Roland

Roland JD-Xi | Reviews
85
MiniNova-like vocal tuning duties.
Physical downsides are that there’s no
rear gain control (mic gain is in the
menus), some straplocks would have
been great (to enable you to strap on
the JD-Xi keytar/DX100-style!) and
there’s no battery power option.
Round the back there’s USB for
DAW connection and the JD-Xi acts as a
16-bit/44kHz 2in/2out USB Audio/MIDI
interface. Then there’s two 1/4-inch
jack outs (one of which can send out
the sequencer click for gigs), plus a
headphone out and a mono input which
can be switched between Hi-Z/line
level. You can plug in an instrument or
MP3 player here and also use any audio
source to trigger the vocoder and the
monophonic Autopitch/note function.
Autopitch/note corrects badly sung
audio according to a user-selected scale
(automatically or via the keyboard) but,
as any incoming audio can trigger
Autopitch/note too, you can use your
voice to record notes into the sequencer
and also use the JD-Xi as a guitar synth
where you use your guitar/bass to trigger
the digital oscillators. It tracks guitar
audio very well, though I advise using a
gate pedal so string noise doesn’t
inadvertently trigger the oscs.
SuperNatural sounds
Now the sound engine(s)! The JD-Xi is
four-part multitimbral – two digital
parts, a drum part and a monophonic
analogue part all outputting/receiving on
separate MIDI channels (1, 2, 10 and 3
respectively) and each part has a
corresponding sequencer track. There
are 256 digital presets, 64 analogue
presets and 32 drum kits onboard with
256 user spaces. The digital parts are
each 64-note polyphonic (making the
microKorg XL’s eight-note and
MiniNova’s 18-note polyphony seem
antiquated!) and the JD-Xi surprisingly
houses a full-blown Roland
SuperNatural synth engine with an
editing depth almost equal to the FA
and Integra 7/Jupiter series which is big
news at this price point! The sound
quality is just about up there with
Roland’s more expensive product lines
and the character is similarly warm, hi-fi
and engaging.
Each of the digital parts is very
powerful and within a Program you can
have a tone with three partials, so you
can layer a PCM
piano, plus
SuperNatural
strings and brass
(for example) per
digital part.
Admittedly there
aren’t the complex
multi-sampled
piano sounds or keyboard split sounds
that you’ll fi nd on the FA /Jupiter series,
but the included sounds/sequences are
decent (very Dance orientated) and the
PCM samples very usable, plus you can
add more from the Axial library. There’s
more than enough tweakability to keep
avid programmers happy including
editable amp/fi lter envelopes, an A/D
pitch envelope, several great sounding
digital fi lters, a separate modulation and
general purpose LFO per partial with
fade, key trigger and more (and the list
goes on)! This is luxury for a sub £500
synth! Due to the small form factor, only
a few real-time knobs are present but
Roland have chosen them wisely with
controls for fi lter, pulse width, LFO (with
three destinations), effect/amp levels
and a clever continuously variable amp
envelope dial that gives you short
decays/long releases to the left, punchy
sounds in the middle and slow attacks/
longer releases to the right. The
envelopes are nicely snappy too.
The versatile drum part allows kits
with two sounds per key (with labels for
drum type above each key). The beauty
here is you can have different fi lter,
envelope, volume, effect, pan and pitch
levels per key. The preset kits include
authentic samples of Roland’s classic
drum machines and more, including
various noises, percussion sounds and
vocal samples, whilst the 453 onboard
drum waves are very good quality.
SPECS
37 mini keys (with velocity)
Max polyphony: 129 voices
(Digital Synth/Drum Kit:
128, Analogue Synth: 1)
4-part multitimbral
2 x Digital synth parts
1x PCM drum part,
1x Analogue synth part
Analogue synth:
Saw, triangle and variable
pulse waves (with PWM)
Sub oscillator
1x analogue LPF
Effects:
Effect 1: Distortion, Fuzz,
Compressor, Bit Crusher
Effect 2 Flanger, Phaser,
Ring Mod, Slicer
Delay: 2 types
Reverb: 6 types
Vocoder
Auto Pitch
Auto Note
Sequencer:
Tracks: 4
64 steps/4 measures max
Step and Real time modes
Arpeggiator with 128
presets
I/Os:
Headphone Jack
Output (L/MONO, R):
1/4-inch
Input jack (LINE(MONO)/
Guitar input): 1/4-inch
MIDI Connectors (IN, OUT)
USB Port (Hi speed Audio/
MIDI, 16-bit 44kHz,
2in/2out)
MIC input jack: XLR type,
unbalanced
Dimensions
575 x 245 x 85mm
Weight:
2.2kg
The four dials on the
panel are simply
level controls but in
the menus are
separate send level
controls. Use these
to spice up your
live performances.
Effect Dials
The JD-Xi controls
send and receive
MIDI data and dial
tweaks can be
recorded into the
sequencer too.
Plug audio sources
into the audio
interface here. Plug
in a guitar/line signal
and use Autonote to
turn the JD-Xi into a
guitar synth.
MIDI
Audio Input
The ladder-based analogue LPF can
produce speaker-shaking subs,
juicy squelches and sizzling highs!
FMU290.rev_roland.indd 85 2/25/15 2:40 PM