I am going to get this synth somehow before dying... As soon as I hear this synth, I recall Blade Runner Scenes... Update: Got it in mint condition in May 2021, just seen my comment over here and wanted to share. What a fantastic synth!
YEA_same_saw a mint one for $3K_they'll be around_for now just got Roland Cloud JD-800 + StudioLogic Sledge as midi keyboard_in the mix it'll work_earn those hardware rewards from the work returns💫
@@MrMusicopath i hear you_but_especially given the current agenda against our supply chain_food_energy_currency_nothin' wrong w/ being aware of space-time & compiling a 'must do' list 'cause ya never know😶🌫
I remember drooling over this synth when I was a poor college student. I would just put on headphones and play all the patches in the music store for an hour. Today I have 4,000X as many synth patches and infite ROM memory and sample in my soft VSTi synths. And I think I'm worse off in writing music. It's like Netflix... I spend more time browsing all the things I can watch rather than actually picking something and watching it. Decision paralysis!
So true. I spend an entire evening browsing Netflix and then give up and go to bed. I always lusted after this synth. The sheer number of sliders made it seem so awesome.
I've always felt that's the root problem for learners on digital keyboards where here are 100, 200 or more voices + loads of rhythms etc. The temptation to doodle and explore can swamp the determination to concentrate, focus and learn. Play becomes more important than playing.
There were a lot of great synths made in the late 80s to mid 90s that were fantastic. I was a young man in my 20s in the early 90s. That's why I get PO'd when whipper snappers say really old synths from the 90s or classic synths from the 90s. I'm not old dag nabbit.
The greatest synth I sold! Made in a period when keyboards were designed like classic guitars and manufactured with thoughts of the end user, love and integrity a vital ingredient.
I feel like the module version (JD-990) is one of the best synths Roland ever made,. Would love to get my hands on one, plus those killer sound library cards.
I once tried this synth in the music shop back in the day, and I remember thinking that every patch was like a song in itself. You can make an entire ambient soundtrack with a few key presses. Never came across anything like it since.
I have 11 synths knocking around here, 1 of them is the JD 800...I can say there about 6 synths in my collection that blow this away sound wise and presets. I still prefer my D50 over this also. Korg M3 destroys it.
Kevin Moore used one of these when composing songs for Dream Theater's Images and Words. A virtuoso using this is half of the reason why the album is so flawless.
Sigh! I miss my JD800 12 years ago (the old electrical parts are almost impossible to find)..I might have the Motfs,Fantom synths plus other plug in synths on my laptop now, but still cant find anything quite like this God sent synthesizer. Mucking around with the sounds onboard was what help made it so darn special...Used to use it a lot in most of my film scoring.....JD..I miss u...sob! sob!
That was a great time to have this synth under your fingers. I sold it for a love, money was in need and after that, I swore to myself, never sell an instrument, keep them I remeber the three exensions cards they gave us, the string extension was awesome
Got this beast a little over two years ago. I'm a drummer but I love sound design. =) I wanted one of these since the day it came out but it took until now. It can make some amazing sounds.
Thanks for giving me this trip back into my past ... bought mine in 1997 or so ... broke finally down 2008 ... miss it ... was a GREAT tool ... so thanks for recalling the memories of the factory presets ;-) .. the funny fact is, if I hear some of the sounds I still instantly "see" their PRG-number in my mind ;-))
That is one great synth. They just don't make them like the JD-800 anymore. I still have one left in my studio and I will never let it go. I have the same PCM sounds in my Fantom G but they just don't crank out like they do on my JD-800. Wonderful sound and a dream to program. Roland had a winner here. The shape reminds me of the B2 Stealth bomber. Very cool.
Is one of the top 5 best sounding vintage synths out of the hundreds that exist 1968 to 1998, but other people dont know this or say this or list it in the top 5 and no one made a VST Emulator, I dont know why this is. The Population and Audio Synth Community sometimes has low perception and gets things wrong sometimes., This synth is what made those 1990s Danish Goa Tracks sound so much better than other Goa and Melodic Trance when PsyGone , The-Ozone and others used them, and they sound far better than any online demos too. Tyoe Biller Typhoon. Type Psygone Costra Nemus, listen to these JD- 800 tracks. and others like Le Satchi Dream Mix
mattsynth I just came across one today in a pawn shop for only $200! But on plugging in headphones, nothing I did would produce any sound out of it. I did notice it didn’t have any cards in the back...but doesn’t it also have internal sounds? You can create sound without any cards in the back right?
