Roland JD-Xi

Eli hyvä pikkusyna aloittelijalle. Tällä on helppo luonnostella ideoita, joskin pattern-sekvensserin tahtirajoitus häiritsi alussa.

Plussat:
+ pieni koko oli mainio omaan käyttötarkoitukseen
+ käsin säädettäviä namikoita kohtuullisen riittävästi. Miinuksena voi todeta, että tarkemmassa säätämisessä seuraa menuissa sukeltelua. Tämän voi välttää sillä, että käyttää tietokonesoftaa äänenmuokkauksessa.
+ editori/managerisofta ok
+ joutsenkaulamikki tuli mukana, voi vetää Vocoderilla ;-)
+ saa ladattua lisäsoundeja valmistajan kirjastosta
+ soundien yleisilme tähän hintaluokkaan hyvä, rummutkin kivat
+ saa yhdistettyä toisen soittimen, vaikkapa kitaran tähän. Voit siis soittaa kitaralla synan läpi. Träkkäys tippuu kyydistä kahden sävelen soidessa yhdessä, joten parempi vetää yhden sävelen kulkuja. Ei korvaa kitarasynaa, mutta tämä oli kiva ekstra.


Miinukset:
- pieni näyttö
- alkuperäinen säädinlaudan puna-mustakontrasti on näkyvyydeltään heikko, onneksi mukana tuli musta-hopea-vaihtokalvot, jotka pysyvät ilman kiinnitystäkin paikallaan
- soitinäänten vaihdossa voisi olla vaikkapa rulla sitä nopeuttamassa
- pattern-sekvensserin tahtirajoitus oli itselle suurin miinus. Tosin patterneja voi sitten ketjuttaa toinen toisensa perään, mutta silti.
- efektien (säröt, modulaatiot, viiveet, kaiut) taso vaihteleva

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Truly an EDM-genre sonic sketchbook. Sounds good. Restricted sequencer pattern length was a letdown but you can chain the patterns. While going deeper avoid menu-diving and use the editor software. It was fun to plug in the electric guitar and play single note runs with 80s analog synth sounds.

It's love.. true love.. and lust.. had this 2 months now and man, I can't sing it's praises enough.. I've had groove stations before and analogue and digital synths.. SH-2 and EG101 amongst others.. nothing is as much fun or as versatile as this.
Sounds... plenty.. and for the most part all very useable.. not many synth preset lists can say that … and all extremely tweakable with the intuitive pot controllers... easy to record / save patches sounds and patterns to a user destination...
sounds are grouped into Keys / Bass / Strings / Pads / Lead / Sequences / FX / Brass.. easy to navigate / find what you want quick..
Drum sounds are all grouped into great kits.. 606, 707, 808, 909.. the fabulous CR78.. they're all here.. and you can move any sound to any "pattern"
I do a fair bit of dance / ambient.. but also a bit of rock and even irish trad.. I use this on everything....
It's easy to get started out of the box and not a steep learning curve... but there's so much more under the hood I've barely scratched at yet.
Not really used the vocoder much so can't comment on it.. except to say the thing itself is sturdy and solid, as is the xlr socket.
Mini keys... not for some, but my first synth was a casio CZ 101 so I'm used to them...
Midi and audio straight into my Cubase... easy>
Mad Fun... Great sounds... so much synth in such a small footprint, insane.
SHIPS with good quality white on black overlays to make reading the panel easier... that said, I don't mind the red on black... and after a while you know what buttons do what anyway.
Rave on dudes. killer machine.
Oh... Only minor gripe... the tempo dial, I find it can be quite easy to bump accidentally while accessing other buttons and parameters.. But once you know that, you're just more careful ;-)

This itty-bitty little keyboard looks like something that You?d give a child to learn a bit of music.

However..

This small-form keyboard is a full-fledged 4-part Synth+ Rythm-machine!

It is ab-so-lutely amazing how much functionality Roland crammed in it petite housing. 3 full-on Integra like synths, 1 analog monophonic synth with sub-occillator with a bunch of creamy filters, ànd.. as cherry on the pie, about EVERY classic Roland drumcomputer as samples (that can be filtered and mauled to Your heart?s content..in real-time..) Just because ?they could?

Only disadvantage are the tiiiny keys (with velocity sensitivity !) but, attach a Midi-keyboard with full-sized keys, and it starts to réally shine.

Important: Download the latest patches and firmware. It adds much broader functionality to the sequencer and drums.

Be aware, though. The thing is completely geared towards Dance in all it?s iterations with basses and drums that make Your woofers cry for mercy and tweeters scream in agony. No violins, or endless saxes, guitars or classical organs, just very useful ( fully editable) sounds for about any type of dance/hardcore( a great overdrive, fuzz and digitizer on-board) LOVE it!
Combined with a very comprehensible sequencer, You?ll make Your hard-house or your Wub-wub track in no-time short. But it also excels at weird swooshy, dreamy ambient stuff.

For this price a no-brainer for anyone dabbling in modern dance-styles.