Welcome! Here you can find info on Roland SRJV80 Expansion Boards.
! Wanna know where to buy expansion boards? Check my
Music Info Page for links to
stores and classifieds.
Want to share your review? Send them to
gtcraw01@athena.louisville.edu.
Outside the US:
Sound On Sound
in Japan use to have them real cheap but as of 6/29/99 they're about $212.
Many list members have ordered them from SOS without any problems.
One listhead reported buying a session board at
TomleeMusicLtd. for $1200 Hongkong that's about $120 in U.S. They have a
branch in Hongkong, China and Canada. Or you could try
The Rolandshop in Belgium. Someone said prices there were around $189 but shipping
could be expensive(US is like $38). Be sure to check your countries
import tax. That could raise the price if you're taxed upon delivery.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Subject: [jv1080] Re: B&D S&M
Date: Fri, 03 Sep 1999 13:21:47 +0000
From: Paul Hodges
To: "paul j. drongowski
paul j. drongowski (dr. funk) wrote:
>
> Hi Paul
--snip--
> Oh, now that's interesting about the "6 string" patch! I have the M-BD1
> module equivalent and have never had the patience to try different
> key ranges, etc. I really wish that Roland would put this kind of
> performance info into the manuals!!!!!! A user simply cannot reverse
> engineer every darned patch on a board (let alone one of those
> %^%^&* modules.)
Yeah, it's particularly suprising because some Roland guy somewhere must
have gone to the effort of setting up a split on the keyboard with
differnet tone assignments on each range (don't even know how to do that
myself). Having put the effort in, you'd think they would want to make
the most of it.
UNLESS, it was a mistake on their part and they left the 'slides' there
by mistake. Possibly during the cloning of one patch to another.
We'll never know.....
Perhaps we could start a campaign for all the list members to share any
other patch quirks they have found on this or other boards.
You know, things that users become aware of through trial and error and
over a period of time the quirks become ingrained in our memories. It
might never occur to us that others might not know about them.
To be honest, I assumed that everyone with the bass and drums board
would know about the slide sounds further up the keyboard on the six
string patch. I was wrong, and you learned something new - that's neat!
Anyone else???
Regards
Paul
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Subject: Re: Fw:Only one drum part?
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 15:01:07 -0600
From: "David R. Green"
Hi Lee and List
> Get a Korg TR-Rack if you want to use lots of drums.
>
> The drum sounds are WAY BETTER than the 1080/2080
>
> Plus you can have drums on ANY MIDI CHANNEL, not just CH.10.
>
> So therefore you have complete independent control over your 16 drum
> parts/volumes.
The drums on the Expansion Boards, especially the B&D are
very good.
You can hear MP3 demos on the Li'l Chips web site.
www.lilchips.com/roland/expansion/srjv80/index.asp
Percussion/Drum Patches can be created, plus many of the
Expansion Boards have Menus or Kits that can be used on
ANY Part, allowing you to have drums on "ANY MIDI CHANNEL"
also. You can have 16 Parts/Channels of Drums if you so
choose.
As mentioned previously, please see the Tutorial on the
Li'l Chips web site concerning drums.
www.lilchips.com/roland/synths/jvxp/tutorial.asp
If you wish to have the sounds of the B&D board, but wish
to have additional voices and parts beyond your existing
JV/XP synth, look at the M-Series M-BD1 (info and MP3s
are also on the Li'l Chips web site), it is a JV-80 with
the SR-JV80 B&D waveforms.
They can be found for around $150-200 US.
Regards,
David
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Subject: Bass&Drum
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 99 08:31:10 -0400
From: pj
The Bass&Drum board is not a "Drum&Bass" board in the sense of the musical
genre known as "Drum&Bass." The drum and bass waveforms are most suitable for
funk, fusion, jazz and rock. They're pretty high quality.
Hope this helps -- pj
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Subject: Drum board
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 99 09:03:17 -0400
From: pj
I've got the module version (M-BD1) of the Bass&Drum expansion board.
There are ten loops and a whole raft of single hits with main emphasis
on the hits. The loops are in funk/fusion/jazz styles. I occasionally
like to jam to the loops for fun, but like most loops they get tiresome
after a while. There OK for "idea generation," too.
The basses are a lot of fun, especially the bass harmonic stuff.
Overall, the basses and drums best fit the funk/fusion/jazz styles.
Rockers or dance maniacs might be disappointed.
Just funkin' my life away -- pj
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Subject: RE: Drum board
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 10:26:52 -0700
From: "Gore, Shane"
> The basses are a lot of fun, especially the bass harmonic stuff.
> Overall, the basses and drums best fit the funk/fusion/jazz styles.
> Rockers or dance maniacs might be disappointed.
>
There are lots of useable sounds for "rockers" IMHO. Dance/ Acid/ Trance/
Techno/ Rave (blah blah blah) will probably have to look elsewhere.
Shane
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Subject: RE: Realistic Drums: A Dream Board
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 09:22:55 -0700
From: "Gore, Shane"
Dan,
You're not dreaming. I found everthing you described in the Roland Bass and
Drums expansion board. Its realism is amazing and I've been able to fool
almost all my musician friends. If you really want top notch drums, look at
the Roland V-Drums (TD-7?).
I wouldn't recommend the DMPro - dispite the hype and huge feature list, the
drums are not realistic sounding at all (while responding to velocity).
They've simply taken a single sample and applied a low-pass filter mapped to
velocity. I was quite disappointed. It seemed that there wasn't a lot of
thought put towards the kits. The Roland board is the exact opposite.
There are several waveforms mapped to a kit and are apparent at different
velocities. The actual timbre of the drum changes depending on how hard you
"hit" it.
Shane
> Anyway, I've been getting back into sequencing lately, and I have a
> "wish-list" idea. I would like to see an expansion board that has a drum
set
> on it that only has the basic instruments on it that 90% of all songs use.
> Namely, bass, snare, toms, cymbals, and maybe cow bell. Each would have
> several keys doing different things with the same basic sound. For
instance,
> the bass drum would have a different key for different velocities. I mean,
a
> sample of a bass drum being hit softly does not sound the same as a sample
> of a bass drum being hit hard and just played on the keyboard with less
> velocity. The snare could have flams, rolls, hits in the center, hits
closer
> to the rim, different rim shots, side sticks, different velocities, ghost
> hits, etc. the same goes for the toms and cymbals. Drums would be almost
> indisinguishable from the real thing if we had something like this.
>
> Whadaya think, am I dreaming?
>
> Dan Barnes
________________________________________________________________________________________________
From: "Benjamin R. Tubb"
Bass & Drums (SR-JV80-10)
=========================
For bass, it has the most nuance "imbedded" patch programming (velocity
sensitivity and tone layering) for bass patches, and the largest quality and
variety available (except for synth bass sounds
Notes:
Prices:
US:
A listmember reported on 1/14 that Musician's Friend has the boards listed for $199 in their
current catalog. Another member said(on 11/6) he bought a Vocal card for $200 (US), includes shipping
from Chris Parton at Byassee Keyboard & Sound, 1-800-888-3112,
byassee@midamer.net. He said Chris has just about every card in stock.
