Roland's greatest synth?

[Max Websta]

Let's see, I've a Juno 60, V-synth and Jupiter 8. I still have the Jupiter 8!

[Scories]

I never had a sh-5, but from all the Roland synths, that's the one I'd like to get the most.

[balma]

V-Synth.

[Phenom]

Ok, so had a think about this today and this is my top 10 of their synths that I've used, if it was about gear rather than synths I would have definitely have included the 808, 909 and Space Echo as well...

1. JD 800
2. Juno 60
3. SH2
4. Jupiter 6
5. JX10
6. TB 303
7. D50
8. SH101
9. JV1080
10. Alpha Juno

and Psy Free, I actually have a bit of a soft spot for the U20, tho haven't played one since the 90's, so my memory might be a little hazy...

[Phenom]

though like I said, never spent any time with a Jupiter 8...

or an SH5, or a JD990, or any of the modulars, or a Jupe 4, or an MKS80, and I've only spun through the presets on a V-synth, so I'm probably missing a good half dozen of Roland's best..

[griffin avid]

"JD-800

A space ship, man!"

[themilford]

Funny, I though this was the Vintage Synth Explorer forum...

[balma]

I´ve always have wanted a JD 800. I know it was used a lot in Songs of Faith and Devotion, and around 15 years a go watched a documental with Martin Gore using it on a studio and explaining some stuff about it. It was really inspiring for me when I was starting to compose music.

[CS_TBL]

I bought my JD800 purely for being Close Encounters.. Oh, and I liked the ROM play.

Well, I've actually used it for quite a bit, before I bought my 88-key master keyboard it used to be my main keyboard. But it's been resting to a wall for over half a decade now.

You know what I'd want? Very much so? A VST JV or XV. And in a way you could say that things like Halion and Kontakt are already that, but that's not entirely true. I want to construct 'Wave ROM' which is always there when I open up such an instance, which I can always browse through, which is basically as easy to use as in the Roland S+S models. Dunno if there's something like that already..

[Phenom]

I remember as a schoolkid going to a Roland demo held at a local hotel where they were demonstrating the JD800, JV80 and JV30, and gear of that era. Conspicuous by it's absence was the D70, I think by 1992 even Roland had given up on that.

I remember the demonstrator trying to convince the crowd that although looking at the JD800 you would think you would need a pilot's licence, it was by far the simplest yet deepest synth on the market. Knowing next to nothing about synths I was unconvinced, and even though I was youngest guy in the room, the audience did too, and would have clearly rather been a Korg demo listening to 01/ws.

Perhaps I was a victim of getting into synths in the wrong era, the M1, D50 and DX7 ruled all, took me years to figure out that knobs and sliders = FUN!

[wiss]

Roland Paraphonic

[Sweep]

V-Synth for me, too (XT in my case). It's the best synth I've ever played (so for me it beats the Moog Voyager, VCS3 and a few others).

The sampling really opens it up, and there's something about what it does to a sound that's basically magic. Works well as a signal processor as well, for that reason.

[synthparts]

I have all the Jupiters and they are all great. The Jupiter-6 is my favorite.

[shaft9000]

'great' can be expressed quantitatively AND qualitatively

so therefore the D-50, Juno 60/106 and MC-303 are their greatest synths in quantity
and while i have not tried every Roland, of the ones I have tried it would be tough to top the JP-8's overall quality; particularly in a 30+yr old VCO polysynth. it's built to be played on the battlefield if need be...

[Z]

As I've said many times here, the JD-800 is usually the first synth I start messing with in my rig. I have also said the that the Jupiter 6 is my favorite analog poly.

As far as Roland's "greatest synth", it's really hard to pin that title on a single synth, because Roland has made a lot of great synths, but each of those synths is unique.

SH-5 definately wins the analog mono title.
Jupiter 8 for analog poly (though it'd be the ultimate analog poly if it had a multi-band filter)
JD-800 / 990 for digital poly
Fantom X or G for workstation

The U-20 has a soft spot in my heart, too. I owned one in the late 80s/early 90s and got a lot of miles out of it.