editor

Forum for the JD-XA.
skinmechanic
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Re: editor

Post by skinmechanic »

How much of the frontpanel can you use to edit the Supernatural sounds? This is a killer for me whether I want one or not. The reason I don't like my Integra and hardly use it is the editing the sounds. The Editor is pretty naff to be honest. I love the Supernatural sounds, how much of the Integra supernatural waveforms are in the JDXA? I'm looking to sell the Integra and get the JDXA to compliment the System 8 I have.
zombietactics
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Re: editor

Post by zombietactics »

OneOfManyPauls wrote:
skinmechanic wrote: I've just seen a post that the supernatural engine ignores all the realtime controls?
That's not true.

You can use the modulation/pitch bend lever, aftertouch and velocity with the supernatural synth engine in the jd-xa.
Wellll, the SN section has some limitations in this regard. You cannot use after-touch to control LFO pitch modulation in the SN parts, but you can do so in the Analog parts ... kind of a lame omission, IMHO.
OneOfManyPauls
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Re: editor

Post by OneOfManyPauls »

zombietactics wrote:Wellll, the SN section has some limitations in this regard. You cannot use after-touch to control LFO pitch modulation in the SN parts, but you can do so in the Analog parts ... kind of a lame omission, IMHO.
Not arguing, but there's a big difference between saying it "ignores all the realtime controls" and it having a very limited set of routings.
skinmechanic wrote:How much of the frontpanel can you use to edit the Supernatural sounds? This is a killer for me whether I want one or not. The reason I don't like my Integra and hardly use it is the editing the sounds. The Editor is pretty naff to be honest. I love the Supernatural sounds, how much of the Integra supernatural waveforms are in the JDXA? I'm looking to sell the Integra and get the JDXA to compliment the System 8 I have.
I'd think the best thing for you to do is take a look at the manuals, especially the Digital Part (SN) section of the parameter guide:

https://www.roland.com/global/support/b ... s_manuals/

When editing a digital part, you get to use the physical controls of the jd-xa where that's logical (eg LFO, oscillator, envelopes), plus some extra options via the menus.

Page 74 of the parameter guide lists the jd-xa's 450 waveforms. Given the cross compatibility with Integra-7 SNS tones, I **assume** it shares the same waveforms.
skinmechanic
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Re: editor

Post by skinmechanic »

So my question is the JDXA has been out a few years now and I've discovered some things it can do I didn't know it could and helps me decide whether to trade in the Integra 7 and get the JDXA. A while back I did read the interface and workflow is complicated, how does this compare to the System 8 which for workflow I love? What's the file structure like, My Jupiter 50 was terrible trying to save and load sounds into the synth with Roland's awful file system, which is why an Editor or Librarian would be welcome.

Is the JDXA a complete system or are there still a lot of issues not addressed by Roland? Did the 1.50 update bring a lot to the system making it viable as a complete system?
OneOfManyPauls
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Re: editor

Post by OneOfManyPauls »

I think it's best to think of the jd-xa as a small studio setup in a single box, comprising:

1 x 49 key Controller keyboard with channel aftertouch
4 x 2 OSC + Noise/AUX OSC analog mono sound modules + optional single digital FX per sound module
4 x 3 OSC digital poly sound modules (sharing a total pool of 64 voice polyohony) + optional single digital FX per sound module
2 x Global Digital FX
1 x Digital Delay
1 x Digital Reverb
1 x Vocoder
1 x single pattern 64 step by 16 track sequencer

(obviously you can also polystack the 4 analog parts, so that they work as a single sound module with a single midi channel).

with a jd-xa "program" being the config of all of the above.

Once you break it down and start thinking about controlling all that gear, and the routings available (eg using a digital sound module's output as the third oscillator in an analog sound module), it makes more sense of the workflow/approach.

It seems to throw a lot of people who come to the jd-xa thinking this is just one big multi-layer instrument, but that really isn't how roland have configured it - at least not from a midi connectivity/sequencer standpoint.

As there is only one physical set of controls, you have to choose which of the sound module you are editing - which you do with the select buttons.

You get to tell it which of the sound module's you want to be playing with the keyboard via the part on/off buttons. But that's only telling it what to respond to from the keyboard (or to record from into the sequencer) - to actually turn parts off, we have to mute them which shift+on/off.

Via midi, everything comes down to which midi channel has been allocated to each of the 8 parts (sound modules) - defaults to 1-4 for the analog parts and 5-8 for the digital parts. That can be changed however you want eg you could set 1 analog part + 2 digital parts to the same midi channel, so they all respond to the same midi note data and layer/split as required.

Any part that is ON for playing via the keyboard will have midi notes etc transmitted on its associated midi channel. Again, this seems to confuse the hell out of a lot of people - press one note and you can have the same note spat out on 8 midi channels at once? madness, unless you think of it in the context of that small studio setup where each sound module needs the note on its own midi channel.

