Roland JD-XI. Identities violated.Roland JD-XI. Quebrantando identidades.

Do you remember the legendary cookware advertisements of the late 18s? The generous hammering on the 10/XNUMX steel backdrops, the combative screams of the presenter on duty, and the amazing offers made to those who first dialed the number on the telephone disc. What times, maybe that's where I understood the true commercial power of the Combo, and that is how it was possible to create indispensable offers, composing lots of the most disparate materials, such as pots, tablecloths, ceramics and sheets.

Perhaps Rorando Kabushiki Kaisha (aka Roland) will have been inspired by that trend, by some mythical “Midiri” commercial, which brought to your home abnormal quantities of goods at a small price, quantities that were limited only by the physical cargo space of the van. And here you are, in Roberto Artigiani style, a synth from one hundred twenty-nine voices, I say one hundred twenty-nine, with drum machine incorporated, microphone Quality Gooseneck, encased in a refined chassis with elegant mini keyboard three octaves and reddish 2 × 16 display.

After all, the transition from cookware to synthesizers is short, because even the hammer on the bottom of the saucepan involves a vibration of an oscillating body, a vibration that is thus perceived by our eardrums, what changes are only the details, specifically a wave a pot tooth instead of a square or a saw tooth.
I already feel in you readers a first mistrust; “Now this still speaks to us of VA, of the usual emulated sound with a sound thickness equal to a first generation Kraft slice! "
But no! Siuri and siore, right in these times when the hybrid is in fashion, Roland, perhaps to fight the crisis, or maybe just for the sake of a level playing field, brings us home a real half-blood machine ", half a pot and a half ..., that is, no sorry, half analog and a half digital, the GiddìIcs.

Chapter one (the analog soul)

Who has never had a real identity crisis? the Roland toy car was born with this ancestral question: “Who am I, what do I do and above all how do I do it?”.
If you thought i Crossovers were only cars or sound system filters, you were wrong, and the toy with a rhomboid look is proof of this. An analog heart and a digital heart, a machine made bipolar syndrome. But now let's put irony and jokes aside and begin to detail their characteristics. The analog heart consists of a monophonic oscillator with 3 waveforms (square, saw, triangular), a sub-oscillator, which can be set one or two octaves below, a knob for variable pulse width modulation, and a analog filter low-pass 24dB four-pole.

It is only through the menu panel that you can access the other classic functions, such as: portamento, legato, LFO tempo sync, pitch-bend range, filter; amplitude key follow, and depth pulse width modulation. L'ADSR complete is not visible, and for a more thorough editing we will be forced to treasure hunt in a small display with a vintage flavor. THE 64 The machine's default presets amply illustrate what can be done with the analog mono part, both in terms of lead, excruciating and seductive than rubbery, soft or full-bodied bass.

Filters e resonance they do not disappoint, and it is easy to obtain sinusoidal sounds from the oscillation of the former. Wanting to be picky, I notice that the sonorous pasta always remains a bit "polite", so forget the "dirt" and aggressiveness of a SH101; this is not meant to be a demerit note, but only a clarification of the case, each instrument has its soul and it is not easy to unseat machines that have imprinted their personality in our brains for decades. I must admit that Roland did a satisfying job with the sounds that accompany the machine, which did not happen with his big brother. JD-XA, which in my opinion deserved a preset kit that would do it more justice.

Chapter two (Give me some rhythm baby)

I am completely thrilled with the section Drumkits, I think it could not be done better than this. 33 kit drum kits based on the champions that comprise the glorious series TR, CR, sonority acoustic, House, EDM ed Hip-Hop. Each Kit extends over 26 tones. There are two wonderful things worthy of evidence, the first is that it is possible to build your own custom kit based on ben 453 resident samples, the second is that each sound in the kit has a completely independent regulation, the filters and amp envelope controls are designed for a single note, meaning you can edit on each individual key. In my humble opinion this section can abundantly compete with dedicated machines such as the TR-8.

