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Ultimate buyers remorse: Roland JD-800 vs. Korg Wavestation


Sundown

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When I was 15, I mowed lawns. A lot of them... Enough to have progressively saved enough over ~2 years to buy one of the pillars of early 90's synthesizers, in the form of the Korg Wavestation. It had a lot of sex appeal, it had a lot of followers, and it created a lot of buzz, and the magazines loved it. And while it wasn't really the right building block for my rig at the time, I convinced myself that the masses couldn't be wrong.

 

They were...

 

For my personal needs, it was the wrong instrument. It served as a decent MIDI controller for 20+ years, but I never really loved it. The patch memory was so intertwined and interdependent that a small edit to one sound could adversely affect many others, and while Dave Smith put some clever programming shortcuts into the O/S, it was an absolute behemoth to program. The Wave sequence memory was essentially "live without a net", in that there was no edit buffer. For a guy who could whip up some decent original creations on a Roland D-20, I was perfectly useless on a Wavestation. And most of the sounds that it's famous for (the ever-evolving pads and clock-like rhythmic sequences), had no place in what I was working on at the time.

 

After a few weeks/months with the W/S, I got the next edition of Roland Users Group in the mail. Then I saw it... The Roland JD-800. It was such a bold instrument, with a front panel littered with sliders and knobs, and twin LCDs to boot. And it had filters... Man, it had filters. And as if they were speaking directly to me, the patch memory was totally independent. Each patch was a standalone memory slot, with no interdependency to others. If I wanted a fat-ass synth to make new sounds, Roland was listening very closely.

 

But it was not to be... The timing just didn't work. I couldn't sell my W/S and get a JD, and I just had to learn from the experience. It's not that I could have foreseen the JD coming, but I could have had the insight to know that I was buying the W/S for all the wrong reasons.

 

Before I commit to a purchase now, I'm much more cognizant of my motives. Will this piece really improve my productivity and help me finish projects, or is it just a distraction? Is this the best use of my money right now?

 

I'm not worse off for missing the boat on a great synth. I'm sure I could find a used one if I really wanted it. But as I was listening to a JD demo the other day on YouTube, I was reminded of the reaction I had when I first saw it. I was blown away by Roland's bold approach, and my heart just sank when I realized it was just a bit too late.

 

Oh well. We live, we learn. :facepalm:

Sundown

 

Working on: The Jupiter Bluff; Driven Away

Main axes: Kawai MP11 and Kurz PC361

DAW Platform: Cubase

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The next best thing is always around the corner. It's just the nature of the beast. I don't think you did too bad, as you got 20 years out of the korg. If you had bought the JD, you might have only gotten a few years out of it, or something else would have come out to make you wish you would have waited just a little longer. Been there and done that. You do the best you can, that's all you can do.

 

 

 

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In the 1980's, I wanted an Oberheim (OB-Xa I believe), but had the Arp Axxe and Arp Omni, and Farfisa, and Korg MS-20, and with the price tag on that, I never got it.

 

I still wanted it by the 1990's but got the Roland E-16 and was happy with that.

 

Would I still want that Oberheim? Sure. But I have a lovely new Christmas gift, a MicroKORG, and still no regrets about the Oberheim I never had.

 

I guess I am of the mind set that if you cannot have the board you want, love the one(s) you have.

 

I have no remorse over never having gotten it. Who knows? Maybe one day I will have one.

 

:)

 

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The JD-800 had a run of bad keyboards. You had to get them replaced. At least your wavestation lasted 20 years.

Now about the Oberheim. I will never forget wanting a Prophet 5 BADLY! I had the money -and a local guy talked me out of out. He said ALL the good jazz players were playing Oberheim. Yeah right! I was young and foolish and I listened. I never did get that Prophet 5 I wanted so badly. I gave away the Oberheim when I got my DX7 because OF COURSE the DX7 sounded better.

Oh well. At least I did get the Odyssey I wanted so badly later on.

Korg Kronos, Roland RD-88, Korg Kross, JP8000, MS2000, Sequential Pro One, Micromoog, Yamaha VL1, author of unrealBook for iPad.

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Back in the late 80s and throughout the 90's almost everything was sample playback. Wasn't my cup of tea (still isn't) and so I went several years without purchasing any synths. Except the Wavestation which was somewhat unique. I loved the fact that you could use velocity to trigger a different sample and while programming wave sequences was a bit clumsy it was still pretty cool. Yes, the patch memory management sucked but I would just create multiple banks with Sounddiver so it wasn't that big a deal.

 

Still as one who enjoys programming sounds from scratch I never liked starting with a recorded sample and trying to create a unique sound with the bare bones subtractive synthesis the WS provided. Not even a resonant filter although the Legacy version has that now which is pretty cool. But I'll usually go for the Mono/Poly over the Wavestation when I'm in VST mode.

 

 

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Get a JD-990 instead and then you will afford to get a WS SR for the same price as a JD-800. The 990 offers even more programmability and waveforms. Way smaller footprint too

being rackmounted. Of course you loose the sliders...

The JD's are phenomenal pad machines

 

The hardware WS has more "balls" than the software version.

Those crunchy converters...

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

Arthur Schopenhauer

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I wanted an Arp Odyssey to match up with my Mini. Instead I bought a Crumar DS-2 that my local music store had for sale. It did not match well with the Mini. Not at all. Next to the Moog it sounded sterile and lifeless. With 2 LFO's I got some good effects out of the DS-2, but that's about it.

 

I would still like to have an Odyssey. If the Korg release had been full size, or tabletop I would grab one.

