5 Awesome Features on the Roland JDXi

Last year Roland released the Roland JDXi and JDXa synthesizers; the former an extremely portable instrument and the latter a rather sizable and substantial flagship model.

The Roland JDXi boasts a 3 octave keypad and a host of onboard features that really impressed us, in this tidy package.

There is a definite trend from all the major synth players in the market to bring more affordable outboard synth gear to the masses, but to also offer genuine analog synthesis in the process, since this is an important area where soft-synths cannot compete – genuine analog architecture.

The Roland JDXi takes things further though by offering both analog and digital synthesis.

Here are 5 standout features on the Roland JDXi…

1. Crossover Synthesis

The Roland JDXi is termed a crossover synthesizer because it has both an analog synth section and 2 digital synth sections.

The analog section is monophonic and includes a single oscillator with a selection of 3 waveforms namely, sawtooth, triangle or square wave with variable pulse width modulation. There is also a 24dB four pole lowpass filter which self oscillates at high resonance settings. There are a plethora of additional setting in the tone edit menu such as ADSR, portamento, legato, LFO tempo sync, pitch-bend range, filter and amplitude key follow, and depth of pulse width modulation. There are also 64 analog factor presets.

The digital section actually has 3 parts to it in total and they are equally impressive.

First there are two digital synth sections which make use of Roland’s “SuperNatural” synth engine; this is sample-based but includes intelligent articulation which responds to how you play. The range of instruments is comprehensive to include everything from weird and wonderful FX one-shots to organs, pads, pianos (acoustic and electric), string, brass, guitars, percussion most of which are rather authentic sounding.

Filters include lowpass, highpass, bandpass, and peaking with resonance and each gets its own filter. There is also a separate envelope generator for each part along with LFO boasting size waveforms plus three panel-accessed modulation destinations, and dedicated knobs. Diving into the menu reveals further control such as temp sync etc.

But the digital side also features a Drum part section and this is remarkably impressive. 33 kits are available and they are based on classic Roland sounds such as the TR series, the CR-78 as well as more modern EDM house and Hip Hop kits. There are 26 tones per kit so the range is pretty substantial. Notably one can adjust each individual kick, snare or hat per note via the filter and amp envelopes for a more realistic feel. In fact you can edit each note of a kit at waveform level and create custom kits from the existing onboard set.

2. Vocoder

As vocoders go the onboard one on the Roland JDXi is loads of fun and will give you a chance to get your ‘Daft Punk’ on!

It’s easy to use and has some awesome presets. But the real cinch here is the Auto Note feature. When you press this button the synth will actually detect the notes you are singing into the mic and automatically play that on the keyboard without even touching it.

The vocoder is not only useful and practical it makes for some amazing FX ideas when producing.

3. Pattern Sequencer and Arpeggiator

The step note sequencer is fairly straight forward with being set to eighth-note triplets, sixteenth-notes, or 32nd-notes and can be one, two, or four 4/4 measures in length. There is a sequencer track for each of the 4 parts and you can record in real time or step mode. In record mode the notes are quantized and once recording stops the playback loop continues. Step mode offers up an easy to follow set of 16 red-highlighted buttons for each of the steps.

The arpeggiator includes 128 presets which include a host of up, down and random patterns and a simple button latches the arp for continuous playback. Additional features are all menu driven.

4. Effects

As much as a physical synthesizer can be loads of fun to play and the Roland JDXi is certainly all that, synths also make great FX units and this little package of dynamite has an awesome array of useful effects.

Whilst one is limited to four simultaneous effects – two insert and two send – the quality of these is the really impressive part. The range is comprehensive with great sounding distortions, phasers, flangers, choruses etc but it’s the delay and reverbs that are perhaps the most impressive. A good onboard reverb is usually an indicator as to how much time has been put into the entire design of an electronic instrument in my opinion.

As with all the other features on the JDXi, most of the editing takes place ‘under the hood’ in the menus, with a single depth control for each on the actual unit.

5. It’s a Hybrid!

In total you have four different and equally versatile and impressive parts to the Roland JDXi; analog section, 2 digital sections and the drum section.

Combining them all is called a Program and this includes stuff played into the sequencer. In total you have 8 banks with 64 programs each. The first four cannot be overwritten as these are factory presets but there are then 4 banks available to create your own combinations using the four sections and the sequencer and arpeggiator. It’s remarkably easy to follow and quite obviously the only restriction of your own imagination when it comes to creating new and complex sounds which can combine analog, digital and rhythmic elements with ease.

6. Bonus – Price!

The Roland JDXi is a very compact unit. This may be a plus factor for some but not for those looking for a big nasty analog beast. For that you should check out the somewhat pricier JDXa.

For the laptop producing generation the JDXi is ideal. Small enough to put in a backpack – tons of quality features and sounds, 3 octaves albeit on a pretty small keypad, and quality analog and digital engines makes the JDXi an awesome option to give oneself an edge away from the ubiquitous sounds of Massive, Serum or the other soft-synths out there.

Currently it is available online for R 7,495 – that’s a steal by anybody’s standards. Go grab it.

5 Awesome Features on the Roland JDXi