Then there's BPM Music Express,
they have expansion boards for $221 with free shipping(reported in Summer '99).
Next is $219 at
Guitar Center and $229 at Fullcompass.
More often though, US retailers will match each others prices.
Handling Your SRJV80 Expansion Board:
1) Hold it by the edges.
2) Install carefully and secure to the mounting posts using the special tool that should have
been provided with the board(if not, contact the seller or local music shoppe for one).
3) Always replace the compartment cover on your synth.
3) When not in the keyboard, return the board to its packing box to prevent dust from
getting into the small contact header.
4) It's not necessary to go to great lengths to ground yourself. Modern integrated
circuits have special "circuitry" (diodes) to prevent static discharge from destroying
the silicon wafer. However, grounding yourself against the synth casing isn't a bad
idea if alot of static is present.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hearing noise with patches in a certain board?
Do you have this problem?
>Since a few days Iīm reconizing some little noise when the patches are fading.
>After releasing a key a distorted noise appears for 3-4 seconds. Especially it
>is heared with clear and smooth sounds and with quiete piano passages
Try reinstalling the board or switching it's order. It may not have a good contact.
Multiple Reviews & Miscellaneous
Subject: Re: [jv1080] Re: B&D S&M
Date: Fri, 03 Sep 1999 09:50:19 -0600
From: "David R. Green"
To: Paul Hodges
Hi Paul and List
> Yeah, it's particularly suprising because some Roland guy somewhere must
> have gone to the effort of setting up a split on the keyboard with
> differnet tone assignments on each range (don't even know how to do that
> myself). Having put the effort in, you'd think they would want to make
> the most of it.
>>To be honest, I assumed that everyone with the bass and drums board
>>would know about the slide sounds further up the keyboard on the six
>>string patch. I was wrong, and you learned something new - that's neat!
> Perhaps we could start a campaign for all the list members to share any
> other patch quirks they have found on this or other boards.
> You know, things that users become aware of through trial and error and
> over a period of time the quirks become ingrained in our memories. It
> might never occur to us that others might not know about them.
I have been putting any of this information that I can get
onto the Li'l Chips web site's SR-JV80 Expansion Board pages.
For example, on the -01 Pop that I own I put additional
information both on the site and in its Cakewalk INS that
is not found in the included booklet.
I'm currently going through all of the Exp. pages again and
updating them with any new info I have accumulated recently.
I would be more than happy to put any of this type of info
on my site.
Regards,
David
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Subject: Accordeon`s
Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1999 17:28:25 +0300
From: "Ants"
Accordeons withouth expansions:
www.uninet.ee/~krog/html/Accord.syx
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Subject: Re: Musete or Accordian Sound
Date: Tue, 31 Aug 1999 20:55:30 -0400
From: Steven Naylor
>I am searching a Musete or Accordian sound all over the net, but I still
>did not found anyone. If somebody haves or knows where to find one, I
>will be very thankfull. I really don't want to buy a Super Sound Set
>just to get an accordian sound.
>
>Thanks all,
>
>Denis A. AltoČ Falqueto
Perhaps you can find a used (or ignored) PCM1-05 Accordion Card for the JV
series? Excellent sounds and lots of variety on it - and likely to be a
lot cheaper than an expansion board.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Subject: Re: [jv1080] Manuals for expansion boards?
Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1999 08:37:56 -0600
From: "David R. Green"
To: Mikael Persson
Hi Mikael
> Hi!
> I'm wondering what kind of manuals you get when you purchase exapnsion
> boards, such as orchestral expansion. The reason I ask is that I bought
> a JV-2080 seconhand with a couple of expansion boards installed, but I
> did not get any papers at all on any of the boards (documentation on the
> JV itself was complete, though). I've downloaded the patch and waveform
> lists from Roland US. Does the expansion boards come with any additional
> information? Is so, what kind of info is it (do I really need it)?
Check outwww.lilchips.com/roland
I've been putting additional information, demos, and copies of
the manuals and any disks on the web site. So far I have only
the Pop and Vocal manuals. I'll post the rest as I get copies.
The manuals come with installation information, patch and
waveform lists, and sometimes with additional usage/performance
information.
Regards,
David
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Subject: RE: World, Vocal, Orch II.
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 11:16:40 -0700
From: "Gore, Shane"
> I have "most" of my Patches memorized to a large degree, however
> at times I still flip through them and say "gee, I don't remember
> that cool Patch". :-)
That happened to me in the worse way. I needed some good shakers and a
sitar. At this time I had the XP30 (presets A-E + Orch, Techno, Session),
the Bass and Drums, SFX, and Orch2 boards. I saw the patch list for the
World board on the Lilchips site and heard the demos and decided to get it.
To my utter disappointment, the sitar was horrible and almost all the
shakers were looped. Later I bought the vocal board to get some good female
oohs and ahhs. I was sort of disappointed there as well.
After taking the time to go through ALL the patches, I found all the patches
I needed on the boards I already owned. There was a suitable sitar and
shakers on the presets, and the Orch2 had some great female vocal patches
(the Mmmms are very usable). Arg!
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Subject: Re: 1080 bulk copies?
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 14:36:47 +0930
From: David Peters
Hi Steven,
Steven Naylor wrote:
> I decided to bulk copy the board contents into user memory
> (128 patches at a time) and make a library on disk from that which
> would have all the data and patch names handy.
> I was surprised to find that the bulk copy skipped patches at
> intervals, so that #128 in User memory was actually something like
> #135 or so from the board.
> Is this a known problem? Anyone have a solution for this?
You've actually discovered a 'feature' of the JV-1080. What it has done
is bulk copied the JV-80 (& compatiable) patches into the user bank,
instead of the JV-1080 (& compatiable) patches.
If you look at the piece of paper that came with the Asia and OrchII
boards, you'll see that there are two patch lists, one for JV-80 synths
and one for JV-1080 synths.
I'm not aware of a work-around off the top of my head without copying
each patch into the user bank one at a time.
Cheers,
Dave.
--
David Peters
http://www.frisbee.net.au/~dpeters/
Adelaide Hills, South Australia
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Subject: RE: Expansion boards - Prices, Voltage, MP3s?
Date: Thu, 6 May 1999 13:50:22 -0700
From: "Gore, Shane"
>
> I only have the Orcherstral I Expansion Board and I've been
> thinking of
> buying some new (of course I could alternatively buy a
> sampler but they cost
> a little too much, about 2000$). Well I was wondering about
> pirices of those
> boards.
The best price of a new board is about $180 USD.
> This is propably a stupid question but does different
> electricity-thing
> (etc. in Finland that is 220V/50Hz in U.S 110/60Hz) have some
> sort of effect
> on expansion boards. So can I buy a used card for example
> from United States
> or does that work at all.
If the host synth/ module that you bought works with your power then the
expansion boards will. The AC cord runs into the synth/ module and then
gets converted to whatever power requirements the boards need.
> At the end, does anyone have some example mp3-song made with
> session board.