I bought a Korg T3 back in 1991 and the JD800 came out around that time. I lusted over this keyboard as it would have been a great complement to the Korg sound, but it was very expensive due to the fact that it had so much real time hardware. I always played it when going into a music shop at the time and I also loved the JD990. I ended up eventually owning 3 x JV1080s and an XV3080 all filled up with expansion boards. They were golden times! If I remember correctly, I think that Keyboard Magazine gave the JD800 their hardware innovation of the year award in 1991 because at that time, there simply weren't any synths coming out with so much real time control with all those faders, knobs and switches? Great demo and fantastic playing. Keep up the great work buddy.
@@nathanbrown816 the T series were everything that the M1 should have been in the first place. They were priced way too high, hence why Korg didn't have the same success with the T Series like they had with the M1 and the later 01W series that were priced better.
This synth is a beast, an out of control monster. Bought mine about ten years ago. just a slight adjustment of a slider and your neighbors will move out, thinking your house is possed. Scares the living daylights out of me. beautiful to look at, lovely contours, looks like a stealth bomber. Very heavy but a joy to play. Still used today. A Roland classic. Roland have a habit of making classic synths a formula they should have stuck with. but alas, they have made some bad ones. Why they haven't brought out a VST, i don't know. I don't mind digital. I have had no glue problems. if you can afford to buy one, get one. I'm sure the price will rocket. I feel so fortunate to own one, and would never sell.Just need a Jupiter 8, and six. Had a jupiter 4, and Sh2. learned my lesson, prices are going through the roof. Thank you for sharing Great playing. Moog.
I have the impression that the D50 is more versatile soundwise. Can you confirm this to be true or false please? I listened toD50 demo's and I have the impression it has more sounds.
Lawrence O doubtful. The D-50 has 8 bit PCMs used as transients. The JD-800 has 3MB of 12 bit PCMs in ROM and another 1MB of RAM. The D-50 has 1 EG and the JD-800 has 3. Both have 3 LFOs. The effects unit on the D-50 has chorus, reverb and EQ, while the JD-800 has chorus, reverb, EQ, delay, distortion, phaser, spectrum and enhancer. The D-50 has a resonant low pass filter. The JD-800 has a resonant multi mode filter with low pass, band pass and high pass filters. So Roland had a few more years to perfect Linear Arthimetic Synthesis and give the JD-800 a more powerful synth engine. Both store 64 patches.
I agree! :) I too have all those synthesizers! They are classic gems! Thanks for keeping the Facebook group going as well. I appreciate it. Take care, Samuel D. Williamson.
This is still one of the best things Roland ever made. The 90's was saturated with it. From memory, not a single dumb fake guitar sound, just pure digital synth goodness.
WHAT A WWWWOOOOWWWW!!!!! THIS JD800 MAKES ME FEEL AS IF I'M A NEW PLANET!! THANKS TO ELECTRONICS!!!!!! GOD BLESS THE ORIGIN OF ROLAND!! SERIOUSLY SPEAKING.....
Love the JD800, i bought both of mine back in the 90s and still have them both, bought a second hand one purely for spare parts. Presets were always standard, however can be fab if programmed yourself.
One of the best synths ever,and specially the pad sounds and i have the JD-990(with vintage card,a must have). I hope Roland make a kind of remake with lot of more possibilities,a hybrid/analog engine!
