In The Air with the Roland JD-XA

In this video I attempt to re-create a famous polyphonic synth patch using the Rolad JD-XA.

[@fincorrigan7139]

One of the great joys of synthesis....replicating sounds of yesteryear and matching the groove. It's also a tremendous discipline and provides you with a great understanding of the architecture of sound. Happy days! 😉

[@fnersch3367]

I wish I had this when my roomate Steve brought his Minimoog to our dorm back in 1972. Such technology was almost 50 years in the future!

[@christaylor839]

I keep coming back to this video, Tim. It is a great tutorial on building a pad sound on the JDXA-cheers!

[@namenaim1560]

How refreshing to see the much maligned jdxa being loved for a change . Love your music and vids . Great work Tim.

[@EZWest-om4nu]

I love the sound and the potential of this board...,its a shame they did not just place two high resolution knobs on there, instead of ,+,-. That could have made the process a bit smoother.

[@Lainer1]

Love Phil Collins. One of my favorite songs from him. Very good job.

[@aliciafranco5704]

I seriously can listen to Mr Shoebridge's voice ALL DAY (sigh)☆ ! Great review as always🤘❤ Cheers Tim🥂

[@bilonggrisimmeri]

I've owned my JD-XA for 18 months. You're right about menu diving. You can short cut to some pages from various panel controls, but others can only be reached with numerous presses of Shift+. I still think it's brilliant for sheer flexibility and routing possibilities. Analogue out has bright vibrant sound, compared to routed via effects. Combining analogue with digital for extra oscillator or sub-bass works nicely too.

[@namenaim1560]

Oh dear not as much love for poor jdxa as i thought originally , having now finished watching vid !

[@dvamateur]

If I had it my way, I think it would be time now for a JD-X8 with eight two-oscillator analog voices and a five octave keyboard. But, Roland would have a conflict there with their Jupiter-X, which again, if I had it my way, deserves an update to a Jupiter-XL with a six octave keybed of the Jupiter-80. Nonetheless, dreams and personal desires aside, we live in the real world where market dictates the rules, and still, I must say that although initially I wasn't too keen on the JD-XA, now the instrument has grown on me to the point that I want to buy it. I think the JD-XA is absolutely amazing!!!

[@MikkelGrumBovin]

Excellent video -- am i happy i found you ! Yup !

[@markmakesmusic1]

Nice one Tim

[@scorpiiaw]

you looks like an artist

[@scorpiiaw]

look without s. sorry.

[@breako]

Thanks

[@scottbirch968]

Mr. Shoebridge, which would you feel are the most slept-on or underrated synths? Would you include the JD-XA on that list?

[@PnPModular]

I was hoping you get that chimey ping pong on this one! great sound tho! thanks

[@natanletthem]

What specific sound is this though? Or is this just made with a plain square and sawtooth wave alone? These sounds sound like they have way more tones than just that. Also, is the chorus effect on here flanger or chorus that you mentioned? Because the JD-XI doesn't have a chorus, which is my favorite effect of course, and it's the only one it doesn't have...SBN RESONATE

[@noobslayerr9732]

Brother awesome. U can fire up 8 tracks same time with jdxa? How is the internal clock of it? Stable? Only asking cause im complete dawless. Gonna clock it from my erm multi anw but still fot them free flow cable free jams :p it sounds amazing

[@andreasbreuss5907]

You found the answer for the clock?

[@merchannel7762]

Shame we didn’t just play 1 bass note + triad on all synths so that the JD’s analogue feature could participate. That’s what’s special about the JD. I’ve already heard heaps of digital Rolands. Appreciate your channel nonetheless

[@Fluxwithit]

merchannel I know this is an old comment but I just gotta say, aside from the filters, the oscillator section of the jdxa is so stagnant and stale , I kinda feel like the digital VA side of it sounds more “analog” because you have control over osc drift where as the analog side doesn’t (and it doesn’t drift at all)...

[@merchannel7762]

Ken Flux Pierce Fluxwithit I can appreciate that. Thanks for the input my dude.

[@maydaygoingdown5602]

Hi Tim, I know I'm a bit late to this party but what did you think of the JD-Xa?? Do you think it's a bit of a "stuck in the 80's" type of synth sound wise? Is it Roland's updated version of the great JD 800? I'm looking for a synth that exells at evolving pad sound design and this synth kinda has my curiosity...but I don't know why:). If you can remember playing it what was your thoughts on it? Have you come across a synth that is much better for evolving layered pads creation than this?

[@TimShoebridge]

Hi, Yes it's been a long time since I had the JD-XA. To be honest it is a synth that I kind of regret selling, I'm hankering after getting one again. I think the main reason for this is I have since bought a Jupiter XM and appreciate now how the control surface of the JD-XA was helpful to cope with the complexities of the 4-partial / 4-part architecture of the digital side of the synth. Also, I really miss not having a sequencer on the XM like there is on the JD-XA. That said, the XM surpasses the JD-XA in terms of sampled sounds, the XM has thousands whereas the JD-XA had approx 400. So from this point of view the XM expands a lot on the sonic capabilities of the JD-XA's digital engine, it can do layered pads very well, you can set the velocity response of each layer separately, but the XM menus really do suck!

[@LukezyM]

@@TimShoebridge It’s interesting how Roland just never learns. Going from not to well understood JD-XA, to even more menu heavy Jupiter X. And those small cryptic display.

[@agnz]

@@TimShoebridgeI have toyed with moving mine on also, but keep coming to the resolution that I would miss it too much in the end.

[@bennethos]

Last Roland I bought was the Integra-7. Love it. But on the analog side of things Roland has been a bit of an epic failure imho. Not to mention the synths that are lit up like a xmas tree...

[@agnz]

You can turn off the lights all together on the XA.

[@designhappens8444]

what happened with the glossy surface? do you know get the option to choose? (that would be a relief....)

[@CedricSatterfield]

Roland used to give away matte overlays but now you can only find them online or if you know someone.

[@bendavis1458]

? Drum pattern coming from ROLAND JDXA

[@user-th6rh8zp3t]

not sure why ur videos are like asmr

[@mpmi7588]

probably because he does this smacking thing with his mouth when he speaks

[@gretareinarsson7461]

I wish they had it as a desktop. I would by it instantly. They keyboard is crap. Maybe I’ll buy it anywat now that the price is going down.

[@jan-martinulvag1953]

system 8 is better

[@agnz]

In some ways yes.

[@joostderoij6040]

Defenitly

[@vaiman7777]

@@joostderoij6040 It’s not, it’s digital only 😂

[@Zebulon94]

It depends. On the side of the interface and workflow system 8 is better and much more pleasant to use. In terms of possibilities, the JD-XA is much more powerful with real analog oscillators and filters (the vocoder is also analog) in addition to digital oscillators, 3 lfo (only 1 on system 8), more memories, more polyphony... The two are complementary, they don't sound the same.

[@jan-martinulvag1953]

@@Zebulon94 ok