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Why I Love the Roland JP-8000

Posted: 01:00, 13 January 2012
by longlivethejp
I'm not one of those people with an ear to say its sound is way better than what else is available.
But the layout for ease of paramater controll is unmatched:
Sliders, as opposed to knobs for filter cut and res right next to eachother allow one to easily tweak both simultanously with one hand while keying with the other- once you understand this, you can't live without it.
Also, can't live without: the left side/ribbon controll and mod lever, how one can with one hand fade in/out of LFO 2 WHILE changing rate and/or depth WHILE changing the assignable ribbon controlelr with your palm, WHILE bending the pitch, all while playing keys with the other hand. Maybe novation X station can do something like this if you program the pad and stick, but most likely not as much. Sure you can automate software to do 99999X more at the same time than this, but not hands-on spur of the moment while playing. I threw this idea out there in a recent roland email and they said they'd relay it to their design team for possible use in future products. Also, the hard to find feedback osc. there are some softwares with feedback synthesis, but I haven't played them. I did a side by side of the SH-201 and JP8K feedback and the are different, JP allows you to change the harmonics and amount, while sh-201 just says 'feedback'. I'd say they're slightly different and both have an advatage over the other: JP has more of a harmonics range but the 201 has more of a pronounced deep growl to the FB (with no distortion either). Oh, and tell me another board with presets as distinct, and complicated as the JP8K, cause I don't think one exists- they're great but almost give the board too much pre-made personality.
JP8K one of the holy grails of synths. Shoulda added distortion and maybe taken away how the envelopes click on really short attacks (read older true analogs do that, but I'm not crazy about it.)
The end

Re: Why I Love the Roland JP-8000

Posted: 06:28, 13 January 2012
by MC808ter
longlivethejp wrote:. Shoulda added distortion
They did.....On the JP8080

Re: Why I Love the Roland JP-8000

Posted: 00:52, 8 September 2012
by Re-Member
I recently picked up a JP-8000 as well and agree with all of the above. I'm a former SH-201 owner and love the JP-8000 much, much more. Don't get me wrong, the SH-201 is a great synth and had many programming advantages over the JP8K, but the JP8K is different enough for me to enjoy the next couple of years.

The ribbon controller was actually messed up on mine, but I managed to fix it by opening things up and cleaning off the strip. What I love about it is that in addition to making a smooth transistion in vaules like twisting a knob or moving a slider, you can make things "jump" over vaules. The Hold feature is amazing. It's like your finger becomes a third LFO. I honestly found the D-Beam on the SH-201 difficult to use due to it's placement on the top of the keyboard. Unlike the JP, you can't use D-Beam plus the mod lever at the same time without using both hands. Plus you could only assign one parameter to the D-Beam, so in most cases, you'd be better off just twisting the knob or slider itself.

Another thing I love is the Patch/Peformance structure. Being able to copying layers around and create new "Performances" without overriding the original patches... more synths should be able to do this! The filter sounds more raw than the SH-201 and it's easy to get out of that sweet spot, but the EQ is great for fixing that.

I do miss being able to modulate the Supersaw and Feedback amount with an LFO (you can get some amazing pads out of the SH-201 because of this), but you can at least automate things with Motion Control.

One complaint I do have though is the effects section. The delay doesn't sound as good as the 201, plus unless you wear headphones, you can barely hear the chorus effect.

Re: Why I Love the Roland JP-8000

Posted: 22:29, 10 September 2012
by Leh173
The JP-8000 is a Roland classic IMHO. I love it.

Re: Why I Love the Roland JP-8000

Posted: 01:24, 17 January 2018
by oraclex
So this might be a dumb question or one already covered but am keen on getting a JP-8000 but also keep hearing about the differences the JP-8080 rack has. So if I had to get one, what would you all suggest? Or is it a case of getting both? Also do the JP-8080s come with specified power ratings per region or are they all 100-240v 50/60hz ?

Re: Why I Love the Roland JP-8000

Posted: 22:46, 29 January 2018
by udream
JP-8000 does some things really well. The effects are remarkably good. The chorus is thick and quiet. (I found the chorus on the Juno 60 too noisy for any recording). Unfortunately, there are a few serious oversights on Roland's part. There is no envelope modulation of the pulse width!!! (only LFO mod). When Osc 2 is set to noise, the resonance doesn't track the keyboard as does Osc 1. Neither oscillator can be switched off or attenuated from keyboard pitch tracking as on the MKS-80 Super Jupiter. (Very important for sound effects). I haven't done any menu diving to see if these deficiencies could be overcome. Or...were these deficiencies resolved with later firmware updates?
Regarding 8000 vs 8080, if you don't need a keyboard the module is a no brainer. The 8080 has a Vocoder and 10 voice polyphony, more effects, and external input for sound processing.

Re: Why I Love the Roland JP-8000

Posted: 01:33, 12 February 2018
by udream
I was fortuitously outbid on a JP-8000 on ebay , since I later got an 8080 from Reverb.com. All the extra features are worth the higher price. Mine didn't come with an owner's manual or rack mount hardware. The former was easy to resolve since Roland provides the manual download on their website. I can't imagine trying to navigate the hidden features without the manual. Regarding the rack mount hardware, I didn't have room in my rack anyway, so had planned on it being a desk top synth. I prefer a 60 degree tilt for desk top synths, so built a custom cabinet out of Bubinga hard wood--(similar design to the teak cabinet I made for my Macbeth M5). I also color-coded the rotary dials according to function. You can see it on facebook.com/john.riesenman

Re: Why I Love the Roland JP-8000

Posted: 05:38, 15 April 2018
by udream
Great value for its sonic capability. I've been able to duplicate sounds on the JP8K from my Super Jupiter, OB-8, and SH-101. In fact, some sounds are improved over the OB-8 due to the OB-8's limited keyboard filter tracking, which is either on--"high end brighter," or off--"low end brighter," with nothing in between. The rotary dial on the JP8K allows fully adjustable negative, positive, and neutral filter tracking.
Why anyone would pay the current (2018) inflated prices for a JP8, JP6, Juno-60, or SH-101 is a mystery, when the JP8K does it all, and better with more features. For the price of an SH-101, I picked up a JP-8080 and a JP-8000! Compared to another virtual analog synth, the Waldorf Q, the JP-80X0 sounds very much like a vintage analog synth.