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Reviews | Roland JD-Xi

veryone has been lamenting

the lack of a Roland analogue

synth for years but, with real

analogue having such a

resurgence currently, Roland simply

couldn’t afford to sit out of this market

any longer. The new JD-Xi is Roland’s

ﬁ rst ‘crossover’ synth fusing Roland’s

respected SuperNatural technology to

an all-new analogue synth engine.

The JD-Xi looks classy, taking many

design cues from the FA line. Like the

FA, the colour scheme is black and red

with a glossy front panel but the JD-Xi

also features striking metallic red plastic

sides. The panel features 15 sturdy-

feeling knobs that send/receive MIDI,

plus translucent rubber backlit selector

buttons and it all feels well built. The

red LCD is easy to read and relays the

plethora of onboard parameters well

considering its small size. However, with

so many functions/parameters hidden in

menus, there’s inevitably a lot of cursor/

button pressing so I hope the rumours

of an editor in the works come true.

Thankfully, you can scroll in tens and

jump straight to editing sections when

holding shift plus pressing the

incremental buttons, but perhaps

Roland can add an alternative value dial

mode for the tempo knob in an update.

Take a gander

Front left you’ll ﬁ nd mini pitch/mod

wheels that feel smooth and work well,

whilst the velocity sensitive four-octave

mini-key keyboard feels nicely balanced

and fast. There’s no aftertouch included

but the JD-Xi responds to incoming

aftertouch. Physically, the footprint is

similar to Korg’s microKorg and

Novation’s MiniNova, and similarly

there’s a large category dial for selecting

sound types and an XLR gooseneck mic

socket (with a nice bendy gooseneck

mic included) for vocoding and

WHAT IS IT?

An analogue monosynth

and digital polysynth

with sequencer,

vocoder, effects and

USB/audio interface

CONTACT

Who: Roland UK

Tel: 01792 702701

Web: www.roland.co.uk

HIGHLIGHTS

1 The real analogue

monosynth sounds great,

whilst the SuperNatural

engine is deep and

extremely versatile

2 The four-part onboard

sequencer is an inspiring

live and studio tool

3 The vocoder and effects,

plus audio interface

capability round things

off nicely

Roland JD-Xi | £459

The JD-Xi couples a real analogue monosynth to

Roland’s SuperNatural sound engine. Dan ‘JD73’

Goldman explores Roland’s ﬁ rst ‘crossover’ synth…

The sequencer is intuitive

yet it can produce pretty

complex results. Each of

the four parts has a

dedicated sequencer track

with up to 64 steps over

four measures and you

can record into the

sequencer via external

MIDI input, by using step

record using the 16 step

pads, or in real time to a

click. If

you

make a mistake, hold

erase while the sequence

cycles or remove offending

steps by clicking on the

respective step pad. You

can also record dial

movements (including the

analogue ﬁ lter cutoff) and,

by using the ‘favourite’

slots/banks, you can

organise several

sequences into songs or

arrange live sets for gigs.

Currently there is no

swing function and you

can’t transpose sequences

by pressing any key, but I

hope these features can

be added. Importantly, the

workﬂ ow is very fast and

the sequencer’s feel is

super-tight – press record,

add some chords on

digital part 1, bleeps on

digital part 2, drums on

part 3 and an analogue

bassline on part 4 and

hours will pass without

you even noticing – very

inspiring indeed!

The Pattern Sequencer

Use the gooseneck

mic to impart your

vocal characteristics

onto the inbuilt digital

sounds whilst playing

the keyboard. (Note:

the vocoder defeats

the analogue synth.)

Use Autopitch/

Autonote for

Auto-Tune-like effects.

Vocoder And

Autopitch/Autonote

INCLUDES AUDIO