Roland • JX-3P
The JX-3P is a pretty good synth, best known for a good string sound. It came about at the same time as the Juno series but represents a shift towards digital circuitry, push-buttons and (for the JX-3P) simplified programming. Compared with a Juno, the JX-3P sounds inferior however it is analog and capable of decent synth sounds for cheap. You will need the PG-200 programmer if you want real control of it. It's a six voice polyphonic with two DCO's per voice which means analog oscillators and sounds with digital stability and control. The typical assortment of filter, envelope, LFO and oscillator sections are here with easy and straight-forward programming.
Surprisingly, the JX-3P is MIDI equipped, in fact it was Roland's first MIDI synth but was very limited to basic note on/off information only. Synths like the Juno 106 have far better MIDI implementation and sounds. Although the JX-3P may not be as nice or professional as a Juno, it makes a great entry level Vintage synth capable of creating some useful classic analog sounds. The JX-3P also came in a rack-mount version called the MKS-30. It has beenused by The Future Sound of London, Astral Projection, Vince Clarke, Orbital, Luke Vibert, Stevie Nicks, and Thomas Dolby.
interface isn't as hands-on as might be nice but the sounds this thing can create are awesome. anyhow, read up on polysynth architecture & you'll soon discover some of the control compromises were pretty inevitable.
i've gotten intense-machine noise resonance out of this thing that can mutate a pretty patch into a real paint-peeler--seriously acidic [beep] .
then it can even do rumbling kick drums & all kinds of great other stuff, and sounds fat as hell.
only complaint is no aftertouch--that'd be my kind of fun.
keep eyes on ebay--these can be a real bargain, and their massive dirty sound saves you lots of painstaking programming if you're trying to get that from something else. i pretty much look to this thing first for any sound, altho i've struggled to get good hollow-sounding basslines from it. a small compromise...
wicked synth.
I got mine off ebay for £140 with a few keys not functioning but i promptly fixed these but now one of the voices has died so that every few notes oscillator two doesn't sound (any information on how to fix this would be much appreciated).
regardless of it's faults i love mine and it has the warmest brass and strings you could possibly hope for and although people seem to talk down it's low end when i first put it through a PA i was surprised at how big it sounded...and let's face it...it's just so pretty!
made some nice presets today.