What a difference $100 makes...

Sold the Microkorg for the same price I paid, $250, and picked up a Roland JX-305 for $350.

I just never really connected with the Microkorg. It was my second synth, the first, which I still have, being a Micron. I got an Alesis QS7.1 for $200 a couple of months ago, and now I fear I've caught the fever full-on. I made a few nifty recordings with the Microkorg, from the few presets that appealed to my ears, and then I was just done with it and ready for the next.

Digging into the manual of the JX305, I'm already in love. The 'dual' layer mode is a godsend. Also, a quick search of the forum reveals that the JX is also the board of choice for m83. Awesome x infinity.

Somewhere in here there's got to be a cheap joke about the MicroKorg, but I don't find it.

I was gonna buy a JX305. It's a groove box synth. It's bizarre.

Have fun!

A Roland that looks like a Yamaha ...

you need to post demos of m83 noises with it. i rarely get to hear that synth unprocessed, and never from them. i'd be interested in _really_ hearing the thing.

Actually, I was bidding on it at the same time that I was bidding on the JP8K. Lost the JX305 auction (I wasn't willing to pay more than $180 and the thing sold for $201 or something) and won the JP8K.

Then I sold the JP8K because I was mad at it.

Now I has the R3...for "R3TARDED AKLINER WANTS THINGS SIMPLE"

i've sold like 3 synths for no more reason than i was _personally_ mad at them for something.

not that i didn't like them, not that i didn't like their sound necessarily, i was just _mad_ at them. those particular synths wronged me somehow.

i have a tr707 that i'm starting to feel that way towards. i love 707s, but this one pisses me off just looking at it for some reason. i wish you could exchange identical pieces of gear

see, now how is an R3 simpler than a Jp8000?

unless you just prefer to stick with the presets, no harm done.

i've sold like 3 synths for no more reason than i was _personally_ mad at them for something. not that i didn't like them, not that i didn't like their sound necessarily, i was just _mad_ at them. those particular synths wronged me somehow. i have a tr707 that i'm starting to feel that way towards. i love 707s, but this one pisses me off just looking at it for some reason. i wish you could exchange identical pieces of gear

I'm glad I'm not going crazy and that there are other people who get angy at inanimate music making objects. I was mad at my Triton Extreme for a few days, but now we're on really good terms. She's making it up to me by showing me patches I didn't know she had before.

We're opening up to each other more, and it's great. She's still a little jealous of Motif because I play it more than anything.

Oh well. It's hard to get these bitches to just STFU .

Less clutter. Also, by having to scroll menu through menu to tweak it teaches me about substractive synthesis workflow and blah blah blah.

Plus, I use it 60% of the time just for the vocoder. It's still a novelty to me.

*slowly backs away from this thread*

STFU.

When my Fantom XR comes home (I let my friend borrow it for the week) I wonder if it will be jealous of the D-550 and the JD-990 that showed up while it was away...

D-550: "I have sounds you'll never be able to do, my dear..."

XR: "Oh yeah? But you look old and fat, bitch"

JD-990: "My screen is bigger and better to play with..."

XR: "Shut up before I use my supersaw on you!"

In the meantime, the NS5R will continue feeling like the rejected stepchild that was found with a broken data wheel inside a gear bag where it had been forgotten for years. But I'm falling in love with its EP pads now

The only instrument I ever got mad at was a guitar. I actually threw my red Strat on the floor while recording in 2002, when I couldn't get a part right. The neck broke off the body and I had to get a new neck for it.

And oh yeah, the JX-305 looks like a handy piece of equipment. I'm thinking I still want the EMX-1 though, but I haven't ever heard a proper demo of the JX-305. If you record with it, let us hear please!

Maybe once I figure out some of their combos, which could take a long time...seems like the dual layer mode can make a lot of processed sounding stuff without any actual processing, since it allows you to combine any 2 patches into a new layered sound...so, for example, you can have half wah guitar/half gabber synth, or half x-bass/half jet thunder, and when they're combined, they sound like a much more advanced single patch. The aural possibilities just in this one feature are pretty outrageous. I could spend the next few weeks just trying out patch combinations...I can tell already that it's definitely a killer "noise" board.

how bout that?

