Roland JD-Xi

I'll never gonna sell this one

This is "the synth". At first it looks average, but when you dig in... Powerful

It can be used as standalone, or as a MIDI, but it's stupid to use it as MIDI. If you are into electronic music, no matter genre it is, with this you are safe for a long time. It has everything. Wish that has bigger keys, but then it wouldn't fit in rucksack.

This is for programers not for musicians.

Ok, so great quality, sound is great but not pro, amazing looks, BUT...

I was dreaming to get this synth and watched tutorials and stuff, then I finally got it and started feeling more and more disappointed and ended up selling it. The lesson is learnt, what I don't like from this synth and will prevent such things in future is = Whatever you want to do here, you have to dive deep into the world of "shift+enter" yeah, like a freaking computer, wanna change the Arpeggiator? good luck, spend 10 mins minimum trying to get into the function plus trying to understand which arpeggio you like. Want to navigate or change voice? from Lead synth guitar to some e-piano? well not in real time, not during playing, not even on favourites, dive again into the depth of this synth.

If you heard about how cool that Roland offers the coaxial site where you can download for free hundreds of new sound/voices pack, yes you can do it and it is great but it is a pain in the ... to navigate into the shift dimension and shift from voice banks to voice banks, even weirder than with the built in voices.

From every 100 voices maybe 1 or 2 are actually useful, big minus.

Yes you can use the line in jack so that this synth would work as a huge effect pedal to your bass or guitar, but let's be honest, that's not the reason why you get a synth, better get effect pedals.

One thing that lured me into this synth was the step sequence drum function, which at the end, it's so complicated to use, to get the drum sounds you want and to set it up, you will spend more time watching online tutorials than enjoying and by that time you mood is death, better get a real drum machine.

Most of sounds of this synth are DJ oriented, I would say this synth could be a cool add for a DJ who has all his instruments on the table + adding this style of synth for some extra action. But as it goes for musicians no I don't advice you wasting your time with this thing. Better get something normal like a Yamaha MX, Roland FA, Korg Kross, etc.

jd-xi

the good old 4-track workflow with roland sequencers, synths and drum machines. excellent. dawless joy.

Compact and bijou

I have a full-size hammer-action piano synth already so this little number nicely fits the electro gap in my repertoire. I find the smaller, snappier keys fit this genre better than weighted keys. I certainly find it easier to play the luxurious drum samples on this machine; its keyboard provides a very positive and direct connection to the sounds.

Of course, to test it I just got stuck in and ignored the user manual. The layout is quite simple to understand and twiddling with the knobs proved a good way to explore the functions. I've never used an arpeggiator before and in no time I was arpeggiating like a pro. Well, it's not that hard, as I found out. Easy on a machine that just lets you do what you want with no menu-diving.

This keyboard sits with the Mininova and Microkorg in roughly the same category and price point. I agonised for a while over which one suited me best and I decided that, pound for pound, the Roland had the best set of features. One deciding factor was it has 16 sequence pads above the keyboard. And it has 128 polyphony. Sounds good to me!

Great synth

Pros:

Fun, intuitive, great sounds, built in drum machine.

Cons:

Four measure recording limit, no chaining between programs means you can't run a whole track without manually switching between sections (this is the biggest con for me by far).

synthtastic.

It's love.. true love.. and lust.. had this 2 months now and man, I can't sing it's praises enough.. I've had groove stations before and analogue and digital synths.. SH-2 and EG101 amongst others.. nothing is as much fun or as versatile as this.

Sounds... plenty.. and for the most part all very useable.. not many synth preset lists can say that … and all extremely tweakable with the intuitive pot controllers... easy to record / save patches sounds and patterns to a user destination...

sounds are grouped into Keys / Bass / Strings / Pads / Lead / Sequences / FX / Brass.. easy to navigate / find what you want quick..

Drum sounds are all grouped into great kits.. 606, 707, 808, 909.. the fabulous CR78.. they're all here.. and you can move any sound to any "pattern"

I do a fair bit of dance / ambient.. but also a bit of rock and even irish trad.. I use this on everything....

It's easy to get started out of the box and not a steep learning curve... but there's so much more under the hood I've barely scratched at yet.

Not really used the vocoder much so can't comment on it.. except to say the thing itself is sturdy and solid, as is the xlr socket.

Mini keys... not for some, but my first synth was a casio CZ 101 so I'm used to them...

Midi and audio straight into my Cubase... easy>

Mad Fun... Great sounds... so much synth in such a small footprint, insane.

SHIPS with good quality white on black overlays to make reading the panel easier... that said, I don't mind the red on black... and after a while you know what buttons do what anyway.

Rave on dudes. killer machine.

Oh... Only minor gripe... the tempo dial, I find it can be quite easy to bump accidentally while accessing other buttons and parameters.. But once you know that, you're just more careful ;-)

Great for creating music

It has it all. Synths, bass, drums, you name it. Everytime you turn it on you feel the urge to create something new. And its little size means that you can do it while sitting on the couch!

Super Happy.

I am new to music and I love this Synth I am having great fun using it learning what it can do it has made me very happy I choose this Roland Synth, and the fun i am having with the Mic, I am very happy I went with this synth when there was a few others I was going to buy. Allot of fun is one box. with the drums, mic and analogue part and 2 digital parts it makes helps you create something very easy. I can't wait until I really know how to use it as this is giving me hours of play time and i only got it.

Super fun machine

I bought it for making music, inspiration, pad sound in live gigs. It's my first synth.

Looks fantastic, high quality material. It's really nice that it comes with matte sticker/skin which makes synth to look less glossy and more professional I would say.

Piano keys are the thing that need to get used to but it doesn't feel cheap at all.

Navigation and controls were clear for me and there are many free videos and tutorials online.

Features part is to big to describe. What can I say is that it is super inspirational tool for making music. It's quite limited for one man band (4 tracks and too few bars can be recorded internally) live performance shows but it definitely can do that.

SOUND!!! It's amazing. Straight away sounds as a record. All frequencies are awesome. And I found almost all sounds usable.

Its super nice that this fantastic machine is so small, so lightweight and sounds so good. Well done Roland!

A workstation

If you have a homestudio or play the guitar and need a small synth this is your choice. It's a full workstation, small and powerfull. If you plug your guitar on it you can get some really crazy sounds, with fuzz + flanger + stereo delay + reverb. The sounds are Roland basic modern collection, but tons of them. It's not a keyboard for someone who wants a crystal clear piano or clarinet though. It's for jam in an electro mood.