I love my 1080. It is as old as I am, and when I use it in playing live or in my recordings, when I tell people the synthesizer is as old as I am, people still think it sounds relevant. Also, I love the expandability using the expansion boards. Also on the JV 1080, and a JV 90 that I had, you could use the SOPCM line of cards. These expansion cards were based on the Roland sound library from the S series of samplers from the late 1980s and early 1990s. Which also, incidentally enough, were used in synthesizers such as the D 70 and the U 20.
Xv-5080 has absolutely no problem with the screen or menus and is an absolute dream to program compared to other rackmount units. I just thought I should state that for those who might be dissuaded by the menus. It has two modes for looking at them which is extremely useful for people like me who prefer having a visual gui showing what it is I'm doing and not just numerical values, however it has the opinion for your typical roland number lists as well. I've only had the machine for a short time but it truly was love at first sight.
I loved my fully expended XV3080 that IMHO was quite a step up from the JV and XP Instruments in terms of overall quality. The acoustic samples including pianos, EPs, drums, strings, guitars and brass were superior to the previous generation IMHO.
Great video, thanks for the information! No one really talks about the JV line and information is hard to come by. I found a JV-1000 on the side of the road and saved it from rain damage and the infamous red glue. I had no idea the significance of the machine until now and I am very lucky to have been in the right place at the right time. The Sector 101 programer has allowed me to explore all of the expansion cards, it is very cool listening to all the original soundfonts of some of my favorite OSTs.
Mid 90s and early 00s synthesizors were the bomb man. They blew anything from the decades earlier totally out of the water in their scope of sounds and immensity of realistic samples, unfortunately the only people using them back then were mainly the EDM crowd and soundtrack producers while mainstream bands unfortunately went totally guitar based so we never really got to hear them in a rock group context and they and their modules were mainly used for studio pop, TV and film music and of course video games.
I fell love with the JV series in 1994. I was a kid and could afford it, but was impatient. I opted for a JV80 and a JW50 workstation instead of what I really wanted. While I loved that setup, but what I've learned over time is, I should of opted for a XP60. Few years later, I bought a JV1080. I played live for three years live and this was my setup: in front of me, 2 tier xp30 with orchestra 2 and super sound set, xp80 on the bottom with the keyboards of the 60's & 70's. To my left, a dj70 used as a midi controller with a jv80 under it. The dj70 controlled a jv1080, jd990 with vintage synth board, jv880 and s760. This setup still works well together today.
I had many Roland and Korg instruments in the 90s and early 2000s and sonically, they complimented each other beautifully. I often just used my Triton Classic and XV3080 to produce entire backing tracks using only the Triton's excellent and very easy to use built in sequencer. I owned 3 fully expended JV1080s and a fully expended XV3080 along with a fully maxed out Triton Classic including the MOSS board, 18 voice Z1, Wavestation AD, Wavestation SR, Trinity TR Rack, T3EX and DW8000. They were golden times for my music production.
I am positive Roland still sells this sound engine in the Juno DS. I bought one a while back, it was my first real synth and I didn’t know much and I sold it to upgrade to a MODX, then got bit by the vintage bug. I was really surprised when I bought an XV-5080 and already knew my way around. And I don’t mean a little, I was able to make custom patches on day 1. It is so close to the DS that I recreated my custom organ patches within a few hours. Now my rack has an N1R, XV-5080 and hopefully a triton soon. Paired with the MODX (full FMX engine plus Yamaha Motif etc), I have most of the vintage plus some great modern sounds(like CFX and Bossendorfer piano) all at my finger tips while playing live.
That's a great 90s synth set up! Add something like an Emu Proteus 2000 and an analog virtual synth like Novation Supernova or Access Virus and you'll be fully kitted out! 👍
The reason you knew your way around is simple - Roland has used the same basic setup for all their PCM based engines since the D50. Each new generation is more advanced, with more features, but at their core they all are D50s on Speed
Roland's finest hour - I bought a JV30 early 90's and upgraded to an XP80 when they came out. Added expansionboards straight away (including the legendary 04 Vintage Keys), and that's been my go-to synth ever since.... It's been joined by an XP-50, another XP-80, an XV-3080 module and a further bunch of expansionboards. In fact, tomorrow I'm going to pick up an XV-88 as well. They see regular use both live and in studios, and I can shape them to whatever style I need. Timeless and true classics.
Awesome setup! Great choices too, the 60s/70s Keys and Vintage Synth cards are absolutely brilliant. I have the SRX version, SRX Keyboards, and I use them both all the time in my music. I actually recently sold my XP-30 to fund buying a Fantom XR, but at some point in the future I may go back and buy an XV-5050 if I can get one for cheap. The Fantom has covered basically all of my needs and I didn't need ANOTHER keyboard laying around, but... I dunno, the studio feels a little empty without one of these things in here :)
Excellent video! The D70, U20, U110 and U220 also preceded the JV line. The JV30 and JV35 were keyboard versions of the Sound Canvas GS module and the JV1000 was basically a JV90 with a built in MC50 Mk 11 sequencer.