> It would be nice hear something what normal people (not some Rolands
> producer) have made with it. If it's good, I might be
> interested of buying
> one (as long it works in Finland)
Check out the Lilchips site: www.lilchips.com. By the end of this week Dave
should have an mp3 of EVERY expansion board available for download. =)
Shane
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Subject: Pop, Sessions, Orch Boards.
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 16:15:07 -0500
I haven't been too impressed by a. the stock piano/EP sounds in the
XP-60,
b. the piano sounds on the Pop board (except the Wurli), c. the piano on
the Session board, d. the piano on the Orchestral board. The EP on the
Super Sound Set is nice and mellow. But, I really
need a Rhodes that can bark. Given the current slot situation, I don't
have room for the 60's/70's card (even if I had one.)
Hope this helps -- pj
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Subject: Expansion Cards
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 05:58:03 -0400
From: "Pat Brown"
To:
SRJV80-01 Pop
Subject: Re: [jv1080] Pop vs. Session vs. SuperSoundSet
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1999 17:40:50 -0600
From: "David R. Green"
Hi Shane
> Hey everyone,
> Given the choice of one of the above, which one would you choose and why?
> I'm thinking about some gear changes and might buy the Session board but I
> recall someone on this list suggested that the Pop board was very much like
> the Session.
Just thought I'd throw in my 2 cents...
Most people on the List agreed that the Pop was the second worst
board next to the Piano - but I picked one up and I really like
it. I would probably bet that people now may say Piano then
Vocal then Pop. :-)
The things I found with the Pop were:
- A few of the waveforms sound 100% identical to the Super-JV
internal waves.
This is probably because the Pop was developed before the
Super-JV, so some of the waveforms may have been integrated
into the Super-JV set. The Clarinet, Oboe, Bassoon, etc.
sound identical.
- As with the Vocal Board, there are too few Patches on the Pop.
Only 145 Patches. They easily could have made 255.
Patches 142-145 are drum sets, which is handy, but you already
have the #10 B&D anyway.
- None of the Patches use the EFX. This can be both good and
bad. This is because again, it was developed before the
Super-JV. Less hassle in Performance mode though. :-)
- Many of the waveforms are welcome additions to the Super-JV
Internals - the Saxes are good, you get a Wurly piano, nice
choirs, nice guitars, and some cool pad/effect waveforms.
It also adds 4 drum menu/sets.
Although I've not got both, I'm betting the Session has better
quality sounds, although fewer.
>From the MP3 demo, the Session's Grand Piano and Nylon Guitar
are much better than the Pop Grand etc., although the Pop
Grand is still better than the Super-JV internal (the List
concensus was that the Pop Piano was #2 behind the Session).
I have an A-series Controller with VE-RD1 though, which the
Session piano was _based_ on, so I have a better piano than
it anyway.
The Session Choir sound is way more cool than the Pop's, but
the Vocal Patch set I made has some sounds like the Session's.
Looking at the Waveform lists, the Pop has a wider variety of
waveforms covering a broader range of instruments.
Personally, I'm getting both. I got the Pop first because I
picked it up from a music store blow-out sale for $190CDN
($125US).
The SSS was created from the old discontinued PCM Cards that
plugged into the front of the synths like the JV-1080.
Again, the Pop looks like it has a wider range of waveforms.
Both the Session and SSS have more preset Patches than the Pop.
For me, it would be a toss-up between the Session or Pop first,
then the SSS at number three. As mentioned, I am pleased with
the Pop.
Regards,
David
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Subject: Pop or Session
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 99 11:06:19 -0400
From: pj
To: bstaggs
Hi Billy --
Actually, we just *love* to discuss expansion boards!
I have both the Pop and Session.
The piano on the Pop is not bad, but I find it to be too bright/brittle.
Just to set a reference point, I find the stock "Classique" to be about
right for a piano with a darker tone. There is a darker piano patch on
the Session which is like "Classique."
Pop expansion board strengths are:
* Nice woodwinds (much better than the stock waveforms)
* Good saxes (and it has the *only* decent Soprano sax)
* Decent EPs (especially the Wurly for that "barky" EP sound)
* OK acoustic guitars
* Variation on stock strings (the board adds a different attack waveform)
Weaknesses:
* Ethnic instruments (accordion not as good as Session or Super Sound Set)
* Pads (too "hoked up")
Session board strengths are:
* Good saxes (mainly tenor, slightly jazzy)
* Good nylon string guitar (could use more variety though)
* Really good strings
* Playable accordions
* Playable brass (possibly the best R&R brass in the Roland series)
* OK piano (but, I'm *really* down on sampled piano in general these days)
* Nice flute (but, the vibrato is sampled in and can't be eliminated)
Weaknesses:
* Too much electronica for folk to light rock styles
* Doesn't add anything to cover basic orchestral instruments (oboe)
* Choir is OK, but I've been spoiled by the Vocal expansion board
You may find that the best of the Pop (woodwinds in particular) will be
covered quite adequately by the Orchestral (or II) when you get it.
I guess a lot depends on the other instruments that you need to cover your
song repetoire. I guess it would be helpful to hear more about that. I've
also found the Super Sound Set to be a good value, but again, it depends
on what else you need to do the job. The SSS provides more variety in
acoustic guitar, for example.
Hope this helps, but would like to hear a little more.
-- pj
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ben Tubb wrote:
Pop Board (SR-JV80-01)
======================
224 waveforms
145 patches
Among which are:
4 MENU patches for drums (142-145)
6 MENU waveforms for drums (219-224)
7 grand piano waveforms (1-7)
6 Wurlitzer electric piano waveforms (8-13)
4 electric piano waveforms (7, 14-16)
9 clavinet waveforms (17-25)
11 organ waveforms (26-36)
1 Chapman Stick waveform! (43)
7 electric bass waveforms
3 acoustic bass waveforms
12 guitar waveforms (54-65)
66 drum waveforms (153-218)
3 trumpet waveforms (86-88)
4 flute waveforms 82-85)
3 flugelhorns! (89-91)
9 sax waveforms (98-106,113-115)
3 choir waveforms (126-128)
10 string waveforms (116-125)
3 santur waveforms (76-78)
It has some good general waveforms and patches. Among my favorites are the
guitar, basses, saxes, accordion, tabla and tuba. On the "negative" side, it
has the second fewest patches of all of the boards. The Piano only has 111.
And when it came to "make room" in my eight slots (JV/XP) to install my newest
B&D board, I chose to "pull out" the Pop board until I get a JV-2080, since I
considered the Pop board to be the most "expendable" ;(
Benjamin Tubb
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Subject: Re: Expansion Boards
Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997 08:44:33 +0100
From: Patrik Markusson
To: jv1080@emccta.com
CC: "Eduardo B. Fonseca"
>>Hey Guys... I need an advice. I wanna buy a Exp board. Which one you
>>recommend? I've heard a lot about the Session Board and the Pop one.
The waves of the Pop board is not very "original". Most of them is just
variations
of the internal ones, some of them even have the same name as internal waves!
(Although they're slightly different). Most of the patches can easily be
emulated
with internal waves - some of the patches (about 5 at the end) do not even use
waves from the Pop board itself! I'm going to sell mine to make space for
the new Techno board.
