Roland JD-800, the vintage digital Synthesizer from 1991 is back in virtual form in the cloud as a model expansion plugin and for the Jupiter-X / Xm hardware synths.

Roland Cloud is becoming more and more attractive. At first, the new Roland subscription model was ridiculed by the communities, but the package became more interesting due to constant new plugins, sounds, etc. Just recently, Roland published the legendary Juno-60 as a plugin and plug-out. Now the Japanese are sending another of their well-known vintage synths to the cloud.

Now you can play with the JD-800, the well-known digital polyphonic Synthesizer from 1991 as a Model expansion plugin in your DAW or Dawless in the Jupiter-X/Xm. The Fantom series is currently not suppoRoland JD-800 Model Expansion
It is no coincidence that they chose this specific Synthesizer as a new Model Expansions this year. Roland celebrates this year the 30th anniversary of this vintage digital icon. As a reminder: the original JD-800 uses linear arithmetic synthesis (Roland D-50) which combines sample playback with digital synthesis. Eric Persing (Spectrasonics) was one of the core developers of this synth and created the 108 built-in waveforms and those who are available via PCM cards.

Like the original, a single sound patch of the JD-800 model expansion consists of four tones/layers. Thus, each of them is an independent synth voice with a selectable waveform, resonant multimode filter (time-variant filter), 3 multi-stage envelopes, and 2 LFOs. The effects are available in two groups including delay, distortion, reverb & more. What makes the synth powerful is its 4 layer engine that you can split up on the keyboard.


Roland says that they capture the sonic behavior of its vintage counterpart with 100-percent authenticity by combining the original JD-800 waveforms with advanced modeling techniques.

Even if I’m a subscription refuser, I still have to take my hat off for Roland with their cloud. Thanks to the constant updates, customers have received great added value every month. Last month the Juno-60, now in March the JD-800, nice.

Roland JD-800 Model Expansion is available on Roland Cloud and is part of the Pro and Ultimate memberships. It runs as a VST/AU/AAX plugin on Windows/Mac and also on the ZEN-Core Jupiter X/Xm hardware synthesizers. From March 2nd to March 31st, you can test the new JD-800 ME for free with a Roland account. If you buy a lifetime key, you get 6-months of Ultimate membership for free for a limited time.

Video:

More info:
https://www.synthanatomy.com/2021/0...odel-expansion-for-zenology-jupiter-x-xm.html

 

I am now seriously considering getting a Roland Cloud subscription. I never owned a JD-800 but I did own several JD-990's over the years and that was at the top of my favorite synth for years. I'll be definitely be checking out the demo today.

Short audio demo created on the JD-990 I made years ago. Still love the sound of this beast:

 

Finally! I've been praying for this for a while.

Hold on. Is this available as a seperate cloud plugin, or only has a Zenology and Jupiter-X/Xm expansion?

 

Last edited: Mar 3, 2021

Looks like its a Zenology and Jupiter-X/Xm expansion

Pity i was looking forward to a seperate cloud plugin also

 

The presets in Zenology sounds awful dull, overcompressed and are all topped with the same Roland sauce if you ask me...but you didn't