The JD-990 is an enhanced version of the JD-800 and was the top o' the line JD-synth. Its rack-mount design and impressive power and functionality within the studio paved way for the hugely successful JV-series rack modules which lead, ultimately, to the XV-series monster-modules! The JD-990 is a digital synth with 6MB of ROM sounds with "analog-like" edit parameters and features. These include lowpass filtering, ring modulation, osc. sync, frequency cross-mod, etc. The JD-990 is also compatible with JV80 and JD800 expansion boards.

The JD-990 has a large LCD display which makes editing very easy and intuitive, you can actually see the envelopes and LFO rates. There's an on-board multi-effects processor with Delay, Reverb, Phaser, Distortion, Chorus, and EQ. For the studio, the JD-990 has MIDI IN/OUT/THRU and eight outputs in four stereo pairs. The JD-990 can hold one internal expansion board and the best choice is to put the Vintage expansion in it because that gives you about 512 patches (Only 255 from JV-series!) of which 256 are specially programmed for the JD-990. It is used by Vangelis, The Prodigy, Apollo 440, ATB, and Mirwais.

mazics

March 4, 2013 @ 10:54 am

A lot of editing is needed to reach the sweet spots, but when you hit them JD990 will blow you away, with sounds that can put some VA to shame as far as it comes to emulating real analogs. IMO this was a big step ahead from the JD800. Actually some of the parameters missing on the 800 are the ones you really use to make wonders on the 990. They are absolutely vital to escape the ROMpler feeling of the basic sound. ‘Structures’,’ osc sync’ and ‘analog feel’ can bring the sound to another level. Sadly, despite its wonderful interface the JD-800 lacks those crucial elements.

soundworld a.d.

December 30, 2012 @ 1:50 pm

sj wrote: " The City Weeps demo in the JD is by far my fav!! There is something really special about it. "
Yes indeed! Eric Persing was a master at squeezing the most out of Roland synths before he left to form Spectrasonics. City Weeps is also one of my favourites.

A point about the JD-800 and JD9 sound cards. There are some great very useful patches on the sound card part of the SL-JD80's that are well worth the price if you can get them cheap. Also, some of the patches on the JD9D series (3 cards) like "Caladan Sea, The Last Travel, Pegasus" and many others are stunners!

rafa

December 4, 2012 @ 5:24 pm

i have jd 990 vintage jv 04 card this is my favorite synty it is used wumpscut (rudy ratzinger) bunker tor 7 cd

Quinn

October 30, 2012 @ 6:43 pm

Is 250 bucks a good price you think? Are there any VST editors around?

SJ

October 4, 2012 @ 6:03 pm

Never owned this synth but have lusted over it for many years. One day i may break down and get one but i just had to say this about the Super JD, Of all the build in demos i have heard in digital synths most of which are kinda cheesy and hokey sounding , The City Weeps demo in the JD is by far my fav!! There is something really special about it.

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