The XV-5080 with the SRX-7 expansion board was one of my first synth purchases! I'm glad you're bringing light to these under appreciated powerhouses and if you know how to program them they become invaluable.
oh man great video this brings me back... i own a xp-80 since new and recently got myself a JV-2080 I love the sounds of the 90s. for SR-JV80 Cards I have fixed my own by solder a replacement capacitor... but I just Recieved a sector101 SR-JV ROMulator and now I can backup and restore and make my own custom SR-JV80 Boards A++++ I love it
People throw the nostalgia point around a lot, but I'm only 23 and I find the sounds of Rompler bells and pads to be magical sounding. While some of these sounds might be considered cliche by older people, they sound fresh and unique to people who have only heard small tastes of these sounds. They are perfect for soundtrack scoring for videogames, animation and movies. I really enjoy the combined soothing sound of Lo-fidelity sounds, lush delays and reverbs, and Jazz or classical music theory.
The quality of your videos is just off the charts mate. Right up there with the big channels! And, I learn a lot your videos! For instance, I did not know that the Halo 1 OST was done with those synths! And that's one of my favorite OST's :).
Thank you very much! I actually got curious and asked Marty on Twitter about it a while back - he confirmed with a tweet that he used a Proteus 2000, and after being asked, confirmed he used a JV-2080 for Halo. Pretty cool stuff.
I have a JV-1080 with three expansion boards, Orchestral, World, and Vintage Synths, and I didn't even know that the JV-1080 by itself even HAS as much flexibility as I can now see it does. Also, YEAH. I can already see just how cumbersome working with things like LFO can be without external software. I only know how to mess with the four TONE switches which, as I've said on the "VGM & Other Instrument Sources" Discord server, I have used for one patch (#037 "Noo Spitbass" from the Vintage Synth board, in case you're curious) in at least one project (a cover of "THE FORCE FIELD" from Dynasty Warriors 3/真・三國無双2).
Very interesting & in-depth review. Enjoyed learning the history of the line. I particularly appreciate all the information about chips being used and hardware issues like exploding capacitors.👍
I still prefer to edit and create sounds on the actual JV-1080 panel. I'm stuck to a computer screen all the time and this makes a great and creative change for me. But that is after a few years of going through all the menu screens :)) by the way A One Fantastic video. Thank you!
Ah yes got a JV-1080 a couple of months ago. The pad sounds on it are so gooood. I recognised some of the sounds from Halo, Rayman and Tubular bells 3.
Dude you know this stuff good. Balls deep innit even. The Descent soundtrack is one of my favs and love those X-Fusion / Noisuf-X trashcan snares @ 37:17. The plucked dulcimer on "The Royal Queen" has an uncanny resemblence to the Ultima Online theme. A nod to the headache of the smart media stuff Roland used was also worth noting, the slot on my JP-8080 remains foreveralone (as do I, but that can only be filled with bad choices).
Ah yes, the classic "SC-55 power snare" sound that was so popular - love that sound as cheesy as it is, heh. And I just took a listen to the Ultima Online theme, d̶e̶f̶i̶n̶i̶t̶e̶l̶y̶ ̶s̶o̶u̶n̶d̶s̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶s̶o̶r̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶R̶o̶l̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶s̶y̶n̶t̶h̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶d̶ ̶ scratch that, it seems like the soundtrack with the original theme (Stones) used to be MIDI? It sounds like it uses the Harp preset, and considering it's General MIDI I don't doubt it was originally made on an SC-88 or something which would have a same or similar Harp sound as to what I showed off. Yeah, the SmartMedia crap that was being pushed around the time sucks. Yamaha caught the bug too and used it for some of their synths, but they at least had the foresight to use the much better and newer 3.3v cards which are quite cheap to buy, although they suffer from the same problem of being exposed memory and easily corrupted.
I've found a XV-88 with a ok-ish front panel for 150 I've been looking for a budget workstation with decent pianos and loads of synths. Should I pull the trigger (except the fact it weights 26kg) ?
10:26 The XV-5050 has newer features because it's a newer synth. The XV-5080 was released in late 2000. The XV-5050 was released at the beginning of 2002. The XV-5050 has all the XV-5080 patches, and the XV-3080 patches, and some Fantom patches that weren't in other synths. 2001 was when romplers stopped being flagship synths. Composers were switching to DAWs, and hardware started targeting amateur producers. Grooveboxes were born. That's when E-Mu started selling Command Stations. The XV-5050 was the new budget-friendly option with a small screen, but they made a decent editor app and added USB (not class-compliant), and gave it some newer patches. Then at the beginning of 2002, the SRX-05 Supreme Dance card was the last new Roland expansion. It was all new sounds from Spectrasonics. After that all the SRX expansions were just repackaged SR-JV80 sounds. Roland was competing with E-Mu in the '90s. The Proteus/1 was released in 1989. Roland didn't catch up until they released the JV-1080 in 1994. The specs on everything by Roland/E-Mu in the late '90s are really amazing. They were both making modules with MUCH better modulation options than modern synths, and the Proteus 2000 and XV-5080 even had a 2nd MIDI input so they could play 32 parts. That's such a ridiculous feature. And E-Mu was using custom FPGAs and Roland was using Hitachi RISC chips. This was before the PlayStation was released in 1995 with a 32-bit RISC CPU. They were both using amazing processors for the day.
I wish that E-mu rompler engine had been bought and continued (Roland is still continually releasing stuff based on the same basic rompler architecture.)
Good video. I'm a xp30 owner and I want to update to a newer synth, but I'm not sure I can replace all the sounds with a single device. And I bought the 60/70 organs and kbds module and it's great to feel cool. And I'm with you. I've listened the demos several times. It's better than anything I've done.
The modern inheritor of the these sound modules, the Roland Integra-7 is good enough to get many of these sounds and is still available as of this posting. A crossroad of SRX and Super Natural sounds.
