Members ExplodingBoy Posted July 6, 2005 Members Share Posted July 6, 2005 I downloaded Ski's voice set called Filtabeest which highlights the amazing filters and layering of AWM elements with AN elements on the EX series. My god that thing is just pure melted butter to the ears. The EX rivals even some of the VAs I've heard in terms of warmth and filters. I'm sure the AN engine on board helps, but even the AWM elements and filters are just SOO smooth and warm. I will never let this thing go again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members urbanscallywag Posted July 6, 2005 Members Share Posted July 6, 2005 Ever owned/used a JD800/990? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members esiclene Posted July 6, 2005 Members Share Posted July 6, 2005 Originally posted by urbanscallywag Ever owned/used a JD800/990? Ex5 is 'sterile' compared to JD990.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ExplodingBoy Posted July 6, 2005 Author Members Share Posted July 6, 2005 To say that the EX5 is sterile compared to any rompler is completely exagerrated. I've played the JDs and they're awesome in terms of how versatile they are and all that real time control is great. HOWEVER.. Believe me when I tell you that you can do all of that and probably more with a fully loaded EX.. you just don't have the luxury of all those sliders right at your disposal. As far as sound quality and warmth though, you can't convince me that the JDs blow the EX away in that regard. Not even close. If anything, many of the JD's sounds are metallic and sort of cold sounding (but in a very good original sounding way). Listen to the Cure's "Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me" album. You can hear JD all over that album. Those brass stabs on "Why Can't I Be You" etc. are all JD. Those have an original sound, but warm is not a way I would describe it. I respect differing opinions, but anyone who can call an EX sterile clearly has not even scratched the surface of what they can do. If anything, the EX is one of the most dynamic synths I've ever played. Almost the same concept as the OASYS except not as advanced and about 6 years earlier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members keyman_sam Posted July 6, 2005 Members Share Posted July 6, 2005 Why dont we post mp3s of JDs and EXs and let the audience judge for themselves... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members aeon Posted July 21, 2005 Members Share Posted July 21, 2005 Originally posted by ExplodingBoy Listen to the Cure's "Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me" album. You can hear JD all over that album. Those brass stabs on "Why Can't I Be You" etc. are all JD. Those have an original sound, but warm is not a way I would describe it. Um, hello? Kiss Me^3 came out a full 5 years before Roland released the JD-800. AFAIK, those brass stabs are from the Emulator II library. And don't get me wrong...I think the sound quality on the EX-series is drop-dead gorgeous...and yes, very flexible indeed. But if we are going to get into qualities of warmth or organic nature, the JD-990 will best the EXs on that front. IMHO. cheers,aeon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members J3RK Posted July 21, 2005 Members Share Posted July 21, 2005 Bah... ROMplers... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members urbanscallywag Posted July 21, 2005 Members Share Posted July 21, 2005 Originally posted by J3RK Bah... ROMplers... That's what I said...till I tried a 990. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members midi Posted July 21, 2005 Members Share Posted July 21, 2005 Screw the 990, 6-note polyphony? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members J3RK Posted July 21, 2005 Members Share Posted July 21, 2005 Yeah, I've heard a JD before, (thought it sounded pretty cool,) and I actually DO like some ROMplers. (Even some of the JV/XV series. (at least the ones that don't have noisy release phases through stupid converters.)) I just like to poke a wee bit of fun at the ol' ROMpler concept from time to time. I've heard some pretty lush pads and such out of them. I just don't like the work-flow, menu paging, etc. that's usually involved in creating a decent patch. I had an XP-80 several years ago, and loved it. I just can't bring myself to deal with them these days. If I need a sound badly enough that I can't synthesize with other methods, I just find a sample and throw it into a soft-sampler. (usually Kontakt, but now I've got the STS samplers on the Scope, which I haven't even tried yet.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members urbanscallywag Posted July 21, 2005 Members Share Posted July 21, 2005 Isn't it 24? Its no workhorse. However many voices it has are sweet voices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members aeon Posted July 21, 2005 Members Share Posted July 21, 2005 Yes, it has 24 "tones" of poly. So depending on your patch(es), it will have 24/12/8/6 voices. That said, I find the sound character to be such that I never use more than 1 or 2 tones in a sustained stringpad patch, and if I use 3 tones, one is usually doing an attack of some kind, so the body is still 2 tones. A dual-tone, 12-voice, JD-990 pad can be quite piggy in terms of eating up mixspace. cheers, aeon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wheresgrant3 Posted July 21, 2005 Members Share Posted July 21, 2005 I have the EX.... and it's AWESOME!!! The JD is next on my list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rml42 Posted July 21, 2005 Members Share Posted July 21, 2005 I have a JD and an EX is next on my list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members eric Posted July 21, 2005 Members Share Posted July 21, 2005 Originally posted by ExplodingBoy Listen to the Cure's "Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me" album. You can hear JD all over that album. Those brass stabs on "Why Can't I Be You" etc. are all JD. Those have an original sound, but warm is not a way I would describe it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Why Can't I Be You" is primarily the Stab Brass preset from Roland's JX8P. I covered that song for a few years back in the early 90's using a JX8P and I had the sound pretty much identical to the record. It was cool! As for warmth of the EX5, I cannot opine on this as I have never laid hands on one. I have a few synths that may emit more heat than an EX5, but I think you are talking warmth of