I had one for about a year and sold it, but I recently re-bought it as I realized I never even scratched the surface of what It can do. thanks for this video, this is great!
I finally own it and must say that is amazing synth not only for value but sound and overall functor. Yes, it's not easy to programming due little switches and other controllers but even that. I love it
Another great video...thanks! I've had mine for almost a week, and REALLY like the massive polyphony. Last night I layered four saw waves, each with slightly different LFO pitch modulation and some random pitch as well. Layered it with itself and far panned each layer. At eight voices per note, it sounds absolutely silky, thick, and rich! I don't know of any other hardware synth that can do this.
Thanks for watching! It's a very nice synth, especially considering it's size and price. Most "PCM synths" can score with big polyphony, but most of them suffer from a terrible user interface. The JD-08 (or it's grandfather, the JD-800) doesn't.
thx for the vid. the JD has always amused me for being a return to hands-on analog-style control.....on a completely PCM based 'synth'. Anyway, it just begs to be played with. With the D-5 going up in price and considering the price of an OG JD, I agree that this one will go up too. I just wished I liked the sound of it more.
Thanks for watching! I like that sound a lot - it's all up to personal taste, I guess. Some of the samples are looped badly, but you can gloss that over by adding more layers. ;-)
AWESOME TUTORIAL! Clear, concise, and efficient,. Please create "10 Things You Might Have Missed" for this unit as you did for the JX-08!!! That too was VERY cool. Thank you so much!
Thank you very much! I can't do that as I exchanged the JD-08 for the JX-08, but I did a video on the JD's sequencer: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PBLzZbdsJyw.html
Love sample based synths like this. For those who want to save some coin, animoog Z can be used kind of like this and has some awesome waveforms to choose from (I mean... They're moog lol so of course)
I really never thought about getting one of these, until I decided to increase the Aria series twice over and the Integra 7/with the SH4D I think can do some cool Roland stuff! Thanks Floyd!
Hi Floyd! I thought to myself watching this video, man I’d like to have one of these! Then I thought, wait a minute I do have one of these in my Integra 7. I believe it works the exact same way, plus it has a built in Jupiter. So I need to get busy! Lol, another great video!
Thank you! dear Floyd for your exellent work and demos aswell a ton of inspiration🙏❤Ive ordered the JD-08,..I think it vill be a creative tool, at a affordable price, as the JD-800 was out of my budget in the early 90's..❤Love cheers
Cool! I got the JX-08 back in Jan there, such an awesome little thing. Though the Wailing Guitar patch alone (A18?) on the JD-08 had me considering it!
@@mr_floydst Woo! Also, I definitely agree on the sysex compatibility (I have loads of JX-8P patches that I need to manually recreate if I want to use them), as well as just better patch management. At the moment all you can do is export/import the entire patch memory.
Oh my... you mentioned the EX5 and I envy you! I could only dream of an EX5, now... joining the EX5 with the JD, (and maybe the reface dx?) In a jam, would be awesome 👌
I havn't posted music in a long time ;-) Maybe I'll do it. Thing is music videos are a lot of work (I want to post complete tracks and not jams) and get 1/10 of the views of the other stuff.
Great video overview. I've only had my JD-08 about a week now and your video of the various sections of the synth moved me quickly through the learning curve. I actually matched your sound selection and adjustments just to be sure I was absorbing it all. One minor comment and I admit user error on my part, but before I got to the Sequencer section of your video I unintentionally changed to another Preset sound and lost all of the settings I made to the original INIT Sawtooth. I had to start all over again, I just forgot that I needed to save my patch before leaving it. It would have been helpful if you showed how you saved your final patch before you went to the Sequencer part. Being new to this Synth I didn't immediately know how to do this so I went to the Roland User Guide for the steps to save and then recreated your patch again. Not a real big deal but it's always good not assume "newbies to this synth" like me know all of the basics. Anyway, thanks for a great video!
Great vid! I bought one in Feb (22) and have yet to put it through its paces (time limitations). Your video helped a lot. I also have its inspiration, the JD-800 which I’ve had since the early 90’s. Gorgeous machine.
