The JD-800 is Roland's answer to half a decade of hard-to-program synthesizers. Covered in sliders that act as dedicated editors just like a classic analog synth, the JD-800 is an extremely programmable and hands-on digital synthesizer. It is also an interesting and great sounding digital synth with incredible flexibility and control. Internal ROM based waveforms are combined to build your sounds. The sounds are based on Roland's D-50, but updated for the nineties with multimode filters - uncommon but welcome at the time.

The JD-800 came in a tough metal case capped off on the sides with large plastic covers. Programming may be a little too flexible for some users, but once you know what you're doing with it, almost any sound you can dream up can be dialed in and stored.

It has been used by William Ørbit, Emerson Lake & Palmer, 808 State, Ken Ishii, Astral Projection, Rabbit in the Moon, Depeche Mode, Underworld, Tangerine Dream, LTJ Bukem, Apollo 440, Jean Michel Jarre, ATB, Vangelis, Pet Shop Boys, Faithless, Luke Vibert, Mouse on Mars, Laurent Garnier, MC Hammer, Bushflange, Genesis, and Eat Static.

Mark

April 4, 2011 @ 8:54 pm

A fine synth indeed. Pre-programmed sounds [beep] so you really need to dig in and come up with sounds yourself.

VisceralVoids

March 31, 2011 @ 1:26 am

New Roland JD-800 video demos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLg8fn3_AFY

Artik

March 23, 2011 @ 12:34 pm

The JD800 was used by Robert Miles in his album "Dreamland"

Peke

March 21, 2011 @ 9:30 am

If you like M1 or D-50, then you will love this. Good synth.

Cliff

March 14, 2011 @ 6:13 pm

I just got a JD800 from ebay and I must say its even better than I expected. For one thing, it really reminds me of my old D50 as it has very similar warm filters especially on the saw waves. I had a PG programmer with my D50 and all the sliders on the JD remind me of that too. So I say yea, if you are looking to get a mutitimbral d50 then this is the baby! As for cold and digital sounding, sure, about 20 or 30 of the waves are glassy/digital sounding, but if you dont like them, dont use them! The first 10 or so are pure analog d50 type stuff. Enjoy!

<181716151413121110>

 

Post Comment!

Your Name: (Required.)

Email Address: (Required, not published.)

Image verification: (required)

Message:

 

Posting Rules:
Please keep your comments relevant! Do not post requests for help, do not use for sales, do not post unless you have something interesting to say about this instrument, or we may delete your post.

I have read and understand the posting rules.