ROLAND JX-3P (1983)

An affordable a polyphonic synthesizer with memory and Midi, also known as "PPP" Programmable, Preset and Polyphonic in eighties slogans

 

 

KEYBOARD 61 keys (five octaves DO-DO) lightweight plastic with no Velocity, although some later OS (on Eprom) supports just velocity IN. On the left side there is a Pitch bender with a three range switch and a button for LFO retrig modulation. The pannel has just a few controls for editing: HOLD sustain , BRILLANCE filter , CHORUS on/off and TRANSPOSE key (a whole Octave) ; for more editing facility you can still use an external programmer called Pg-200 (see below).
Behind the synthesizer there are the following connections: Footswitch Sustain (same as pannel) , Clock In for sequencer (Pulse), Stereo Ouput jacks, Tape I/o, Midi I/o and input for External controller PG-200 NOTA: a switch will chose to use MIDI or PROGRAMMER since you CAN' T use both in the same time... a very big rip-off!
The rackmount version is called "Mks30" but it seems to sound a bit different : the filter structure is different with some (delicate) 80017a like Juno 106

VOICE two detunables DCOs per voice for a maximum of six notes of polyphony with variable Octaves height 4' 8' or 16' and a series of selectable waveforms including Ramp, Squares with two predefined PWM % and a white noise (only on DCO2). The DCOs can be hard synched or Crossmodulated for a kind of ring modulation effect called "METAL"

FILTER analog VCF Multimode with a very good resonant -24db LOW PASS and classical Roland non-resonant High Pass (like Juno 6)

LFO One Low frequency oscillator with three waveforms: SQUARE , SAW and Sample & HOLD however a fourth waveform Noise Random is available only with direct JX3P programmation (not accessible by PG-200)
The LFO has Delay Start and can be routed to FILTER and PITCH be triggerable start with the "LFO trigger button" . Nota: doesn't have very high Frequency

FX Stereo analog Chorus for a very retro lush touch to your recording resulting "bright" and "living" in a mix

MEMORY RAM is splitted into four banks each 16 patches called A B C D: the first two are ROM presets, while others are user free and battery backuped up.
There's no sysex dump or else : you have to deal with obsolete tape player

MIDI interface is quite simple and accept very basic messages like Note ON or OFF. NOTA: some third part company made a new set of hardware OS that expand the its protocol with a full spectrum of Control Change for each parameters, and full Midi Sysex dump handling for library.

SEQUENCER a very nice feature easy to understand and quite "analog like feel" with 16 steps (max 128) with Fill function, Note insert (up to six) or Pause step .
The Tempo has its own pot or can be synched to external trigger signal.

THE ROLAND PG-200 PROGRAMMER Programming is not really fun on raw Jx3p: one parameter per time with a single DATA slider, so the best solution is the dedicated programmer Pg-200 the box with a lot of old fashioned pots ! Wired thru a custom six pins cable, the data flows is quick but not recordable. The PG is getting hard to find with high price but gives really power to the JX3P

Do you have more Mp3, pictures or info for this machine? please send your material