Roland JD-XI Crossover Synth - Review 

some of these companies should hire nick to do a review of the initial prototypes and tell them what they need to put in , he knows his shit

No one realises how much of a beast this thing is. At first, I thought this thing was rubbish. Then, after about 2 or 3 months of getting to learn how to use it. Let me tell you. Oh my sweet Jesus. I love this thing. I would by another one definitely.

Back when I started out this would have been a little dream machine.

just bought one and i love it! mine came with an alternative cover with the parameters written in white, so the words being red was not a problem, I just put the cover on.

7:53 "Attack, Decay, Sus... Depth" Lost my shit there

I have a well furnished studio. 25 years in the synth game. The JD-XI has been my go to synth now for over 4 years. Sketch pad, performance & recording. It’s a fantastic synth. Incredible audio quality. An absolute bargain. I do not use computers generally in the studio. Use the Akai MPC Studio Black only (Another fantastic underrated tool). I’ve created some great work using JD-XI. It’s earned it’s original purchase price multiple times over & over. Reliability - Perfect. Flawless reliability. Never failed a note in thousands of hours use. Roland created the perfect compact synthesiser. Really looking forward to Rolands next generation of portable sub £500 synths. Topping the JD-XI will be hard work. PS - Love the vocoder mic position face Nick at 4 minutes. Very Alan Partridge. Funny.

It’s great how your reviews are great years later. ❤️

Great review. I have a JD-XA on order. Cant wait!

Thnx so very much for this review. Bought one and having loads of fun.

lovely lovely sounds there at the end, this looks pretty great to me

It's crazy how its all come on over the decades you now have a small keyboard that allows sound manipulation in endless ways and the ability to create music right there with it, also people may say these types of keyboard are toys but toys are fun and that's what music is meant to and always should be so sod all the miserable snobs :P great job Roland. Can never go wrong with Roland really.

Honestly, they could have left off the analog portion and this would still be an incredible synth for the price. Everything exciting on this comes from the modeling, the drums and the sequencer.

This looks like a great synth. So many possibilities. Just bought a second hand model and can't wait for it to arrive.Perfect for my up and go lifestyle.Great vid again. Thanks

Thanks for the great review Nick, I just bought one on the strength of it. I too still have a D-110 in the loft.

Great review nick. I have tons of more powerful gadgets but still now want one of these. So your job is well done!

Good price! Good features & sounds! I can control it from another synthesizer if the smaller keys bother me... Can't wait until the end of April here in the USA! But the Roland JD-XA looks like a true monster on the horizon!

Nick you are a mighty fine electronic musician - Love the tracks you make at the end of reviews. You should make a album of it all release it.

Pretty impressive for the price.. It seems like this is a great ambience / pad machine to complement an analog / monosynth for leads & basses. The sequencer alone is a huge win.

I midi mine through the JDXA. You then forget the toy like looks and appreciate how good it really sounds. The drums are fantastic.

Just got it and I love it

real honesty and review rarely coincide. real thorough mister

id never sell mine. its sequencer is excellent and great for sequencing other gear. this synth help rocket my music production into another dimension tbh. the super natural engine is fine by me and there are beats galore to choose from. top affordable synth

Excellent review of a very promising synth.

The last loop at the end was delicious

Nick thanks for reminding that digital is legitimate synthesis and quite capable of its own synthy warmth and character. Let's not do to digital in the 2010's what we did to analog in the 1990's. Anyway, nice review of a really cool product. Not for everyone obviously, but, as you pointed out, of this had been my first synth, I'd have been in heaven. Still have my 106 I got in 1985, and it's great, but it sure ain't this.

Shift also works with the Cursor up/down buttons to skip through the categories of parameters (OSC, filter etc.) instead of single parameters.

awesome overview

Up vote if you want to see a jam session by Nick!

And three years later we all learn that this keyboards menu diving is extremely simple. IT comes with different face pads and you can tune the master frequency not to mention it comes with all the famous drum kits that are fully customizable. the synth is phenomenal. Call me crazy I don't care. This is the best synth on the planet for the money. When paired with a good daw it's true potential is unlocked and you can find yourself expanding very quickly.

I found some really good Rhodes patches. I love this thing.

Just got mine for US$375. After messing about with it for hours I can only say I wish it had a jog wheel to scroll faster. Sounds wonderful and it's loads of fun. Good Job Roland.

The manual says it can work as an usb interface. Can it output sound from the computer to the jacks?

Update, I bought one and I love it! I've owned a Virus, Nord, Pro One AN1X, Novation and more and this thing is just so much fun. I've been making some synthwaveish 80's type tracks and it totally shines for that.

Good review

Thanks! Great Review:)

Love my JD-Xi 👍❤️

No Shuffle was the straw for me, but I kept it Roland and picked up a System 1 that has been a pleasure to work with. It's not fashionably analog but sounds great, has two oscillators, external controls, a pitch envelope and a creamy sounding cutoff filter.

i bought this last week, you are all right, its plastic, keys are small, analog sound and filter are not mopho or moog like, and the corpus is not solid, i wanted to give it back, but i don't becaz for me as a beginner this thing has a bit of everything and realy easy to produce a song. my doughter said you got finally somthg which makes music:) so dont expect much.