Regarding the file system and transfer of patches, frankly that still lacking imo. Other than backing up/restoring a complete jd-xa, there's no mechanism to dump out all the patches in the USB format at once. It has to be done one at a time. That's thanks to the librarian working in its own .xal format rather than the .SVD+SVQ format used for USB. That's a pain if you're wanting to pull patches from inexpensive USB drives for speed and computer-free convenience.

The librarian does make it easy enough to manage your own patches if you're using a computer though - but it's slow to throw over a full bank of patches.
OneOfManyPauls
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Re: editor

Post by OneOfManyPauls »

There's a really good video showing off the workflow of building a sequence that Dan Goldman of Future Music magazine (and jd-xa facebook member):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p7-ookbM7g
zombietactics
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Re: editor

Post by zombietactics »

OneOfManyPauls wrote:...
Not arguing, but there's a big difference between saying it "ignores all the realtime controls" and it having a very limited set of routings. ...
Agreed. The aftertouch/LFO thin is just a pet peeve of mine. :-)
zombietactics
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Re: editor

Post by zombietactics »

skinmechanic wrote:... A while back I did read the interface and workflow is complicated, how does this compare to the System 8 which for workflow I love? What's the file structure like, My Jupiter 50 was terrible trying to save and load sounds into the synth with Roland's awful file system, which is why an Editor or Librarian would be welcome. ...
Probably 80%-90% of anything you want to do can be accomplished from the front panel controls alone. There is some menu diving - and it's irritating n- to get at some things, like the complete menu of available waveforms, or the waveform variations, some modulation routings, etc.
skinmechanic wrote:Is the JDXA a complete system or are there still a lot of issues not addressed by Roland? Did the 1.50 update bring a lot to the system making it viable as a complete system?
It's "complete" but not perfect, and they really could afford to fix a couple of issues. Assigning one of the rotary controls as a parameter-knob, and as such not being limited to using the <-/-> and +/- buttons in the menus would be high on my list, for instance.

The 1.50 update fixed some glaring bugs, but a few minor ones remain ... nothing that will make you want to throw it against the wall, mind you.
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Duplobaustein
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Re: editor

Post by Duplobaustein »

Hi, I just got a used XA and have to say, that an editor would be highly welcome! For example to name a patch is totally annoying onboard. A num/char pad plus a data whell would have been perfect to navigate the XA.
skinmechanic
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Re: editor

Post by skinmechanic »

I like the idea of combining the SNS with Analogue to be honest from that you can improve on the Roland Legacy soundset they released for the Integra by combining the Analogue part to make an Integra patch more warm sounding.

I use the SNS engine on the Integra quote a bit but absolutely hate the editing part of it. The version 2.0 Editor completely changed the UI for the Synth Editor and the iPad app hasn't been updated since release and it clunky at the best of times. Since my time with the System 8 has been very productive and I've probably programmed more sounds with that then any other synth, I find rather than using the Integra 7 as a Rompler which I seem to do I want to take advantage of the SNS engine which I think is very undervalued and the JDXA looked like the best solution sprinkling some analogue into the SNS sounds I program would be welcome.

Yes I saw the rather obvious omission of a data wheel for searching through what seems like 500 waveforms or so, I can see that been an issue. Also only having 256 locations for patches and not having a user bank of say another 256 becomes an issue with Roland's great implementation of a file system. Still thanks for all the info above and I'm still thinking it would work for me. How much of the SNS waveforms compared to the Integra 7 does the JDXA have? Does it have them all? The PCM Waveforms are these basically the XV series PCM's?
OneOfManyPauls
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Re: editor

Post by OneOfManyPauls »

skinmechanic wrote:Also only having 256 locations for patches and not having a user bank of say another 256 becomes an issue with Roland's great implementation of a file system.
don't forget you can plug in a usb thumbdrive and that creates a second set of 256 programs to write/read from.
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Duplobaustein
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Re: editor

Post by Duplobaustein »

512 is imho the minimum for such a versatile synth. But it's cool that you can take 256 Sounds with you and plug it on any XA to have your sounds.
memorysplice
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Re: editor

Post by memorysplice »

Here is the link to information for our editor.

http://memorysplice.com/jdxa/
OneOfManyPauls
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Re: editor

Post by OneOfManyPauls »

As it currently stands, the editor can't pull a program from the jd-xa and you can't load/save programs in the editor. Memory Splice have said they're working on these aspects.

So the best workflow seems to be to fire up the editor, send over the program from the editor (snapshot) to the jd-xa (takes about 2 minutes) to get the editor and jd-xa in sync.

As none of the buttons and not every knob on the jd-xa sends midi when moved (eg waveform, filter type), to keep things in sync as a program is tweaked means using either just the editor, or using the editor and only controls on the jd-xa that do send midi (so the editor can know they've been moved). Same thing with menu-diving options - the editor can't know if they're changed on the hardware, so best to change them in the editor
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