Gandalf - The Roland JD-800 Custom White Synth

This is a very nice customization.

Jeff Toman of Customsynth.co.uk artistically created a beautiful new all-white look for Dave´s Roland JD-800, in the style of a classic '80s SH-101 synth.

You can see it at Dave´s site.

Also see the 29-image Flickr set showing Randel's synth barn in Essex, CT, adding custom parts onto an otherwise stock synth..


There´s a video of the Gandalf in action: a must see!

And here is Gandalf, The White:

 

And the studio:

A Roland JD-800 Synth Repair Video

This guy diagnosed and discussed these common issues: 

• Battery replacement 
• Dead keys 
• Clanking keys 
• Missing weights 
• Glue 
• Velocity stuck at max value 
• Bad buttons 
• Jumpy sliders 
• Part numbers included

Remember: If you try it is at your own risk.


Video at Youtube by Moretacos1

Software and Patches for the JD-800 and JD-990

There are very good professional software supporting  the Roland JD-800 and JD-990, but if you want a non-pay choice, these are the best.

The JD-800 Patch Organizer created by Laurent Lecatelier-Dudec (France), was released as freeware in 24/04/1999 (date in original author´s site) and is no more available from the programmer´s site.

In more recent years, Gwydion Elderwin (Australia) created a JD-800 Randon Bank Creator and a Jd-800 to JD-990 Bank Converter.

About the patch banks here.

The first I found many years ago, was compiled by Stephen Drake, the guy who kept most of JD material available for years. This site is proud to pay him our tribute. Thanks Stephen!
The first internet banks are so-so grouped, thus makes some sense.

Gwydion also have done a strong work removing duplicates from hundreds of patches, adding lots more and creating a library for each synth. Still is missing time to classify all that stuff into categories.

Missing all you my friends, I know business and daily life take time, but I would be happy to receive some news. 

The bank files are in .rar format. You need Winrar or compatible to extract it.


Also: 

Links for other JD sites, stuff and foruns. Permanent list

.'.

NEW JDTools - Patch conversion utility for Roland JD-800 / JD-990 and compatibles

Formats supported: JD-800 SysEx dumps (SYX, MID) 

JD-990 SysEx dump (SYX)

JD-800 VST / Zenology patch bank (BIN)

JD-08 patch bank (SVD)

ZC1 patch bank (SVZ)

Roland JD-990 Sysex Dump Utility for Ctrlr - by dnaldoog

Roland SUPER JD Synthesizer Module JD-990 Editor for Ctrlr - by dnaldoog

.'.

Christian Morency released a Beta version of a VST Patch Editor for the Roland JD-800 and JD-990.
See the following post with some info, links and video tutorials:
JD-800 JD-990 VST Patch Editor VST for CTRLR

.'.

A new post is added with a user created for the Logic Studio platform on Mac:

Mac Logic Studio: a little Roland JD800 Environment

.'.

Downloads:

JD800 Patch Organizer                                                       230 Kb
JD800 pach banks organized by Gwydion Elderwin           499 Kb
JD800 Path banks internet collection                                     407 Kb
JD800 randon bank creator                                                     512 Kb

JD800 to JD990 Bank Converter                                            177 Kb

JD990 Patch Organizer                                                         230 Kb
JD990 Pach banks organized by Gwydion Elderwin              544 Kb


Roland SL-JD Cards Patches Not waveforms                    62Kb

Roland JD-800 SE Especial Edition Patches (a Brazilian version not in the factory presets). This was an interesting remarkable work from great Brazilian musicians with new exclusive patches. Most people forgot to save that and lose the patches made by Roland's Brazil people. Some (few) requires the Strings card.

.'.

Keep Your JD-800 Clean

Just be careful with the Roland JD-800, clean it very often. 

Dust in the sliders, button and circuits can provoke a typical JD-800 berzerk (auto-programming...). 

This effect is like a ghost acting in the synth. If you don´t use to change program while playing, turn off the banks edit mode. (just press bank A-b-C-D to light off and then save the patch.


You will also note, when some parameter is changed because dust, a "point" will light in the painel, like if you have done it.

.'.

Differences between JD-800 and JD-990

 The Roland JD-990 is the Supermodule of the JD-800. It have extended capabilities and is a "big plus" to any setup.I have seen many setups with more than one JD-990 in the rack. 

1. Expanded wave ROM (6MB vs. 4MB)
2. Ability to use a 8MB expansion board
3. 4 additional outs
4. True stereo engine
5. Osc sync
6. Cross-mod (FXM)
7. Osc structures that allow ring mod and serial dual filters
8. Additional LFO waveforms
9. MIDI CC control of parameters
10. Tempo-sync delay
11. Polyphonic portamento
12. Performance memories
13. Additional multi-timbral slots
14. One patch can keep full effects in multi mode

 For the complete comments by Don Solaris and some DEMOS of the JD-990 visit: 

Don Solaris - Roland JD-990 info and synthesis examples

Thanks to Ian and Don Solaris for this part.

 

 

Be up to date with your JD-990: The nice people at the Roland_JD-990 Yahoo Group have very good material about it.