Roland released a fantastic Dance expansion card that had fantastic loops. They were sued over copyright and had to stop selling it. They replaced it with the Techno card that IMHO was vastly inferior to the Dance card. The Hip Hop card is awesome as is the Latin card. The Orchestral 11 card had some fantastic choir patches and was a nice complement to the original Orchestral card. The Vintage Synth and Keyboards of the 60s and 70s also complemented each other nicely and the Bass and Drums card contained phenomenal drum kits and the most realistic electric and acoustic bass sounds available at the time!
Cool, those examples at around 30 mins all sound very nice and the TR1 theme is pretty much spot on. I need to get back to practicing my kb/piano skills, only have an out of tune piano at a relative's and a 2 octave midi kb though :P
Fantastic video, the issues with the Roland Cloud 1080 are really frustrating - I checked out the Vanishing patch demoed in the video and the issue appears to be with the pitch shifting MFX which means it affects Pure Tibet too :(
Aw man, that's lame... I really hope Roland gets around to fixing those issues at some point, but it seems like they don't pay attention to much of their Cloud stuff :\
@@SpeedySPCFan no it doesn't seem to be a priority for them :( I subscribed for a year so I could get the 1080 as my 'reward' instrument... it's much more convenient than the hardware but there are clearly issues and I don't think it's ever been updated. BTW have you ever tried out the withdrawn Dance card? I heard it was pulled because it used AMG's Megabass II sample CD library for many of its sounds, and like many of these older sample CDs many of the included samples were copyright infringing. Whoops!
@@TimCant I haven't tried any SR-JV cards other than what was mentioned in the video, but I do at least know about the Dance card. Would be interesting to talk about in a video for sure!
The Fantom G678 has a very good GM2 mode! MIDI files suck most of the time, but that's because musicans hate to use it and don't play in an adequate manner. They have to play to the strength of the usable sounds.
I suggest to use JV-XP editor from midiFORGE (I guess it is even free), this will really bring JV editing into nowadays VST level. Anyway fully expanded JV-2080 (8 cards) is even today very impressive machine (that old JVs have it's own sonic character, almost analog like sounding), especially cards like Pop does have synth sounds from beginning of 90's which you simply can't find in Motif/ Montage/ Fantom (for example Mondo Chord1), and Orchestra 1 board has been used even by Vangelis, so it should not be junk. 😀
If you're a synth geek....you need a JV/XP. The sounds available are endless, and some of them are really sweet. While I wouldn't say a JV/XP sound ever made me just stop and drool, there are tons of sounds that definitely got my attention. They are real workhorses and every now and then, you'll run across someone's custom patch that makes you stop and say WOW! Bottom line, for the price, and what they deliver, you need one at the heart of your studio, you're doing yourself a disservice if you don't.
Very informative and entertaining video! How do you like the Integra 7 regarding SR-JV80 like sounds? Do I need a 1080..5080 still? At 19:00 you are adding the COUNTRY COLLECTION? 8x Why would you do that? :D
I've had XP-30, JV-1080 (sold one and then got another one) and XV-5080 (changed that for Fantom Xa) and now I have JV-1080, 2080, 1010 and XV-2020.... but I tend to go back to 1080 all the time! There's just something magical about it :) even the improved interface and bigger display of 2080 just don't work for me. I like 1080 the best, because of look, sound and interface. But I agree with you the XP-30 is the best option for a keyboard version.
I've actually fallen in love with the larger displays - I got a JD-990 recently and the interface on it is wonderful, almost tempted to go back and get an XP-60 locally since it has the same circuitry as the 1080 with the nicer display. That said the XP-30 is still I think the best keyboard ""objectively"" speaking, just for the built in expansions and 24-bit DACs ^^
@@SpeedySPCFan But I believe XP-60/80 have the 2080 DACs. I like the larger display on my Fantom Xa (which can do more or less all patches of JV/XV range thanks to the XV patch file for Fantom S/X provided by Roland themselves, since Xa is Fantom S) but in case of my modules I prefer too see only what I need to see with character display :) ... But nevertheless I look forward to your video about JD-990 ;)
@@ShotecMusic Ahh, goes to show how much I remember when I'm tired :p I was thinking of the XP-50, my bad. That and the JV-1080 are the only one with the UPD63200 DAC. I'll get that one done eventually! It's proven to be a bit of a pain to film but it's on the list nonetheless, probably after the SD-90
Does the XP-30 have all the same sounds the JV 1080 offers (not including possible expansions)? Is it overkill today to purchase both? Should I just get a XP-30? I have a JX-3P and Roland D-50 but i love the sounds from my childhood (snes,n64, ps1) and a lot of that comes from the JV 1080 and SC 88. Any recommendation? Does getting an XP-30 and maybe eventually a SC 88 Pro and SC 55 sensible? That should cover all the sound I want. Or, if I'm trying to save desk space, is getting just the SC 88 Pro and SC 55 and using my D-50 as a midi controller another way to go? Your videos our outstanding by the way. Thank you
@@SpeedySPCFan Thanks for the response! Loved your video. That makes sense. Now I'm thinking that because I already have two synths taking up the space on my side table, I may just get a JV 1080 to sit under my PC monitor and have it plugged into my MIDI Keystation which is under my computer desk. Just a little worried the JV 1080 isn't as simple as navigating around as the XP-30 which seems a lot simpler...
omg another trans woman who owns a jv synth!!! I have a jv 2080 & I absolutely love using it for pads & experimental stuff!!!~* your video was super in depth & it was great hearing the xp-30 being used in the context of 90's video games rather than all the patch playthrus I see on here, keep up the good work
Thank you!! I wanted to give a different perspective on the synth, you can find all sorts of patch vids but rarely explorations of how people used the synths back in the day ^^; It takes a crazy amount of time to make these videos so I've sadly kind of retired from them, but if you want to see more content from me, I have another channel under the name "Amelie Doree" where I look at old VNs and stuff (which may also have JVs in their soundtrack, fancy that!)
