Vintage Synth Explorer

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.

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az78

Posted Yesterday

THIS is at least a 4 star synth VE! It's criminally underated by those that only ever used it as a (bad) preset machine and never bothered to dive in and program. You can make great patches all day long on this and it's filter and overall sound are in a different league to anything that followed by Roland (8P etc was cool but THIS cool). Junos 6/60 also had the great filter but are really quite boring synths next to the JX-3P. 3P is one of the best kept secrets of the synth world (hence low prices) and maybe this 3 star rating (when in fact it is hands down the best SOUNDING JX) may have something to do with that :)

The basses and general low end sound of this synth really punch in a mix, not in a moog/sh way of course but for DCO it's got it's own bass sound that you can layer with FM etc - great! And then on the higher end it's shines and shimmers beautifully. One of the best tones to a 'cheaper' synth I've ever heard. Forget JX10.. *THIS* is the only true SUPER JX!

il

Posted 63 days ago

lyric: "There's blood on the JX-3P" - Spacehotel 'Rewind 25' (2009) (also used as the main synth all over that song).

il

Posted 63 days ago

Also used by Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz) in his studio '13' - since late 90s.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug99/articles/blur.htm

instra:mental

Posted 64 days ago

love this little badboy,dont know if its just our one that sounds so old and wonky,but thats why i love it.

1981analog

Posted 64 days ago

Just bought one, at 1030pm of a night, for a ridiculously cheap price, and it is MINT with a hard case...just started playing on it...it even has the original manual! No PG-200, but you can't have everything.
Ah well, I'm going to read the manual now. Look out for a demo on YT!

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