I've bought Roland keyboards for a long time and just recently the JD-XA has caught my eye. Since I don't really keep up with what other manufacturers are offering, it occurred to me that life is short and it may be time to see what's out there in the rest of the world. Can't say that I won't just get another Roland board, but just as a general question, what would the rest of you suggest looking at or what other gear did you consider?
Thanks,
Rodan
What gear competes with JD-XA?
Re: What gear competes with JD-XA?
That’s a good question. The JD-XA can wear many hats. Because of that - there can be pushback from folks looking for a preset machine, or a full up workstation, or even a rompler. What it really is. imo … is unique. The real power of it, is being able to shape fantastic tones. So it is unique in some ways, and doesn’t have any direct competition i think. It will come down to though... what are YOU looking for, in a synth. Do you want to develop unique synth sounds? Are you looking for something that plays back digital waveforms? etc.
I wanted to move away from hauling my MacBook with me for live gigs, to being able to play.. with a hardware synth again. No strings attached. No Mac/PC. For cover tunes, I needed traditional keyboard tones, realistic acoustic as well as some synth bits. I picked up a FA-06.. and it fit the bill. Where it fell short, was in synth production (The FA does a great job.. but I really wanted to be able to develop more complex synth tones). I wanted.. full synth power. The ability to be able to create tones from scratch, as well as integrate with realistic digital bits. This — and have the ability to shape the tones. Not a preset machine. Not something that only allowed me to only crank cutoff, resonance, attack envelopes, and dink around with envelopes. But a synth that I could control signal flow, loop envelopes, have control of LFOs, filters, apply on-board effects, etc.. i.e. Develop a sound from scratch, not just a preset machine with enhanced signal processing. That was my bar.
I picked up a Prophet-12… and struggled for a few weeks with it. I could get several great tones - but it was hardly the all-round synth I was seeking. It also needed (needs imo) external effects. I didn’t want to re-invest in effects. It is also heavily... a DSI sounding product. That's a great thing.. but it's only DSI. I wanted a wider gammut of sounds. The JD-XA was recommended to me, from a friend. I researched it.. and picked one up. It is more than everything I was hoping for. I am still working my way through it.. and find nuggets regularly, that have me slapping my forehead wondering why I hadn’t seen things before. There is power under the hood. Crazy power.
In retrospect… would I buy a JD-XA all over again, or invest in one of the newly released systems? In a heartbeat, I would pick up the JD-XA. It is a synth beast. For what I wanted and need.. it is still unmatched. In the hands of someone who knows what they’re doing, it really shines. Even for someone who isn’t a synth wizard- it is quite possible to coax unmatchable tones from it.
/ramble mode off… again - apologies.
Addition... Worth a read is Paul Nagle's SOS review from December. In addition to going into great detail on the JD-XA, one of the sidebars at the end is "Alternatives" Link: http://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/roland-jdxa
j
I wanted to move away from hauling my MacBook with me for live gigs, to being able to play.. with a hardware synth again. No strings attached. No Mac/PC. For cover tunes, I needed traditional keyboard tones, realistic acoustic as well as some synth bits. I picked up a FA-06.. and it fit the bill. Where it fell short, was in synth production (The FA does a great job.. but I really wanted to be able to develop more complex synth tones). I wanted.. full synth power. The ability to be able to create tones from scratch, as well as integrate with realistic digital bits. This — and have the ability to shape the tones. Not a preset machine. Not something that only allowed me to only crank cutoff, resonance, attack envelopes, and dink around with envelopes. But a synth that I could control signal flow, loop envelopes, have control of LFOs, filters, apply on-board effects, etc.. i.e. Develop a sound from scratch, not just a preset machine with enhanced signal processing. That was my bar.