They are good instruments, but i prefer the earlier generation of synths with knobs & sliders. We are in a 2nd renaissance of knob laden synths now. Thank Goodness!!
SD wasn't around at the time and I think CF was too expensive then. PCMCIA would have made the most sense then I think, the Korg Z1 and Alesis Quadrasynth series both used it so they clearly won't too hard to manufacture and they were compatible with IDE for when CF finally did come down in price... just awful decision making I guess, and they stuck by it for waaaay too long x_x
@@SpeedySPCFan I completely agree there were far better options out there even at the time, while CF was definitely more expensive, (I'd argue that) these were for the most part professional products and weren't exactly cheap to buy originally. The most infuriating thing (for me personally) XV-5080 still stuck with it and from what I remember is a crippling feature as a SCSI or a Smartmedia Card is the only way you can save a patch that uses samples.
You can drag them with the mouse. Also yeah, the drop downs are a little insane, but considering the program was made over a decade ago it's not surprising.
Very comprehensive vid! (y) I stumbled here as Im on the look out for some cheap Roland sounds, sorry edit: Roland sounds on the cheap...namely drums (808, 908 CR78 etc) pads and strings...in a hardware package, with decent multitimbrality (
It sounds like an SD-80, SC-8850, or SC-88 Pro would be exactly what you want. 16 to 32 part multitimbrality, tons of Roland drum kits (the SC's have everything you mentioned), and they're very easy to work with. The SC's don't sound nearly as good as a JV or XV though - the SD-80 is basically identical in sound to one of those however as it literally uses the same sound engine as the XV range. I'm currently working on a video on its bigger sister (the SD-90, which has USB audio/MIDI and a high res screen) which might be of interest~ I would probably skip on the 1010 and 2020. If you want ease of use, go for a 2080, but keep in mind you'll have to spend extra cash on expansion cards to get all the sounds you want, and they aren't really made with multitimbrality in mind. Same goes for any JV or XV model really, the included sound set is wonderful but also dated and cheesy, even by mid-90s standards... there's a reason Roland put out an expansion card for literally everything. The MC303's based on the earlier JV-80 and I would really recommend skipping out out on it, the polyphony is abysmal. The 505 is based on the JV-1080 architecture so you get pretty much the same specs as the 1080 but with a new dance focused UI and sound set.
I bought sc88 software version and my iMac crashed every time i Am using with cubase 11…. Its useles and shame for Roland, they keep sending automated emails that they are still working on my case…. It takes forever, very BAD SUPPORT
Regarding the Roland Cloud versions I've noticed zero issues versus the hardware, leaving me to think any alleged bugs are the result of an underpowered host or someone using a software crack to play without paying...
Sega CD Games Soundtrack mostly used the Roland product, especially Shining Force CD soundtrack.The Soundtrack full of Orchestral music and i believe it sounds from Roland Orchestra Expansions Here: ruclips.net/video/ScOB4I1s3qw/видео.html
Ah, my favorite band, The Patch Mode
I love my 1080. It is as old as I am, and when I use it in playing live or in my recordings, when I tell people the synthesizer is as old as I am, people still think it sounds relevant. Also, I love the expandability using the expansion boards. Also on the JV 1080, and a JV 90 that I had, you could use the SOPCM line of cards. These expansion cards were based on the Roland sound library from the S series of samplers from the late 1980s and early 1990s. Which also, incidentally enough, were used in synthesizers such as the D 70 and the U 20.
Where can you get the cards these days?
I just bought a JV880 and have the Orchestral II expansion on the way. Very excited to create nostalgic dungeon synth.
Holy banana! This is the first 45+ min video I ever watched on RUclips. Kudos man!
Xv-5080 has absolutely no problem with the screen or menus and is an absolute dream to program compared to other rackmount units. I just thought I should state that for those who might be dissuaded by the menus. It has two modes for looking at them which is extremely useful for people like me who prefer having a visual gui showing what it is I'm doing and not just numerical values, however it has the opinion for your typical roland number lists as well. I've only had the machine for a short time but it truly was love at first sight.
I loved my fully expended XV3080 that IMHO was quite a step up from the JV and XP Instruments in terms of overall quality. The acoustic samples including pianos, EPs, drums, strings, guitars and brass were superior to the previous generation IMHO.
Great video, thanks for the information! No one really talks about the JV line and information is hard to come by.
I found a JV-1000 on the side of the road and saved it from rain damage and the infamous red glue. I had no idea the significance of the machine until now and I am very lucky to have been in the right place at the right time. The Sector 101 programer has allowed me to explore all of the expansion cards, it is very cool listening to all the original soundfonts of some of my favorite OSTs.
Mid 90s and early 00s synthesizors were the bomb man. They blew anything from the decades earlier totally out of the water in their scope of sounds and immensity of realistic samples, unfortunately the only people using them back then were mainly the EDM crowd and soundtrack producers while mainstream bands unfortunately went totally guitar based so we never really got to hear them in a rock group context and they and their modules were mainly used for studio pop, TV and film music and of course video games.
