I really want one of these, but finances (my wife) at the moment are not letting me because I already have a bunch of hardware on order. The most logical thing was to find a faithful (or as close as possible) emulation, but I can't find a VST for love nor money.

Why has no one released one of these?

 

there is none. but if you are after the sounds look for soundfonts & kontakt libraries.
roland JV-1080 is probably the closest thing you'll find

offtopic @SAiNT @Olymoon @Andrew can we have something done about this strange thing where the forum is extremely slow for me, some pages wont load I have to refresh a million times and even then it will go to the forum homepage. i can't go back and fourth too much. it's 100 percent not a me thing. please fix it?

 

It's undoubtedly on Roland Cloud's list for sure. But given that they are chronically slow, there's really no question when it'll come out. But it's undoubtedly a question of 'when' instead of an 'if'. The best move is to be patient until it happens, but if you literally can't live without it, you could spring for the hardware.

 

I've had 2 of these beauties in my time, still got one now in near mint condition (no cracked end caps!)... beautifully built machine with metal surface (not plastic), and for digital it still sounds wonderfully atmospheric and vibey. It's a great companion synth to real analogs and is the only digital synth I still like....

... that said, a massive part of its allure is the looks, presence and the hands on control. I also had a JD990 which on paper is better spec but it didn't sound as cool to me and wasn't as fun to use. Also had a JV-1080 and no.. just no.. it sounds nothing like a JD, it's just a competent/famous but bog standard rompler. The JD's archaic tech is what helps give it its character and it has much higher quality PCM/DACs than the JV series (I think the later XV series came close but none of them are JD).

If you want aJD-800 buy one, nothing else is the same... I also had many D-50s and like them but again they pale next to the epic presence of the JD-800!

 

I'm sorely tempted to get the hardware, but prices are insane.

 

I would wait for Roland to release the cloud or Boutique version, cant be too much longer. No way are they worth the current asking price and the 800 suffers from a red glue issue.

 

Here's an old Roland Cloud photo from 2018 when the service just got started. A JD800 is visible in the top left hand corner. It's very likely it's part of their plans to release a plugin based on it sooner or later.

 

Besides upcoming one from Roland (?) there is https://www.cl-projects-sound-design.com/jd-850.html and an expansion named Astral 880 for the Infinity v3. Another thing you should try from Roland Cloud is the Anthology 1993 and the SRX Keyboards.

Edit: Prices are going up on the hardware JD800.

 

Last edited: Aug 23, 2020

That kontakt might be worth investigating, thanka

 

A JD800 is quite large. You could try to sneak in a JD990, which is similar to a JD800 in that it shares some of the same waveforms but is in rack format. JD990s are a bit more expensive now especially if you opt to expand it with the SR vintage synth card but at least itll be easier to sneak by the wife ;)

A little more info about the JD990:
http://www.donsolaris.com/?tag=roland-jd-990

Heres a little demo I did of it a while back:

More amazing Don Solaris demo:

 

Last edited: Aug 23, 2020

I've been waiting on Roland to release the JD-800/990 since the end 2017. Its honestly the only thing I'm waiting on from the Roland Legendary series, (a full D-70, or fantom would be cool too I guess). Don't know whats taking them so long, hopefully they haven't scrapped it for some reason.

I've tried all of the Kontakt libraries,Infinity sample player, and concerto libraries, but the beauty of the JD series is being able to mix and edit patches, nobody gets a JD-800 for its stock sounds or to play static patches.

 

Last edited: Aug 23, 2020

the roland cloud D50 is the closest I know

 

Red Glue issue is easy to fix, anyway I'm selling mine with flight case, red glue fixed, cleaned up and serviced, € 1500,- + shipment from Norway

 

As you say it's off topic and should be treated through pm.

 

I can't think that there is anything too difficult for Roland with creating this in Cloud or Boutique, maybe they have been too busy with Cloud and forgot about it but it is long overdue now. I can see cloud really taking off once this arrives, I like the sound of the deep sampled cloud version it is very nice indeed. I will probably get hold of the boutique version too if this comes out as it will probably be a limited run but no way on earth am I paying insane Ebay prices. I'd do the smart thing and go with your wifes opinion as its only GAS you are suffering from, your new synths will keep you busy until Roland deliver the goods.

 

She also tells me I have too many guitars, it doesn't stop her showing me adverts and asking if I want one for Christmas. I'm going to wait this out for a while, I have spent the last 8 hours trying to get the one of the sounds I want with Sylenth and I'm pretty close.

 

My JD800 is stands in the room beside unused either, to much hassel, to less control compared to VST Instruments
Selling it either

 

Last edited: Aug 23, 2020

I would rate this "weird" but there's no icon for that. An instrument is still an instrument, and JD880 has a really nice set of faders for realtime tweaking. However, I'm more interested in JD990 because it's expanded 880 [more waveforms and even better DACs], and I feel fine with editing through menus and with sysex through BCR2000. <- that controller is a cheap miracle.

It's also because space here at my place is rather tight, so a module is preferable. I'm sure Roland will release JD-880 or JD-990 cloud version. So far you can get pretty close with XV-5080 and JV+SRX modules. That stopped me from buying a hardware version [JD-990].

I've got too much of everything already... I'm sick and tired of soldering additional cables.

 

Last edited: Aug 23, 2020

Years ago I had a Hardware Only Studio , even the sequecner was a Roland MV8000. Tons of cables , alot of heat , alot of space . Shitty pots (MV8000), or jumping encoders (microQ) Slow destructive(sample and forget) workflow.
Today I have just one BIG screen (32:9 49") a masterkeyboard, and faderports. Automating Synths with 1024 steps is awesome. Total recall either, building a sound library with musicloops (studio one) as well etc...
And then the ease of simply convert and instrument track to audio and back to midi . lovely