Roland JD-XA Analog/Digital Crossover Synthesizer Reviews

This thing is a beauty. One of my fave Rolands ever. It can do anything you think of and in style. This synth looks and sounds fantastic. Its an oddball synth from roland and its light so good for playing live. A GEM.

Still getting to know the JD-XA just adding this to my collection of synths that I have so far no complaints lol.

I knew this was the synth for me the moment I saw it almost 5 years ago. Fortunately I studied the principles and mechanics of synthesis for years so, while the JD-XA has still been a learning experience due to its minimalist user manual and lack of tutorials anywhere I could find online, I mostly got to grips with it after about a week. I'm not a big fan of FM or PCM synthesis. It's good to have PCM in reserve when I'm feeling lazy but as I consider myself to be a synthesizer artist as much as a musician, designing patches from scratch is what I will be doing mainly, and the analog-modeling controls and ability to put the digital signal through the analog section are invaluable for that. Other impressive features include its vocoder, phantom power for condenser mics, and direct-to-digital recording via USB. The fact that each voice has its own settings for LFO, envelope generators filters and effects means that, combined with layering up to 8 voices (including 3 partials for each of the 4 digital voices), you can create extremely diverse and dynamic sounds, so you'll never find yourself sounding like someone else like everyone did in the '80s.

This is probably the most underrated synth from Roland and here"s why....
The concept of combining digital and anolog sounds in one instrument is just the overview.
It goes much deeper than that...once you get the handle of the way to create sounds or build from the presets the results are nothing short of MASSIVE!
There are four digital parts that have 3 parts each. All the parts can be tweaked so that"s 12 sounds just in the digital side. In addition each sound can have its own effects . You can run the digital sounds
through the analog filters and amp to de sterilized them into massive patches.
The analog side uses four parts each with 2 oscillators so that"s another 8 sounds that can stack
upon the digital component. when it"s all said and done the whirly swirly monster is unleashed.
Another huge factor is the additional axial sound libraries are free to download and load onto the JD.
These range from Jupiter/Juno patches to EDM mangled sounds that use the power of the JD.
Don"t let the shiney plastic fool you...under the hood is something really unique and powerful.
With CV and gates output you can control additional anolog gear and also sequence another 8 tracks.
Setting the sequencer to 1/32 gives you 4 big sequenced bars with 8 tracks.
The Keybed is very solid and has a nice quick response and yes after touch is really sensitive and
yields nice nuance and expression.
We have a nice collection of synths that we use and it"s a strong professional instrument for
live and studio. Plus the JD is super light so taking it on a gig sure beats hauling my
"Boat Anchor" synthes to a show.

This synth has become the nerve center of my studio. Also replacing a handful of other analogue and digital synths that couldn't quite do what this does in one unit. Tonally the JD-XA is up there with other good modern analogue yet can also sound vintage. It replaced my Moog, Juno, JX-3P and more and is overflowing with capability, functionality and creativity. One for those who like a lot of depth to their synths. Sound designer musicians not preset players! Feels good too. All controls are smooth and tight and have no issue with build quality at all. It's very solid and well laid out. People who miss this because they assumed mostly plastic meant bad build are only hurting themselves! I've had many many synths in my time but none as capable of great sounds in all categories (analogue mono bass and leads - analogue poly - analogue and digital fx and ambience and soaring digital pads - analogue rhythm 909 style etc ) this is a MASTER of all trades, the only jack is the many on the rear supplying a nicely specced range of in and out audio, mic and usb and midi ports. So much finesse and range and pure sound quality for little cash (vs some expensive competitors who are all flashy metal and wood but poor spec and bad filters and tone). Leave those to the badge snobs and if you care about great sound , great filters , flexibility , control and capabilities the JD-XA is for you! Love it! Love that it's sort of a cult classic already only appreciated by real players and sound designers.

I was one of many who was watching the videos of this thing, reading reviews, and was intrigued. Tried it at a DJ specialty store and initial reaction was wow looks beautiful in the flesh and that it sounded very unique, but then it began to frustrate me and l started to really get annoyed and produce terrible sounds, I was not experienced at using it, nor was it connected to an appropriate speaker set up. There were patches that I instantly loved such as Monsun, Firefiles, Sensation, however some sounded harsh noisy and not all that appealing. At this point I remained interested (because let's face it the thing is interesting), however was skeptical and thought of it as a risk, a very expensive interesting risk. But I couldn't get it out of my head for all its bizarrity, even though the thought of buying it made me feel uneasy.