I fell love with the JV series in 1994. I was a kid and could afford it, but was impatient. I opted for a JV80 and a JW50 workstation instead of what I really wanted. While I loved that setup, but what I've learned over time is, I should of opted for a XP60. Few years later, I bought a JV1080. I played live for three years live and this was my setup: in front of me, 2 tier xp30 with orchestra 2 and super sound set, xp80 on the bottom with the keyboards of the 60's & 70's. To my left, a dj70 used as a midi controller with a jv80 under it. The dj70 controlled a jv1080, jd990 with vintage synth board, jv880 and s760. This setup still works well together today.
Beautiful Roland set up. Roland should have given you a sponsorship!
I had many Roland and Korg instruments in the 90s and early 2000s and sonically, they complimented each other beautifully. I often just used my Triton Classic and XV3080 to produce entire backing tracks using only the Triton's excellent and very easy to use built in sequencer. I owned 3 fully expended JV1080s and a fully expended XV3080 along with a fully maxed out Triton Classic including the MOSS board, 18 voice Z1, Wavestation AD, Wavestation SR, Trinity TR Rack, T3EX and DW8000. They were golden times for my music production.
im really happy about how the jv series gets strong staying power with the integra 7. everyone can play with dem sounds lol
I am positive Roland still sells this sound engine in the Juno DS. I bought one a while back, it was my first real synth and I didn’t know much and I sold it to upgrade to a MODX, then got bit by the vintage bug. I was really surprised when I bought an XV-5080 and already knew my way around. And I don’t mean a little, I was able to make custom patches on day 1. It is so close to the DS that I recreated my custom organ patches within a few hours. Now my rack has an N1R, XV-5080 and hopefully a triton soon. Paired with the MODX (full FMX engine plus Yamaha Motif etc), I have most of the vintage plus some great modern sounds(like CFX and Bossendorfer piano) all at my finger tips while playing live.
That's a great 90s synth set up! Add something like an Emu Proteus 2000 and an analog virtual synth like Novation Supernova or Access Virus and you'll be fully kitted out! 👍
The reason you knew your way around is simple - Roland has used the same basic setup for all their PCM based engines since the D50. Each new generation is more advanced, with more features, but at their core they all are D50s on Speed
Olha eu aí no vídeo!!!! Obrigado pela divulgação amigo!
I can't believe you keep on making these lengthy in depth videos. Keep it up!
Roland's finest hour - I bought a JV30 early 90's and upgraded to an XP80 when they came out. Added expansionboards straight away (including the legendary 04 Vintage Keys), and that's been my go-to synth ever since....
It's been joined by an XP-50, another XP-80, an XV-3080 module and a further bunch of expansionboards.
In fact, tomorrow I'm going to pick up an XV-88 as well.
They see regular use both live and in studios, and I can shape them to whatever style I need.
Timeless and true classics.
Awesome setup! Great choices too, the 60s/70s Keys and Vintage Synth cards are absolutely brilliant. I have the SRX version, SRX Keyboards, and I use them both all the time in my music.
I actually recently sold my XP-30 to fund buying a Fantom XR, but at some point in the future I may go back and buy an XV-5050 if I can get one for cheap. The Fantom has covered basically all of my needs and I didn't need ANOTHER keyboard laying around, but... I dunno, the studio feels a little empty without one of these things in here :)
Excellent video! The D70, U20, U110 and U220 also preceded the JV line. The JV30 and JV35 were keyboard versions of the Sound Canvas GS module and the JV1000 was basically a JV90 with a built in MC50 Mk 11 sequencer.
The XV-5080 with the SRX-7 expansion board was one of my first synth purchases! I'm glad you're bringing light to these under appreciated powerhouses and if you know how to program them they become invaluable.
Love seeing these kinds of long-form reviews on such underrated but culturally relevant gear, big ups!!
We used 3 JV1080s on Blue’s Clues haha
Did you produce the original series, with Steve Burns?
@@NegativeReferral I was the trombone player from the beginning and I started as Associate Composer just before the time Steve split.
I had an XP30, the flashing orange lights were like a spaceship, sooo awesome. Great vid bro :)
oh man great video this brings me back... i own a xp-80 since new and recently got myself a JV-2080 I love the sounds of the 90s. for SR-JV80 Cards I have fixed my own by solder a replacement capacitor... but I just Recieved a sector101 SR-JV ROMulator and now I can backup and restore and make my own custom SR-JV80 Boards A++++ I love it
What a wonderful video. Simply the best I've ever seen. Roland should give you a integra 7 for free has appreciation
People throw the nostalgia point around a lot, but I'm only 23 and I find the sounds of Rompler bells and pads to be magical sounding. While some of these sounds might be considered cliche by older people, they sound fresh and unique to people who have only heard small tastes of these sounds. They are perfect for soundtrack scoring for videogames, animation and movies.
I really enjoy the combined soothing sound of Lo-fidelity sounds, lush delays and reverbs, and Jazz or classical music theory.
The quality of your videos is just off the charts mate. Right up there with the big channels!
And, I learn a lot your videos! For instance, I did not know that the Halo 1 OST was done with those synths! And that's one of my favorite OST's :).
Thank you very much!
I actually got curious and asked Marty on Twitter about it a while back - he confirmed with a tweet that he used a Proteus 2000, and after being asked, confirmed he used a JV-2080 for Halo. Pretty cool stuff.
Great video! I owned a D10, D50 and a XP50. These were by far the best synths I have ever owned. The sounds they had were fantastic!
