Opinions on Roland's JV-80?
Mark Morley
any experiences (good or bad) with the JV-80 (The 1000 won't be available
here for a couple more days, but it has the same sounds)?
*** Bouncer **
Well, your choice depends on several things. Both units have the 8 faders
for sending MIDI continuous controllers, however the JV-80 is 61 keys, and the
JV-1000 is 76. Depending on if you already have a sequencer (either computer
or hardware based), the additional sequencer and disk drive of the JV-1000
might not be worth the extra $$$ to you. They both accept the same cartridges
and PCM samples, so I suppose they both sonically sound the same. However,
the JV-1000 allows you to have up to 56(?) note polyphony through a plug-in
expansion card (similiar to the way a JD-990 can be expanded polyphonically).
Also, the keyboard feel of the JV-80 & JV-1000 are identical (synthy, just
like a JX-10), so neither will appeal to a person looking for a piano action.
If I didn't have a computer (sequencer), and was buying my first synth, and
only had the choice of the JV-80 or or the JV-1000, and if money wasn't a
problem, then I would obviously go with the JV-1000. However, if I already
had a sequencer plus maybe another keyboard (or two) already, I might instead
go for a JV-880 (the rackmount JV-80), or even the JD-990. But, then again,
you're weren't asking about either of these instruments :-)
BTW, I have a JV-880 (which I upgrade to after selling my U-220), and its
sounds are very clean and punchy. If only its polyphony could be expanded
similiar to the JV-1000/JD-990 expansions... Too bad my K2000RS (name your
favorite synth/sampler you own) can't be expanded like this either.
Hopefully, this will become a trend in future instruments/updates :-)
Billyb (** Bouncer **)
Glenn Little
In article <C8ow9...@irvine.com>, bi...@irvine.com (*** Bouncer **) writes:
|>
|> for sending MIDI continuous controllers, however the JV-80 is 61 keys, the
|> JV-1000 is 76. Depending on if you already have a sequencer (either computer
|> or hardware based), the additional sequencer and disk drive of the JV-1000
|> might not be worth the extra $$$ to you. They both accept the same cartridges
|> and PCM samples, so I suppose they both sonically sound the same. However,
|> the JV-1000 allows you to have up to 56(?) note polyphony through a plug-in
|> expansion card (similiar to the way a JD-990 can be expanded polyphonically).
If I'm not mistaken, the only way to expand polyphony on the JV-1000
is to add a General Midi board. So it's not really adding polyphony
to what's there, but adding another mini-synth intead. So you still
can't have a nice 56(or 28, layered) voice piano. Bummer. And Roland
voice stealing seems kind of sucky to me, at least in piano-playing
mode.
Anyone else notice this? The stealing seems to be strictly
oldest-note. So, If I hit a bass note and let it sustain while
playing even one treble note repeatedly, eventually the 30 (only 15,
when using the layered piano) copies of the treble note will steal
the bass note.
-glenn
Bob Maple
MM> I was considering a JV-80 or JV-1000 as a second keyboard. Anyone have
MM> any experiences (good or bad) with the JV-80 (The 1000 won't be available
MM> here for a couple more days, but it has the same sounds)?
I have a JV-80 on order which should be here tomorrow, so I'll try to post
some 'reviews' on it. As an amature keyboard player, I don't know how much of
a help they might be, but..
The JV-80 is my first keyboard, excluding a Casio jobbie I got back in the
80's with not-event-half-size keys. :)
I'm told however that the Orchestration board for the JV-80 is incredible,
though I didn't have enough funds to get it at this time.
.............................................................................
: Internet: bma...@burner.com : Let's all band together and neuter the :
: UUCP: ..csn!burner!bmaple : Burger King guy. :
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::..........................................:
Craig Barnes - Sun UK - Senior Systems Admin N + SW Group Regio
I don't have a JV80, but I do have a JV880. I bought the JV to replace my D70 Keyboard
and slim my setup down somewhat. I must say that I was slightly dissapointed with the
sounds of the JV at first and had to tweak them a lot to get what I wanted out of it.
I also found that I couldn't get a decent Elec Guitar sound out of the JV until I
added the POP expander board at 299 UK pounds.
Now I'm totally satisfied with the JV, lush strings, weak piano's, nice guitars and
reed instruments.
By the way, the JV1000 is basically JV80 meets the MC50-MKII (it even uses the same cards as the 80) , it is actually two discrete units inside the box with only the MIDI joining them. It looks impressive but at 1849 UK pounds ($2800 US) it's well over priced.
But like all Roland units in the UK, give it 6 months and it'll be 3rd off that price at least.
The JV880 cost me 540 UK pounds, + 189 UK Pounds for the expander card.
An MC50-MKII will be about 700 UK pounds
Rgds
Craig
Jay Tobias
of nice clean samples and a reasonable amount of flexibility. My pros and
cons are:
+ 14 meg of samples (with expansion board and card)
+ minimal built-in effects (rev, chorus only but better than nothing)
+ Lots of great 3rd party sounds (the Memory Moog on Voice Crystal 1
screams!)
+ Compared to the D-50, it added drum kits, multitimbral performances, and
microtonal tuning (JV-880 only), and cleaned up the noise while subtracting
a number of effects and the nice ring modulation.
- The analog feel and kin don't really help me create synthy sounds.
In short, Roland made several astute design tradeoffs in getting a
functional board out with a reasonable price (JV-880 for well under $1000
on the street). However this is not the kind of synth in which to explore
sonic textures in the more general sense, so the reviews pretty well sum it
up as a good basic instrument.
Jay Tobias
email: Jay_T...@Taligent.com