Well, there is one good thing with the Pop board (compared to Session): the
patches do not make use of the insert EFX! That means, the patches sound
(almost) the same in patch and performance mode! The Session board uses
the EFX a lot...
What board you should buy depends heavily on what music you're doing.
I would recommend you to take a look at the wavelists and patchlists, and then
try to get a chance to listen to them at your local music store.
/Patrik
SR-JV80-02 Orchestral
Subject: [jv1080] Orchestral Board
Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1999 10:08:12 +0200
From: "Fabien ROYER"
Hi the list !
Just wanted to let you know that I had done some "demos" for the Orchestral board (#I, not the #II).
They are some excerpts of Mozart's Magicflute. One is rather old (well 6 months !) the two others are brandnew.
I'm personally very satisfied of the result.
You can find them at :www.mp3.com/higgins
(the MIDfiles will be uploaded soon on another site)
Please let me know what you think about them.
For information, I used only preset patches from the board (only the solo flute comes from the session board) and tried to get the best of it.
Now I achieved it, I'm really happy to own this board !!!
Best Regards.
Fabien "Higgins" ROYER
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Subject: Harpsichord tones; Orchestra Board.
Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 11:07:35 -0500
Fabien ROYER wrote:
Hi Jindrich
>>A few days ago I did some composition and I used Harpsichord from Orchestral
>>Card (there are four Harpsichords on Orchestral, I've no JV here, so I don't
>>have idea which one it was exactly). When pedal is relased, the instrument
>>makes a strange sound - it sounds like a kind of hiss/twitch in sample. It's
>>normal behaviour?
I think, yes. a Harpsi has got a very picky sound. The the key is released,
something stops the vibration of the string.
When you use a pedal, the strings continues its sound, and when you release
the pedal...
> >Can someone tell me how to ged rid of it???
>
You should go in the tones. There are tones when the key is pressed and some
when the key is released. Just shut down the one for release, and you'll get
rid of it ;-)
Fabien.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1999 22:53:49 -0600
From: "Pavel A. Fomitchov"
Hello everyone!
Maybe you remember my early post about lack of high frequencies in songs
recorded usinf Orchestral and Super Soun Set.
Today I had a chance to measure the frequency content of my XP50 output
playing my favorite patches from Orchestral and Session boards. I was
playing a middle C and looking on real time spectrum analizer (thanks Youry!).
Verdict: Orchestral strings samples have almost nothing above 8-10 kHz
(even with all filters set to OFF). Session strings samples have much
better defined highs up to 16-20 kHz. So, its time to upgrade the old
favorite (Imean Orchestral board) for something new. Sampler + nice
collection of samples?
Pavel
________________________________________________________________________________________________
*THIS REVEIW ALSO TALKS ABOUT THE PIANO BOARD.*
Date:Sat, 8 Aug 1998 11:13:26 -0700
From:"Robert Francis Pisano"
SRJV80-03 Piano
Date:
Wed, 16 Jul 1997 19:24:05 +0200
From: "Christian Krause"
To:
SR-JV80-04 Vintage Synth
*THIS REVIEW ALSO TALKS ABOUT THE KEYBOARDS OF THE 60S/70S CARD.*
From: Benjamin R. Tubb"
To: "Roland JV/XP Mailing List"
On Wednesday, September 24, 1997 5:13 PM, you wtote:
> Regarding the JVs Expansion Boards (from now on EBs)
>
> Can someone tell me the difference between the "SR-JV80-04 Vintage
> Synthesizer EB" and the "SR-JV80-08 '60's & '70's Keyboards EB".
>
> And more: which one gives the best moogs', hammond and mellotron
> sounds ?
The Vintage Synth features:
JX3P
CS60
Oberheim
Juno 6
Prophet 5/10
MKS-7
D50
ARP2600
SH-1000
JP-8
JP4
MKS80
VP-330
RS-202
Moog
Micro Moog
GR500
GR300
SH-2000
Promar
SH-101
VS Organ
VK-1 Organ
The Keyboards of the '60s & '70s features:
Organs (including B3, Vox, Farfisa)
Rhodes Suitcase 88
Rhodes Mark V
Rhodes Stage 73
Wurlitzer
Pianonet
Harpsichord
Clavinet
Mellotron
Benjamin Tubb
________________________________________________________________________________________________
> Hi,
> How about the Vintage board, is it worth to buy?
> Would You mind to tell me more, I want to buy it.
> My music is towar new age, ambiance and pop/semi rock,
> no techno, I like strange but beautiful sounds, dreamy pads,
> synth, sound effects. How's the programming?
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Best Regard
> Bill
Hello Bill:
There is a lot of waves and patches that you can use in
a variety of styles, leads, pads, syntesizer basses, moogs.
In example you can use it in ambiance and electronic pop,
there is a bass number "90:Perkolator" that works fine in
pop music when you give it movement. You have in one
board a collection of the best Roland Analog Machines,
this is the worth of the board, you can add an analog feel
to your songs, I recomend to use the Vintage sounds in
combination with Digital sounds to give more musical contrast.
I think the Vintage Board is a good election if you like pads
and want to obtain sound effects.
That's my appreciation, hope it helps you :-)
- Mike -
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 98 09:07:09 +0200
From: Per-Henrik
To: "Chuck Pedersen"
>Speaking of expansion boards, I wanted the Vintage Synth board for some
>time. I
>have not had the chance to hear it, and I would like some feedback from some
>folks that are using it.
The vintage-expansioncard is a "must have". IMHO the card are exellent
and the wave-forms are sampled and premade with care.
Itīs sounds like the sound-programmers had found a perfect analogue
patch on letīs say a Prophet 5, and then squeeced even more on the
knobs to obtain a much more elegant sounding patch!!!
I think the card is worth the money just for the superior pads!
The mellotron-patches are also perfect for that 1970:ish sound.
(Check out the strawberry fields flute)
The leads are also very good, and many of them are that good
they donīt need any further remodifications.
Basses are huge.
So, yes, buy it now!
//Per-Henrik Persson - Sweden, up north.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Sat, 06 Mar 1999 18:35:24 -0800
From: "W. Brent Latta"
To: STUDIOG
I've got both the Hip Hop and the Vintage synth boards. The hip-hop
board is primarily for drums (in my opinion). While it does have some
other instrumental patches, it is geared for 'beats'. The vintage synth
board has some great stock patches (all of vintage synths of course) so
it might work a little better. This board - I think - offers enormous
potential if you are a good patch programmer. However, I have done so
little of this that I haven't taken full advantage of this board
either. But from the sounds of it, you would do better with a Techno or
VS board.
-Brent
SRJV80-05 World
Subject: [jv1080] Re: Didgeridoo patch
Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1999 23:47:38 +0000
From: Brian
Jayvexpers!
>> > Anyone interested in programing a "Digeridoo" patch for XP50?
>I have a friend who lives next door and is an aboriginal musician, sometimes we
play together, but I need a GOOD patch.
thanks anyway :--)
aka<
Three (perhaps unfortunate) words:
World Expansion Board.