Chapter Three (A little digital never hurts)

Two digital synths, which exploit the powerful engine "Supernatural", Which became famous for the adaptive response of"intelligent articulation”To the way you play the instrument. The two digital synths can strip away 128 voices of the instrument. Each of the two Synths can exploit three different layers, that is three distinct layers of the sample collection 160 CFM made available by Roland. You will quickly realize that the ability to pair three distinct layers for each digital synth part guarantees a wide variety of nuances, making your tonal palette always up to any task.
The samples made available by Roland are well selected, pianos, guitars, organs, violins, winds, analogue emulations, one-shot sounds and effects. Remarkable emulations of the series JP, the epics Thongs and no less mythical Polyphonic Brass, the acoustic piano emulation is less successful, which ultimately ends in a single sample. Belli i path and all the sounds of "atmosphere", fascinating leads and deep bass sounds; even the electric hobs defend themselves well, displaying a very particular charm. Here, too, for the digital part we have dedicated filters, lowpass, highpass, bandpass, and peaking with resonance. The filters, even if digital, retain a fantastic vintage aroma. Each digital part has its own envelope generator with two knobs on the front panel, for the other controls you will need to access the Lilliputian menu. I really liked the feature of the Sync time, which makes it very easy to get delicious “swings” by turning the LFO rate knob.

Chapter Four (Sequencer, Joys and Sorrows)

I think now the big one R is conducting a completely personal battle against "Song mode", that is the possibility of editing the number of repetitions of the patterns over a period of time, proof of this is the fact that this functionality is not offered either with the older brother (JD-XA) nor with the lucky one AIRA TR-8. Maybe Roland wants to keep our brain faculties in training, imposing on us the pressure of the right button at the right time in the execution of a performance, or it is a new anti-sleep strategy, aimed at maintaining our full lucidity even in the evenings when the tedium reigns supreme.
You can then create your own patterns using the 4 tracks available, but you will not be able to organize them in a song mode, the only valid alternative is to use the "favorites" strategy, that is to place the patterns in an order of preference on the sixteen square buttons on the front panel, also in this case however, you will not be exempt from pressing the right button at the right time. The problem can then only be solved by using yours DAW; with programs such as Ableton or other favorite sequencing software, you can create loop and sequencing them, taking the satisfaction of making yours understand JD-XI who is in charge. The maximum measure limit of a pattern is 4, if you need more measures, you will have to use another artifice, halve the time and change the “setting scale”, bringing it to a thirty-second; The copying system is also cumbersome and it is often more convenient to save the same modified pattern by changing its name. It is possible to record in real time with the help of a convenient metronome, and it is possible to record step by step, using the luminous functionality of the sixteen buttons on the panel, the key for the instrument will be turned on or off depending on whether that instrument should play or not at that step.
The Sequencer also provides the possibility to change the rhythmic value of the notes of each step, it is possible in the scale modification section, to select eighth note triplets, sixteenth notes or fourteenth notes.

Chapter five (harp me but satiate me with kisses, show the effect you have on me)

128 arpeggio styles, editable grids from 1/4 a 1/24, editing the duration of each note of the arpeggio, 12 different ways of playing the notes within the selected style (Up, down, random, etc…), velocity, octave range and accent, make the little one a powerful trench weapon, you will be the undisputed protagonist in your Rave party.
We come to the effects. Quattro simultaneous effects, two insert and two send. Stop, I said 4 simultaneous effects, not 4 effects. This means that you will have: Bit crusher, Compressors, Distorsors, Fuzzers, Flanger, Phaser, Slicer and Ring Mod. In my opinion the really beautiful ones are the Reverbs and Delay, it is evident that Roland has chosen these algorithms with particular care, they sound good, are clean and give a pleasant feeling of non-artificial spatiality.
The four buses are structured as follows:
Effect 1 (distortion, fuzz, compressor, bit-crusher).
Effect 2 (flanger, phaser, ring modulator, or slicer), Delay, and Reverb.
It is possible to bypass each effect independently for each part. The delay it can be synchronized to numerous beat divisions or it can be "unhooked" and made free up to a tempo of 2600 milliseconds.

 
Chapter six (the Vocoder, sings as he passes us)

Funny! The Gooseneck microphone is included in the price, the vocoder is easy to use, and there are ready-made presets for your Daftpunkian performances. The functionality is also fun Auto notes, with this function activated, the synth detects the notes we are singing into the microphone and automatically plays them, luxury stuff! It is also possible to use the vocoder engine by inserting a guitar or other external instrument, obviously the content will not be sequenceable, we are not dealing with a sampler. Finally I have bad news and good news for you, the bad one is that it is not possible to use the vocoder together with the analog synth track, this will inevitably be sacrificed since the vocoder uses the analog section as carrier signal; the good news is that the vocoder can easily “play” chords with your voice, even if the analog section is designed to be monophonic.

