JP-8000 is a digital polyphonic synthesizer released by Roland in 1996. In 1995, Sweden Clavia released "Virtual Analog Synthesizer Nord Lead". Roland countered it with the JP-8000.
As of year 2021, JP-8000 is only available at second hand. It seems that many used JP-8000 have problems such as no sound from the line outputs. According to one engineer's comment, the electrolytic capacitors on the main board of JP-8000 leak over time, and the liquid corrodes the circuit board, making no sound. It would be nice if there was sound coming out of the headphone output, but that might not be there either. The modular JP-8080 also has similar problems. What I bought equips replaced electrolytic capacitors on the main board. It may be different from the original sound. In any case, the JP-8000, which works well, seems to be becoming rare.
The feature of JP-8000 is "SUPER SAW", which is a stack of multiple sawtooth waves. I think the appeal of JP-8000 goes beyond that. The sound is heavy and thick, so the bass tone is very attractive. The keyboard is easy to play (although there is no aftertouch). The reverse T lever enables controllable modulation. The second LFO (LFO 2) dedicated to modulation lever are also nice. Of Roland's virtual analogs released after JP-8000, SH-32, SH-201, and SH-01 GAIA do not have a tone name display, but JP-8000 has. The display is very useful when you want to play tones made by other programmers.
For a while after I got JP-8000 and started using it, I was worried about the floor noise mixed in the output. Since the power supply terminal of JP-8000 is 3 poles, I used the power cable of 3 poles as it is. It improved a little when I used 2 pole power cable and floated the ground. You may want to try 3 poles, 2 poles, and what happens if you reverse the 2 poles.
| Sounds | Comments |
|---|---|
| P:A76 Sine Lead | At audition the preset patches of JP-8000, there were a lot of patches that I thought it would be okay to record them, but when I met this "A76 Sine Lead", I definitely wanted to record it. It's my favorite type of sound. It is a sine wave-like lead made from the triangular wave of oscillator 1. The delay effect is good, too. |
| Songs | Comments |
|---|---|
| Room Heated With Machines |
Solo play of JP-8000 preset performance "P: 36 Spacescapes". The lower is a fluffy pad, and the upper is a random 4-octave arpeggio. I changed the arpeggio octaves. I also turned off the arpeggiator hold. When I recorded my play on the sequencer in PC, I was surprised to see lots of notes produced by the arpeggiator. So, I did not use quantize function. However, I'm playing along with the metronome from the sequencer, so I don't think the tempo is shaking badly. After I turned the audio recorder on, started the sequence, and manually adjusted the arpeggio level. |
| JP-8000 Arrived | I played the patch "U: A14: Deep Thought" from the tone file "TECHNO1.MID" for JP-8000. I recorded the cutoff change in the sequencer and plays it back, and the delay level is raised and lowered while the audio recorder is turned on. The drums are the Roland SH-32's "r1U", but I hadn't edited anything, so it should be the same as the "r3P". |
| Twosome | I played the JP-8000 preset performance "P12 Fizzoid Bass" and added Apple Logic's Drummer. I used to prepare the same two drum kits and hit the ending myself to make the ending, but I thought there should be an easier way and searched the internet and YouTube video. It seems that all I have to do is stretch the area. It's amazing. |
| Find A New Landscape |
I got some melody with the preset performance "P: 15 Trancer" of JP-8000. Because I wanted the melody more clearer, I layered "Full Concert Grand" of Yamaha MOTIF-RACK XS. I played the melody with my right hand, and added one or two notes on my left hand. For I would like to keep this tune for solo, I did not added drums. If prepared properly, it may be a song that can be played at live performance alone. |
| To The End Of Life | Solo performance of "P15: Trancer" as well as the above song. I sent a clock from Cakewalk to JP-8000, played it along with the metronome, and quantized it with 8th notes. I played it all at once from the beginning to the end.Yes, Improvisation. However, at the end, I lengthened the sound on the piano roll screen. Shortened the high note and lengthened the low note. This tune may be louder than others. This timbre may not have big peaks. |
| Turn On The Air Conditioner | First, the Roland TR-8 bass drum was played in quarter notes (one eighth note at the fill-in), then the closed hi-hat was played "n-chichi", and then the snare was played in two and four. The three drums were placed on different tracks. After recording, I compressed much in PC audio editor. I don't think the result is bad. I played JP-8000's "P2: Fizzoid Bass" along with TR-8. The theme was something like "C C C Bb C F G". I improvised after the theme. I was not sure what I played. |
| I Don't Say | I played the JP-8000 preset patch "P: A14 Juno Sub Bass" with an arpeggiator. The note information issued by the arpeggiator was recorded by MIDI on Cakewalk and quantized. I wrote the last long tone on the piano roll. I wrote cutoff and modulation control change messages on track 2, entered the Roland TR-8 bass drum and snare on track 3, and entered the hi-hat and toms on track 4. I turned the master recorder MR-2000S on, started the sequence, and lastly modifed the scatter settings of TR-8 in realtime. |