I picked up a Prophet-12… and struggled for a few weeks with it. I could get several great tones - but it was hardly the all-round synth I was seeking. It also needed (needs imo) external effects. I didn’t want to re-invest in effects. It is also heavily... a DSI sounding product. That's a great thing.. but it's only DSI. I wanted a wider gammut of sounds. The JD-XA was recommended to me, from a friend. I researched it.. and picked one up. It is more than everything I was hoping for. I am still working my way through it.. and find nuggets regularly, that have me slapping my forehead wondering why I hadn’t seen things before. There is power under the hood. Crazy power.
In retrospect… would I buy a JD-XA all over again, or invest in one of the newly released systems? In a heartbeat, I would pick up the JD-XA. It is a synth beast. For what I wanted and need.. it is still unmatched. In the hands of someone who knows what they’re doing, it really shines. Even for someone who isn’t a synth wizard- it is quite possible to coax unmatchable tones from it.
/ramble mode off… again - apologies.
Addition... Worth a read is Paul Nagle's SOS review from December. In addition to going into great detail on the JD-XA, one of the sidebars at the end is "Alternatives" Link: http://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/roland-jdxa
j
Re: What gear competes with JD-XA?
Thanks, Jdoo. I hadn't read that review before. Since I am primarily interested in sound design, that's a very positive review. Add to that, your own positive experience with the JD-XA, and maybe this will end up being a very short search.
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OneOfManyPauls
- Posts: 93
- Joined: 11:41, 3 May 2016
Re: What gear competes with JD-XA?
great answer from jdoo.
just to repeat - it really depends on what draws you to the jd-xa in the first place- "wear many hats" is the perfect description of that eg:
sound design capabilities - layering analog+digital, being able to route digital into the analog filter and cross modulation etc makes this a pretty unique beast
8 part multi-timbrality - including the 4 analog voices - makes it a very versatile sound source
great control surface for midi controller duties
the sequencer is what it is - putting aside the obvious limitations, especially regarding the single pattern per program thing, you can use it to sketch out ideas using the jd-xa's multi-timbrality and 8 external sound sources too.
extensive musically useful and decent quality effects engine
vocoder - not something I use myself, but seems decent by all accounts
In many ways, I think the new Roland System-8 is a competitor due to the quality of the VA and the ability to layer different synth engines and change synth engines to extend the available sound palette.
just to repeat - it really depends on what draws you to the jd-xa in the first place- "wear many hats" is the perfect description of that eg:
sound design capabilities - layering analog+digital, being able to route digital into the analog filter and cross modulation etc makes this a pretty unique beast
8 part multi-timbrality - including the 4 analog voices - makes it a very versatile sound source
great control surface for midi controller duties
the sequencer is what it is - putting aside the obvious limitations, especially regarding the single pattern per program thing, you can use it to sketch out ideas using the jd-xa's multi-timbrality and 8 external sound sources too.
extensive musically useful and decent quality effects engine
vocoder - not something I use myself, but seems decent by all accounts
In many ways, I think the new Roland System-8 is a competitor due to the quality of the VA and the ability to layer different synth engines and change synth engines to extend the available sound palette.
Re: What gear competes with JD-XA?
OneOfMany,
Yes, it was the introduction of the System 8 that got me looking at gear again. For some reason I was not paying much attention when the JD-XA came out. But now looking at them side by side...I was drawn to the JD-XA for no real technical reason. Obviously I have no need for a new synth, but you can't deny that new gear can generate inspiration, that is something that I could use.
I just found out and was a little surprised to see that the MOXF6 is in the same price range. It has me wondering, would I find the Yamaha patch set different? Inspiring? I feel like someone who grew up on and never left the farm. Would I be blown away by the big city?
Yes, it was the introduction of the System 8 that got me looking at gear again. For some reason I was not paying much attention when the JD-XA came out. But now looking at them side by side...I was drawn to the JD-XA for no real technical reason. Obviously I have no need for a new synth, but you can't deny that new gear can generate inspiration, that is something that I could use.
I just found out and was a little surprised to see that the MOXF6 is in the same price range. It has me wondering, would I find the Yamaha patch set different? Inspiring? I feel like someone who grew up on and never left the farm. Would I be blown away by the big city?