The Roland JD-800 is a 24 voice multitimbral digital synthesizer manufactured between 1991 and 1994. Each patch can contain up to four layers of sounds (each layer uses a synth voice) which makes very expressive and interesting sounds possible. JD-800 has a very advanced control panel with a lot of sliders för filters and envelopes etc. I wanted to own a JD-800 when it was first released but it was really too expensive. Today, the second hand asking price for a JD-800 is usually very resonable.

The JD sound is very polished and really advanced sounding patches can be archived with a little work. Evolving pads are the what this synth is made for. Bass sounds can be fat sounding but also in some way cold and sterile. The control panel makes it really fun to program this synth but the controls are lacking the quality you would expect from an expensive flagship product. The plastic case is too weak for this big and heavy instrument and the operating system is unstable and crashes now and then.

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