Sold the Microkorg for the same price I paid, $250, and picked up a Roland JX-305 for $350. ... Digging into the manual of the JX305, I'm already in love. The 'dual' layer mode is a godsend. Also, a quick search of the forum reveals that the JX is also the board of choice for m83. Awesome x infinity.

I like the JX-305 as well. A lot of people don't realize that the 305 actually has more wave ROM (an additional 4 mb, IMS) than the MC-505. Both units are built around a JV sound engine (up to 4 tones per patch), so you can make some great patches and do a lot of tweaking and live remixing all on the same synth. I see JX-305's for $350 at pawn shops pretty often, which is a steal for such a synth.

i've had my eye out for a jx-305 for a while now. i too would love to hear what they sound like raw.

Isn't it just the keyboard version of the MC-505? I seem to remember a couple of other differences, but they're very close.

Saw M83 at The Echoplex in Echo Park on Tuesday night

They're very close. The 305 has more waves in its ROM set, and lacks some of the realtime controls of the 505.

Still, all in all, I'm glad Roland got 'sirius' (sic) and made the 305. It's pretty fun and affordable for a "groove" synth.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for "Is R3 really simpler than JP8000?" with your host, dereksljuka

Sources:

JP8000: simple 'analog' waveforms

R3: analog waveforms + 64 DWGS wavetable from DW8000 + formant + ext audio in + self oscillating filters (!) + perc sounds + variable phase modulation

Filters:

JP8000: single lowpass highpass or bandpass

R3: dual morphable lowpass, highpass, bandpass, band-reject, comb with distortion and multiple routing possibilities such as series, parallel, etc.

ENV:

JP8000: 2 ADSR + 1 simple AD ENV

R3: 3 full ADSR with five different attack and release curves

LFO:

JP8000: 2 LFO with 4 waveforms

R3: 2 LFO with 6 waveforms that can be shaped with waveshaper

Let's not forget the R3's modulation sequencer which can be used to scan through the wavetable, modulation matrix with 12 sources and 15 destinations (hard core!), waveshaper, and many other features the JP8000 doesn't have. But hey, it has less knobs, so it's also easier to use, right?

Jonathan Taylor Thomas used to post on SonicState long ago. He went Ike Turner on an Ensoniq Fizmo.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for "Is R3 really simpler than JP8000?" with your host, dereksljuka Sources: JP8000: simple 'analog' waveforms R3: analog waveforms + 64 DWGS wavetable from DW8000 + formant + ext audio in + self oscillating filters (!) + perc sounds + variable phase modulation Filters: JP8000: single lowpass highpass or bandpass R3: dual morphable lowpass, highpass, bandpass, band-reject, comb with distortion and multiple routing possibilities such as series, parallel, etc. ENV: JP8000: 2 ADSR + 1 simple AD ENV R3: 3 full ADSR with five different attack and release curves LFO: JP8000: 2 LFO with 4 waveforms R3: 2 LFO with 6 waveforms that can be shaped with waveshaper Let's not forget the R3's modulation sequencer which can be used to scan through the wavetable, modulation matrix with 12 sources and 15 destinations (hard core!), waveshaper, and many other features the JP8000 doesn't have. But hey, it has less knobs, so it's also easier to use, right?

Ehem. I believe I clarified myself above.

But you can has prize for all that typing.

Here is your prize:

OK, here are some samples from the dual mode. I still haven't gotten into the arpeggiator and sequencer yet, but you can youtube it for that stuff. These are all clean stock patch combinations with no post-processing or effects, except for a little volume boost here and there.

http://www.warpsmasher.com/music/jx-305_-_dualpatches1.mp3

http://www.warpsmasher.com/music/jx-305_-_dualpatches2.mp3

http://www.warpsmasher.com/music/jx-305_-_dualpatches3.mp3

http://www.warpsmasher.com/music/jx-305_-_dualpatches4.mp3

Thanks a lot for the demos. That's a much better representation of the JX-305 than anything I've heard so far.

those are great! thanks a lot.