080, I would never sell it for the life of me. Oh well...

Sometimes it helps make music sometimes... doesn't really get in the way, except when you have to go through multitude of menus to figure out what you need done. It's not for the faint of heart, I'll tell you that.

I definitely recommend test driving one in the store before commiting your cash to this purchase. If I actually played with it in the store, I would have passed up on it in favor of something else. But that's just me...

So much features, effects. Like motif or triton has a huge number of parameters to set. The good display helps and You can navigate these parameters without any problem. Good presets.
Patch editor free, never read the manual.

Polyphony 128... GREAT! Effects are very clear and clean. Great espandibility (64 on board, 128mb ram, 4x64 mb x srx, 4 x 16 with srjv). I'll play this module for 10 years at least!!!

Great orchestral sounds. For pianos, organs, elpianos get a motif rack! I'll buy as soon as possible srx 07 ultimate keys...
effects are good. Sound quality superb.
Just 8... but I will give it 10 with akai cd roms and SRX!!!

The most powerful synth on earth. Not a sampler but it loads akai cd roms very well. Great expansion capabilities with srx.
Great for studio, very good for live.

Version 1.28. The presets vary in quality just like any synth , but out of all the synths I own there are more usable ones in th XV5080. I find patch editing easy - good size screen. There is a free PC based Editor and Librarian available from Roland's Web site, its good and free! The manual is not the best but many synth manufacturers have poor manuals. Over all its pretty easy to use once you play around with it and understand the interface.

128 note polyphony which you need because some patches will eat up the polyphony. The effects are better than average. Expansion is what this module is all about it holds a total of 8 exapnsion boards -4 SRX boards, 4 SR-JV Boards, I expanded mine with 128MB of RAM (Sample Playback), and it has a smart media slot. There is also a SCSI interface and RMDB II port standard. With 8 boards and RAM you have a massive amount of potential waveforms no other rack synth currently offered has this level of expansion. The newer SRX boards combine several SR-JV boards into one module! I have used Chicken Systems translator to convert other format samples into compatible XV 5080 and this really expanded my sounds. All samples are processed by the on board filters and effects.

The presets are good, I also have two SRX boards and Two of Rolands sample CDs for the XV5080. The standard pianos are ok but look to the expansion board or a sample to get better. Stock drums are very good but they have an SRX board which I hear has the BEST drums (I may have to buy it). Strings are strong, leads and bass a great. Overall the sounds are clean / crisp and editing makes some of them much better. On board effects are pretty good some people say there crap but I disagree I have a Lexicon MPX500 V2 and I don't use it with the XV5080 because there almost as good, the only module I have seen with better effects is my Yamaha A5000 sampler. One thing I like about it, its not a Groove Synth, it works for all types of music & with the right expansion board or samples you can be sure it will fit your style.

Roland stuff has been reliable, they make equipment for the working man. I use it in my small studio , but it is built for road use.

Customer support is average for a synth company , nothing great , they eventually get back to you. Only called Roland a few times about other products not this one they were somewhat helpful.

This is the best module I have owned and I would replace it again with a XV5080 (unless Roland made a better XV at the time). I got rid of my Korg Triton Rack and a Yamaha CS6R becuase this thing did it all and in some cases much better. It is easier to use than both the Triton rack and the CS6R. If I could not afford the XV5080 I would get the Roland XV5050. I like the expansion capability because it means you have a place to go without having to replace the module. Some people say the sample playback is not something they need , but I find it a great way to expand this modules capability. I would highly recommend this piece to anyone!!!

last software version, patch finder is very necessary and editing a sound is immediate and simple.. few need of a manual

good polyphony, wonderfull built in effects giant expansion capabilities

excellent for everyting

no big need of support by costumers-services.

how many stars must I rate a star?? ok, it seems to be the best machine you'll ever find, 128voices, stereo semples, large display, mastrix control.. wow.., the sinthesys seems to be widely better than JV series making it look like a little older. I updated my home studio buying a 5080 and I 3 days ago have sold my JV-2080 to buy probably a 3080. the only suggestion I can give about 5080 is BUY it if you got enough money. sounds are excellent! forget old PCM,AWM,VL.. sinths. there is only one thing I do not like in this Wonderfull sinth: SAMPLE PLAYER SESSION.. WHAT IS IT?? ..if I need an half-sempler I buy an akay or a BIG YELLOW-GREEN PARROT. ....ah!!!! sample player session... ahhh! ...and why not a coffe maker? or six integrated laud speakers with a Dj-Disk-Pad to make some scratches soundin'like CHOOICKEE,CHOOIKEE-PUNZ,PUNZ?? it's all unusefull, humiliating...
makes the 5080 expansive... but it remains the best (expansive) sinth I've ever heard!

Update to my previous review: I ended up bringing it back and got an XV5050 instead. Same exact sound engine and effects, etc etc. Also has a USB hub for MIDI *and* a dedicated editor.

I decided to get rid of the XV5080 because there is no editor and SoundDiver has only got it halfway implemented.

Get the 5050 for $1,000 less