-Brian Matthews
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Subject:Disappointment with the World Board
Date: Wed, 9 Jun 1999 12:25:41 -0700
From: "Gore, Shane"
To: "Jv1080 Mailing List (E-mail)"
Hey all,
I just bought the World expansion board over the weekend and I must say that
I'm disappointed. I was hoping to get a decent selection of shakers,
tambourines and cowbells to compliment the Bass and Drums drum kits. The
board is okay, but there are way to many loops. You hear the demo, and say
to yourself: "wow that sounded very expressive" but then you find out that
the demo is just a compilation of loops.
The problem with loops is you have to match up the bpm. There are some
great shaker patches, but they're loops. With loops you loose control over
the expression of the instrument. Booooo! =)
Shane
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ben Tubb wrote:
World (SR-JV80-05)
==================
This boards features waveforms from 12 geographic/ethnic regions:
Region #_of_Waveforms
------ --------------
India 39
Middle East 37
Japan 21
Korea 4
China 20
Europe 8
North America 1
South America 70
Africa 26
Southeast Asia 14
Australia 6
Others 9
Though in general, the sample qualities are good, the dynamic qualities are
not all balanced between them, notwithstanding the characteristic "natural"
qualities of the instruments themselves. Also, the nature of "world"
instruments is MUCH larger than the board represents. To do the subject
justice, at least another board should be made. For example, "idealy" there
are at least the following instruments quantities to be more representative of
the regions above, referencing "Musical Instruments Of The World - An
Illustrated Encyclopedia" by the Diagram Group, 1976, Paddington Press Ltd:
Region #_of_Instruments (types)
------ ------------------------
Africa 43
Americas 35
Europe 48
Middle East,
North Africa,
USSR 21
India 28
Far East 30
Indonesia 17
Oceania
(New Guinea,
Australia) 26
And many of these types (i.e. among the "families" of aerophones, idiophones,
membranophones and chordophones) have MANY "variations" in use.
Another alternative is to get a Ensoniq MR RACK with its version of a World
board, although I don't know what instruments are available on it.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Tue, 08 Sep 1998 23:48:32 -0400
From: Brian
To: jv1080@emccta.com
Jayvexpers!
>>Anyone on the list own the World Expansion board?
>Is it worth buying? What are the highlights?
>
>matt in Brooklyn<<
Matt, I have to agree with Nils:
>For me It's one complete Highlight and I can Recommend it Yes.<
This is the first board I got for my XP-50, and it's value lies in all
the very interesting and unusual ethnic sounds that it has. I would
recommend to anyone looking to round out their sound JV/XP library that
they get this board, no questions asked. Of course, it all depends on
what kind of music you're interested in making, but if you're like me
and want to be able to hit on as many cylinders as possible, this board
is a big resounding YES!!
-Brian
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date:Wed, 7 Oct 1998 08:51:25 -0400
From: "Moyer, Dave"
To: "W. Brent Latta"
Hi, Brent.
I bought the World Board a few months ago, just in time to be swamped
with work and then head off on vacation, so I haven't done a lot of work
with it.
Nonetheless, I'm really impressed with it, and I can see a lot of use
for it in the stuff I do, which doesn't really concentrate at all on
"world" music per se (I play in a pop-rock band, write songs in a
similar genre, and do sequencing).
There's a lot of really interesting Brazilian percussion instruments, so
many in fact that you almost need to have a manual on samba technique to
know how to use them all in the traditional way. However, I'm sure that
they'll inspire a number of ideas on their own.
Also lots of Indian stuff - tablas, sitars, etc., as well as tons of
African percussion, harps, etc.
There's a goodly assortment of Asian stuff, although personally I would
have liked more gamelan instruments (there are a few) and more southeast
Asian (namely Thai) traditional instruments.
A number of patches are quite spacey, not traditional at all - would
work quite nicely in a lot of pop or new age type stuff.
Rounding out the collection are a number of loops, some of them quite
fun, as well as a few special effects (foot stomping, Chinese opera
vocals, African shouting, etc.).
Overall, the patches are of very high quality, although their direct
usability really depends on your applications (how many Chinese
orchestral instruments do you REALLY want exact emulations of?). More
importantly, the waveforms seem to be very good, with minimal artifacts,
good continuity between sample points and smooth looping.
Hope this helps.
Cheers - Dave.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Tue, 09 Feb 1999 18:12:47 -0800
From: "W. Brent Latta"
To: David Mikautadze
I've got both expansion boards - world and asia - and in my opinion the
asia board is far better. Many more useable patches right out of the
box. Although the world board covers more geographical territory, it
does so at the expense of instrument/patch quality. I would recommend
the Asia board over the World board, unless price is a big issue. If
that is the case, a world board would be easier to find used. I don't
know of any mp3's out there for the asia board, but check at
lilchips.com.
Hope this helps.
-Brent
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Tue, 23 Feb 99 08:33:19 -0500
From: pjd
To: jv1080@emccta.com
Since I ordinarily don't play with someone sitting in on Esraj or
Kayakeum ;-) I also pulled together a chart of the non-percussion
instruments on the World board according to broad category. (Sorry,
no percussion right now.) Here it is.
-- pj
----------------------------------------
SR-JV80-05 World instruments by category
P.J. Drongowski
23 February 1999
NNN = (first) waveform number
-------------- ------------ ----------------- ---------------
Plucked Bowed Blown Phrase
&Struck Strings & Pipes & voices
-------------- ------------ ----------------- ---------------
001 Sitar 031 Esraj 043 Kawala 195 Zaghruta
005 Tambura 033 Kamanche 046 Shakuhachi 194 Yyoo Dude
017 Oud 034 Erhu 042 Ocarina 193 Hey Brazil
021 Koto 035 Zampona 191 Yoh Tribe
022 Shamisen ------------- 040 Sicu pipe 192 How Tribe
027 Biwa Reeds 041 Quena 197 Bull scream
024 Kayakeum ------------- 049 Hunt pipe 253 Morocco Ens
013 Yuechin 057 Shahnai 186 Didgeridoo 252 Korean Ens
014 Yangchin 058 Mizmar 198 Conch Shell 200 Samba MENU
009 Zither 055 Hichiriki 240 Samba Whistle 254 African Ens
012 HmrDulcimer 051 Bagpipes
015 Bandolim 060 Piri -----------------
016 Cavaquinho Harps
172 Berimbau -----------------
020 Kanoun 026 Afro Zither
025 Oct Harp
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Tue, 09 Feb 1999 18:12:47 -0800
From: "W. Brent Latta"
To: David Mikautadze
I've got both expansion boards - world and asia - and in my opinion the
asia board is far better. Many more useable patches right out of the
box. Although the world board covers more geographical territory, it
does so at the expense of instrument/patch quality. I would recommend
the Asia board over the World board, unless price is a big issue. If
that is the case, a world board would be easier to find used. I don't
know of any mp3's out there for the asia board, but check at
lilchips.com.
Hope this helps.
-Brent
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Subject: Bagpipes
Date: Mon, 12 Apr 99 10:20:05 -0400
From: pj
To: jv1080@admin.emccta.com
CC: GoreS
The bagpipes on the World Expansion board are passable. Don't hesitate
to tear the patches apart, tho'. I stripped the drone away from one of
the patches and toned it down a bit with LPF, for example, to get
something a little more lyrically delicate (whatever that means.)
