Good digital for good strings?

[THEODICY]

My studiomate is looking for something to replace his Roland XP-80. He recently sold it to fund another purchase but now needs a substitute for some good orchestral strings and such. He probably doesn't want to spend an arm and a leg for anything so digital vintage will do, it just has to sound better or at least as good as the XP-80. Think a Roland JD990 will suffice?

[krzeppa]

I think that the JD-990 would work just fine. In general, I think that Roland makes the best and most realisitic sounding strings. Others may disagree with me, but that is my opinion. I peronally love the strings on Fantom (I have the old original FA-76 version). The strings are about the only thing that keep me from getting rid of it because I just can't seem to achieve that sound on anything else I have.

[aeon]

...digital vintage will do...think a Roland JD990 will suffice?

Suffice? Yea - excel, even!


cheers,
Ian

[rhino]

If you can find one, the Kurzweil 1000-series string expander module should go for cheap.

[Zarith]

If you want realistic string/orchestra sounds I wouldn't recommend the JD990. The samples are too short and with audible loops. The other issue is that they were not stored "clean", they include a nasty reverb and filtering.

It might be better to get something more recent (2000 and beyond). Anything from Korg, Yamaha or Roland will do.

The modern Roland Juno D, for example, has very good string/orchestra sounds. You can find it for less than $300 used.

[Fatbenelton]

Korg Z1 -modelling so no sample hassles like short loops etc.....sounds fab too