The Roland JV-1080 is a surprisingly versatile ROMpler synthesizer. It is one of my main work horses, being able to produce not only the bread-and-butter sounds of pianos, organs, strings, etc, but is also has a lot of synthesizer waveshapes, a rudimentary wave-shaping facility, a nice filter, good modulation capabilities. Most of all, we are talking about a 64-note polyphonic instrument with up to 16 part multi-timbral, making it the perfect tool for composing multi-part arrangements with only one box (and a sequencer/daw).
However, the small display, lack of USB connectivity, outdated editor software and general age of the device make working with this beast a labour of love. This page is a hub to some of my notes on how to maintain and program this beast of a synth. I started working on this section of the site when I first discovered I had to replace the capacitors on the SR-JV80 expansion boards, but hope to add more contents as I take note of new techniques and technical aspects of this synth.
Installed Expansion Boards
At the moment (and they are likely to stay like this for the foreseeable future), my JV-1080 is equipped with the following SR-JV80 expansion boards:
- Session (SR-JV80-09)
- World (SR-JV80-05)
- Orchestral II (SR-JV80-16)
- Vocal Collection (SR-JV80-13)
Please feel free to contact me if you would like to have me record a part of a piece using one of these cards, or if you would like a sample of some sounds.
Maintenance Tutorials
The main critical maintenance procedure to do with the JV-1080 is to replace the electrolytic capacitor on the expansion boards. Failure to do so may result in capacitor leaking and exploding, which can damage not only the expansion board, but the JV-1080 itself. This procedure also applies to all other synthesizers from the JV series.