The new Orchestral II board is supposed to have Uillean Pipes which
are a close Celtic cousin to the Scottish pipes. This might be a
workable alternative. I guess it all depends on what other sounds on
the World or Orchestral II you would draw on for the style(s) of
music that you play.
OF COURSE, none of us has heard the new board yet! Roland says "Real
soon now."
-- pj
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Subject: Bagpipes.
Date: Sun, 11 Apr 1999 21:55:19 +0200
From: "Alexander Winkler"
To: "Jv1080@Emccta. Com"
>I'm looking for a good bagpipe waveform for my JV. Does anyone know if the
>one found on the World Collection is good?
>Thanks,
>
>Shane
I think the bagpipes on World-board are good, but not particulary exciting.
There are two distinct patches called "Bagpipes" and "Velo Bagpipes" which
are sufficient as long as you don't expect something close to reality. There
are four basic Waveforms which gives you some chances to adapt the patches.
The World board itself has it's strong side on asian instruments which I
think are really fine. There are only a few european instruments, the
"Zither" for instance is not very realistic.
Alex
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Subject: World glossary
Date: Tue, 23 Feb 99 08:27:19 -0500
From: pj
To: jv1080@emccta.com
Hi all --
I got into an obsessive mood and pulled together a glossary containing
most of the instruments on the -05 World board. (Sorry, ASIA guys, you're
on your own. :-) It's too large to post here and since I don't have a
WWW page, I'd like to find a few volunteers to put it up somewhere on
the Web. So, if you would like to receive a copy and put it up on your
WWW site, please send me your e-mail address. Then, once it's up,
please post the URL here.
Here's the intro from the glossary. I originally thought, "Hey, I'll
just merge everything I find on the Web." Silly -- the number of
noisemakers invented by all of humankind is just too great! One of the
challenges in pulling this together was finding the proper spelling
of the instruments or at least a regionalized spelling that matched
somewhere in the world.
-- pj
--------------------------------------------
World instruments mini-glossary
P.J. Drongowski
23 February
This mini-glossary contains brief descriptions of most of the instruments
included in the Roland SR-JV80-05 World Expansion Board and a little bit
more. It is based on a merge from several major Internet sources:
The "Echoes" music soundscape from Public Radio International
http://www.echodisc.com/de.glossary.html
Hobgoblin Music -- new and used folk instruments
http://www.hobgoblin-usa.com/info/glossary.htm
The World-Wide Samba Home Page
http://www.worldsamba.org/SambaGlossary.html
Korean Embassy (Washington DC)
http://horea.emb.washington.dc.us/
Musical Malaysia
http://www.music.upm.edu.my/malaysia/instruments/alt-index.html
Brochure on Musical Instruments, Vol. II, Development Centre
for Musical Instruments, India.
http://www.msc.cornell.edu/~nara/spicmacay/instr.html
Department of Ethnomusicology, UCLA
http://www.ethnomusic.ucla.edu/ethnomusicology/
Rolling Thunder The Taiko Resource [and other Japanese percussion!]
http://www.taiko.com/history/glossary.html
Readers should also see the two articles on world instruments by Dave
Stewart in Keyboard magazine (March 1996 and May 1996.) Oddly, Stewart's
articles do not mention the SR-JV80-05 which contains quite a few of the
instruments described in the articles.
SR-JV80-06 Dance
Date: Tue, 05 Aug 1997 09:07:24 -0500
From: Greg
To: Oskarsson Anders
Oskarsson Anders wrote:
> My name is Anders (Swedish), and I'm produce pop/soul/dance music, as
> hobby.
> My main instrument is a JV-1080 and I have one expansionboard
>"Vintage" ,
> but I like to have more heavy/proffesional sounds, like techno/dance
> drums, bass etc. I noticed that Roland released a perfect board for
>this
> called "Dance", but I also heard that Roland had to stop selling this,
> because of some copyright problems or something. Does anyone now were
> buy this card, or is there any better card maybe ? Can anyone give me
> some advise ?
Hi Oskarsson! Greetings from Louisville Kentucky! Greg here. I have
the Dance board. It's not bad. There may be one or two stores that
might still have one, but probably you'll only find it used these days
(or in Japan). I think I bought the last new one in North America four
months ago. Anyhoo, it's fairly good. Most of the Dance loops are
considered old(1990-93) here in the US. There's loops like Madonna, the
Santa Domingo monks chant (that's not the right name?), there's Ton Loc
"Wild Thing" loop, you know, stuff like that. I think that's the
copywrite problem. But, the rest of the board isn't bad at all. It has
a nice dance piano, some dance strings and other patches that I use.
One nice thing is the rhythm kits. They are decent - 909, Reggae,
Hip Hop, etc. It also has some drum kits(6) in patch mode. If you see the
Dance board used for a good price I'd pick it up. Another board I
recommend is the Sessions board. It has some quality pianos (4),
strings, flutes, guitars, plus some new synth, pad and dance patches
(like dance stacks). It also has some rhythm kits, but they aren't as
varied and useful as the Dance boards kits.
Also, as predicted, at July's NAMM Roland introduced a new board. The
Techno board, SRJV80-11. You might want to check it out.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
From: Greg
To: lars.van.casteren@
Hi Lars!
The more I play with this board the more I grow to like it. It has some
nice basses and other patches like pads and punches. I bet you like
that "OldStrings" patch. I do. Plus, it has some nice cymbal menus and
drum kits in patch mode, 249-255(?). These kits just have kicks, snares
& cymbals and don't have the variety of percussion like the rhythm kits.
But I use one or two of them frequently. The cymbals sound very nice
and compatable with the kick and snare(unlike the Techno board's rhythm
kits who's cymbals suck). The rhythm kits on the Dance board add
variety but most need effects applied to sound decent(try applying
delay to the Reggae kit). That's a good purchase for $200 but there's
no way I'd pay $400 for one. Well, I did pay $400. But that was 1 1/2
yr ago for a new board. There's outdated stuff on there too. Just MHO.
Have a nice Tuesday! -Greg
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Subject: Re: Dance Expansion Card
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 1997 05:16:55 -0500
From: "Benjamin R. Tubb"
To: "Roland JV/XP Mailing List"
> I just purchased the dance expansion card, and of course there is no
> manual. I read somewhere that there are conversions you can apply to
> some of the beat loops that come with the card. Is this possible? And
> what conversions can you do? If anyone has any info about what is
> possibly with the dance card it would be much appreciated. Thanks in
> advance
It so happens that I have an info text file on this very subject (called "BPM
Conversion Formula for Looped Waveforms") which should be useful
SR-JV80-07 Super Sound Set
*THIS REVIEW ALSO TALKS ABOUT THE SESSIONS BOARD.*
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 1997 00:55:42 +0300
From: Nir Sullam
To: jv1080@emccta.com
At 02:49 PM 8/21/97 -0700, you wrote:
>Greetings Nir,
>
>I noticed in your most recent post you say you have both the Session and
>Super Sound Set cards...Perfect! These are two cards screaming for my
>cash, but the local music store doesn't have them in stock very often.
