JP-08 Wish List for Roland

Roland corp do not read this forum. its best to submit these things to them directly.

i respect your interest in the boutiques and your enthusiasm on the forum here.

marctronixx wrote:

Roland corp do not read this forum. its best to submit these things to them directly.

i respect your interest in the boutiques and your enthusiasm on the forum here.

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Okay... I understand that. Then let's collect the information here and when there is enough... say 5-10 items, I'll send that info off to Roland and we can continue the list for another 5-10 items.

It's worth a try. Just wishing for it, won't make it happen. A letter from me with the requests and the numbers here on the forum just might carry some weight.

Bring it on people. Tell me your wishes for the Boutique's and I'll submit them. Nothing ventured; nothing gained. It's worth a try.

Don

- LFO tempo sync to MIDI
- more voices
- a proper power supply
- allow the unit to send and receive sysex
- even more user memory locations
- a proper tempo adjustment function for the sequencer
- the JP8's arpeggiator with MIDI clock sync
- longer faders

What I would really like though, is a 61-key, 8-voice version (the Jupiter 08?) that addresses all of the above issues. It could even look like the original and cost around £1,200.

marctronixx wrote:

Roland corp do not read this forum. its best to submit these things to them directly.

Just to be absolutely clear, Roland staff do read this forum.

Whilst I agree with getting in touch directly, I just wanted to clarify :)

my point is they don't consider this a main place for research. I am sure they read a lot of websites (gear slutz for example?).

my main point is, email them directly. I did that with the XP80 back in the day, the VP 9000 and I also emailed them about certain things relating to the Aira series.

Roland considers this forum as one of many places of research - or course doesn't mean any of the ideas here will be actioned. I recall with Jupiter-80 a librarian was (and still is) very much needed with every single forum crying out for such a thing with a plethora of emails directly to Roland, with even Roland UK, CE, US staff supporting it - but still, Roland JP refused to act.

I agree though - if you want to highlight a problem you think exists, post it on forums AND send it to your regional ROland. That way you can be sure they've received as their usually quite good at acknowledging receipt.

Personally, I would have preferred an arp instead of the sequencer. Functionality aside, The main thing I would like to have had on the JP-08 would be the row of colored buttons like the original.

I feel that the 2 major areas that would benefit from being addressed are firstly the note stealing from the master unit when polychaining 2 units. For those looking for a functional polyphonic experience by purchasing an additional unit this is very high up in their requirements. Secondly if the midi issue of only having system exclusive messages being read by an external controller could be overcome it would really open up these units especially the JP-08.

thats why i picked up 3 jp08s...

Lose the LED demo and replace it with, well anything, even auto destruct would be more useful.

Other than fixing the note stealing while chained, I would like a wider, more forgiving center to the pitch bend. (I'm tired of the pitch jumping on my initial touch because I wasn't in the exact center)

I wish the modulation strip was more programmable. I should be able to use it for filter sweep, LFO to cutoff, etc. For vibrato where it is now fixed it doesn't go as deep as I often want. I should be able to use one of the touch strips to tweak parameters for a larger controller than the small sliders.

marctronixx wrote:

Roland corp do not read this forum. its best to submit these things to them directly.

Trust me - I know for a fact many Roland staff do read posts here. Doesn't mean they themselves are in a position to do things! However the more people that post about a certain topic, the better those staff can represent their users to Roland JP (where all the decisions are taken).

Then if the likelihood is high for Roland staff to read this I'll restate my wishes, just for clarity.
Highest priority would be to improve on the note stealing issue when 2 or more units are connected together.
Next up would be addressing having MIDI cc control over all the sliders and pots etc.
Lastly I like the idea put forward by "tboneuk" to have a fine control of the pots and sliders using the Mod strip. So you could engage say the Envelope 1 Attack and then have extended fine control using the mod strip. This would neatly overcome the perception of the JP-08 as not being optimal for use in a live or sound design senario.

It should be stated that the Roland Engineers have done a fantastic job of recreating the Jupiter 8 sound as I have tested this against an original and confirmed the hard work and brilliance of matching the JP-08 against its forerunner. A job very well done in that department just a few more firmware tweaks and the JP-08 will be gold!