Glad to record a preset example for this video. :D
the jv/xp sound engine is so deep that when fully expanded you could spend 10 lifetimes making original sounds:)
Too bad they have AWFUL interfaces.
@@SPAZZOID100 thats the crutuch..you need a computer to edit easily. The new Fantom should sort all those issues
I have a JV-1080 with three expansion boards, Orchestral, World, and Vintage Synths, and I didn't even know that the JV-1080 by itself even HAS as much flexibility as I can now see it does. Also, YEAH. I can already see just how cumbersome working with things like LFO can be without external software. I only know how to mess with the four TONE switches which, as I've said on the "VGM & Other Instrument Sources" Discord server, I have used for one patch (#037 "Noo Spitbass" from the Vintage Synth board, in case you're curious) in at least one project (a cover of "THE FORCE FIELD" from Dynasty Warriors 3/真・三國無双2).
Very interesting & in-depth review. Enjoyed learning the history of the line. I particularly appreciate all the information about chips being used and hardware issues like exploding capacitors.👍
I still prefer to edit and create sounds on the actual JV-1080 panel. I'm stuck to a computer screen all the time and this makes a great and creative change for me. But that is after a few years of going through all the menu screens :)) by the way A One Fantastic video. Thank you!
Ah yes got a JV-1080 a couple of months ago. The pad sounds on it are so gooood. I recognised some of the sounds from Halo, Rayman and Tubular bells 3.
Dude you know this stuff good. Balls deep innit even. The Descent soundtrack is one of my favs and love those X-Fusion / Noisuf-X trashcan snares @ 37:17. The plucked dulcimer on "The Royal Queen" has an uncanny resemblence to the Ultima Online theme. A nod to the headache of the smart media stuff Roland used was also worth noting, the slot on my JP-8080 remains foreveralone (as do I, but that can only be filled with bad choices).
Ah yes, the classic "SC-55 power snare" sound that was so popular - love that sound as cheesy as it is, heh. And I just took a listen to the Ultima Online theme, d̶e̶f̶i̶n̶i̶t̶e̶l̶y̶ ̶s̶o̶u̶n̶d̶s̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶s̶o̶r̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶R̶o̶l̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶s̶y̶n̶t̶h̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶d̶ ̶ scratch that, it seems like the soundtrack with the original theme (Stones) used to be MIDI? It sounds like it uses the Harp preset, and considering it's General MIDI I don't doubt it was originally made on an SC-88 or something which would have a same or similar Harp sound as to what I showed off.
Yeah, the SmartMedia crap that was being pushed around the time sucks. Yamaha caught the bug too and used it for some of their synths, but they at least had the foresight to use the much better and newer 3.3v cards which are quite cheap to buy, although they suffer from the same problem of being exposed memory and easily corrupted.
Great video! Never regret buying a used JV-1080, it's an awesome tool to this day.
Also, thanks for putting Xenogears in the end
I've found a XV-88 with a ok-ish front panel for 150
I've been looking for a budget workstation with decent pianos and loads of synths.
Should I pull the trigger (except the fact it weights 26kg) ?
be lost without the jv-1080..great memories down thru the years
10:26 The XV-5050 has newer features because it's a newer synth. The XV-5080 was released in late 2000. The XV-5050 was released at the beginning of 2002. The XV-5050 has all the XV-5080 patches, and the XV-3080 patches, and some Fantom patches that weren't in other synths.
2001 was when romplers stopped being flagship synths. Composers were switching to DAWs, and hardware started targeting amateur producers. Grooveboxes were born. That's when E-Mu started selling Command Stations. The XV-5050 was the new budget-friendly option with a small screen, but they made a decent editor app and added USB (not class-compliant), and gave it some newer patches. Then at the beginning of 2002, the SRX-05 Supreme Dance card was the last new Roland expansion. It was all new sounds from Spectrasonics. After that all the SRX expansions were just repackaged SR-JV80 sounds.
Roland was competing with E-Mu in the '90s. The Proteus/1 was released in 1989. Roland didn't catch up until they released the JV-1080 in 1994. The specs on everything by Roland/E-Mu in the late '90s are really amazing. They were both making modules with MUCH better modulation options than modern synths, and the Proteus 2000 and XV-5080 even had a 2nd MIDI input so they could play 32 parts. That's such a ridiculous feature. And E-Mu was using custom FPGAs and Roland was using Hitachi RISC chips. This was before the PlayStation was released in 1995 with a 32-bit RISC CPU. They were both using amazing processors for the day.
I wish that E-mu rompler engine had been bought and continued (Roland is still continually releasing stuff based on the same basic rompler architecture.)
Good video.
I'm a xp30 owner and I want to update to a newer synth, but I'm not sure I can replace all the sounds with a single device. And I bought the 60/70 organs and kbds module and it's great to feel cool.
And I'm with you. I've listened the demos several times. It's better than anything I've done.
you can get a korg kross maybe, they have tons of sounds
*sees Tomb Raider featured*
YOU HIT ME IN THE NOSTALGIC FEELS MATE!
Watchinng this video after the XV-5080 VST has been released :)
The modern inheritor of the these sound modules, the Roland Integra-7 is good enough to get many of these sounds and is still available as of this posting. A crossroad of SRX and Super Natural sounds.
Exactly why I bought an INTEGRA-7.
40:47 I almost fell out of my chair and died. This video was an absolute trip all the way through.
