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Roland JP-8000...am I crazy or is this thing awesome?


halluxone

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I walked into a small local music store in Smyrna, Georgia just looking to pick up a talk back mic and headphones...then there it was in the tiny keyboard room, looking all night-at-the roxbury blue satin finish. And they were only asking $350 for it in nearly mint condition!

I am just winging it for now without a manual or video and admittedly it's a lot freakin' sliders and knobs that just beg to be tweaked...I've already stumbled across lots of out---there sounds. And yeah, the supersaw is kinda the cheesy one but the oscillators are just sweet!

My first VA synth and I'll need months to figure it out, but HOT DAMN I do love my local Dirt Cheep Music! This thing is so much fun to play. thumb.gif
Anyone with any tips on how to approach this or links to simple VA programming would be greatly appreciated.
Allen

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Thanks for the info guys, I am pretty well versed in the traditional "meat and potatoes" sounds like acoustic and epianos, hammond clones, clavinet, etc. Never really got into analog stuff until more recently, mostly for just some spaces soundscapes in the middle of a jam.

I've heard both the AN1X and the JP and really, it may just be a matter of taste, but I really hate how the Yammie looks...yeah, yeah, I know you get it for the sounds but really, it's just damn ugly. Not really sure what aliasing is, but will do my research....don't know if it really makes a huge hill of beans for what I am doing.

And to the Mikeypanky, Dirt Cheep Music in on the corner of South Cobb Drive and Wind Hill road...it's really kind of a dump but occasionally a gem shows up there and it's priced pretty low! Cool staff there too....I really can't stand the Guitar Center in Marietta...total douchebags and they never really cut good deals. At least the local Sam Ash has a fair amount of keyboards and the staff actually gives a {censored} about their products.

Hey, all I know is that I didn't have to spend Moog type cash to get some pretty nice sounds. Though about a Venom, Gaia, or Ultranova but this thing seems more "hands on" and fun to play.

Thanks gents,
Allen

Gear: Roland RD-700GX, Nord Electro 3-73, Roland JP-8000, Roland SP-555 Sampler, Roland Handsonic HPD-10, Jamhub Tourbus, Allen and Heath ZED 22FX, Allen and Heath ZED 10FX, Mackie 1402VLZ3, Radial JDI Duplex, 2 QSC K-12's, 2 Mackie SRM350V2's, Hohner Fire Melodica, Grandma's accordion, Roland TD-9KXS V-Drums, and one very understanding wife.

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Great synth, in great condition, for a great price? Nice job man! It should fit well in your rig. Just keep messing with it. Roland gear is pretty easy to stumble thru. Always wanted one but I had just bought the Nord Lead prior to the Roland's existence and let it the Roland slip away during it's production run, which was pretty long. It has features that even the Nord lead 2X lacks. But visa-versa of course. Have fun.....

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Quote Originally Posted by halluxone

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And to the Mikeypanky, Dirt Cheep Music in on the corner of South Cobb Drive and Wind Hill road...it's really kind of a dump but occasionally a gem shows up there and it's priced pretty low! Cool staff there too....I really can't stand the Guitar Center in Marietta...total douchebags and they never really cut good deals. At least the local Sam Ash has a fair amount of keyboards and the staff actually gives a {censored} about their products.

 

When I lived in Hotlanta many moons ago I used to love going to Rhythm City. Is it still in business?
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Re: aliasing. You should really know about it. This is aliasing: http://www.box.com/shared/bybb60ja3y

Hear that watery wobbly noise? That's frequencies above Nyquist frequency (half the sample rate the processing is being done at) mirrored in the lower frequency range. Inherent to digital (discrete) systems. There are ways to prevent it. JP-8000 did nothing to do so. AN1x did just about everything to prevent it, and it definitely shows.

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Quote Originally Posted by evildragon View Post
Re: aliasing. You should really know about it. This is aliasing: http://www.box.com/shared/bybb60ja3y

Hear that watery wobbly noise? That's frequencies above Nyquist frequency (half the sample rate the processing is being done at) mirrored in the lower frequency range. Inherent to digital (discrete) systems. There are ways to prevent it. JP-8000 did nothing to do so. AN1x did just about everything to prevent it, and it definitely shows.
That back and forth noise is just the Smurf applying his saw to the CPU under the hood... icon_lol.gif

1141_pd331378_1.jpg
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Quote Originally Posted by Synthaholic

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When I lived in Hotlanta many moons ago I used to love going to Rhythm City. Is it still in business?

 

Which location are you talking about? Rhythm City used to be in Buckhead and then moved to 85n and North Druid Hills in the early 90's. They were then bought by Guitar Center in 97'.
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Quote Originally Posted by burster View Post
Which location are you talking about? Rhythm City used to be in Buckhead and then moved to 85n and North Druid Hills in the early 90's. They were then bought by Guitar Center in 97'.

Damn. Yeah - the Buckhead location, which I'm pretty sure was the only one, back in the 1980s.

Rhythm City, Thoroughbred Music, in Tampa - two big players back in the day. I'll bet that Ace Music in Miami is also gone, but I don't know for sure.
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That Rhythm City was bought out by GC and now it's Atlanta's flagship GC store. I went down there last week and while their keys selection is pretty nice, again the staff leaves something to be desired! Ken Stanton is also in Marietta but they don't have diddly when it comes to keyboards, mostly guitar stuff.

With regards to aliasing, evildragon's file made my dogs flee from the room...and I wasn't far behind! Jesus, that was awful, but I don't know how readily I'd be venturing into that supersonic octave range! Point taken, however, I now understand the concept much better dude!

I will admit it's a pretty bulky VA synth but I don't think this baby will see much light of day beyond my home studio....I can always upload some samples for my Electro 3 if there's a need to go there. The JP is just my first, albeit very noob, foray into analog sounds. I feel like the instructional video might be helpful for this one since Roland manuals and I have a restraining order against each other... smile.gif

Thanks again guys....no need to continue the AN1x vs JP-8000 debate, unless it makes you feel better about which one you chose to buy! They are all pretty cool in their own right.

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I had a chance to pick up an AN1X for $300 at a local music store that still had a new one several years after they were discontinued. While I liked the sound, I passed on it because I didn't really like the interface and the general build of it. In retrospect I wish I'd gotten it anyway. I've had my EX5 and AN200 for quite some time, and like them both. The AN1X ended up being Yamaha's crowning achievement in VAs, though I didn't know it at the time.

I thought Yamaha would come out with something bigger and better somewhere down the line that built on the AN1X, but with more knobs, more polyphony, and maybe a better display. It seemed to be the way things were going with ALL synth companies at the time. But alas, it never happened.

As for the JP8000, I really wanted one back in the late 90s, but I waited and got the JP8080 later on. I'm glad that I did. The 8080 has a lot of nice extras that the JP8000 lacks, and the AN1X, while very nice, doesn't even come close to the 8080's feature set (aliasing notwithstanding).

Don Solaris did a nice write-up here on the enhanced features of the 8080:

http://http://homepage.mac.com/synth...ds_jp8080.html

To anyone looking at buying a JP8000, I would say that if you have another MIDI controller, try to find a JP8080 instead.

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