Couple of questions before buying

28 Jan 2018, 08:10

Hey guys
I’m thinking of buying a JD XA. I have no way of trying it before purchasing so I hope you guys could answer a couple of (probably stupid) questions for me! Of what I’ve seen online it seems like a great synth for one of my bands, how it sounds extremely fresh and modern, yet analogue at the same time.
- Apart from having amazing pads and leads does it also have traditional sounds like piano, hammond, rhodes? How good are they?
- Am i able to layer various sounds fairly easy? F.ex piano with a pad and modify the sounds realtime?
- Can i split the keyboard into sections? F.ex sub-bass at the bottom, some pads in the middle and leads on top..? If so, do the effects react on all sounds or am i able to add the effects on just the lead on top without affecting the sub and pad?
- When changing sound - is the previous sound still playing or is it a complete stop?
-
- Thanx!

Re: Couple of questions before buying

28 Jan 2018, 09:47

In the way of conventional acoustic sounds it’s pretty poor it has some basic PCM samples as waveforms based on acoustic instruments but the JDXA is more a synth using the Supernatural Synth Engine and the analogue synths engine.

Re: Couple of questions before buying

28 Jan 2018, 12:34

Ok, thanks! As expected I guess.. what about layering, splits and gaps when changing sounds?

Re: Couple of questions before buying

28 Jan 2018, 14:58

Most of the sounds you get to start with are ones that try to accentuate the synths abilities and show off the possibilities of amalgamating digital waveforms with an analogue engine .. which is all great .. there are some quite unique (to me at least) sounds here, which is what I like about it, but I too wondered after a year of ownership whether it was capable of doing some basic sounds well also,.. and the good news is that it can, but you will have to go looking for the waveforms to produce them which means learning how to edit it. I used to think that was hard, but really it isnt, its just frustrating with such a small display, but, rewarding when you see what it can do.

Eventually some guys have produced patches of basic EP's and pianos that proved to me that it can be done, and I must admit, I was surprised when I heard them ... but I should not have been, because all those wave forms are already in the JDXA .. its just that it isn't the main reason people buy this synth, to play sounds you can hear from so much other gear, so they dont feature highly in many sound designers plans .. HTH :-)

Re: Couple of questions before buying

29 Jan 2018, 10:47

Thanks! I will eventually look into that! I'm not asking for much of those but it can replace my other synth on stage if I find something that will do!

When changing sound does the previous sound stop or are they playing over each other?
on Yamaha Motif XF7 there was this gap and I hated the workaround to fix it, so this is an important point for me!

Re: Couple of questions before buying

29 Jan 2018, 14:00

Mgns wrote:
When changing sound does the previous sound stop or are they playing over each other?
on Yamaha Motif XF7 there was this gap and I hated the workaround to fix it, so this is an important point for me!

The patch stops immediately when you select another

Re: Couple of questions before buying

30 Jan 2018, 02:43

This is not viewed as a problem for you guys? Any workarounds on roland?

Re: Couple of questions before buying

30 Jan 2018, 03:43

Mgns wrote:
This is not viewed as a problem for you guys? Any workarounds on roland?

there are very few synths that do this. maybe workstations. that would recommend double the processing power. i personaly never change patches in a song. like a guitar player or a drummer never changes his instruments in the middle of the song. that's why you should have at least 5 synths :D

Re: Couple of questions before buying

30 Jan 2018, 04:26

Hahaha true!
The Motif had like a half second gap, which felt like a lifetime!
This was an issue when i played prog metal and had up to 10 sound changes within one tune hah..
How is this with the JD-XA? Sorry for all the Q’s! I wish i had the opportunity to test this synth myself!

Re: Couple of questions before buying

30 Jan 2018, 15:04

Mgns wrote:
This is not viewed as a problem for you guys? Any workarounds on roland?

I'm actually hopeful that Roland will release a patch for this at some point. The 2.0 release for the JD-XA last year incorporated "Tone Remain" which gives the ability to switch sounds seamlessly, with note effect tails. So clearly, they know that this is something that folks would appreciate, in a live setting. I don't have a work around... but there are 16 swimlanes to work with, when constructing a Studio Set -- so there are options, as long as you have room for another tone in the set.

Re: Couple of questions before buying

31 Jan 2018, 15:51

Jdoo wrote:
The 2.0 release for the JD-XA last year incorporated "Tone Remain" which gives the ability to switch sounds seamlessly, with note effect tails.

Well that spooked me ? .... JDXA is still 1.5 latest ?

Re: Couple of questions before buying

1 Feb 2018, 08:56

bigmuz7 wrote:
Jdoo wrote:
The 2.0 release for the JD-XA last year incorporated "Tone Remain" which gives the ability to switch sounds seamlessly, with note effect tails.
Well that spooked me ? .... JDXA is still 1.5 latest ?

LOL... was not paying attention. I have an FA-06, which had a 2.0 update recently with "Tone Remain". That would be cool, for the JD-XA. Sorry -- crossed the streams, talking about these two in the same post. Anyway - meant the FA series "Tone Remain" capability, would be cool in the 'XA. :)

Cheers (and thanks for the catch) !

Joe