Roland JV1010 64-Voice Synthesizer Module

I needed a new synth for my WX5 Wind Controller and keyboards, for recording and live performance. Like most people, I wanted the most for my money. I got it.

Well over a thousand patches, most of which are extremely usable. Excellent piano patches (especially on the included Session board...my favorite is patch 001, check it out). As someone else mentioned, there is a lot of variety to the sounds beyond the mandatory "techno/dance" stuff. Some good strings (although way better if you add the Orchestral expansion board...more on that later), horn sections, decent saxophones (although I play sax and have an aversion to sax synths, these are better than most), and...well, there are simply too many great patches to list.

Honestly, I can't imagine shelling out the bucks for a JV-1080 when all the same sounds are right here, even considering the better features of the 1080. Most of those extras are cosmetic and the 1010 does everything I need (and does it well). Look at it like you're getting twice the synth in half the space. It's not far from the truth.

As others have noted, the software for editing patches for the JV-1010 is no picnic. From my limited experience, however, it is very powerful. I created a couple new patches of my own design in the "user" bank and did rather well with them. BIG learning curve, especially if you're not familiar with both computers and the intricacies of sound. Nevertheless, for the patient and determined, there is a lot of power there to be had. Practically every little nuance of every waveform can be adjusted, tweaked, and generally twisted to your desire.

Someone had mentioned they'd wished it was possible to control some of the more subtle nuances of the 1010 with foot controllers. Well...it IS "possible." Perhaps not as easy as we'd like, but very possible. I use a great foot controller from Yamaha, the MFC10, which can be programmed to do just about anything with MIDI you can think of.

With the JV-1010 manual in one hand and the MFC10 manual in the other, it is possible to set the pedals up to control just about everything on the synth. Like I said, maybe it's not the easiest solution, but it's a solution and again...for the patient...anything is possible.

I've found when controlling the JV-1010 with Cakewalk Sonar, the default reverb and chorus controls within Sonar (usually) work just great at controlling the corresponding FX on the synth. Also, there are instrument definitions available for the JV-1010 and most of the expansion boards which make browsing and selecting patches a breeze.

I added the Orchestral expansion board to my JV-1010. Why did I pick orchestral? One of the most often-used sounds in practically any style of music is strings. You can hear them in pop, jazz, rock, country, blues, R&B, and yes...occassionally even in a metal or rap tune. I will tell you, I've never heard sweeter, silkier, smoother strings come out of any synth I've heard.

Not just strings, either...brass, woodwinds, choral groups, flutes, trumpets, french horns...all the essential orchestral instruments are there, and most (if not all) or high-quality and infinitely usable. If I could have only one expansion board (and that's more-or-less true considering the 1010 has just one slot)...I'd pick the Orchestral board every time.

That aside...what's already packed into the 1010 is extremely usable in itself, with or without an extra expansion board. For the price, you cannot beat this synth. Heck, for TWICE the price you might have a hard time finding sounds this good.

Roland, in a nutshell, kicks serious hiney in the sound department.

- Heather Haze

I just got started with the JV-1010 and I couldn't be more pleased. The session patches are awesome and I can't believe the price on this thing. It was pretty easy to get started with it even knowing next to nothing about midi. Many patches sound like a CD. I got the house expansion board and it's great, too. So if you're just getting started with midi or want to add a good general library of patches with high sound quality, I would definitely recommend the JV-1010. The only drawback I have encountered so far is that it won't save settings for a performance (i.e. which patch with which channel) so you have to re-enter the patch numbers (which is easy) until you convert to audio. I have only been working with it for about a week but generally I have been blown away, especially by the value. There are almost no other synth modules in this price range that I have seen.