 

.'.

The Original Internal Sound Demos

Here’s how to hear the “ROM Play” demo songs built into the JD-800.


Each mode (Single/Multi) has one demo song.


Select Single mode Or Multi mode.
While holding EXIT, press INC/YES.

Press YNC/YES and playback will begin.
Press DEC/NO and playback will stop.


Press EXIT once again to return to Single mode.


* During ROM Play in the Single mode, the informations of phrases are appeared in the display.

* It is not possible to play the keyboard during ROM Play.
* The ROM Play data is not transmitted from MIDI OUT.

.'.

Bellow a record of the demo songs.


The sound files here are recording from the Roland JD-800 internal sound demos. Copyright  by Roland Co.

The JD-800 have two good internal demos, one for each mode (single or multi-timbral).

Mode			Server 2  (Ok, at Google Docs)	Size	Time
Single Mode			Part 0	977 Kb	1:02
Single Mode			Part 1	707 Kb	0:45
Single Mode			Part 2	1097 Kb	1:10
Single Mode			Part 3	641 Kb	0:40
Single Mode			Part 4	566 Kb	0:36
Single Mode			Part 5	533 Kb	0:33
Multi Mode			Multi Demo	660 Kb	1:36

Note: This are 128kbps mp3 files, so I reduced the overall quality. I want upload better quality sound files, but have been short in time. Anyways, the sounds are great.

See the movies in the other posts. They have great samples of what great sounds this synth is capable.


Edited:


SynthMania posted a nice video with the the 64 classic factory patches! Thanks!

.'.

Links for other JD sites, stuff and foruns. Permanent list

The links are unordered. Some sites may requires translation like translate.google.com


Notes:
1-Some sites may be no more available, so please notify me as my time is limited.
2-If you own a website with technical material (no sales promotion please) send me a message so I can add it here.



The two best foruns for the Roland JD-800 and JD-990:

• JD-800_Tech Yahoo Group. This is a group covering technical, repair, performance, and programming aspects of the Roland JD-800 synthesizer. The group is active and the spammers removed.
• Roland_JD-990 Yahoo Group. For all users of the Roland JD-990. This group is intended for the sharing of links, Useage info, Tips/tricks, & user patches.

Tact Switch Black - up/down, decr./incr

(replacement for 13169696)

vintageplanet.nl  - Parts Service for Vintage Synthesizer - They have parts for JD-800 and JD-990.





VintageSynth One of the most famous reference for every synth.


Harmony Central  This is one of the best site and foruns for musicians.

• Roland JD-800 Review
• Roland JD-990 Review
• Keys, Synths & Samplers Forum
• KSS Roland JD-990/JD-800 competition

Polynominal JD-800 This guy have good tech specifications material and some JD800 stuff.


www.bluesynths.com A detailed guide to keyboards and their musical aspects by synth lovers. good stuff, very nice pictures and great sound demos (not the internals) of the JD-800!
They also have very interesting sound at their Myspace profile: Roland JD800 Long Mix.

SynthMania.com Information and Demos of Synthesizers. Great material or the Jd-990, sound demos for original and card patches . Must see and listen!



retrosound.de  Vintage Synthesizers Page.


synrise.de This site turned to pay mode, but have some o the best material about synths I have seen.



Don Solaris  A great musician and a JD-master with the JD-800 and JD-990. His site have some interesting and very usefull technical material.

Midiox Sysex utility program for sending/receiving bulk dumps from your synth (Win 9X.. and later.

Pro-Rec's JD-800 & jd-990 page  3rd party patches for your JD-990.

Sonicstate.com  Great synth site!


MatrixSynth Great everything synths blog!



Sonic Plug- Roland JD-990 Great tribute page to the JD-990.


http://www.synthzone.com Great synth tech info.

• Synthzone JD800 patches some assorted patches  for the JD-800.
  
• Synthzone JD990 patches some assorted patches  for the JD-990.
  

MEMI-Makers-Soundpool Free JD-990 Sounds.

Kid Nepro's Home page 3rd party patch creator/reseller. Good stuff, I have their demo for the 990 in the file section.

Dancetech.com  Good review.

JarreLook  Great Jean Michel Jarre Tribute Band from the UK.
If you want Jarre patches, see their download page for JD800 patches and other synths




JD-800.tripod.com  - Good info and description of the JD-800 Sound Libraries cards and waveforms.


Mark Smart have great material:

• Mark Smart JD-800 page -Using the JD-800 As A Giant MIDI Slider Box 
• Mark Smart Choir Sounds Without Samples - Excelent page about about creating choir patches for the JD-800, based on the classic VP-330. Choir Patches and sound Demos avalilable.

Bobby Blues JD800/JD990 page A vintage 80's-90's synthesizers site with a good JD area with synthesis description, collection of patches, links to the comercial patch sites, some examples of famous artists, etc.



Synthony Music´s Synth & Amp; Midi Museum


Dragonkiller  Good japanese page with links for more stuff, movies, etc.


Sysex Database Sysex messages for the JD and other synths.

.'.