Roland released a fantastic Dance expansion card that had fantastic loops. They were sued over copyright and had to stop selling it. They replaced it with the Techno card that IMHO was vastly inferior to the Dance card. The Hip Hop card is awesome as is the Latin card. The Orchestral 11 card had some fantastic choir patches and was a nice complement to the original Orchestral card. The Vintage Synth and Keyboards of the 60s and 70s also complemented each other nicely and the Bass and Drums card contained phenomenal drum kits and the most realistic electric and acoustic bass sounds available at the time!
Cool, those examples at around 30 mins all sound very nice and the TR1 theme is pretty much spot on. I need to get back to practicing my kb/piano skills, only have an out of tune piano at a relative's and a 2 octave midi kb though :P
Great vid - I've got a JV-1010 and XV-2020 mounted next to each other in my studio - can't see me ever parting with them.
Which of these two devices has better AC and EP piano sounds in your opinion?
@@monteiro4100 I tend to use both, along with my Korg Trinity tbh but if I could only have either the JV or the XV, it would be the XV
Fantastic video, the issues with the Roland Cloud 1080 are really frustrating - I checked out the Vanishing patch demoed in the video and the issue appears to be with the pitch shifting MFX which means it affects Pure Tibet too :(
Aw man, that's lame... I really hope Roland gets around to fixing those issues at some point, but it seems like they don't pay attention to much of their Cloud stuff :\
@@SpeedySPCFan no it doesn't seem to be a priority for them :( I subscribed for a year so I could get the 1080 as my 'reward' instrument... it's much more convenient than the hardware but there are clearly issues and I don't think it's ever been updated. BTW have you ever tried out the withdrawn Dance card? I heard it was pulled because it used AMG's Megabass II sample CD library for many of its sounds, and like many of these older sample CDs many of the included samples were copyright infringing. Whoops!
@@TimCant I haven't tried any SR-JV cards other than what was mentioned in the video, but I do at least know about the Dance card. Would be interesting to talk about in a video for sure!
@@SpeedySPCFan Keep the vids coming buddy, I'd consider myself a seasoned JV fanboy but I learned tons from this one!
Awesome video 👏👏👏
The Fantom G678 has a very good GM2 mode! MIDI files suck most of the time, but that's because musicans hate to use it and don't play in an adequate manner. They have to play to the strength of the usable sounds.
I suggest to use JV-XP editor from midiFORGE (I guess it is even free), this will really bring JV editing into nowadays VST level. Anyway fully expanded JV-2080 (8 cards) is even today very impressive machine (that old JVs have it's own sonic character, almost analog like sounding), especially cards like Pop does have synth sounds from beginning of 90's which you simply can't find in Motif/ Montage/ Fantom (for example Mondo Chord1), and Orchestra 1 board has been used even by Vangelis, so it should not be junk. 😀
If you're a synth geek....you need a JV/XP. The sounds available are endless, and some of them are really sweet. While I wouldn't say a JV/XP sound ever made me just stop and drool, there are tons of sounds that definitely got my attention. They are real workhorses and every now and then, you'll run across someone's custom patch that makes you stop and say WOW! Bottom line, for the price, and what they deliver, you need one at the heart of your studio, you're doing yourself a disservice if you don't.
This has somewhat the same synthesis with Juno DS. Very deep and complex. Takes a lifetime to master the sound engine
Thank you I have a xp-50 and am still looking for help on how to use it... This video is really encouraging..
Dope video
Very informative and entertaining video! How do you like the Integra 7 regarding SR-JV80 like sounds? Do I need a 1080..5080 still?
At 19:00 you are adding the COUNTRY COLLECTION? 8x Why would you do that? :D
Excellent
I've had XP-30, JV-1080 (sold one and then got another one) and XV-5080 (changed that for Fantom Xa) and now I have JV-1080, 2080, 1010 and XV-2020.... but I tend to go back to 1080 all the time! There's just something magical about it :) even the improved interface and bigger display of 2080 just don't work for me. I like 1080 the best, because of look, sound and interface. But I agree with you the XP-30 is the best option for a keyboard version.
I've actually fallen in love with the larger displays - I got a JD-990 recently and the interface on it is wonderful, almost tempted to go back and get an XP-60 locally since it has the same circuitry as the 1080 with the nicer display.
That said the XP-30 is still I think the best keyboard ""objectively"" speaking, just for the built in expansions and 24-bit DACs ^^
@@SpeedySPCFan But I believe XP-60/80 have the 2080 DACs. I like the larger display on my Fantom Xa (which can do more or less all patches of JV/XV range thanks to the XV patch file for Fantom S/X provided by Roland themselves, since Xa is Fantom S) but in case of my modules I prefer too see only what I need to see with character display :) ... But nevertheless I look forward to your video about JD-990 ;)
@@ShotecMusic Ahh, goes to show how much I remember when I'm tired :p I was thinking of the XP-50, my bad. That and the JV-1080 are the only one with the UPD63200 DAC.
I'll get that one done eventually! It's proven to be a bit of a pain to film but it's on the list nonetheless, probably after the SD-90
@@SpeedySPCFan Anything.... just a video review about anything from you is a marvelous to watch. Take your time and good luck ;)
you know command and conquer style track from you would be awesome
Yeah, the JV-1080 seems to be of a similar build quality as to how you described the XP-30.
Rock on man!
Does the XP-30 have all the same sounds the JV 1080 offers (not including possible expansions)? Is it overkill today to purchase both? Should I just get a XP-30? I have a JX-3P and Roland D-50 but i love the sounds from my childhood (snes,n64, ps1) and a lot of that comes from the JV 1080 and SC 88. Any recommendation? Does getting an XP-30 and maybe eventually a SC 88 Pro and SC 55 sensible? That should cover all the sound I want. Or, if I'm trying to save desk space, is getting just the SC 88 Pro and SC 55 and using my D-50 as a midi controller another way to go?