>
>If you have the time, could you enlighten me as to the quality of the
>rhythm sets on these cards? Taking the Bass & Drums card and the Super JV
>internal rhythm sets as reference points would be helpful.
>
>Also what's the content in general on the Session card like? Roland state
>that 'quality not quantity' were important when designing the sounds (at
>least, that's what the product brochure says), so I'd be interested in
>hearing what the 'goods' are like, especially that stereo grand piano
>sample. Thanks in advance,>
>
>Taurus3
>
>****************************
Hi Taurus3
What you want may take some time to answer but to cut a long story short:
SESSION CARD
-------------------------
1- The Pianos are good - the truth is IO expected something better but it
is still quite good
2- STRINGS - very good
3- choirs - excellent (mmms.. ahhh..etc,.)
4- Juno 6/106 sounds - I know little about acid - but a guy that bought my
SH-101 this week was smiling when heard these.
5- some great "french" accordeons
6- great BRASSes -SAXES and Trumpets
7- very good nylon guitars
8- screaming E-guitars
9- basses - good but there are better elsewhere
10- lots of pads or new age pads and strange background pads
11- drums - quite good the bass drum in Session Set 1 really made me buy
this card - but judge for yourself the others are good nice snares - more
like the modern dance trance
Super Sound Set
--------------------------------------
1 - Pianos - the only one that realy got me - the Electric Grand nice Rhodes'
2- Nice Harpsichords
3- lots of guitars of all kinds - excellent!!
4- excellent accordeons
5- nice wind instruments
6- lots of brass - sax trumpets etc,.
7 - nice harp rolls
8- drums: lots of power drums (heavily reverbed and more the rock type)
CONCLUSION:
quality of samples - As far as can say or judge - excellent samples.
these are very good "all in one box" expansions.I heard the Bass Drums exp
in the store it is superior to the drums ofthese two. The Grand Piano is
said to be the best available to the XP/JV line - probably true/
But as you know - nothing like listening to them in your local store.
hope I helped -Nir
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1998 19:35:37 -0500
From: Hyeong-Min Kim
To: jv1080@emccta.com,
> Has anyone had experience with the Super Sound Set expansion board and
> would like to share their opinion? I've used the old Baroque PCM board
> with my JV-90 and liked the organ flutes and harpsichord. I'm wondering
> if anyone has found the other instruments and orchestral effects useful?
>
I have a SSS board and here are my opinions about sound categories in
that expansion board.
[Pianos & EPs]
I have an RD-600, so I don't care about piano patches in other synths.
EPs are great. I can't live without E. Grand Mod & E. Piano Mod patches!
[Baroque Sounds]
Like you said, they are really great. I started to practice Bach again
when I heard harpsichord patches.
[Guitars]
Just OK.
[Accordions]
Best I've ever heard in any synths/samplers. Be sure to play with an
expression pedal.
[Brass]
Decent
[Orchestral Effects]
They sound good, but you have to compose songs based on them if you want
to use them. For example, you cannot control the speed of harp scrolls.
So, you need to compose a song with the speed of a particular harp
scroll patch in mind. Therefore, the orch. effects are useless most of
time for me.
SRJV80-08 Keyboards of the 60s & 70s
Subject: 60 70 keyboard Suprised
Date: Mon, 31 May 1999 20:04:02 -0700
From: Dean Atherton
To: jv1080@admin.emccta.com
Hey gang just bought the 67-70 expansion board $219 guitar CENTER
I'm was mildly impressed by the over all sounds. Much better than I
thought. Of course THOSE who used to playi a B3 or B2 you will have some
complaints but for the price it is worth the bang for bucks.
It definitely blows away the preset oragan patches > The low and high end
sounds on keyboard notes are 80-95% better. middle range notes 20-75% better.
I mainly bought the expansion board for Hammond organ sounds. But I
really like the Rhodes and Wurly samples. In fact I was going to take them
as a loss . Well was I wrong I had just as much fun on them as the Hammond
sounds.
The other organs sounds vox and Fafi are well represented however they are
not my cup of tea but If u like that sound I think u might enjoy.
But as usual with all the expansion boards 20% of the sound I will never
use ie {tron and others} 30% wave of the forms sound the same. But that is
normal I currently own the SESSION & DANCE Expansion boards .I'M also a
way back owner. I bought the xp-50 when it first came out wow %&%^&%%# yrs
ago wooo time does fly. AND DAM PROUD OF THE MACHINE
PS i guess I'M just a ROLAND guy
DEAN from BERKELEY CALIF.
Overall Rating 7.5 Would i buy it again YES
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ben Tubb wrote:
Keyboards of the '60s & '70s (SR-JV80-08)
=========================================
Waveforms: 255
Organs: 136
Electric Pianos: 54
Clavinets 49
Others: 16
Specific instruments sampled are:
Hammond B3
Vox Organs
Vox Harpsichords
Farfisa
Rhodes, Suitcase
Rhodes, Stage
Rhodes, Bass
Wurlitzer
Hohner Pianet
Hohner Clavinet
Mellotron
This is a definitive collection of waveforms and patches for me, as organ in
particular is my favorite instrument besides guitar and bass
SR-JV80-09 Sessions
Subject: [jv1080] Saxophones
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 08:27:33 -0400 (EDT)
From: "paul j. drongowski (dr. funk)"
The current choices are:
Pop
Session
Super Sound Set (SSS)
The Pop has the only (only!) decent soprano sax. The tenor and baritone
are OK, but not stellar.
The Session has a decent jazz/rock-oriented tenor with a brighter sound.
The SSS has a more laid back, breathy tenor.
It'd be a good idea to try 'em out. Some of 'em are programmed to
growl when spanked and the programming can be a little touchy (literally!)
Sax is a tough one to emulate. Just as an aside, I've been playing around
(heavily) with a Zoom SampleTrak lately -- including flute, sax and mute
trumpet phrases. The synth world has a long way to go to emulate real
instruments with real players. My skills ain't up to it, that's for sure!
-- pj
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Subject: Re: [jv1080] preset Sax sounds
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 13:09:47 +0300 (EET DST)
From: Jussi Piekkala
To: "V. Shankar"
On Tue, 19 Oct 1999, V. Shankar wrote:
> 2 of the solo saxophone presets (I think tenor and alto) have a lot
> of rasping kind of noise accompanying them. Is it supposed to sound
> that way (perhaps simulating breath sounds)? It sounds pretty bad and
> unnatural to me. Is it an added effect or is it like that in the
> waveform itself? Which expansion boards have the best saxophone
> sounds?
Shankar,
I certainly think (IMHO) that the "rasping kind of noise" is an
important part of a natural saxophone sound.
The Session board has a few very good saxophone patches, some that
can produce a more or less soft sound depending on your keyboard pressure
attack.
jp
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Subject: Pop or Session
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 99 11:06:19 -0400
From: pj
To: bstaggs
Hi Billy --
Actually, we just *love* to discuss expansion boards!
I have both the Pop and Session.
The piano on the Pop is not bad, but I find it to be too bright/brittle.
Just to set a reference point, I find the stock "Classique" to be about
right for a piano with a darker tone. There is a darker piano patch on
the Session which is like "Classique."
