Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Roland JV 2080

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Manufacturer
  
Roland

Price
  
1399 UKP

Timbrality
  
16 part Multitimbral

Dates
  
January 1997–2000

Polyphony
  
64 tones

Oscillator
  
4 tones per voice

The Roland JV-2080, released in 1997, is an expanded version of the JV-1080. Based on a sample + synthesis architecture, the JV-2080 provided a library of on-board sample material and a semi-modular synthesis engine.

Contents

Main features

The JV-2080 ("2080") is a sample+synthesis synthesizer with support for 768 internal patches, including General MIDI. In addition to the synthesizer, it also include a multi effects module, with 40 effect types, of which three can be used simultaneously. The 2080 is expandable via proprietary modules that contain both sample-based waveform data and patch information. The internal memory of the 2080 is divided into five sections.

  • USER – User re-writeable storage (RAM), initially contains a modified copy of PR-E.
  • PR-A, B, C, E (Preset A through C and E) – Presets in read-only memory, cannot be modified.
  • PR-D (General MIDI) – Presets compatible with the General MIDI system.
  • XP-A through H (Expansion A through H) – Patches and Rhythm Sets from expansion boards, installed in slots A through H.
  • CARD – Data from compatible memory cards and sound library cards (PN-JV80 series).

    • On-board demos

    The JV-2080 has three on-board demo songs. The demos are:

  • "Timepeace", by Scott Tibbs.
  • "Denki", by Ryeland Allison.
  • "Short Cuts", by Yuuki Kato. Directed by Takayuki Nagatani.

    • Factory Sounds

    The core sampled waveforms of the JV-2080 were developed by Roland R&D-LA in Culver City, California. Some of the Factory presets and Xpansion board sounds were created by Eric Persing of Spectrasonics and Ace Yukawa.

    Expansion

    In common with other Roland instruments, the JV-2080 could be expanded with SR-JV80 expansion boards, and could accept up to eight of them at one time.It can also use the SR-JV80-10 Bass & Drums board. This board contained 241 waveforms derived from the Spectrasonics sample libraries "Bass Legends", "Burning Grooves", and "Liquid Grooves". The Xpansion board's name was carefully chosen as to not confuse Jungle music producers

    Notable users and genres

    The JV-1080 and JV-2080 attract artists and producers from a broad range of genres. Synthpop artist Thomas Dolby once remarked that he didn't find the JV as immediate in usability as his older synthesizers. The JV-2080 has featured in the studios of Tidy Trax Records, a Hard House record label based in the UK. Australian Electro band Gerling used the JV-1080 on their album Children Of Telepathic Experiences. LTJ Bukem and Photek have also used it in music production and film scoring, respectively.

    References

    Roland JV-2080 Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA