MEANWHILE - Roland Boutiques...

I know it has been a while since I posted anything other than a concert announcement, or worse, a RIP post... But since I recently had a Roland Boutique JD-08 on loan, I felt I should just post something new in this blog!
For full disclosure, this was the first time I tried a Roland Boutique, but my impression of this line was always far from good...

It's not that I don't think it's a great idea to re-issue some great classic synths, cause I honestly support that, especially from a company like Roland, as they have so many amazing classic synths and drum machines, being them analog or digital!

I also have no problem that all of the Boutiques (except the SE-02 they did in collaboration with the Studio Electronics) are digital, cause there have been amazing digital emulations from other analog classics done by other companies (namely, Creamware with their ASB line). 

As long as it sounds good, I don't care if it's analog or digital!

My real issue with the Boutiques is the format Roland chose, as they always seemed so tiny and almost toyish...

In my honest opinion, Roland should have done them in a similar fashion to what Creamware did with their ASB line!

If you checked my Youtube channel, you probably noticed my videos for the amazing Creamware ASB Pro 12, which I honestly think has everything you could hope for in a digital emulation, namely:

- The sound is really amazing, I'm not sure how close it compares to the Sequential Prophet 5, but according to some posts I've seen, it seems it got closer to that sound than the analog Dave Smith Instruments Prophet 08;

- The interface is great, faithful to the one you have in the Sequential Prophet 5, and there is plenty of space between the knobs, so that makes it a true joy to edit the sounds;

- It is a nice amount of polyphony, 12 notes, which is actually more than what you find even in the Sequential Prophet 10;

- It is compact and light enough to be pretty portable!

When you look at the Roland Boutiques, my impression was always that the interface is too cramped up for you to really enjoy editing your sounds...

On the other hand, that allows them to be more compact and light, which in turn makes them more portable, if that is important to you... To me, it's not...

Also, the fact that the original Roland Boutiques offered only 4 notes of polyphony, less than the polyphony offered by the original units they intended to emulate, gave a pretty underwhelming first impression, especially when you consider that the Creamware ASB units, considerably older, offered 12 notes of polyphony!

Fortunately, that seems to have changed and more recent units feature much higher amounts of polyphony, despite the exact amount depends on the model...

Moving fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, I finally had the chance to try my first Roland Boutique, a Roland Boutique JD-08!

My friend had just tested it a bit, so it was virtually new, still in the original box!

I have to say the package is really nice, especially if you want to keep the synth stored in it!

Unfortunately, it doesn't come with a USB cable and my friend forgot to add one, so I had to use it with batteries only (no extra USB-C cable here...) and couldn't actually try to record with it using the USB connection, something I was really wanting to try...

The first thing I could notice when taking it out of the box was that it actually felt quite sturdy, probably due to the nice top panel in metal!

I know it isn't really a fair comparison, since the price tag is quite different, but compared to the Modal Craftsynth V2.0 and Skulpt SE I have, made with plastic, the Roland JD-08 felt much sturdier!

It might be pretty compact, but it definitely didn't feel toyish like I was afraid it would!

However, not everything was amazing, and my fear that the interface was too cramped up was proven right...

The sliders they used are really really tiny, to the point that they didn't feel as nice as they should when editing the sounds...

And I think that's quite a shame, because if they had chosen the ones they used for the 4 Palette sliders as the standard slider, it would have felt so much better!

The buttons felt quite nice, even for trying the sounds, but the cryptic screen was definitely a disappointment...

And so was the internal speaker, as the sound you get from it is just not comparable to the sound you get using nice headphones!

Overall, trying it made sure my original impression was right and that at least this Roland Boutique would have benefitted from a different larger format!

And how does it sound, you might ask?

Honestly, I felt it is a good sounding synth, giving you some nice old ROMpler sounds that you can easily tweak and transform into completely different sounds thanks to a versatile synthesis architecture!

How does it compare with the original Roland JD-800, I can't say as I never tried one...

But quite honestly, I hope it doesn't sound the same because I honestly didn't feel the Roland JD-08 to be a "magical" unit...

If you search for the Roland JD-800, you'll find many claiming it has an amazing sound and that is probably the ultimate pad machine, but honestly, if it sounds like the Roland JD-08, I don't think it has anything over a Korg Wavestation or Yamaha SY-77, for instance, two synths from the same period which can be bought for much less...

The Roland JD-08 is a good sounding ROMpler, but what sets it apart, in my opinion, is really the interface that invites you to create your own sounds, not the fantastic sound quality it offers!

So, did I feel GAS for a Roland JD-08?

I think I did, even with all the "flaws" I pointed out, it gives you a very interesting package, as there isn't any other ROMpler I can think of that is as easy to edit!

And quite honestly, that is probably one of the reasons why I didn't play more with it...

I knew the more I would use it, the more I would want one, and right now, that really isn't the best idea as there is other gear I need more for my setup...

But I definitely would like to get one sooner or later, despite I know later it will be harder as someone will claim it's a collectible and then the prices will go insane after it is discontinued...

So I might never get one, which is perfectly fine... :)

But ultimately, it also made me even more curious about the original Roland JD-800, as I'm really wondering if they actually nailed the sound...

Is there really some character in the sound that is missing from the Roland JD-08, or is it just really overhyped because of the nice interface?

Would be nice to find out... :)