Roland XV-3080 in the house! My rack synth cravings satisfied.

[AROIOS]

23 hours ago, TJ Cornish said:

I did a quick Google to figure out what you are hinting at - appears to be this: https://sector101.co.uk/sr-jv-romulator.html

 

Looks very fun!! The only SR-JV-capable board I still own is an XP-80 and it's just holding down some floor in the spare bedroom, so this is not probably a project for me, but it's great engineering and I'm glad to see people playing around!

Yup, you found it!

[AROIOS]

On 2/8/2024 at 10:18 PM, CyberGene said:

All these XV/JV modules and similar synths can be recreated in perfect (and tiny sized) iOS apps. I’m wondering why Roland are absent from the mobile world. I know they are about their Roland Cloud subscription but it can also be done on iOS if desired. 

Better yet, a Linux app I can run on a Raspberry Pi. I couldn't care less about supporting walled POSIX gardens like iOS and Android.

But for the manufacturers, these type of decisions are ultimately about money, Roland and Korg obviously have very different cash forecast models about mobile revenues. Maybe one day Roland has a new CEO, and hipsters will be air-playing virtual Jupiter-8s in Vision Pro and Oculus Rift.

[stoken6]

12 hours ago, AROIOS said:

I couldn't care less

👍

Cheers, Mike.

[ElmerJFudd]

15 hours ago, AROIOS said:

Yup, you found it!

A very cool hack for those who enjoy to mess with these things.  But not inexpensive. 8 rom blanks and the programmer are $1200 USD.  Very close to second hand Integra.  

[Sundown]

I bought one new in the early 2000’s and it’s still a part of my studio rig. I don’t think there is an instrumental or track I’ve written that doesn’t have at least one patch on it. I find it quite easy to edit and navigate and often I can get what I’m looking for by just turning off a partial or two, or changing the cutoff and envelope values. It also has a pretty deep modulation matrix that is easy to use. I typically use the XV for analog synth pads, synth comp sounds, and a few synthetic EPs. 

 

I will say that you have to watch out for pitch instability (some of those presets have a lot of “Analog Feel” on them), and I always turn off the onboard effects when I record the audio. I also find that I have to use a lot of EQ and dynamic EQ to tame resonances. Tape in the 90’s helped smear some of that off, but with digital, those nasty resonances get captured and require some surgery.

 

Todd

[harmonizer]

I used an XV-5050 for over 10 years, and recently replaced it with an FA-07, which gives me all the sounds that were in the "base" of the XV-5050, plus all of the sounds that were in the SRX-07 card of my XV-5050. The combination of the incredibly flexible split capabilities and the sometimes quirky but practical sounds that were in the XV-5050 base and SRX-07 card are indispensable to me. One example is I was able to make a perfect setup for the weird "twang" G-pitch sound played during the chorus of "Cake By The Ocean". And I have used the flexible split and layering to enable me to trigger chord sounds from a PK-5a MIDI footpedal controller.

[CyberGene]

I seem a bit confused (but I don’t know what to do with those tossed salads and scrambled eggs… 😀).

 

So, is the Zenology Pro (or no Pro) having all the patches from the XV-5080? I read some confusing information and I really don’t understand Roland logic. To me it seems I can just purchase the Zenology Pro with a lifetime license for $229 without even subscribing (or starting a trial). But I’m not sure what exactly it includes and whether I may have to also purchase some other packs on top of the rather steep $229 price for what is basically a rompler synth 🧐 I’m wondering if it will be cheaper if I start the trial and purchase it from there (but I don’t know if it will be cheaper and they say some downloads are disabled during trial). Also, I understand there’s regular Zenology (not Pro but also not Lite) with patches only and no deep editing. But I can’t find it in the cloud manager. I’ve never seen such a convoluted business…

[ElmerJFudd]

2 hours ago, CyberGene said:

I seem a bit confused (but I don’t know what to do with those tossed salads and scrambled eggs… 😀).

 

So, is the Zenology Pro (or no Pro) having all the patches from the XV-5080? I read some confusing information and I really don’t understand Roland logic. To me it seems I can just purchase the Zenology Pro with a lifetime license for $229 without even subscribing (or starting a trial). But I’m not sure what exactly it includes and whether I may have to also purchase some other packs on top of the rather steep $229 price for what is basically a rompler synth 🧐 I’m wondering if it will be cheaper if I start the trial and purchase it from there (but I don’t know if it will be cheaper and they say some downloads are disabled during trial). Also, I understand there’s regular Zenology (not Pro but also not Lite) with patches only and no deep editing. But I can’t find it in the cloud manager. I’ve never seen such a convoluted business…

Which route to go depends what you are after.  If all you want is an XV-5080 in software - they’ve done that.  
 

However, since then they built the Zenology Pro engine as a way to provide and sell sounds (as expansions).  
 

Here is what’s included specifically with a Zenology Pro lifetime key…
 

“Over 4100 tones and 109 drum kits”

 

Is there material from SR JV SRX in there?  Ya, I’d say so - it “Includes 1840 PCM waveforms”.
 

But Zenology Pro also has Synthesis engines so many of those sounds are patches as well. And the interface is not a copy of a piece of hardware, but a new modern interface developed for running on a computer. Perhaps the best part of that is a searchable patch browser.  

 

where they say expandable what they mean is you can continue to buy new sounds through expansions that aren’t included with a lifetime purchase.  See below. 
 

“Key Features

ZEN-Core Synthesis System plug-in for Mac and Windows

Over 4100 tones and 109 drum kits, easily expandable to over 10,000 total selections

Compatible with Sound Packs and Wave Expansions available on Roland Cloud

Advanced tone browser to explore sounds, tag favorites, and create custom banks

Powerful synth architecture with up to four partials per tone, each with flexible oscillator, filter, amplifier, dual LFOs, and equalizer

Layer multiple synthesis types including advanced virtual analog and modern PCM

Four oscillators with nine virtual analog waveforms, supersaw, noise, PCM, and PCM SYNC

Includes 1840 PCM waveforms, easily expandable to over 7000

Ten filter types including JUPITER and other iconic models

Eleven LFO shapes, including tempo-synced step LFOs with 37 curves per step

Over 90 lush Roland effects, including pristine reverbs, JUNO-106 and CE-1 choruses, SDD-320 Dimension D, and DJ-FX Looper   Modern resizable user interface for smooth workflow in any production environment

Edit and share sounds between ZENOLOGY Pro and ZEN-Core hardware instruments like FANTOM, JUPITER-X, JUNO-X, RD-88, MC-101, MC707, and others” 

——-

in a nutshell if you’re satisfied with an XV-5080 as a plug-in - $129.   If you want a wide variety of Roland sounds from various Roland instruments - Zenology Pro - $229.  Plus you can buy expansions till the cows come home.  Plus you can push sounds out to Roland Zencore compatible hardware instruments and leave the computer at home.  

[AROIOS]

11 hours ago, CyberGene said:

... So, is the Zenology Pro (or no Pro) having all the patches from the XV-5080? ...

Yes, it does have all of XV-5080's samples and patches.

That said, some of the patches won't sound the same as they do on JV and XV, because of changes in effect routing design. Any JV/XV patches that have significant differences among EFX send levels at the element/partial/layer level will likely sound different on Integra-7, Zenology and most newer Roland romplers.

If you're nerdy enough to dig into the details, here's my ranting about it a while ago.