I had the chance to play all three of the new Roland VA reissues, today. I was mildly impressed with the build quality. I think all of the knobs are PCB mounted, so longevity isn’t something if hope for. Personally, I never liked the Juno sound, even when they were actually analog, so I’m not their target. But I get that people love the originals.
What do you guys think? One thing that was kind of shocking, is that they have no velocity control what-so-ever. That seems like a huge deal.
I was interested in the JP-8 until I saw how tiny it actually is. I think the sliders would be hard to use being that small.
If I was to buy a current Roland synth today I’d get the System 1M. I don’t particularly like the green color though.
The only Roland in my arsenal is the PM16 drum to MIDI converter. None of their other products has any appeal to me. I try their stuff from time to time and have not been impressed.
Not even the space echo?
Good product but not what I need.
I love Roland of old, but not been impressed with their recent offerings.
They always seem to just miss making a product great as if they get so far with development and just went, “that’ll do”:
System-1: nice idea, crappy two-octave keyboard, limited polyphony.
TR-8: nice idea but limited number of steps and lots of hidden key strokes to get the add-on sounds.
TB-3. No master tune knob. Touch pad rather than knobs - no thanks.
Boutique series: just too friggin’ small. Limited polyphony. Bad MIDI implementation.
I don’t think these dinky little things will ever actually sound like what they claim they are recreating. I love the Juno series and nothing I have heard makes me think I want that one. I love one version of the Jupiter 8, but not the other and yet again none of the sounds I have heard remind me of a Jupiter 8. I had a JX3P for a day or 2 and I can’t say whether or not this remake will compare to that one.
The price seems OK, if it really was what they claim it to be then it would be a bargain. The size is way too small and haters of the Korg Mini keys will also hate these.
I don’t see why they went with 4 voice max. The synths they are copying had 6-8 voices. 4 Makes no sense to me and it certainly only allows basic chords to be played. It is digital, make it full polyphony (or at least more voices than you have fingers (and a few toes)!
I had high hopes for these. I still hold out a chance that some 1 on 1 time with them may change my mind.
The System 500 Eurorack modules however look and sound great! I have been interested in the older Roland modular sound, but I don’t often see them come up for sale. This might be a way for me to get some of that at my own pace.
The more I think about it, the more I might be ok with it. I still don’t have any interest in buying one. The knobs are way too small. But I kind of like the “hardware for the price of software”. Nick from Sonicstate made an excellent point about recreating old synths. You can’t say they do or don’t sound like the originals, because every individual classic synth has developed its own characteristics over the years. From spending some time with these in person, I would say they don’t sound as good as real analog, but they sound better than most VSTs.
I picked up the jp-08 this morning. I’m really quite pleased with it. I spent some time last week getting to know the boutiques as well as an actual Jupiter (and that’s where I met jsharp). It sounds like the real deal to me. The tuning is not perfect (in a good way). Sure, it’s tiny, but it doesn’t feel too tiny. I too wish it had more polyphony – especially when layering patches. But all in all, it’s really great. The price is right. The sound is fantastic. My biggest complaint is that they didn’t include a USB cable.
A couple of other thoughts, addressing other people’s issues. The resolution on the sliders is really high, so despite the smallness you can get a wide variety of timbres. As for the lack of velocity – the original synths these were based on lacked it, too, so I wasn’t expecting it. That being said, the keyboard add on that they made does transmit velocity – so whose to say they might not add it in in a program update. Battery life isn’t so great (at least with the included batteries), I ran it down in less than a day playing with it on the bus. The lack of midi cc is a little sad, but it does respond to sysex messages so I expect someone will hack a way to control parameters from your DAW in a matter of months. Limited polyphony is a drag, but I can get by on four voices. (There’s always multi tracking if I need more)
I wouldn’t call 127 audible steps really high resolution 
(which is the standard “obsolete” MIDI CC resolution, since the much more precise NRPN is often offered instead by other manufacturers like Moog Music on the Voyager for its knobs, for example).
Thanks for your input. Good thing I was talking about sliders with a higher resolution than 127 steps. As aforementioned, one of the drawbacks is that it doesn’t respond to MIDI CC at all.
You can actually hear those low res steps sliders in action in this video review of the Roland JP-08 at 8:38.
So don’t talk to me about high resolution sliders on the Roland Boutique machines, mister.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE11LYsaTWs
Sorry that we cannot agree as to what is high resolution or not. There is indeed stepping when you modulate the pulse width by hand, but I don’t hear any stepping anywhere else.
Did come across a nitpick on it. The internal sequencer is locked to 16 steps per bar, so when you sync it with a drum machine it can be really way too fast above 80bpm for anything other than a rough attempt at an acid line. Also, it would have been nice if the sequencer wasn’t monophonic and a little easier to program.
I ordered a JP-08 recently, to sequence and automate with my Elektron Monomachine. Turns out you’re right - it doesn’t respond to CC’s, and with such a limited interface, it damn well should. I was hoping it would make me want to keep the MNM, but I cancelled my order for the Jupe and sold the MNM on Ebay recently.
Oh well, so much for Roland rolling out cool retro stuff. for the record, the TR8 is actually pretty awesome. I’m definitely a fan. 
Yeah. That definitely stinks when you find out that the thing you want can’t do things the way you want. Glad you found it before you had already purchased it. Sorry to hear about you giving up your MNM. Elektron is a great company that builds awesome (though menu divey) gear.
It is really a shame about the lack of CC or NRPN, because I would love to add some lfos to mine through midi.
Well, I hope you enjoy yours though. They seem to sound pretty good from what I’ve found online from reputable sources.
Yeah the MNM just wasnt for me. I once had an MD and that sounded too thin for me and again, just not my thing. Even the Analog 4 didn’t work out for me. The latter was more about the requisite menu diving than anything else.
Post up a video or two with your JP08 at some point if you can. And who knows, maybe Roland will expand the OS someday and include midi CCs. Seriously, with an Elektron unit, those Rolands would be great in a portable setup. With all the automation and effects routing between the Elektrons and a few Roland boutique units, damn that would be nice. Oh well.
Thanks to them mapping the Sysex messages over at the Roland Clan forum – I’ve mapped all the controls for the JP-08 to CC commands using the iOS app TB Midi Stuff. Now, I can automate anything on the Roland. It can be downloaded here.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/f69q2s1smwrdtme/Roland%20Boutique%20JP-08.tbms?dl=0
I really do not get what Roland is doing as of late except for the TR-8. I want to like the streamlined design of their synths but cannot get passed the sound quality of even the JD-X series or System 1. Too canned and predictable. The boutique series is like, ‘Why?’ I don’t think the price is that great for how limited they are. Why not get a software synth for less money? I have classic Roland emulations in Reaktor 5 that sound as good imo.
Or maybe I’m just mad because I have sausage links for fingers and can’t play mini keys worth a darn.
“That’ll do Roland. That’ll do.”
Sorry you feel that way. Personally, I hate working with software – takes the fun out of making music. As for the mini keys, they are optional. So you can use a full size controller with it if you want.