In the end my head said NO, but my heart said YES, which is what I believe we must follow when it comes to music. Because I just though to heck with it all take a risk I think this thing could sound original and maybe a risk is required to achieve something special.

I bought it. Firstly, you unpack the thing and new and without scratches the thing looks stunning. Like something from another plantet. Call it grotesque, but anyone who comes to my house basically sees it and says "holy $&@".

Plug it into a proper set of speakers with a powerful sub and all the right connections and I was immediately rendered speechless with the mega wide and supremely rich deep sound. A "phew" moment. The next few days it continued to blow my mind, yes even those much debated presets when set up properly in the comfort of your own sound system sound remarkable especially when they are tweaked.

To cut a long story short I'm now four months in and I have to say it continues to blow my mind every time I sit down and use it because as you learn more it digs deeper and delivers something different. I feel it is truly able to produce original sounds, bizarre sounds, ultra deep rumbling sounds combined with crisp bright sounds. It's very musical and atmospheric it is like a bottomless pit for nearly anything, and most importantly it can stir the soul. But it's not instantly gratifying it's something you need to commit to first financially but especially time wise. You need to work with it and invest your emotion into it.

After trying pretty much every new synth for hours on end and even driving to other cities to suss others out that weren't local I think this and the Montage are the two best synths on the market at the moment. They both compliment each other it's like dirty grit and wierd bliss (XA) meets stunning realism and of course motion control with the Montage.

I've played with and programmed half of everything from classic analog synths to the latest digitals and softsynths. This is the Real Deal.

The SN synth engine is very good. It can run the gamut of that nasty wubby Skrillex stuff through etherial and very CS80-like warm, plucky patches and rich syrupy pads. And if you want Rick Wakeman, Keith Emerson (RIP), Tony Banks or Eddie Jobson prog, it delivers in huge layers of sound.

The analog engine is very good. Take all the above and paste in here and then some. Roland sounds, Moog sounds, and with some finagling of gain staging, Oberheim sounds. I would plead with Roland to fix that third "broken" filter though, that was a really bad idea. One of its charming flaws. But it's amazingly powerful. With the Roland and Moog filters, you can accomplish a LOT, and the way the voices are assigned is ingenious. In Polystack mode, you have a four voice polysynth. In four part mono mode, you almost have four System 500 modules linked together for absolutely huge mono patches. And a Moog filter too, so you have something akin to a Moog 35 modular with eight oscillators, four filters, eight ADSRs, eight LFOs and four pitch envelopes. And effects! Keith Emerson may have had basic preset routings on his Moog monster, but he never had patches on his modular like this.

But the two synth engines together... Lord, what an incredible synth this is. It can literally make the sounds of an entire synth arsenal from any number of companies. You want proof? Go listen to Gattobus' insanely good demos on YouTube, "10 covers in 10 minutes" - he has two of them. He even provides the data files! I'm listening to them again while I type this because they're so good.

Seriously, this is one of the best synths made in the past 50 years. The SN synth under a full JP8000-like control panel is what I've been asking from Roland for years, and they give you a sweet sounding four voice synth in the deal. The combination is super powerful, as Gattobus' demos prove. No it isn't perfect, but I'm unaware of The Perfect Synth. Yes, the square wave is too buzzy, so it has to be filtered. But guess what? There's a perfectly good square wave in the SN section you can route through the filters if it really bothers you so much, and you can't tell it's digital. Frankly, I haven't felt the need to resort to this.

Another thing that bugs me is the third "cracked" filter that sounds like it's being modulated constantly with noise. But if you lower the levels of the oscillators and noise feeding it, you'll discover the Oberheim-like filter they were originally intending to make before some head of development lost his marbles and preferred this thing. You'll have to level match all your other patches, but it's a small price to pay to get a hidden third filter.

The SuperNatural synth engine is really powerful, capable of some amazing textures nothing else can deliver. With four flavors of lowpass and all the typical filter modes, it gives you all kinds of potential to shape those oscillators into whatever timbres you could want. Along with modeled traditional analog waveforms, the digital OSCs have a whole slew of sampled waves, many from the venerable JD-990 module and some more from the Jupiter SN synths. In fact, some patches for the Integra will work with the JD-XA. The best have been collected into libraries on Roland's Axial website, so you have dozens of fresh patches in numerous categories right there to choose from, as well as a growing crop of libraries from many users online.

