Here we are! Once again Roland surpasses itself and, within a couple of months, announces the release of a new synth from the Boutique series and releases a new synthesizer for the hardware platform only Fantom: n / zyme based on wavetables.
In my opinion, this is a big event because, in living memory, Roland had never tried his hand at this particular synthesis.
A little bit of history
The other small but big surprise concerns the latest synthesizer of the Boutique series: the JD-08 remake of the historic synth Roland JD-800. What are we talking about? Of a completely digital synth, a 15kg weight beast studded with sliders and controls produced over the years since 1991-1993 with 24 voices of polyphony, A kind of D-50 with all the panel controls (even the D-50 used partially sampled waveforms). The main difference with the D-50 is that in the JD-800 the sound is generated through samples placed in loop, the D-50 instead uses only the attack of the sampled sound and then continues with a synthesized sound (even if there are some waveform with loop but these are mainly effects).
Epilogue of the story: the JD-800 (but also other Roland based on the similar keybed) had a known problem called "red glue", practically the small weights applied under the keyboard keys were glued with a glue that over time tended to melt and run into the internal part of the synth with all the problems that this could cause, first of all the malfunction of the contacts under the keys. Another problem encountered was the dust that would damage the random sliders of the panel over time with the result that the values began to move by themselves or in jerks using the sliders. In this period, the original instrument has reached disproportionate prices, in my opinion: it starts from 800 euros for specimens with a non-functioning keyboard up to almost 3.000 euros for perfect specimens.
The synthesis structure was quite innovative for the time, as its almost predecessor D-50 used 4 layers for each patch (64 without using the expansion card) but in this case the sound generator was based only on samples contained in ROM well 108 samples in 4MB… In addition to the Single mode there was the Multi mode where the JD-800 could play 5 different patches plus a part called Special Part where each key could have assigned a different sample. At this point I would begin to define the substantial differences between the original model and the new boutique.
Details
As for the single patch, both use 4 layers / tones and therefore 4 completely independent synths (apart from the effects). If in the previous model the polyphony was 24 voices shared between 4 layers (therefore, depending on the number of layers used it was 24-12-8-4) in the current model, also considering the computing power of the chips increased over the years , the total polyphony reaches 128 voices which become 64-42-32 based on the number of active layers in the patch. The number of parts of the new model drops to 2 by purchasing a step sequencer (64 steps for the 2 sequenceable parts) and an arpeggiator.
I won't go too far in listing the differences between the panel controls, but the most evident is in the envelope section, separate for the original model and instead in common for pitch, amplifier (TVA) and filter (TVF) in the Boutique reissue. The LFO section also has common controls for the two low frequency oscillators where in the original they were completely independent. Choices dictated, obviously, both to limit the price and to allow the many controls of the original to be placed in the "Boutiquesco" form factor.
I know what you are wondering: “with all those controls so close together, is it easy to edit the sounds, move the sliders to reach the desired value?”. Oddly enough, the answer is yes! At first I was also skeptical, but then I had to change my mind: we are talking about sliders that have an excursion of 1 cm for almost all except for the 4 located in the PALETTE section (TONE A, TONE B, TONE C, TONE D ), where the excursion becomes 2 cm, so miracles cannot be expected, however I appreciated the work done by Roland to make it as easy as possible to edit the parameters using these lilliput-sliders.
Why do the controls work quite well despite being very small? I have given myself a couple of answers: first of all the JD-800 did not have a high resolution / parameter excursion like modern synths, we are talking about values ranging from 0 to 100 or from -50 to 50; secondly, the 4 longer sliders in the PALETTE section act as extra controls, using them you will modify the last parameter edited by the small sliders, this independently for the 4 TONES. However, using both types of sliders you can get the desired value without too much effort.
Back panel
On the back we find all the connections (now standard for the boutique series they use - we have to figure it out - mini jack) from left to right the power switch, the USB-C connector which in addition to powering the synth offers data transmission bidirectional midi and the audio generated by our little guy, the volume control (a little awkward), the three mini jacks for headphones, the main audio output and an input to mix any signal from another instrument, there are two standard MIDI / OUTPUT connectors and this can only please us.
What I liked
Just start playing the first presets to be catapulted into the middle of the 90s in a truly violent way! It's amazing how big the little guy sounds. The sound is very well defined for the entire range of the keyboard, obviously we talk about using it with an external master to make the most of it, even if if necessary the buttons at the bottom can act as a mini keyboard (there is also a mini speaker internal to play it wherever you want because it is also powered by batteries). In short, the revival effect is guaranteed. The construction is really good, the sliders are of quality and give a feeling of robustness when maneuvered.
What I liked least
I would have added the catch mode for the sliders so as not to change the parameter immediately, but to wait for the cursor to physically “hook” the stored parameter to start changing it. An alphanumeric display: displaying the name of the historical waveforms would have been beautiful as well as useful for displaying the (quite a few) parameters not present on the panel such as those of the effects.
Conclusions
With an introductory price of 399 euros I would say that we are facing one of the most attractive Roland Boutiques (in my opinion) together with the JI-06 and to the very underrated SE-02 (analog).
Note: I thank CasaMusicalFabio for making the TEST tool available to me.
Robert Honey
Useful Information
Product: Roland JD08
Italian distributor: Roland Italy
Price Euro: € 399
