reason / WBPG8X™

Two of the best Roland synthesizers ever made — including their last real analog polysynth ever

We have to rewind the clock a little but back in 1985 the synth world saw the introduction of Roland’s first ever synthesizer with velocity and aftertouch. It also was their first synth with a text display. JX-8P is an amazing sounding analog synthesizer.

Long time JX8P fan here, here’s my 8P multitrack funk tune with the same name

The stunning, silvery and huge space ship JX-8P was born and just like its green 70’s style fluoroscent display letters, it came with wonderful evergreen analog patches like VOICES and the incredibly classic pad SOUNDTRACK. Back then, that was a jaw-dropping sight and the sounds were absolutely incredible. They still are. Priced at about $1595, it was a machine Roland designed to really compete with the Yamaha DX7, something it actually did quite well.

A real JX-10 here from a real fan of that… and the JX-8P and MKS-70 too.

It was, however, just a 6-voice polyphonic machine. The “8” came from the eight performance or “favourite” patches you could set and program to be either 2-osc 6-voice or 4-osc 3-voice unison with unison detune. The bass sounds in unison are serious.

A year later, Roland and Yamaha both produced a couple of dual synthesizers; DX5 and JX10. In these synths, sounds could be layered and split forcthe first time, and you didn’t have to carry two machines to the gig. The JX10 was Roland’s last analog polysynth. Its follow-up was D-50, their first digital machine.

Thanks to Martin Luders PG8X we finally have a great JX plugin. Needless to say these sounds are fantastic so the PG8X vst instrument is one of the best VST projects ever made, especially since it’s completely free. So could someone out there please add lots of very good sounds to it? Sure thing Bitley said and programmed away, to forget Corona, building the fattest Super JX and JX-8P library. Get the plugin here! Now, as for the sounds;

The world’s first virtual Roland JX-10

The Roland JX-10 was Roland’s absolute flagship analog synthesizer in its heyday, introduced in the year 1986 and costing about $2495. Which, at that time was a good down payment for a flat in a big city — or could buy you a brand new small car. The JX10 contains two JX8P motherboards and they are joined in software; the patch mode is only available on the JX10. It combines two tones. JX8P has one tone at a time.
What this soundbank gives you

All original JX8P and JX10 patches from both us and Roland. A re-organised sample library inspired from WBF R2 including new super cool patches. The MKS-770 combinator, which is a MKS-70 on steroids.

Please make sure your system “sees” the plugin after you’ve installed, this is how it should look. The VST is being heavily used by this library.

An early demo when the project started out.
Price $49
Reason
Fairlight CMI Legacy II+
Fairlight XXL
Fairlight Platinum
Way Beyond Fairlight R2
Way Beyond Fairlight R2X
Way Beyond Fairlight X
Way Beyond PG-8X and more
Kontakt
Way Beyond Fairlight R2
Hardware
Yamaha Montage Series
Kawai K4 and more