This post edited for speling.

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You might have gotten the wrong synth, but at least you didn't end up with the Dreaded Roland Pink Glue issue you probably would have had you gotten the -800.

 

..Joe

Setup: Korg Kronos 61, Roland XV-88, Korg Triton-Rack, Motif-Rack, Korg N1r, Alesis QSR, Roland M-GS64 Yamaha KX-88, KX76, Roland Super-JX, E-Mu Longboard 61, Kawai K1II, Kawai K4.
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I wanted a JP-8 when it was new but couldn't afford it...... I still do and still can't. :D

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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I have no experience with a Wavestation, but I do still have my first synth, a Roland D-10, which was pretty similar to the D-20, just without a few features. As slick and powerful as the newer synths are, I can't come close to the kind of stuff I was able to wring out of the D-10. I don't know if it's the machines being so much more complicated, or me just having less patience to learn as I did back then, but that's the way it's been. I was able to program some nice patches on the Korg M50, with splits and thick layers and fairly complex arpeggios, but diving into the actual sounds was quite a pain in the ass compared to that old Roland.

D-10; M50; SP4-7; SP6

I'm a fairly accomplished hack.

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The D-10 has a cool feature. Swipe your hands really quick up and down and the sound comes out about a second later! I used to do that in concert and people asked me how I did it!

 

Secret: Slow processor!

 

You are right, it is a fun board!

Korg Kronos, Roland RD-88, Korg Kross, JP8000, MS2000, Sequential Pro One, Micromoog, Yamaha VL1, author of unrealBook for iPad.

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I remember when the Steinway D came out... I really wanted one and was at the store about to make the purchase, but then my friend at the time said "You should really wait for the Steinway E, I'm sure it'll be much better!"

 

Well, needless to say...

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Still as one who enjoys programming sounds from scratch I never liked starting with a recorded sample and trying to create a unique sound with the bare bones subtractive synthesis the WS provided. Not even a resonant filter although the Legacy version has that now which is pretty cool.

 

Boy, don't get me started on the raw waveforms and the filter on the W/S... Yes, it came with ~395 waveforms, but they didn't mention in the ad that a couple hundred of them were static, grungy waves from the Prophet VS or early PPG synths. Or that many of them were "time slices", a clever buzzword for very small snippets of a resonant filter sweep on an analog synth (something that could have easily been accomplished with a digital resonant low pass filter). If the raw waveforms were better, I think the sonic pallette would have been much wider.

 

 

 

Sundown

 

Working on: The Jupiter Bluff; Driven Away

Main axes: Kawai MP11 and Kurz PC361

DAW Platform: Cubase

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Get a JD-990 instead. The 990 offers even more programmability and waveforms.

 

I've got an XV-3080, and while the architecture of that would be closer to a JV-80 or XP-50, it's not dramatically different than the JD's. It's still a subtractive ROMpler with many of the same waveforms. The filters on the 990 are more rich, and the fact that a 990 could only turn 24 voices tells me there is some key difference in the sound engine.

Sundown

 

Working on: The Jupiter Bluff; Driven Away

Main axes: Kawai MP11 and Kurz PC361

DAW Platform: Cubase

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It definitely could have been worse... The original plan was to get a Roland D-70, which I waited for close to a year (it was announced in a newsletter long before it hit shelves). I never felt like that was a complete instrument. It had so many odd shortcomings (for example, some sample maps fell short of all 76 Keys, etc).

 

It felt rushed to market, and in my view it was never worthy of the "D" moniker. It was more of a "U-50".

Sundown

 

Working on: The Jupiter Bluff; Driven Away

Main axes: Kawai MP11 and Kurz PC361

DAW Platform: Cubase

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I would still like to have an Odyssey. If the Korg release had been full size, or tabletop I would grab one.

 

I hear you. In the meantime I have purchased G Force Oddity 2. Sonicly it's (almost, almost) there and wasn't expensive. I just really don't like VST's even though I own a boatload of them.

:nopity:
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Get a JD-990 instead. The 990 offers even more programmability and waveforms.

 

I've got an XV-3080, and while the architecture of that would be closer to a JV-80 or XP-50, it's not dramatically different than the JD's. It's still a subtractive ROMpler with many of the same waveforms. The filters on the 990 are more rich, and the fact that a 990 could only turn 24 voices tells me there is some key difference in the sound engine.

 

Oh yes, they are different alright...

The JD-990 is the souped up version of the JD-800

 

Here are the differences:

 

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/2492443-post7.html

 

A 990 with the JV vintage card is killer!

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

Arthur Schopenhauer

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Gee, I still want a Korg Wavestation.

 

I got a Yamaha TG-77 instead - from that same era, this was a combination of the DX7 sounds and technology married to a sample-playback engine. I still use it as an occasional sound source in my studio.

 

But the Korg Wavestation had a unique sound, and still sound great today (I think). I seriously still think about getting one.

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Gee, I still want a Korg Wavestation.

 

Don't waste your time with hardware. Assuming you have an audio computer, get the Korg Legacy Edition plugin. You can't beat the price, and you get far more polyphony, a resonant filter, a far better GUI, and the complete collection of ROM cards. It's also able to read third party sysex data or banks. A handful of presets are slightly off, but it's so subtle that only a hardcore W/S enthusiast would notice. You're getting 99% of the sound, plus the above advantages.

 

It will be hard to find a hardware W/S in a few years. The power supplies eventually die.

Sundown

 

Working on: The Jupiter Bluff; Driven Away

Main axes: Kawai MP11 and Kurz PC361

DAW Platform: Cubase

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