street priceRoland JD-Xi is a hybrid synthesizer, developed as a crossover-concept devicet which includes an analog and digital synthesizer in one housing. The 3-octave instrument is characterized by 4-part multitimbrality. Its analog section consists of a mono DCO with 3 waveforms to choose from, a sub-oscillator (1-2 octaves below), a low-pass filter (LPF) of 24 dB and an analog amplifier (VCA). As for the digital part - it contains two parts: one operates on PCM samples and another is a drum synth. Each of the two digital parts allows 64-note polyphony and is built on a full-featured Roland SuperNatural engine with a depth of editing that is not as amazing as in the FA series, Integra-7 or Jupiter - which are more powerful in piano sounds and have a wider collection of samples, - though still impressive.
JD-Xi is focused on dance music and offers a wide range of 256 digital, 64 analog presets and 32 drum kits (453 drums). You can tweak the settings for editable filter and amplifier envelopes, digital filters, modulation and LFO. Digital components can’t be processed via analog filters or can’t be layered on an analog section, as it is possible to in Roland JD-Xa, but the problem gets somehow solved thanks to a sequencer. JD-Xi has a chic set of effects, including distortion, fuzz, compressor, bitcrush, flanger, phaser, ring modulator, slicer, delay and 6 types of reverb.
This mini synthesizer represents a nice price/quality/functionality ratio. Therefore, its price tag doesn’t fall, although it has already been a while since it was launched, and to boost some public interest, firmware updates with new sounds are being released, as well as special limited series in red and white colors. Buy all three of them, you won’t regret!
Tags: hybrid synthesizer
Country of origin / production: China
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| Usage area | |
|---|---|
| Synthesizer | |
| Performance Synthesizer | |
| Usage Design/ Form Factor | |
| With Keys | |
| Archetype | |
| Hybrid, Digital+Analog | |
| Polyphony | |
| Analog Voices | 1 |
| Digital Voices | 128 |
| Voices | 129 |
| Multi Timbral Capacity | 4 part(s) |
| Tone Generator / Sound Synthesis | |
| Roland | |
| SuperNATURAL | |
| Oscillators per voice | 1 |
| Sub-Oscillators per voice | 1 |
| Waveform/ Spectral form (main generator) | Sine |
| Waveform/ Spectral form (main generator) | Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) |
| Waveform/ Spectral form (main generator) | Triangle |
| Waveform/ Spectral form (main generator) | Saw |
| Filter | |
| High-pass Filter (HPF) | |
| Low-pass Filter (LPF) | |
| Band-pass Filter (BPF) | |
| 12dB | |
| 24dB | |
| Resonance | |
| Envelope Generator (EG) | |
| Attack | |
| Decay | |
| Sustain | |
| Release | |
| Filter | ADSR |
| Amp | ADSR |
| Effects | |
| Reverb | |
| Chorus | |
| Compressor | |
| Delay | |
| Vocoder | |
| Bit Crusher/ Crush | |
| Fuzz | |
| Slicer | |
| Ring Modulation | |
| FX Units | 4 |
| Equalizer | |
| Parametric | |
| Sequencer | |
| Tracks count | 4 |
| Step Sequencer | |
| Pattern Sequencer | |
| Tempo (min value) | 5 |
| Tempo (max value) | 300 |
| Arpegiator/ Portamento | |
| Arpegiator | |
| MIDI | |
| General MIDI v2 (GM2) | |
| General Standard (GS) | |
| MIDI in/ out | |
| IN | |
| OUT | |
| Keys | |
| Type | Synth Action |
| Velocity Sensitivity | |
| Size | 3 |
| Number of Keys | 37 |
| Display | |
| Display type | TFT |
| Color resolution | Monochrome |
| Built-in controllers | |
| Pitch Bend Wheel | |
| Modulation Wheel | |
| Encoder | 1 |
| Potentiometer | 13 |
| Button | 48 |
| Audio out | |
| Analogue: 1/4" (6.35mm) | 4 |
| Analogue: 1/4" (6.35mm) headphones preamplified | 1 |
| Computer Interfaces | |
| USB | USB PC Link |
| USB | MIDI through USB |
| Power | |
| Amperage | 1 A |
| Dimensions | |
| Height | 85 mm |
| Width | 575 mm |
| Depth | 245 mm |
| Height | 3.4 in |
| Width | 12.6 in |
| Depth | 9.6 in |
| Weight | 2.5 kg |
| Weight | 5.5 lb |
| Case/ body | |
| Plastic | |
| Color | |
| White | |
| Black | |
| Red | |
| Production start | 2015 |
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Roland corporation has released an update for a hybrid mini synth JD-Xi up to v1.50. Now it features an interactive function which allows making chord progression, octave shifts, introduces a compressor based on Side Chain algorithm and a Shuffle function. Some software bugs were also fixed. You’re welcome to listen to the new sounds and watch an official video sharing all the updates with you.
