The Roland JV-2080 is a
rack-mount
A 19-inch rack is a standardized frame or enclosure for mounting multiple electronic equipment modules. Each module has a front panel that is wide. The 19 inch dimension includes the edges or "ears" that protrude from each side of the equ ...
expandable MIDI sound module, and an improved version of the
Roland JV-1080. Produced by the
Roland Corporation
is a Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment, and software. It was founded by Ikutaro Kakehashi in Osaka on 18 April 1972. In 2005, its headquarters relocated to Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture. It has fact ...
, released in 1996 and built on a
sample-based synthesis architecture, the JV-2080 provides a library of on-board sample material and a
semi-modular synthesis engine.
Main features
The JV-2080 ("2080") is a sample + synthesis synthesizer with support for 768 internal
patches, including General MIDI. In addition to the synthesizer, it also includes a multi effects module, with 40 effect types, of which three can be used simultaneously. The 2080 is expandable via proprietary modules that contain both sample-based waveform data and patch information.
The internal memory of the 2080 is divided into five sections.
* USER – User re-writeable storage (RAM), initially contains a modified copy of PR-E.
* PR-A, B, C, E (Preset A through C and E) – Presets in read-only memory, cannot be modified.
* PR-D (General MIDI) – Presets compatible with the General MIDI system.
* XP-A through H (Expansion A through H) – Patches and Rhythm Sets from expansion boards, installed in slots A through H.
* CARD – Data from compatible memory cards and sound library cards (PN-JV80 series).
The JV-2080 can also be 'stacked' with up to eight units ganged together to increase polyphony to achieve a 512 voice multitimbral performance.
On-board demos
The JV-2080 has three on-board demo songs.
The demos are:
* "Timepeace", by Scott Tibbs.
* "Denki", by Ryeland Allison.
* "Short Cuts", by Yuuki Kato. Directed by Takayuki Nagatani.
Factory sounds
The core sampled waveforms of the JV-2080 were developed by Roland R&D-LA in
Culver City
Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most ...
, California.
Some of the factory presets and expansion board sounds were created by
Eric Persing of
Spectrasonics and Ace Yukawa.
Expansion
In common with other
Roland
Roland (; frk, *Hrōþiland; lat-med, Hruodlandus or ''Rotholandus''; it, Orlando or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the ...
instruments, the JV-2080 could be expanded with
SR-JV80 expansion boards, and could accept up to eight of them at a time.
Expansion cards
* SR-JV80-01: Pop
* SR-JV80-02: Orchestral
* SR-JV80-03: Piano
* SR-JV80-04: Vintage Synth
* SR-JV80-05: World
* SR-JV80-06: Dance*
* SR-JV80-07: Super Sound Set
* SR-JV80-08: Keyboards of the 60s & 70s
* SR-JV80-09: Session
* SR-JV80-10: Bass and Drums
* SR-JV80-11: Techno
* SR-JV80-12: Hip-Hop
* SR-JV80-13: Vocal
* SR-JV80-14: Asia
* SR-JV80-15: Special FX
* SR-JV80-16: Orchestral II
* SR-JV80-17: Country
* SR-JV80-18: Latin World
* SR-JV80-19: House
* SR-JV80-97: Experience III
* SR-JV80-98: Experience II
* SR-JV80-99: Experience
Notice: Due to copyright problems Roland no longer distributes the Dance expansion board.
Notable users and genres
The JV-1080 and JV-2080 attract artists and producers from a broad range of genres. In 2001,
synthpop
Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...
artist
Thomas Dolby once remarked that he didn't find the JV as immediate in usability as his older synthesizers. The JV-2080 has featured in the studios of
Tidy Trax Records, a
Hard House
UK hard house or simply hard house is a style of electronic dance music that emerged in the early 1990s and is synonymous with its association to the Trade club and the associated DJs there that created the style. It often features a speedy te ...
record label based in the UK. Australian
Electro band
Gerling used the JV-1080 on their album Children Of Telepathic Experiences.
LTJ Bukem and
Photek have also used it in music production and film scoring, respectively. Other users include
Midge Ure
James Ure (born 10 October 1953) is a Scottish musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. His stage name, Midge, is a phonetic reversal of Jim, the diminutive form of his actual name. Ure enjoyed particular success in the 1970s and 1980s ...
,
Gary Barlow,
Armin van Buuren
Armin Jozef Jacobus Daniël van Buuren ( , ; born 25 December 1976) is a Dutch DJ and record producer from Leiden, South Holland. Since 2001, he has hosted ''A State of Trance'' (ASOT), a weekly radio show, which is broadcast to nearly 40&nbs ...
,
Glen Ballard,
Jimmy Douglass,
London Elektricity,
1 Giant Leap
1 Giant Leap is a British electronic music duo consisting of the two principal artists, Jamie Catto ( Faithless founding member) and Duncan Bridgeman.
Career
Based in the UK, the two musicians set out to create a multimedia project that would ...
,
David Frank,
and
Máni Svavarsson.
References
Further reading
*
External links
Polynominal JV-2080 page, technical review, manual and audio clips demo
{{Roland
JV-2080