Sounds made easy : SR-JV80-04 and 08

[LucB]

Hey everybody,

Finally got my hands on a Roland XP-50 and two expansion boards : Vintage Synth and Classic keys of the 60's and 70's.

While the interface is puzzling me write now (i don't care so much since i won't be using most of the functions for now), i got to say that yesterday's first try really impressed me. I do run it through my vintage Traynor YGL-3a Mark III and Fender 4x12 and 2x15 for extra power and tone, but i can't believe the quality of certain emulations on there. I would be a liar if i said they're all spot on, but quite a few presets on the classic keys xpboard were very reminiscent of the real thing!

What do you guys think of these boards?
Are there major differences in their output depending on which (compatible, obviously) synth you put them in?

[D-Collector]

The vintage board is said to sound better with the JD-990, because it has a set of patches programmed especially for the JDs specs. Other synths like the Super JV-1080 / XP-50 are compatible, but the dedicated patches for those are not so well programmed and do not take advantage of the JV/XPs newer specs. However, I was looking into this very issue after I got my 1080 and found that this has indeed been adressed. Stephane Pigeon, who has done a lot of banks for Roland synths, did make an updated version of the two vintage banks for the JV/XP series. As far as I know they were also distributed by Li'l Chips Systems. I tell you they are much better!

http://www.stephanepigeon.com/1080.php

Files SYN_01.MID and SYN_02.MID require the SR-JV80-04 Vintage Synth expansion. Since SR-JV80-04 was introduced before the JV-1080, they feature patches updated for the new synthesis and effects capabilities of the newer JV, XP, and XV-series.

I can mail you the banks in .syx format if you like. Not sure about the other board though.

[Yoozer]

They're basically the most coveted. I've got them both. Though the Vintage Synth expansion has some cheese in it, the Rhodes sounds on the Kot60/70 were the ones to go for - and still are - until NI finally releases the Scarbee Rhodes set, or I get a Nord or a more modern rompler or something.

[braincandy]

The Vintage expansion does sound good on the JD-990 and oddly enough, it sounds better on it than I remember it sounding on the XPs I used to have. My favorites from it are the Mellotron patches, JP & OB pads, and sine electric piano. Where they failed the most were in the D-50, JX, & Juno emulations.

[Syn303]

The Mellotron patches from keys of the 60's & 70's are not very great, sounds like the Mellotron they sampled from had motor problems, as the waveforms sound distorted with lots of wow and flutter and are extremely muddy in quality.

[LesDeuxLoveOrchestra]

to use these files in a 1080 does the vintage card need to seat in a particular expansion slot?

[braincandy]

No, any should do. That was my experience with both of the XPs I had and they had multiple expansion slots.

[LesDeuxLoveOrchestra]

having trouble getting these files to load into my 1080. all my connections are good, i can send and receive sysex files no prob, but when i fire these files through, the 1080 shows midi coming in, but the sysex seems to be ignored. if i then run one of my other dumps, it loads fine. what am i overlooking?

kind regards

[Dano]

Where they failed the most were in the D-50, JX, & Juno emulations.

I thought the same thing about the D-50 preset patches on the JV-1080/JV-1010 sounding better than they did on the earlier Vintage Synths expansion card. Having said that, I think the Roland Vintage Synths card is a good expansion card to have. Surprisingly, I thought there were some nice digital synth sounds on the card too. There are some wave sequence sounds that I liked.

I've never had the Vintage Keys expansion but I have heard only good things about it for years.

[D-Collector]

having trouble getting these files to load into my 1080. all my connections are good, i can send and receive sysex files no prob, but when i fire these files through, the 1080 shows midi coming in, but the sysex seems to be ignored. if i then run one of my other dumps, it loads fine. what am i overlooking?

kind regards

I had trouble getting anything into my JV, until I found this program:

http://www.mossgrabers.de/Software/Chan ... ngeIt.html

It worked for me right away and it is a good librarian too. Check it out.

[gd]

these 2 cards are the reason I have 2 JD 990's. Now that I've been given a Fantom X6 I will have to find a way to transfer all the sounds from these 2 cards and the JP8080 to it to cut down on some gear - I need easy suggestions pls.as I'd like to minimize my rig.

[braincandy]

these 2 cards are the reason I have 2 JD 990's. Now that I've been given a Fantom X6 I will have to find a way to transfer all the sounds from these 2 cards and the JP8080 to it to cut down on some gear - I need easy suggestions pls.as I'd like to minimize my rig.

I don't know of any "easy" suggestions. Unless you want to sample those sounds into your Fantom, your best bet might be to purchase a couple of SRX expansion boards, although they're not inexpensive.

[Syn303]

these 2 cards are the reason I have 2 JD 990's. Now that I've been given a Fantom X6 I will have to find a way to transfer all the sounds from these 2 cards and the JP8080 to it to cut down on some gear - I need easy suggestions pls.as I'd like to minimize my rig.

I don't know of any "easy" suggestions. Unless you want to sample those sounds into your Fantom, your best bet might be to purchase a couple of SRX expansion boards, although they're not inexpensive.

There is no easy solution, but you could join the Roland Clan forum and ask for advice there or get ready to buy a big pad of paper and note all your user patches down by hand (i mean everything has to be noted down).

SRX-07: Ultimate Keys contains all the waveforms of both these cards, but there are a lot of changes to the patches and re-positioning of the waveforms on that SRX board.

[LesDeuxLoveOrchestra]

not crazy about the way they name the patches things like "Prophet Strings" or whatever and when you see the design of the patches they are using what they say are OBX waveforms and the like. Makes one doubt the truth of any of the names or patches. What did they actually sample?

[braincandy]

I'm not sure about exactly what was sampled, but here's a list of the waveforms on the Vintage expansion:

http://www.synthman.com/cgibin/x.cgi/ro ... NTAGEW.pdf

If that link doesn't get you to the right PDF, scroll down on this page and use those links:

http://www.synthman.com/roland/support/ ... index.html