Pop expansion board strengths are:
* Nice woodwinds (much better than the stock waveforms)
* Good saxes (and it has the *only* decent Soprano sax)
* Decent EPs (especially the Wurly for that "barky" EP sound)
* OK acoustic guitars
* Variation on stock strings (the board adds a different attack waveform)
Weaknesses:
* Ethnic instruments (accordion not as good as Session or Super Sound Set)
* Pads (too "hoked up")
Session board strengths are:
* Good saxes (mainly tenor, slightly jazzy)
* Good nylon string guitar (could use more variety though)
* Really good strings
* Playable accordions
* Playable brass (possibly the best R&R brass in the Roland series)
* OK piano (but, I'm *really* down on sampled piano in general these days)
* Nice flute (but, the vibrato is sampled in and can't be eliminated)
Weaknesses:
* Too much electronica for folk to light rock styles
* Doesn't add anything to cover basic orchestral instruments (oboe)
* Choir is OK, but I've been spoiled by the Vocal expansion board
You may find that the best of the Pop (woodwinds in particular) will be
covered quite adequately by the Orchestral (or II) when you get it.
I guess a lot depends on the other instruments that you need to cover your
song repetoire. I guess it would be helpful to hear more about that. I've
also found the Super Sound Set to be a good value, but again, it depends
on what else you need to do the job. The SSS provides more variety in
acoustic guitar, for example.
Hope this helps, but would like to hear a little more.
-- pj (pjd@ives.lkg.dec.com)
________________________________________________________________________________________________
From:Greg
To: jv1080
Thought somebody might benefit from this clip . . .
> >What's BEST about the Session board? What are the cons?
> What's best? Well, it's samples are quality. And yes, the pianos are
> good for a synth. Alesis piano samples may be better to some.
>There are some strings, flutes, choruses (chori?) , sax and trumpets
>that sound good. Having more guitars is nice. There's a Nashville guitar
> and a Clean Tele guitar that I like. They're similar to the stock
>Clean
> Guitar patch on the XP80. Roland still hasn't gotten the
> distortion/overdrive guitars down (not as good as Taurus3's guitar
> patch) but their usuable in different performances or with tweeking.
> The board has some nice and interesting basses, then it goes into alot
> of newer electronic dance patches - stacks, pads, voxes and leads,
>that
> are pretty nice. What's kinda weird is that from patch 231 thru 255,
> patches are labeled "DEMO ____" and are instruments ranging from piano
> (I like #231 DEMO Piano) to strings, brass, guitars, basses and a
>couple
> of effects sounds. Why they are called "DEMO" and why they are there
>I don't know.
>
> Cons? I know it's a keyboard and not a guitar but the distortion &
> overdrive guitars aren't as good as I think Roland could make them if
> they spent alittle time on it. If you want a nice electric guitar
>patch
> download Taurus3's patch banks from Scott Nave's page at
> http://www.csg-inc.com/xp80/patches.htm (thanks Scott!) and find his
> delayed/flanged guitar patch. I think it's #11 in the first bank.
>
> Other cons? Well, at first I wanted alittle more variety in the
>rhythm
> kits, but they are slowly starting to grow on me. There are 8 kits
> labeled Sessions 1 thru 7 and a DEMO kit. Lets see, there are two
> fairly basic rock type kits, Sessions 1 & DEMO, then there are a
>couple
> of rock kits with differing snares, then there are a couple of dance
> styled kits with 909 & 606 basses & snares. I don't have my card
> booklet with me right now so I can't tell you specifically what the
> names of the basses and snare are.
>
> All in all, I Like the board and recommend it for anyone with
> interests in varying musical genres ranging from rock, pop, jazz to
> dance. The samples are quality and most everyone should find
>something on this board that they can use in their songs. Hope this
>helps! Adios!
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Sat, 09 Jan 1999 21:16:17 -0500
From: David Mikautadze
To: "owner-jv1080-digest@emccta.com"
Hello All,
Just bought the Session X-board for $139 and I thank all of you who
spread the good word about the "sale". I also have the Orchestral board.
Here is my run down on the Session:
Pianos: Good
Strings: Decent (strings + choirs are good)
Choirs: Good for commercial and jingle stuff, but maybe
not so much for Orchestral/Film.
Pads (Pad-like): Some of them are really kick ass.
Brass: Good
French Horn: Hardly any, thank God for the Orchestral Board!!
Trumpet: Good
Sax: OK but the "Super Tenor" patch is GREAT.
Flute: Good, "Legato Flute" is fxxking incredible, this one should have
been the Orchestral board!!
Accordion: Good
Nylon Guitar: Good, love "Nylon & Flt"
Clean Electric Guitar: Good, "Duanne's Tone" is nice
Dirty Electric Guitar: Decent, they could be better
Bass: Lacking Up-right jazz bass, these basses geared
towards Pop and Techno I think.
SFX-type sounds: There is allot of these almost useless sounds to play
around with, they can be useful for jingles, in general
they are "use-sparingly-otherwie-annoying" type sounds.
Rave/Techno/Pop/Dance: Anyone into the mentioned styles would like this
board because it has allot of very useful sounds for those genres.
Analog: Decent/Good
Organs: Not enough/Decent
Vibes: Poor/OK
Overall: Enough useful patches making it worth it's low cost but for
what I'm doing
(Orchestral-Filmscoring/Jingles) there is allot of stuff here I would
never use and if I paid the going price for the X-boards I would not be
to happy and would try to get my money back, but I would definitely miss
those Flutes.
P.S. - All the above opinions are subject to change as time passes and
my needs expand!!! (Who knows, one day I may test my skills and write
that Techno song after all)
Thanks,
David
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1999 17:08:50 +0100
From: "Paul van den Berg"
To: jv1080@admin.emccta.com
> Actually, this is my first question, well at least this year.
> I'm considering buying a piano-module, but before I do I would like some
>input from this list about the piano-sounds on the Session-board (and the overall
>quality of this board). I need some realistic pianos, not like the one in XP's B-bank.
>If anyone's got the Asia-board, it would be nice to hear what you think of it too.
IMHO the session board pianos are probably better then the internal ones (although
the internal ones can be approved with some tweaking), but if you're looking for realistic
pianos there probably gonna be disappointing. I've been trying to get a decent acoustic
piano patch out of my JV1080, but for real solo playing it's just not good enough (the piano
sounds can work fine when mixed in a song though). So like you I've been considering buying a
piano-module as well, but haven't found anything that complements the JV by just producing a
great acoustic piano for a decent price. If anyone has suggestions, please let me know.
Paul van den Berg
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1999 10:47:57 +10
From: "Adam Hair"
To: jv1080@admin.emccta.com
CC: Robert Solheim
> I'm considering buying a piano-module, but before I do I would like some
> input from this list about the piano-sounds on the Session-board (and the
> overall quality of this board). I need some realistic pianos, not like the one
> in XP's B-bank. If anyone's got the Asia-board, it would be nice to hear
> what you think of it too.
I can't comment on the Asia-board, but I can on the session.
SRJV80-10 Bass & Drums