The front panel is good for tweaking but seems like a pain for building patches from scratch. i just found there is a 3rd party midi editor so i finally got one of these little synths. i see people complaining it doesn't sound as good as the Jd-800 but i disagree. i think it sounds better. the seller was also selling a d-05 so i bought that from them as well.
Great video! I didn't know your channel and right now it's one of my favs. Just one question: Do you know a way for checking any parameter value before moving its corresponding fader? Thx in advance :)
Hello Floyd. I'm Glenn. Thanks for the great tutorial. I will watch again and follow along with you. Two questions, please: How did you initialize a new patch? And how did you save the patch that you made? Cheers!
Hi, thanks for watching! Saving is really simple, just hold down the patch selection key you want to save in for a second or so. To clear a patch, press "common", then scroll to "util", and in that menu, select "t.clr" and execute that.
Good video but one thing, your terminology about what you called "layers" is not Roland terminology. Roland has called the oscilators in digital synths (from way back) "tones". It takes 4 tones to make up a patch/program etc etc.
That button can be used for entering notes step by step (enter note, sequencer advances to next step, enter next note, and so on) You can also use it to tie notes (make them longer).
Hi, thanks for your kind words! I made a video to answer _this_ question specifically: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-iV4OSRG6Kio.html ;-)
how are u connecting the nano key to the unit? I see there is a usb coming out of the key, and a 5pin entering into the JD, do u have some kind of adapter? how do u go about powering the keyboard if 5pin Midi doesn’t provide power ?
Hey! I bought the exact same set up as you are using right now (along with the Korg nanoKey 2), but I can't seem to connect the 2 with eachother (I tried to do it with adapters, there's no usb port). How do you connect the two with each other, is it via your laptop or something else? (This is my first instrument ever so sorry if I sound like an idiot).
Hi, thanks for watching! You're right, you can't connect them. You need a USB MIDI host adapter for that, see me video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-iV4OSRG6Kio.html for more details.
Mate so are these worth buying? Im setting up a DAWless rig to jam on and have a Dreadbox Typhone a Roland MC-101 but would like to add a good sounding digital synth any ideas or will the JD-08 do the job? I make ambient house and some techno sounding tracks ?
I can't answer that for you. :-) I thought it's a nice breath of "fresh air" after all those virtual analog synths and the theoretical polyphony of 128 (32 min) is nothing to scoff at as well. In the end, I sold mine because it just a little bit too big for mobile usage and in my "studio", I have a Yamaha EX5 which is superior to this box. But if you don't have anything like this, it's a nice thing to have.
@@mr_floydst I'm only after small synths for jaming under the patio hence the small Roland MC-101 and the Dreadbox Typhon which sounds amazing. I also own a Roland JP-8000 but it's just too big even though its a classic. I might stick to my original plan and get the Erica synth baseline. Cheers
Mr Steinberg I own A Roland JD 08. I know how to do an original sequence, but I'm having an issue on pattern 22. I'm able to mute Tone A, Tone B, Tone C, and D. And even when I mute all of them, there's another sound and it's a sequence that keeps going. I can't find where it's coming from. How do I find it and how do I edit that sequence from the original factory pattern? I would really appreciate it if you could get back to me. Thank you.
Sounds like you've discovered the "bitimbrality" feature. ;-) Each sequence has two tracks that can use one sound each. There's an A/B switch in the sequencer menu for choosing the sound you're working with, use that and you're also switching to the second sequencer track.
I just got one of these. Despite reading the manual, I still can't figure it out. What exactly do the tone sliders do? I can't seem to isolate a tone to edit it. I understand subtractive synthesis, but the JD-8 has a weird spin to it. The presets are awesome though. Does each tone have it's own envelope or does the one envelope apply to all tones?
Hi! Hm, I thought all those questions were tackled in this video. ;-) Every layer has it's own envelopes both for filter and amp. If all the layers are in edit mode, you can set up the same envelopes for all of them, but if only one layer is selected, the envelopes (and all other settings) apply for that layer only. The tone sliders will always perform the function of the last control you moved.
@@mr_floydstYes you did explain. I just had to get some hands on for it to sink in. I see what it's doing now. Actually, your video explains it better than the manual. Thanks for the reply.