Damn Mr. Batt! Drum Skills @ 13:47 ...right on :] ...thanks for all your reviews!

Sounds great 👍

Hey Nick- thanks for the really nice review. I have this synth already and I definitely miss a sustain pedal. I use it as a second synth to my stage piano and sometimes its impossible to handle two keyboards if a sustain pedal is missing. And like you mentioned a sound editor software would be very good as well. Anyway good job with your review ; )

Good job again Nick. Snuck in the Access T shirt as well...lol

I have that synth, at first i was a little puzzled whether i liked it or not but after jamming with it and testing its midi connectivity, it is quite actually a very useful machine. the sounds can be modded to death (even the drums pcm) and the sequencer is quite nice and responsive (i even use it as master with other synths and it works fine), large keyboard velocity. The digital sound engine is NOTHING to bitch about because it sounds phat. It has its limitations, like any synth but for that price, c'mon... i love it.

As a songwriter I think this would be really great. I always record my synths to audio parts in my DAW so the amount of parts isn't a worry for me. Anyhow, it's pretty cool if you ask me.

Brilliant Hoover and pad sounds Playable synth Good fun Cheap Gratifying

hahaha so perfect that your face showed up in reflection off the jdxi during the vocoder test

Best synthesizer keyboard till now is Roland JD 800

the shuffle/swing function. press enter and then use depth for the amount of shuffle you want

These jams. Good call.

You have 16 banks times 16 patterns that you can chain together. I can prepare my patterns and then store them as Favorites. Not Perfect but not Bad either. Marc

Great Review BTW!!!!! Love sonic State to death now...

Roland should really think about a midrange version of this technology that sits between the jdxi and jdxa. It should have the majority of the supernatural sounds from the integra 7, in particular much better pianos, keyboard and pad sounds. Also the analogue engine should be more powerful and at least in the sh101/juno ballpark. Could also do with having the Tr8, Tb3 and other Aira sounds that could all be passed through analogue filters with better built in effects. All in a small 3 octave keyboard but with full sized keys or even better a desktop module format. I'd buy that in an instant especially if it could load the Boutique synths!

Thinking of getting this, just to replace my TR-8, filtered and stacked drums and 32 kits...instead of the measly 2 kits on the TR-8 as standard.

Wow - a very capable little synth indeed! Might be interested in a used one as a sketch pad in the future. The kit layering sounded very cool Nick! I wonder if you could use the audio input thru the FX section? Add class compliant (midi at least) drivers and an (iOS) editor & it could be a nice portable rig with an iPad! Very interesting!

What a review !

can we use that external input while we play the synth ? ?

How do I apply glide to analog sounds in the step sequencer like a tb303? Any help would be appreciated

Fantastic instrument. Last OS update added some valuable functionality, like transpose and chord mode. Would be even better with odd meter capability (last step function like on the system8) and song mode. Let's hope for another OS update!

a comprehensive review. But i would have like to have heard one of those guitars behind u plugged in to the guitar jack at the back

Can you save sounds or switch from sound to sound quickly during live performance? Can you make like a set list or something?

Hi, thanks for this great and deep review. I just have one question regarding live performance, is it possible to chain different programs in real time so as to be able to use those programs like patterns in a playlist? So as not to be stuck with just 4 bars of looping and be able to change chord progression and baselines all at the same time. Thanks!

Nick, thank you for the great review. I hope to use this soon with my Jupiter 50 as the sound module (the Jupiter) with its own three parts while layering over it backing track style grooves that can be changed on the fly while playing improvisations live. I hope the xi can do this well like my Yamaha QY10 does with it sometimes but better being that it can be played in realtime. I use the QY10 sometimes because it does not change MIDI info in my Jupiter like my other QY100 when running live. I miss the Juno D Le I once had because it responded better to my QY10 better than all my other synths. I hope to be able to recreate if not improve upon the way I made music with the Juno (also a Juno Di I also had could not do this as well (I also liked the sounds better in the LE)). Normally I play daily for RU-vid a little 20 minute jam in a longer improvised way, a little change each day in my styles and playing. Sonicstate has been useful to other listeners and myself by its abilities to keep up with new exciting technologies. I would like to see more playing on these reviews too, but I understand the time limitations. I also appreciate what you said about the snobbery of the analog purists. Digital has got us through some good times, and no doubt can sound good if the music is good from the beginning. I honestly do not understand what is so great about analog purity. I think the desire for purity in anything is a kind of sickness since we are all of us dirty individuals as Sigmund Freud used to explain. Thanks again, Billy McBride!

Nice Review, Nick! It reminded me the AKAI MINIAK/ALESIS MICRON with a Much Better Interface and sort of Easier way of Sketching! It's a Shame it doesn't have full Size Keys, but I'd love to have One. Or Maybe the JD-XA, depending on the Price!