Chapter XNUMX (the inevitable conclusions)

Let's sum it up. The analog part has charm, and has all its little things in place for the deserved coat of arms, but I certainly wouldn't buy the JD-XI to have an analog monophonic synthesizer, in my opinion it sounds "honest", without infamy and without details praise. It has never disappointed me during its use, but if you are an analog purist we can say that there is better in the "mono-oscillation of subtractive syntheses". The digital part is fantastic, the Supernatural technology is mature, and in a very short space you will have the fruits of the research that Roland has been conducting on this project for years, the machine is unsurpassed for the realization of soundscapes and Texture, the computing power is sufficient to generate complex and sumptuous sounds. The part dedicated to the Drumkits is divine, 88 crate samples, 73 snare drum samples, others 238 samples including tom, traditional percussion, ethnic, one shots, fx and coutillons, represent a kit that would make anyone's mouth water. I would completely review the pattern copy functions and implement the song mode, which is missing here like bread. Fortunately, the latest update implemented theinteractive chords, perhaps Roland has noticed that every now and then we play the instruments and we don't just look at them, with this function in fact the playback of the pattern changes according to the chords we feed to the keyboard. With the latest update a transpose more complete and a functionality of Side Chain Compression, for more details you can download the additional manual of the operating system 1.50.

Chapter Seven (The summary report, sooner or later everyone will be judged)

PRO

* Powerful Swiss Army Knife for your productions
* Large amount of well-made sounds
* The hybrid works
* Excellent drumkits

AGAINST

* I would like to know who has silk-screened the red lettering on the car body
* Pitch and Mod wheels too small and stiff, a knurling would have helped
* Lack of an Alpha Dial knob for quick parameter editing
* No song mode, no party

USEFUL NEWS

Model: JD-XI
Recommended retail price : € 550,00 including VAT.
Italian distributor: roland.it
Official website: roland.com

AUDIO DEMO

On the net it is possible to find many demos of the Roland JD-XI, created according to the canons of acoustic perfection.
From the point of view of the Swiss army knife, I propose instead a recording made in a "free range", by connecting the outputs of the instrument directly to the input of my iPhone with the help of a cable purchased on Amazon for a few euros.
This is a compilation of some hits from the 80s in which I wanted to show the wide tonal flexibility of the machine. I hope you want to appreciate the rusticity of the demo, without tricks and without tricks and forgive the inaccuracies of the track played live.

Lello Caliendo

Do they remember the mythical publicity of the finals of the game? The generous hammers on the 18/10 stainless maple base, the fighting grits of the presenter of the moment, and the amazing offers offered to the first people who call their phone number. What an era. It was precisely how he understood the real commercial power of the Combo, and how it was possible to create irrefutable offers, composing batches of different materials, such as jars, mantles, ceramics and sábanas.

Perhaps Rorando Kabushiki Kaisha (also known as Roland) he found inspiration in that trend, in that mythical commercial “Midiri”, which introduced into the house many great merchandise at a very high price, things that were limited only by the physical space of the truck's load. Thus, it is presented to you, in the style of Roberto Artigiani, a synth of twenty-twenty-five voices, repito hundred-thousandths, with built-in drum machine, high-quality Gooseneck microphone, enclosed in a refined chassis with an elegant three-octave mini cover and a 2×16 red display.
In the end, the transition from the cazuelas to the synthesizers is short: because the hammer in the lower part of the cazuela implies the vibration of an oscillating body, a vibration that is perceptible for our timpanos. The only thing that changes are only the details, obtaining a different wave of cazuela instead of a square or mountains. Now the same thing I know among you readers, a certain defiance; “Of course, this will be heard once again, the usual sound emulated with a sound thickness, equivalent to a first generation Kraft sound!” But no! Friends and friends, in this period in which the hybrid is in fashion, Roland, quizás to combat the crisis, or sometimes for the sole purpose of ensuring equal conditions, we bring home a real mestiza machine", medium cazuela and medium ..., it is decided, no forgiveness, medium analogue and medium digital, the GiddìIcs.

First chapter (the analogue soul)

Has anyone ever had a real identity crisis? The Roland machine was born with these atávicas questions: "What do I have?, what do I have? and above all, how do I have it?".
It was thought that the crossover was only a thing of sounds or filters of sound systems, they were mistaken, and the rhombus-shaped game is the problem of it. An analog heart and a digital one, a bipolar syndrome transformed into a machine. Now, without embargo, let's look at one side of irony and ask and try to detail its characteristics. The analog core consists of a monophonic oscillator with 3 waveforms (square, straight, triangular), a sub-oscillator, which can be adjusted one or two octaves at a time, a bead for variable pulse modulation, and a low 24dB analog filter. four-pole

