Roland JD-Xi is a hybrid synthesizer, developed as a crossover-concept devicet which includes an analog and digital synthesizer in one housing. The 3-octave instrument is characterized by 4-part multitimbrality. Its analog section consists of a mono DCO with 3 waveforms to choose from, a sub-oscillator (1-2 octaves below), a low-pass filter (LPF) of 24 dB and an analog amplifier (VCA). As for the digital part - it contains two parts: one operates on PCM samples and another is a drum synth. Each of the two digital parts allows 64-note polyphony and is built on a full-featured Roland SuperNatural engine with a depth of editing that is not as amazing as in the FA series, Integra-7 or Jupiter - which are more powerful in piano sounds and have a wider collection of samples, - though still impressive.
JD-Xi is focused on dance music and offers a wide range of 256 digital, 64 analog presets and 32 drum kits (453 drums). You can tweak the settings for editable filter and amplifier envelopes, digital filters, modulation and LFO. Digital components can’t be processed via analog filters or can’t be layered on an analog section, as it is possible to in Roland JD-Xa, but the problem gets somehow solved thanks to a sequencer. JD-Xi has a chic set of effects, including distortion, fuzz, compressor, bitcrush, flanger, phaser, ring modulator, slicer, delay and 6 types of reverb.
This mini synthesizer represents a nice price/quality/functionality ratio. Therefore, its price tag doesn’t fall, although it has already been a while since it was launched, and to boost some public interest, firmware updates with new sounds are being released, as well as special limited series in red and white colors. Buy all three of them, you won’t regret!
Tags: hybrid synthesizer