This thing looks huge heavy and intimidating. If i had the space id look into getting one. Love the sound. So oberheim-y. The look on the guest keyboardist face when setting in my cockpit at the church i play for would be filmable. A grown up bit of kit for a grown up player. Thinks guy. Great demo. One of the best
Quite a few famous sounds on here. A couple that spring to mind: 22 Clasic Sweeper -- Pet Shop Boys - Music for Boys 51 Hearts of Space -- Genesis - Hold on my Heart' (perhaps with some slight editing)
Preset no.21 can be found playing on - Turn Your Radio On (by Sharespare's Sisters 1992) Deep Forest (by Deep Forest 1993) Radio (remix version by the Corrs 2000)
Patch 15 (the guitar) is the one I remember hearing when I saw a JD800 in a music shop around 1991. It sounded incredible then, still sounds rather good.
the crystal rhodes sounds almost identical to the electric piano heard in Mario 64. This is definitely the closest piano instrument that I heard that sounds like it. I love the resonating of the piano
It's possible that this synth is what was used, but that Crystal Rhodes sound was basically Roland's version of the DX7 Rhodes. Other manufacturers (like Korg) also had versions on their romplers. I think a version was also in Roland's Sound Canvas series (like the SC-88). The N64 ROM used compressed samples, I believe, so the music you heard (especially through a TV) would be less pristine than what came out of the synth.
Yup, that was the sound that sold me on the JD-800. Bought mine new in 1996 and will never give it up. Get yourself a Jupiter-X and the JD-800 expansion pack. Sounds are very true to the original keyboard. Plus, the expansion pack has lots of additional sounds based on the JD-800 waveforms.
Still have mine from new - Roland sent me over, must have been, some of the last rubbers for under the keys - an experience ... she's been resting awhile but if a move comes hopefully will find a studio place once again. It's a Love - Love situation....
Some of the sounds are soo dreamy I nearly fell asleep then I dropped my ipad on my nose while lying flat on the bed you nearly fall asleep then a brass sound like mr brass wakes you up
Great sounding synth and of course some great strings and pads which Roland is famous for. I don't know of any other synth that can do pads and strings as well as Roland and I've owned them all! The only other synth that does strings/pads/brass as well as Roland I think is Oberheim--My OBxa, OB8, Expander..I have the rack version of the JD800 which is the JD990 w/JV80 Vintage Synth board installed and I don't remember it having the Rhodes sound heard at 1:12! That sounds fantastic-I love it!!!
The JD-800 is a beast of a synth!!! Heard many of the sounds used in many of the songs I've heard and still enjoy listening to, such as that fantastic Crystal Rhodes patch!!! Awesome demo!!!
Anch'io l'ho sempre amata da quando e' uscita nel... '90, mi pare. Dovrebbero fare una macchina simile, con tanti sliders e la tecnologia di oggi. Venderebbe, secondo me...
Io sto pensando di iniziare a suonare un synth... Sapresti consigliarmi e uno che abbia un suono di strings simile a quello di Como estais amigos degli Iron Maiden che si sente al secondo verso?
Con este teclado y un talentoso tecladista se puede reproducir cualquier melodia escrita desde que el serhumano descubrió la musica..,, nada es imposible con este instrumento mágico... que grandioso!!!!
+Nicholas Seaks Ha! That happened to me once - I was at a Minimoog, keyboarding for a live band, and some people in the audience thought I was doing the sound ... coz of the knobs. (They had some complaint about the volume.)
I had 40 some keyboards in my rig doing commercial scores when that first came out. I bought one and liked the feel of it, but it didn’t sit well with many of the samplers and other analog synths. It demanded to be out front. I also wasn’t blown away by the stock sounds, but the amount of manipulation that was possible quickly was a game changer back then. The thing was as heavy as a Buick. 🎹
Had one in the early 90s. One of the very best synths Roland made in the 90s. Yes, it's sample based, but it it is also a high quality synth with a very comprehensive analog style interface - and it sounds great! Should have been one of the super-classics such as the Yamaha DX-7 and Korg M1. (I find it way better than both BTW!).
Magic synth with a magic sounds! I know that JD-800 was not perfect with faders and its lifetime, but Im really want this wonderful machine! No the JD-XA, just the JD-800!!
i really missed this awesome synth. i used to learn and play this since early 90s. it nails every sounds effects i need. a great instrument... i missed this so much..
I actually love the LA Piano and the sweeping sounds that Hans Zimmer used for his 90s soundtracks, I can't remember the patch name but it's on the JD800. Is it the "Classic Sweeper" patch?
Thank you - I "missed the boat" on the Strings card years ago and noticed it went up in price a lot. One time I did have the Drums card but I haven't tested the Strings card set... eventually I'd like to get it because pads are my favorite synth sound typology.