Only through the menu panel can you access other classic functions, such as: portamento, legate, LFO tempo sync, pitch-bend range, filter; amplitude key follow, y depth pulse width modulation. The ADSR is not shown complete, so to achieve a more rigorous editing we will be obliged to go to the treasure chest in a vintage-looking display of small dimensions. The 64 presets on the left of the machine amply illustrate what can be done with the analogue monophonic part, both in terms of leads, sharp and seductive and in terms of soft, soft and dense bass.
Filters and resonance will not defraud you. It is easier to obtain sinusoidal sounds starting from the occilation of the filters. Being meticulous, I note that the tone always remains “polite”, so we can forget about the “suicide” and aggressiveness of an SH101; This is not a note of demerit, but rather just a clarification, each instrument holds its own soul and it is not easy to replace the machines that have developed, over the decades, on the personality of our minds. I recognize that Roland achieved a satisfactory work with the sounds that accompany the machine, something that did not follow on the main JD-XA, which in my opinion required having a pre-established kit that would be more justifiable.

Capítulo Dos (Give me a little rhythm baby)

I'm happy with the Drumkit section, I think making it better was impossible. The 33 drum kits are based on music that contains the glorious TR, CR, acoustic, House, EDM and Hip-Hop series. Each kit poses 26 tones. But there are two wonderful things worthy of being highlighted, the first is that we can build our own personalized kits based on the 453 existing museums in memory; the second is that each sound has a totally independent adjustment kit, filters and amp controls. envelope is designed for each independent note, or sea, it is possible to edit each individual note. In my humble opinion this section can compete with specialized machines such as the TR-8

Chapter Three (A little bit of digital never happens again)

Two digital synths, which feature the powerful “Supernatural” motor, which is famous for the adaptive response of the “intelligent articulation” to the way of playing the instrument. The two digital synthesizers can devour 128 instrument voices. Each of the two synths can use three different caps, that is, three distinct caps of the 160 PCM variety that Roland offers. We will immediately point out that the possibility of combining three distinct layers for each part of the digital synths ensures a wide variety of tones, ensuring that their pale tones always extend to the height of each area.
The songs that Roland offers are well selected, pianos, guitars, organs, violins, wind, analogue emulations, one-shot sounds and effects. Notable are the emulations of the JP series, the epic Strings and the no less mythical polyphonic Brass, less successful is the emulation of the acoustic piano, which in the end only counts with a single performance. Beautiful pads and all the “ambient” sounds, fascinating leads and profound bass sounds; Electric pianos are also well defined, showing a very special charm. Here we also find specialized filters for the digital part, lowpass, highpass, bandpass, and peaking with resonance. The filters in a digital setting, retain a great vintage flavor. Each digital part has its own digital scroll generator with two buttons on the front panel, for the other controls it will be necessary to access the liliputiense menu. I was fascinated by the Sync tempo features, which allow you to easily obtain delicious “oscilations” through the manipulation of the LFO rate knob.

Four chapters (sequencer, joy and sorrow)

I believe that the great R is fighting a very personal battle against the “Song mode”, as it turns out, the possibility of editing the number of repetitions of the patterns over the time period, as we know that this feature is not offered either by the main player (JD-XA) or by the fortunate AIRA TR-8. Sometimes Roland wants to keep our brain capacity in shape, imposing the correct head pressure at the right moment during a show, or simply create a new strategy against sleep, which aims to keep us completely lucid, including at night when boredom reigns.
You can create, at this moment, your own patterns, using the 4 available tracks, but you cannot organize them in song mode, the only viable alternative is to use the “favorites” strategy, to know, the placement of the patterns in the order of preference in the ten square buttons present on the front panel, also In this case, you must press the correct button at the right time. The problem will only be solved using the DAW; With programs like Ableton or your other favorite sequencing software, you can create loops and sequence them, keeping the satisfaction of knowing how to send them to the JD-XI. The maximum average limit of a pattern is 4, in case it is necessary to increase the averages you will tend to use an additional device, reduce the time to half and change the “setting scale”, raising it to the third second; included the copy system is rigorous and many times it will be more convenient to look at the same modified pattern by changing the name. It is possible to grab in real time, with the help of a convenient metronome, and grab step by step, using the functionality of the ten-six buttons on the panel, the button designated for the instrument will switch on or off according to the function of whether the instrument should be played or not in this step.
The Sequencer also provides the possibility of changing the rhythmic value of the notes at each step, it is possible in the section of the scale edition, to select triples of strings, semi-strings or fusas.