sound and not physical temperature, right? Regards, Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members NuSkoolTone Posted July 21, 2005 Members Share Posted July 21, 2005 I had an EX5, I got rid of it because it was poor as a workstation which were my needs at the time. It didn't live up to HALF of the claims it was marketed as. I miss the AN, VL and FDSP though. Anyone who tells you that the AN on the PLG cards they sell and the AN on the EX5 are the same haven't listened to both very much. Even though it has less poly, the AN on the EX5 is the shiznet. I Also agree that it is a very warm sounding board, and sits in mixes well IMO. However at the time it just didn't do all the other stuff I need. That's ok. I'll get an EX5R down the road when they are selling for dirt and all but forgotten and use it just for the AN/VL/FDSP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rasmus-DK Posted July 21, 2005 Members Share Posted July 21, 2005 Without ever having tried an EX5/7 I must say that the romplers, which GEM made in the early and mid 1990's imho had an extremely warm quality to them as well (e.g. the S2/2R/3, the SX2/3, and the WX2/WXE) - i especially like the quite warm digital resonant filter in those boards.. (too bad that algorithm apparently didn't find its way into the WK4/6/8, SK76/88/760/880 or the Equinox..) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tangerine Posted July 21, 2005 Members Share Posted July 21, 2005 I vote for Roland JD-800!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tangerine Posted August 12, 2005 Members Share Posted August 12, 2005 Anybody with some FAT !!!! mp3:s from JD and EX ??? I have heard some really fat sounding special patches from JD-800 but newer from the EX. Anybody have some really FAT sounding patches from EX5 and just AWM waveforms not An1 voices ? I would like to hear the EX5 to compare. Can you who vote for the EX put some mp3 in this thread? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wetwareinterface Posted August 14, 2005 Members Share Posted August 14, 2005 i once owned an ex5rgot rid of it shortly after.it was supposed to be the end all multi-engined synth. the rompler part was the best part of it with sample loading thrown in. the issues it had though just using the vl or an engine cutting the polyphony down to nothing and laggy midi response made me dump it. i had an ms2000 and another warmer rompler from yamaha so i didn't need the damn lag and bugginess. however the rompler engine was decent sounding and allowed your own samples to be used. try that with a jd. but to be honest a warmer rompler that you can pick up dirt cheap is the yamaha tg-55. it has dual 12 db resonant filters you can run in parrallel or serial. much warmer sound than either the jd or ex. also the engine in the ex-5 as far as the awm is also in the tg-500 tone module. another cheaper alternative Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Paolo Di Nicolantonio Posted August 14, 2005 Members Share Posted August 14, 2005 Originally posted by Rasmus-DK Without ever having tried an EX5/7 I must say that the romplers, which GEM made in the early and mid 1990's imho had an extremely warm quality to them as well (e.g. the S2/2R/3, the SX2/3, and the WX2/WXE) - i especially like the quite warm digital resonant filter in those boards.. (too bad that algorithm apparently didn't find its way into the WK4/6/8, SK76/88/760/880 or the Equinox..) Thank you! I agree 100% I have EX5R, JD-990 and S2R, and while all three are fantastic machines, and they ALL sound warm, I often resort to the S2R for its warm pads and lush analog-style leads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sealed Posted August 14, 2005 Members Share Posted August 14, 2005 Originally posted by Mr Varaldo I have EX5R, JD-990 and S2R, and while all three are fantastic machines, and they ALL sound warm, I often resort to the S2R for its warm pads and lush analog-style leads. I agree with S2 (sorry, don't have an EX). It sounds great. TG55 referred here has the decent sounds too.It's my impression that JD-800 sounds better than JD-990, though I only have the latter. I'd like to hear sound examples of EX, JD-800, JD-990. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 1 4 19 and 18 Posted August 14, 2005 Members Share Posted August 14, 2005 I have used all the synths mentioned in this thread at one time or another. The Gem s2 does have a nice warm sound, Gem have always surprised me with their products. For me though, the EX7/5/5r are three of the warmest sounding rompler synths ever produced, certainly the warmest and most powerful of all the synths mentioned in this thread. The JD-800 sounded a little sweeter to me than the JD-900 although the JD-900 has better features. The TG500 and TG55 mentioned earlier have little or nothing to do with the EX5 though. They are bargains today and can sound excellent, the TG55 sounding really warm for some reason, probably it's lower quality effects and slightly higher noise level. They are related to the SY series though and not EX series. The TG500 being a 64 note module version of the SY85 and the SY99 can access the same waves somehow, can't remember now. The TG55 is the awm engine of the SY77. For me though, the EX series holds the crown in any warmth contest, infact they still are kings in all but true workstation duties quite simply superb synths and i'd still rather use an EX over the Motifs for single synth duties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wetwareinterface Posted August 15, 2005 Members Share Posted August 15, 2005 actually the tg-500 is the same as the ex 5 as far as the awm hardware wise and synth programming wise. yamaha chose to limit the poly to avoid the timing slop issues inherent in the ex 5 due to the ex's overworked processor. it is not the sy85 in a rack it is the awm engine from the ex 5 in a rack right down to the chips on the pcb. and i never said the tg-55 was the same as the ex. just a warmer cheaper synth from the same company. the tg-500 is the same synth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sealed Posted August 15, 2005 Members Share Posted August 15, 2005 I admit TG-500 and SY85 are good synths, but they are different from synths after CS6x/S80.The difference is the filter. SY series' filters tend to sound thinner when resonance is on. YAMAHA made better analog filter emulation after CS6x. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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