@@159awi Once you wrapped your head around this, you can do so many things! e.g. create a bell-like sound followed by a slowly rising pad sound. The JD08 can also do "sforzando" type envelopes, which isn't the most common feature in synths, sadly.
Does anyone know if this synth has a ‘hold/sustain without launch the arpeggiator?? I want to leave some patch going on with some movement and I don’t want to use a sustain pedal
Hi! That's nearly the same as saving a sound. Hold the START key and press a number in the NUMBER block until the display shortly flashes. See static.roland.com/manuals/jd-08_reference/eng/17812069.html
@@mr_floydst oooh Thank you very much for your answer, that resolves every thing, I wanted to ask if you can do a tutorial how to extract the save patches for backup, thank you in advance
i se you are a synth wizard, and i do subscribe to your channel - i have this JD08, and now my totally newbie question: everybody says it has 128 sounds/patches, but i can only find 64?? - and i might have more questions later!! - thanks for a nice and educative channel! - Levi in Sweden
Hi, thanks for watching. Just press the BANK button multiple times to switch through the groups. See static.roland.com/manuals/jd-08_reference/eng/17812067.html?&k=group
@@mr_floydst yes, so much i understand, lol, but i cannot find more than 64 occupied banks, the rest consists of a singel pure tone, should it be like that, or is my unit faulty? Greetings Levi
@@mr_floydst In my opinon it doesn't matter from what source the waveform comes from be it virtual analog or sampled. Each have their own ups and downs. While VA supports stuff like PWM and Sync, romplers can offer much more waveforms and also emulate non synth instruments.
@@JonathanDotExe Entirely agree. At the height of their popularity, ROMplers could do all the synth stuff on samples (see EX5, Kawai 5000, and others)... The only important question really is "does it sound great?" ;-)
Thanks for showing how to record 2 parts on the sequencer. Someone found a way to transfer patches from the JD800: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DO_CJH68Fck.html Seems like it works with the Jupiter X/Xm too (!). Question: does the JD-08 work with a USB B to C cable from my Reface DX, without burning something?
I don't think so - zen-core is more of a universal synth content management system. I don't know anything but if I were to make a guess I'd say there's an API somewhere so you can easily design user interfaces, and a number of engines for the different synthesis methods (virtual analog, fm, sample-based...) and they only tweak those engines ever so slightly and provide the original content (samples, patches) for those engines.
I can see where you're coming from ;-) But it's the smallest MIDI keyboard so there is a place for it. I replaced it with a Donner N25 recently, which has a much better keyboard and a joystick and is only slightly bigger.
Does it have any facility for uploading the partial sound samples the extra JD external cards could add to the original instrument? Our JD is suffering big time now with the infamous key weight red goo problem but we can't replace it with any other instrument if we are unable to use our external card library sounds.
It's hard to argue when I did the same (but not quite as quickly ;-) The JD-08 is great, but my ROMpler needs are covered by other keyboards (and I try to keep my collection as small as possible)
@@mr_floydst well i wrote a quick summary , i bought it on amazon. I adored it immediately (first impression) and it sounds great. But 1) i connected to my Mac by usb-c and it started to produce terrible buzz noise 2) i do not understand Roland to do NOT create a sysex implementation. It not respond seriously to midi channel. With all partial OFF something still sound in some channels. 3) for similar price of a korg wavestate mk1 or opsix mk1, no librarian? No editor? No oled micro display to read initial parameter of every voice before modify it? 4) is unacceptable this synth sound amazing and with great poliphony but work in a so closed system like a toy for that price 5) it do not read the JD-800 libraries !! Can you imagine? There are tons of amazing sounds and patches but to convert them you have take a degree in programming with coding software (no graphic windows, just editing) handmade by some passionate people. Compliments but NO! 6) i do not want to comment the only editor on the market. Because it is cheap but useless. When you connect it, it not shows the initial parameter due lack of sysex comunication. 7) the master volume knob? Absurde little and put in a position in back impossible to manage Do i forget something? Unbelievable delusion, after 15 day i sent it back in perfect condition. Thank to amazon service to let me try it .. but.. a huge waste of time
Thanks! Fair enough. ;-) I have a knack for 90s gear and ROMplers in particular. Mostly nostalgia, I suppose, but then again, this is a very specific sound that has it's place... somewhere. ;-)