Your videos our outstanding by the way. Thank you
XP-30 has all 1080 and 2080 sounds - there is basically no reason to own a 1080 and an XP-30 aside from wanting extra polyphony.
@@SpeedySPCFan Thanks for the response! Loved your video. That makes sense. Now I'm thinking that because I already have two synths taking up the space on my side table, I may just get a JV 1080 to sit under my PC monitor and have it plugged into my MIDI Keystation which is under my computer desk. Just a little worried the JV 1080 isn't as simple as navigating around as the XP-30 which seems a lot simpler...
omg another trans woman who owns a jv synth!!! I have a jv 2080 & I absolutely love using it for pads & experimental stuff!!!~*
your video was super in depth & it was great hearing the xp-30 being used in the context of 90's video games rather than all the patch playthrus I see on here, keep up the good work
Thank you!!
I wanted to give a different perspective on the synth, you can find all sorts of patch vids but rarely explorations of how people used the synths back in the day ^^;
It takes a crazy amount of time to make these videos so I've sadly kind of retired from them, but if you want to see more content from me, I have another channel under the name "Amelie Doree" where I look at old VNs and stuff (which may also have JVs in their soundtrack, fancy that!)
They are good instruments, but i prefer the earlier generation of synths with knobs & sliders. We are in a 2nd renaissance of knob laden synths now. Thank Goodness!!
Man that Smart Media Card section me laugh and sadly hurt my soul. I never understood why Roland didn't use CF/SD cards instead.
SD wasn't around at the time and I think CF was too expensive then. PCMCIA would have made the most sense then I think, the Korg Z1 and Alesis Quadrasynth series both used it so they clearly won't too hard to manufacture and they were compatible with IDE for when CF finally did come down in price... just awful decision making I guess, and they stuck by it for waaaay too long x_x
@@SpeedySPCFan I completely agree there were far better options out there even at the time, while CF was definitely more expensive, (I'd argue that) these were for the most part professional products and weren't exactly cheap to buy originally. The most infuriating thing (for me personally) XV-5080 still stuck with it and from what I remember is a crippling feature as a SCSI or a Smartmedia Card is the only way you can save a patch that uses samples.
Jesus Christ, that editor with all the drop-downs.
Are the graphical envelopes actually dragable by mouse, or are they just a visualization?
You can drag them with the mouse. Also yeah, the drop downs are a little insane, but considering the program was made over a decade ago it's not surprising.
45:35 - I am
I see Rick Sanchez... subbed
Very comprehensive vid! (y)
I stumbled here as Im on the look out for some cheap Roland sounds, sorry edit: Roland sounds on the cheap...namely drums (808, 908 CR78 etc) pads and strings...in a hardware package, with decent multitimbrality (
It sounds like an SD-80, SC-8850, or SC-88 Pro would be exactly what you want. 16 to 32 part multitimbrality, tons of Roland drum kits (the SC's have everything you mentioned), and they're very easy to work with.
The SC's don't sound nearly as good as a JV or XV though - the SD-80 is basically identical in sound to one of those however as it literally uses the same sound engine as the XV range. I'm currently working on a video on its bigger sister (the SD-90, which has USB audio/MIDI and a high res screen) which might be of interest~
I would probably skip on the 1010 and 2020. If you want ease of use, go for a 2080, but keep in mind you'll have to spend extra cash on expansion cards to get all the sounds you want, and they aren't really made with multitimbrality in mind. Same goes for any JV or XV model really, the included sound set is wonderful but also dated and cheesy, even by mid-90s standards... there's a reason Roland put out an expansion card for literally everything.
The MC303's based on the earlier JV-80 and I would really recommend skipping out out on it, the polyphony is abysmal. The 505 is based on the JV-1080 architecture so you get pretty much the same specs as the 1080 but with a new dance focused UI and sound set.
THNX for that very detailed reply. hmmmm, maybe the MC505 then is for me. Kinda still small size and better focus and interface for my needs =)
Just found your channel ah slayers that and record of lodoss war my first animes
What's that last background song used in the video? Reminds me of Xenogears or something.
The magical part of the video known as the "on-screen music credit" shall answer your question, at 47:08.
It's Emotions from Xenogears :p
@@SpeedySPCFan Thanks. I scanned around the video looking for a credit at the bottom and couldn't find it - turns out I missed it by a second or so.
Nice!
What about SC-88?
I bought sc88 software version and my iMac crashed every time i Am using with cubase 11…. Its useles and shame for Roland, they keep sending automated emails that they are still working on my case…. It takes forever, very BAD SUPPORT
Regarding the Roland Cloud versions I've noticed zero issues versus the hardware, leaving me to think any alleged bugs are the result of an underpowered host or someone using a software crack to play without paying...
Don't think you mentioned the JV-1000
Sega CD Games Soundtrack mostly used the Roland product, especially Shining Force CD soundtrack.The Soundtrack full of Orchestral music and i believe it sounds from Roland Orchestra Expansions
Here:
ruclips.net/video/ScOB4I1s3qw/видео.html
I'M GETTING A JV-1080 FOR MY 12TH BIRTHDAY NEXT MONTH!
you talk way too much
less hearing yourself chatter more demonstration
ThePatchmode.
Someone needs to make a cover band called that.
Also, The XVs are my faves, Chikayo Fukuda uses them a lot.