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.

Sotiris

June 4, 2013 @ 8:36 am

Hi. I have the JD990, JV1010, JV2080, XV5080 and had the JV1080 with almost all cards in various combinations, and what you asked is almost subjective. I did many tests comparing the same ROM sounds in all these machines, and had mixed results. Some sounds sounded better in one machine, some in another, there was clearly NO case of one machine being better in all sounds. To my ears, the JV1010 and JV1080 generally sound more retro and "gritty" while the JD990 sounds more sharp, bright and fast. The XV5080 is more lush and rounded, the JV2080 more gentle. All are great!

Gerry

May 20, 2013 @ 5:09 am

OK, so I have a Roland XV-5080 & a JV-1010 & I just purchased off Ebay, "Roland SR-JV80-04 Vintage Synth Expansion Board". (didn't arrive yet) Can anybody tell me how the XV-5080 sounds, with the Vintage Synth board installed, -VS- the JD-990 w/Vintage Synth board installed? Does the JD sound better in some way? I know the XV is 1 hell of a monstrous sound module. The Vintage Synth board has 256 patches that "are specially programmed for the JD-990". Can I get the same sound/quality with my XV? Does the JD have some special/better filters in it or something, compared to the XV?

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

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