Roland JX-8P

I've got the possibility of buying a JX-8P for around 200 euros. The seller says the display stops working sometimes but I know a guy who could probably fix that for me. Any other possible defects I should be looking out for?

I've checked out some sounds on yt and I like the overall sound as far as I can tell.

This would be my first HW synth after having had to sell all my gear a couple of years ago. I'm still on a very tight budget and I'm mostly looking for something with instant playability. I have a bunch of midi controllers and am hoping to control the parameters via max for live.

Any thoughts would be very much appreciated.

Get it, it's a rad synth. Like a cooler juno but with 2 oscs and it's not that hard to program. Easier with the PG though.

Might be a loose joint on the display which you can fix easily if not, there are replacement displays about.

Yeah, if you know someone who can sort out the display for you, definitely get it.

Cheers guys.

Sent the guy a mail, if it goes through I'll be picking it up somewhere this week. Already found a decent looking m4l editor for it. Also scored a behringer virtualizer pro for 45,-.

I'm so excited to finally get back into some hardware again!     

Lol my JX-8P had the same display issue

Solution: firmly (though not violently) tap the area above the display

Hehe, tapping electronics seems to fix so many things.

Any other thoughts you'd like to share on your jx8p, Limpy?

I'm reading some threads on gearslutz but there's so much bitterness to wade through.

I looked this up on YouTube to see what it sounds like and it can create some pretty interesting spectra. Interesting bells, timbales, etc. in here:

Strong strings too. What's going on under the hood? Does this provide inter-oscillator or audio-rate modulation like ring mod or FM?

  On 9/6/2016 at 12:11 AM, ussr said:

Hehe, tapping electronics seems to fix so many things.

Any other thoughts you'd like to share on your jx8p, Limpy?

I'm reading some threads on gearslutz but there's so much bitterness to wade through.

I think it's really a beautiful instrument. It's very simple and plain in a certain sense, but hearing it through my monitors always makes me happy. I love having the velocity modulate the pitch by a couple cents to bring some variation to a performance.

The filter isn't very fast.

Does some nice lead stuff (can get 101-ish with some fine-tuning, though not as prestige as a 101)

Get the software controller.

Also, don't forget it has aftertouch...and you can have it modulate pitch or cutoff or some other things...

Thanks for the tip, will check it out.

Had mine about ten years and I love it. No screen damage but its got a sticky key problem which I believe is also very common. Bought it for those Twin Peaks style 'soundtrack' pads (I think Badalamenti used a JX-10?). Kept it for its gooey weirdness and soft-focus 80's stylings. A lot of Voafose's album on Rephlex was made with just a JX-8P and 101 as the synths. You kind of need another synth if you want really fast lead patches. Like Limpy says the slow filter is a bit limiting, and I never bothered to get the programmer so it's not as immediate to edit (but not difficult.) Overall I'd say you'll be happy with your choice.

Heres a track I did years ago with just the JX-8P (and Pro-52) as the synths:

https://soundcloud.com/c-sick-361530104/tharsis-hiss-h

had one for almost a year. amazingy versatile, but you kinda have to get used to the way it sounds as it's not exactly the warm roland analog sound. but possibilities are almost endless. two adsrs, crossmod, multishape lfo. polyphony is amazing, fiddle with adsr and you can get it to sound almost multitimbral. it's great.

programming is fine, but there's an max for live plugin for it if yer realy lazy. highly recommended underrated synth.

Once I started learning about French spectralism and uses of the overtone series, I was very excited about x-mod...

  On 9/6/2016 at 3:55 AM, Mesh Gear Fox said:

it would be a crime to have a jx8p thread and not mention Martin Lüders' awesome free VST emulation of it. 

 

 

 

it's kind of like a deluxe alpha juno, now that i think about it. perfect synthwave synth, and that chorus is ace. it really is one of the best free vst synths out there. 

Cheers for the heads up - excellent download!

Aye, donated to the man a few months back absolutely fabulous VSTi !

A whole bunch of Patches for the PG8X discussed in this thread I found

No login / No Download here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/flyn9rzbll4rdhu/Lukas-PG8X-collected-patches.zip?dl=0

KVR Audio Login Required - Lots of Different User Patches

https://www.kvraudio.com/product/pg-8x-by-ml-vst/downloads

  On 9/6/2016 at 1:30 AM, LimpyLoo said:

 

  On 9/6/2016 at 12:11 AM, ussr said:

Hehe, tapping electronics seems to fix so many things.

Any other thoughts you'd like to share on your jx8p, Limpy?

I'm reading some threads on gearslutz but there's so much bitterness to wade through.

I think it's really a beautiful instrument. It's very simple and plain in a certain sense, but hearing it through my monitors always makes me happy. I love having the velocity modulate the pitch by a couple cents to bring some variation to a performance.

 

The filter isn't very fast.

Does some nice lead stuff (can get 101-ish with some fine-tuning, though not as prestige as a 101)

Get the software controller.

Also, don't forget it has aftertouch...and you can have it modulate pitch or cutoff or some other things...

 

Good infos, thanks!

  On 9/6/2016 at 3:55 AM, Mesh Gear Fox said:

it would be a crime to have a jx8p thread and not mention Martin Lüders' awesome free VST emulation of it. 

 

 

it's kind of like a deluxe alpha juno, now that i think about it. perfect synthwave synth, and that chorus is ace. it really is one of the best free vst synths out there. 

Ah yes, I'm a bit of an idiot, forgot I even had this. Having some trouble storing and recalling presets with it though. 

  On 9/6/2016 at 3:55 AM, Mesh Gear Fox said:

it would be a crime to have a jx8p thread and not mention Martin Lüders' awesome free VST emulation of it. 

 

 

it's kind of like a deluxe alpha juno, now that i think about it. perfect synthwave synth, and that chorus is ace. it really is one of the best free vst synths out there. 

Have you gotten this to work for Mac, specifically Logic? The manual is really vague, and you generally don't put plugins in one folder like you do on a PC...

The vst is very good. Quick and simple for banging out useful sounds in no time, the chorus is pretty sweet, almost makes me not miss my juno.

Amazing for pads,chords,acid.Velocity and XMOD are awesome.Great synth!