Lello Caliendo studio setup

Chapter Cinco (arpegiame but with good taste, shows the effect it has on me)

128 arpeggio styles, editable grid from 1/4 to 1/24, edit the duration of each note of the arpeggio, 12 different modes of playing the notes within the selected style (Up, down, random, etc…), velocity, octave and hundred range, converted to the tone in one powerful weapon, which will have you the indisputable protagonists of your Rave party.
Pasemos a los efectos. Four simultaneous effects, two inserts and two sends. But pay attention, say 4 simultaneous effects, and no 4 effects. This means that you will tend to have: Bit crusher, Compressors, Distortions, Fuzzer, Flanger, Phaser, Slicer and Ring Mod. In my opinion the Reverbs and Delays are really useful, it is evident that Roland has chosen these algorithms with special care, they sound good, they are clean and give a pleasant sensation of natural amplitude.
The four buses are built as follows:
Effect 1 (distortion, fuzz, comprehender, bit-crusher).
Effect 2 (flanger, phaser, ring modulator, or slicer), Delay, y Reverb.
It is possible to cancel each effect in an independent way for each part. The delay can be synchronized to numerous beat divisions, or it can be “unplugged” and released up to 2.600 beats.

Basic information of JD_XI

Capítulo Seis (The voice, sing that we pass)

¡Genial! The Gooseneck microphone is included in the price, the vocoder is easy to use, and there are pre-established adjustments prepared for your Daftpunkian shows. The Auto Notes are also brilliant, when this function is activated, the synth detects the notes you are singing into the microphone and plays them automatically, the best material! If you can also use the vocoder motor by inserting a guitar or another external instrument, therefore, the contents cannot be separated, it does not function like a museum. Lastly, I have bad news and good news, the bad news is that you cannot use the vocoder together with the analog synth track, which will inevitably be sacrificed if the vocoder uses the analog section as a signal carrier. The good news is that the vocoder will be able to easily “play” chords with its voices, even when the analogue section is designed to be monophonic.

Chapter Six (the inevitable conclusions)

Summary: The analog part holds its charm, and you have everything necessary to get the right sound, if you want to have a monophonic analog synthesizer, don't buy the JD-XL, I think it sounds like a "normal" one, nothing else in the world. It hasn't defrauded me during its use, but if we are analog purists we can decide that there are better options for “mono oscillation of abstract synthesis”. The digital part without embargo is fantastic, the Supernatural technology has been developed, allowing you to keep at your disposal, in a small space, the fruits of the investigation that Roland has conducted over the years for the realization of this project, the machine is unsurpassed thanks to the realization of Soundscapes and textures, the power of the drum is sufficient to generate complete and sumptuous sounds. The part dedicated to the Drumkits, 88 drum drums, 73 drum drums, another 238 tom drums, traditional percussion, ethnic drums, one shots, fx and coutillons, represent a kit that will have water in your mouth wherever you are. Instead, I will review the pattern copy function again and completely and apply the song mode, which is different here. Fortunately, the latest update has put the interactive chord into practice, so as Roland knows that sometimes the instruments need to be touched and not just looked at, so with this function, the reproduction of the pattern will change according to the function of the chords with which we feed the keyboard. With the latest update a more complete Transpose and Side Chain Compression function will also be added, for more information, you can download the additional manual of the 1.50 operating system.

Capítulo Siete (Informe de evaluación recapitulativo, late or early, all will be juzgados).

PRO

*Powerful vessel suitable for your production
*A great song of good sound.
*El hibrido funciona
*Excellent Drumkit

VS

*I would like to know who made the screen printing of the letters in red in the shape of the machine.
*Routes Pitch and Mod very small and rigid, a very useful way
*Use the Alpha Dial key to quickly edit the parameters
* No song mode, no party

USEFUL NOTICIAS

Córdoba: JD-XI
Precio de venta aconsejado: € 550,00 including VAT.
Italian distributor: www.roland.es
Official Website: roland.com

AUDIO DEMO

In the red you can find a great selection of Roland JD-XI demos, following the lines of acoustic perfection.
Following the idea of ​​the storage box above, I propose a grab made in a “homemade” way, by connecting the plugs of the instrument directly to the input of my iPhone with the help of a cable purchased on Amazon for a few euros.
It is a collection of some of the hits from the 80s which wanted to show the great flexibility of the tone of the machine. I hope that you will appreciate the rustic character of the demo, without the tricks and without the tramps and forgive the inaccuracies of the track played live.

Lello Caliendo