The effects are very good too. You won't find Lexicon or TC Electronics megaverbs, but they sound reasonably good enough to track with, and the other effects are superb, and very flexible with a few different routings. The vocoder is stellar. The sequencer isn't the most amazing, but it works and you can do a lot with it. Go listen to Gattobus' demos again if you wonder if you can do anything with it.

Roland makes a lot of the whole Crossover Synth philosophy, but all I need to do is layer the analog and SN synth to become anyone from Emerson through Eddie Jobson to Vangelis, Tangerine Dream and Tomita. Plus, when the analog synth is layered with patches programmed identically and level matched to each other, I've found that it sounds like a huge analog synth with tons of polyphony. You're hard pressed to hear the analog voices being stolen, it's so seamless. So you guys wanting an eight voice analog from Roland, look no further. It sounds like anything from 21 voices up, and good luck trying to find an analog synth with that many voice cards.

The real pleasure of this synth is in using the two sections to compliment each other individually. Just loading up one SN synth Tone with three partials will give you a really fat sound that can evolve in any number of ways. Add a juicy four voice analog layer on top, and you have five oscillators, four filters, eight ADSRs, six LFOs... etc. And those effects! And I haven't even touched on performances. Each of those eight Tone buttons will turn on a layer with it's OWN MIDI channel.

I lust after just about every synth in the world. Andromedas, Jupiters, Oberheims, Prophets... you name it. But with the JD-XA, my thirst for those other synths is quenched. About the only synth I could really need with something this powerful and great sounding is a Moog or Oberheim. Voyager, Sub 37, OB-6, something. But then I program a Moogy patch, and that extra synth seems more like a convenience.

This price is stupid good. Listen to those demos some more if you think you need more than the JD-XA can give you. This thing is eventually going to be as coveted as any vintage Jupiter or CS-80.

The biggest problem with this synth is that nobody understands it. Sure it could have more analog voices. It could have a better sequencer built in. It could even stand to have some more built in presets to showcase its potential (although axial.roland.com is adding quite a few over the last few months).

The truth is, it's one of the most amazing and purely roland "synths" I have ever owned, and a pure joy to play with. The analog engine makes it super easy to dial in complex sounds, or amazingly simple leads and basses. The filters are astoundingly good and the analog circuit sounds punchy and powerful. The digital section is like having a all the best features of any previous roland digital synth, with far more than a greatest hits mentality about it. The fact that you can layer these is utterly amazing, and provides endless capabilities. Add in the fully featured, multitude of effects and it's one of the few synths I've ever felt like could produce the perfect sound entirely on it's own in any circumstance.

To anyone considering this synth, don't go off the demos on youtube alone. It very much captures the mood of anyone programming and playing it and that doesn't always translate well in demos. The truth is, it will be a classic and sought after long after roland decides to move on to less innovative things.

This is unquestionably the best Roland synth I've played since i remember buying the JD-800 monsrer synth in the early years of the 1990s. The sound ? It's sort of a mix of the Jx8p, Super JX10, JP-8000/or JP-8080 - but all in one box, and also with a bit. There is really nothing* else on the market at all like this right now - and make the right tweakings and you'll hear a really 'singing' sound from this synth - ethereal. Great synth - don't miss it .

The possibilities are never ending with this synth. Build quality is great. I love the way it looks too, it has a very sleek look to it. It was worth every penny.

Ok - Right off I will address the noise issue - Yes, there is a bit of noise, but this thing has so many possible layers it more than makes up for the flaws. To begin with, in mono mode, you have access to EIGHT analog oscillators. Basically you have four separate voices in the analog realm, and can edit each one individually with two LFOs and all of the usual Roland fine-tuning/ editing controls that have become standard. The digital section lets you stack up three individual sound sources (there are a total of 450 I believe, including standard wave forms) for each of the four digital parts. The digital section's volume is not as loud as the analog, so when building sounds keep this in mind. on the plus side, the noise issue I addressed earlier comes from the analog section, so back them off a little. Over-all I would recommend this as a sound-creation synth or even a good live instrument. The process of building pads can become overwhelming due to all of the parameters available to you - When you turn it on, be prepared for hours of editing, but if that is what you enjoy, this does not fail to satisfy. Great job on the JDXA - No regrets here.

