Post by flicker66 on Mar 22, 2008 10:26:56 GMT
I admit I am biased: I'm in love with my 1080! 
Deciding to replace two smaller modules - a Roland SC-55 Sound Canvas and an Akai SG01v vintage synth module - with something that could be even more of a total solution, I went for the 1080 and I'm very glad I did.
It's a fairly sizeable beast, occupying 3U of rack space but the sounds are what sets it apart from most of what I've owned before. I did buy the 1080's smaller brother, the JV-880, sometime before so I had an idea of what to expect but the 1080 has gone well beyond anything I'd believed earlier.
It's sixteen part multi-timbral with an overall sixty-four voice capability. Inside there's room for four expansion boards and I have the Experience 2, House, Techno and Vintage Synth boards installed.
Each one of these has a minimum of one hundred single patches on it and sometimes a lot more. As well as the boards, there are three preset patch sections with one hundred patches in each and the 1.0 GM soundset which stacks up to another one hundred and twenty-eight. I've also got two ROM cards for it so there are over a thousand single patches available to me at any one time. In fact there are so many, I wrote down the individual banks (pianos, strings etc) and then printed out lists to go onto my studio wall so that I could find what I wanted quickly!
The 1080 has forty different built-in effects and six outputs (three stereo pairs) so it's easy to separate stuff in the mix. There's also a comprehensive 'rhythm sound' (drum) section although if you want to edit the kits/sounds themselves and then save them, you've only two user and two RAM card locations to do so! This is a slight limitation but overall precision and editing ease can overcome this a bit. The sounds themselves are sparkling and yes, all the vintage 808/909 etc sounds are present.
I'd say the Vintage Synths board is a real bonus. Roland plundered not only their own legacy but also those of ARP, Moog, Sequential and several other companies so the board is teeming with as many classic analogue timbres, string machines etc as one could wish to have.
The JV-1080 has long been an industry workhorse and it's not hard to see why. Even though the trend towards soft synths continues to be evident, this is one piece of hardware kit you'd do well to consider buying if you come across one.
For more info, check out www.sonicstate.com/synth/jv1080.cfm
Deciding to replace two smaller modules - a Roland SC-55 Sound Canvas and an Akai SG01v vintage synth module - with something that could be even more of a total solution, I went for the 1080 and I'm very glad I did.
It's a fairly sizeable beast, occupying 3U of rack space but the sounds are what sets it apart from most of what I've owned before. I did buy the 1080's smaller brother, the JV-880, sometime before so I had an idea of what to expect but the 1080 has gone well beyond anything I'd believed earlier.
It's sixteen part multi-timbral with an overall sixty-four voice capability. Inside there's room for four expansion boards and I have the Experience 2, House, Techno and Vintage Synth boards installed.
Each one of these has a minimum of one hundred single patches on it and sometimes a lot more. As well as the boards, there are three preset patch sections with one hundred patches in each and the 1.0 GM soundset which stacks up to another one hundred and twenty-eight. I've also got two ROM cards for it so there are over a thousand single patches available to me at any one time. In fact there are so many, I wrote down the individual banks (pianos, strings etc) and then printed out lists to go onto my studio wall so that I could find what I wanted quickly!
The 1080 has forty different built-in effects and six outputs (three stereo pairs) so it's easy to separate stuff in the mix. There's also a comprehensive 'rhythm sound' (drum) section although if you want to edit the kits/sounds themselves and then save them, you've only two user and two RAM card locations to do so! This is a slight limitation but overall precision and editing ease can overcome this a bit. The sounds themselves are sparkling and yes, all the vintage 808/909 etc sounds are present.
I'd say the Vintage Synths board is a real bonus. Roland plundered not only their own legacy but also those of ARP, Moog, Sequential and several other companies so the board is teeming with as many classic analogue timbres, string machines etc as one could wish to have.
The JV-1080 has long been an industry workhorse and it's not hard to see why. Even though the trend towards soft synths continues to be evident, this is one piece of hardware kit you'd do well to consider buying if you come across one.
For more info, check out www.sonicstate.com/synth/jv1080.cfm