Thank you very much for all your amazing reviews, What other synths would you recommend me who have this PART SELECT option available. I am having so much and really like how I can switch the drum sets so quickly. Any tips are appreciated, thank you!

Nice review - can you switch patches without hiccups while the sequencer is running ?

How does this compare to the Gaia?

Very good presentation! What drum kit you used in 22:15 ?

correction for 1:05: SuperNatural is not in the Fantom Xa. It's in the FA-06/08.

Thanks for the review Nick. I'm surprised that you made no comparisons to similarly priced (and vaguely similarly featured) synths like the Ultranova. Any views anyone? Also I assume the polyphony is only not available on the analog part. Is this correct?

Your the GOAT my man 🙏✊👊💪

Nice demo, i wanna buy one, what do you think about drum kit? Are they a good emulation of classics tr sound?

Hi Nick - i found this little intro , to one of my .... more "Stale"(unused ) synth´s - really a shame , cause it sound really decent ... IN YOURE HANDS ! Now , how is it , that every unit you as much as LOOK at , sounds so goddam fine ????? (its not envy , its a fact ! ) Cheers, Old Geezer , and thanx again , you simply rock ! ;-D

Can you run external audio through the analog filter?

Used mine in a live setting for the first time the other night. He's completely right about the red writing on the black faceplate... pretty much impossible to see. I was familiar enough with the unit that I didn't need to see exactly which button was for "arpeggiator" and which for "hold hey", or which knob is which, etc, but I would've been lost if I needed to.

Hi, I can't seem to get my settings to save "per key" as you mention during the drum and effects part of the video. Whenever I switch between synth 1 and 2 or between drum sounds within a kit, the effects i set (ring mod, fuzz, etc...) seem to stay the same for all sounds. Jd xi will save on/off status it seems but if the effects are enabled, they remain in whichever setting for all sounds. Is there a setting I need to be in to enable the "per key" setting? Also, is there a way to isolate the click to send to a drummer via the click out so it's not coming through to the PA or amp? Thanks, I'm loving this thing, but it's new to me and can't find much about these subtle settings anywhere. Great video!

VERY GOOD MUY BIEN ANIMO CON ALEGRIAS...

Drum part editing it's actually really interesting... It's a shame that apparently there isn't a knob to edit the parameters value in the menu but only buttons...

My band is looking for a keyboard/synth to compliment the Microkorg we already have. Something with more piano/synth pad sounds. Something with less lead synth sounds since the micro korg covers that area. The jdxi has a lot of great sounds, but we don't necessarily need the drum machine/lead synth sounds. Any recommendations?

Wow...i actually would consider one of these. Lots of possibilities of sounds. Does it have midi in and out? Not usb midi.

I love my JDXI but I'm fed up with the mini keys now. Don't know whether to midi it to a cheapo full size keyboard just replace it with something similar. Don't wanna spend shit loads or loose the pattern sequencer buttons. Any thoughts?

For the price, not too shabby! If it looked good it could instantly steal the mini keyboard crown from the MikroKORG XL.

Ulala ordered one last week

How does JD-XI compare to Novation Mininova with regards to sound design capabilities and real-time control over its process (user interface) ? Thanks a lot !

with the sequenceur is it possible to ...overdub ? recording over a recording without erasing ? if yes that s mean 4 track can go 8 tracks ?

The jd-xa sounds good and looks fun, but the xi's sound is much better, it carries a raw punch, i love it.

Hello, I am looking for a machine to make beats and will work with programs like garageband. which machines do you recommend?

what kind of cabling do you use for your 1/4 ? Is that coax ?

Awesome vid. I'm a synth novice, but that drum looping feature seems like a strong selling point. Do any other synths in this price range (or lower) have this feature? Can it loop chord sequences too?

Sounds pretty cool! Shame it kinda hurts my eyes to look at. Also I'm pretty much done buying synths with mini keys, I've always ended up selling the mini key synths I bought.

Really like the look of this but I can't help thinking that it should have been released as a kind of workstation keyboard for the AIRA range. The demos I've seen also make this sound like it's come right out of the early nineties as opposed to the very current sound of the AIRA gear. Still looks very cool though.

it's the Groovesynth revisited...a Roland alpha-microkorg-o-novalogue

That resonance peak at around 5:30 is literally killing me. Cool sounds though.

I don't care what the stupid purists think.. This is a really cool synth. Loving the simple sequencer!

Wish the keys were 2 cm's longer and 5 mm's wider. Would you classify this as a rompler with effects ?

I'm very new to all this, I see that there isn't a sine oscilator on this synth. Does that mean you can't start building a sound off a sine wave?

I gotta buy one asap.

I'll say it again....This guy knows his stuff...

How do I get this to work with cubase? additional sound filters (+arpeggio) don't work, and it plays wrong sounds (like guitar is piano, and brass is is flute, and drum is FX)

Which is better, gaia or jdxi?????

You got skillz