I got to try this at Gearfest when it first came out and immediately went on the waiting list. A couple weeks later I had it and was not disappointed. For me it is a niche instrument excelling at pads. Buttery smooth combined with shinning highs that you don"t often find in one unit. This synth fills the background while I play lead on something else. I have A LOT of synths and this one makes the most beautiful pads of them all.

After drooling over this synth for a while, I finally pulled the trigger and ordered it from Sweetwater. Unfortunately when it arrived, it had the "crackle bug" that others have experienced. Thankfully, Alan and Alex made it completely stress and trouble free to troubleshoot and get the unit replaced very quickly.

Now I'm up and running and digging into the power of this beast. This thing basically covers everything I've wanted in a synth, the analog path, the digital path, and it even works smoothly as one huge MIDI control surface for my DAW. You can get all sorts of sounds out of this thing, from drum machine sounds, Jupiter 8 and other classic synths, soft and warm pads, and even blistering, noisy industrial stuff.

My only "complaint" about the unit is that I wish it had dedicated controls for arpeggiator rate and gate. Unfortunately you have to do some slight menu diving to adjust those settings. Not a huge problem though!

I'm planning on using it live soon, so I also appreciate the weight and form factor. Also, big thanks to Alan at Sweetwater for also shipping the official Roland overlay for this thing to me in such a way as to keep it from getting damaged in the post. It's a cool looking synth naked, but looks even better wearing matte black :)

I love the synth. However, I have been unable to connect it to my Mac using the latest os and driver versions. Tried it on three separate machines. No luck. Roland will not admit there is a problem, which is typical.

This could be a dealbreaker for me...

First of all, I love the sound of this synth. Everything is big and colorful. The analog filters are awesome, especially LP3, which is wild and hard to tame but sounds like nothing I've ever heard.

The problem is that the JDXA has too many bugs. If you go on the Roland forums, you'll see I'm not the only one complaining about bugs. The most serious bugs were noise in the analog sine oscillator and noise in one of the analog filters when a digital part was run through it. I also had a bug where an analog part was playing even though it was off - this was fixed through a factory reset.

Bottom line: if you're willing to live with an imperfect product that sounds amazing, get it. I ended up reluctantly returning mine.

It reminded me the old ROLAND JP-8000 which was great synth but NOT a JD-800... Those of you who missed the old JP-8000 are having a chance of buying a very good synth. Price ROLAND set for JD-XA is too high especially during the economic crisis. It should be around $1,200. Take also into consideration that this synth like the old JP-8000, isn't built well like the old robust ROLAND synths......

This has to be the cheapest $2300 synth . Feels like toy plastic. It could not have any quality parts in it. Because it is as light as a feather.flagship.lol it sounds. Good but way over priced for the lack of quality parts.knobs feel cheap. Keybed feels cheap. Under neath looks like you should put batteries in it and give it to your child for christmas.

I have an issue with the quality of this unit . For a flagship synth from Roland .. ( and I've owned a few over the decades , jup8, juno60, sh101, Fantom X8 , vsynth which I still have and use ) ... the choice of materials for its construction are appalling .

After a week in the studio the highly glossy fascia is covered in tiny scratches from fingers sliding up and down the controls or where the finger prints were wiped off , what ever possessed Roland to use this material is beyond me .

The ends are cheap plastic as is the base . If this was a $600 Korg unit i'd understand but it's not .

No manual to flip through , for the price tag supply a manual , every other Roland unit I have purchased has had one .

The keys are hideous , every other unit in my studio has standard sized keys , even my Korg MicroX , what possessed Roland to build a flagship synth with shorter and more annoyingly "narrower" keys , nothing like accidentally pressing 2 keys down at the same time while recording , this is a big mistake . Shorter keys make it harder to control the aftertouch , its either on or off unless you want to painstakingly focus on this feature to feather it ...

No VST or real time software control - seriously , Access had this on their Virus TI 10 years ago ..

Tiny display , which you rely on to program this thing because many features are menu buried , horrid.

The one thing I like is the synth engine , the analogue side is great , clean sounding while being able to actually sound analogue, unlike my Andromeda which needs 10 minutes to warm up before it's even in tune .

The digital side I'm still working on , this is new to me but looks like it is capable of extensive results ..

a great sounding synth ruined by a cheap crappy build that looks like it was delegated to Roland's high school co-op students to design and then outsourced to the cheapest factory in china to build .

Ill use it as a synth module only unfortunately .

After reading some of the long reviews posted here it would be easy to believe that the XA was a quality instrument. Please, please try it out before you invest. I was hopefully optimistic given Rolands pedigree and the great price point but, alas, it is one of the worst synthesizers I have used - both tonally and in terms of build quality. Once I unpacked it in the studio and heard it in context with my other instruments it was immediatly clear that it had a strange unpleasant character that was present no matter how the various paramaters were tweaked. I spent far too long trying to coax even basic bass sounds out of it.. the results where always unsatisfying. Of course, these things are always a matter of personal taste and there are plenty of very positive reviews of this unit on the internet - though it seems that many of them originate from the same individuals - one in particular who is a proffessionally payed reviewer whose rose tinted view of this unit appear on every music blogspot I am a member of. All in all, I would just reiterate that anyone interested should try it in person before making any commitment. I made a huge mistake on the Xa and now here it sits collecting dust. Not an easy resell either it seems 8 months later. Be carefull!

Hard to know what to say really. The cheap build quality, the under-powered analogue section, the painful resonance of the filter, the feeble sequencer, the same old Roland rompler engine sounds yet again, the buggy firmware..etc..I had reasonable expectations but this synth was a regrettable purchase. Sorry Roland but surely you can do much better than this? VST's like Omnisphere are have already surpassed the sonic quality that is on offer here Feels cheap, looks cheap, sounds cheap.

Let me start off by saying I am a HUGE fan of Roland gear. Ask my sales engineer at Sweetwater, and he'll tell you how much I've loaded my studio up with their products over the years. I currently own and regularly use the V-Synth GT, Fantom X7, D-550, SH-201 and Jupiter-80. I've released 3 albums of synth pop music and have been playing Roland keyboards since the days of the Juno-60, back when the Juno-60 was new. Suffice it to say, I know my way around Roland equipment and believe me, it pains me to write these words.
I actually tried 2 of these, sending the first one back for replacement because I thought I'd just gotten a lemon. Unfortunately, no. This is a great synth in concept, but beware there are some serious design issues. Others have lauded the "build quality". I beg to differ. You will find that switches and dials on the front panel do not actually do what they say they do. For example, OSC on/off switches that don't actually turn the oscillators on or off. The main volume knob will not control the volume at all if using the Analog dry output, although the mute switch does work.
The analog oscillators to my ear sound thin and tinny. How cheap were the components Roland put in this thing? The square waves sound a bit like muffled saw waves (square waves shouldn't "buzz" folks!). The MIDI implementation is a nightmare. Each analog and digital oscillator is assigned a separate MIDI channel (1-8). Whose bright idea was this? If you want to control this board from an external source (in my case, the Fantom-X sequencer) you have to manually change EACH and EVERY oscillator MIDI channel (eight!) on EACH patch, one at a time. MAJOR pain in the neck! There is no way to change the default MIDI set up globally and be done with it, as you can for example in the Jupiter-80.
And speaking of programming, this beast reminds me of the days of the D-50, with endless arrow key pressing and scrolling through a two-line LED window. It will serve to remind everybody why Roland came out with the PG-1000 programmer back in the late 80s for the D-50. Don't let all of the front knobs and sliders fool you. You will have to engage in significant menu-diving to program patches if you really want to dig into this board. And when you do, sometimes certain settings just plain don't work. For example, try setting the level of an individual digital oscillator and watch it not do a darn thing as you dial the number up and down.
How do I know these are system design or OS design issues? Do a factory reset and some, though not all, of the aberrant behavior goes away. The exact same set of problems were present in BOTH boards I tried, and the same aberrant behavior cleared up when I did the reset, so it wasn't that I didn't know how a particular parameter worked. Messing with the same parameter before and after a factory reset would completely change how the given programming parameter operated within the patch. This to me indicates a systemic software problem, not a fluke.
Bottom line, Roland released this thing before it was close to ready and the design team either didn't put enough thought into how a synth in 2015 ought to be designed for ease of programming, or was hampered by a push to make it "cheaper" from the brass at the company, or maybe some of both. If one of the big selling points was "Look guys! Real analog!" then they really should have put better sounding oscillators in this board than what they obviously have. I've never been so disappointed by a synthesizer purchase in my life, and this is the first time in 9 years and dozens of Sweetwater purchases I've ever requested a refund. A thoroughly shameful performance from Roland, though as always, 5 stars to my Sales Engineer, Mark Magdich who as always has been a pleasure to work with and really bent over backwards to help me sort out these issues.