Not true, I've spent hours programming the jp8080, while perhaps it isn't as good as a real analogue- jp8080 is quite good at making Juno106 DCO type bass sounds (one oscillator, noise, portamento -no fx). The filter is not great for acid basslines ala TB303 or SH101- too rough and coarse and with high resonance (self oscillation?) it sounds awful- doesn't rumble like a real filter should. The resonance just doesn't seem "married" to the sound- it sounds like a "ghost" - very transparent, thin. The 24dB LP stinks, this filter just seems to kill most of the sound and I rarely use it. To sum it up: the JP8080's digital, polyphonic nature lends itself best to brass, strings, pads , and dco type bass lines (ala Juno series) with minimal to moderate levels of resonance. Despite it's shortcomings the JP8080 can still create almost all of your favorite, cliche, dance music sounds.

turn off the fx.. then start making sounds from scratch, you will soon see why its not so great and the fx heavily doctor the sounds..

still is a good synth tho, good pads..

There are things you like and things you hate about it, hmm... deep man, is that zen?

"It comes across as a flawed instrument ...but fair enough for the price." The sage, he speaketh.

I will add this to make this review legit- any "dance" synth sound you have ever heard can be reproduced on the jp8080.

The sounds produced by the 8080 are virtually endless, basses, noises, strings, drones. If you are into trance, house, drum n' bass, ambient,dub, progressive rock, scoring, whatever- the 8080 will deliver...eventually.

The OS is stable and complete- the unit has never (in the 5 years that I've owned it) locked up on me or failed in any way. Sure there are some quirky midi issues here and there, big whoop.

My favorite things to do with the 8080 is to link the various parameters to controller assignments on my keyboard and tweak remotely.

for those of you who haven't used this synth for a year at least- please shut the hell up.

Synthwise, the beauty of the JP8080 is the highly evolved fixed but flexible architecture and modelled osc's which allows the generation of an almost unlimited range of sound. One can quite easily achieve any traditional analog sound using the three standard osc's- tri, squ, and saw. But the digital feedback, super saw and triangle mod osc's open up a new realm of unexpected suprises. The feedack osc makes almost FM-like distortion guitar/synth sounds- like something you'd expect from a Yamaha VL model or DX synth.The super saw sounds like 7 detuned saw osc's playing at once- creates the often heard "hoover" gigantic synth sound so common to techno music but it also produces the most lush organic strings and drones you've ever heard. With the ring mod you can get those bell tones and hard metallic clonk. Cross-Modulating noise osc with the X-mod depth knob will create some bizarre spacey cicada sounds, creaks,warbles, groans and jet swooshes. The architecture scheme harkens back to the days of the Juno, Jupiter and SH days and looks quite similar to the MKS80 programmer. The voice modulator is the "secret weapon" of the jp8080- this synth has >2< external inputs, for stereo filter banking or modulating one input sound with another. Formant synthesis and FM can be achieved using the formant filter with internal or external sounds. This synth is one of the classic VA's of the last 20 years and is engineered and built to stand the test of time. In unison mode the thing sounds fat and thick and while it undoubtedly lacks the "huevos" of a true analog monosynth for bass, it excels at those mid to upper range polyphonic sounds. The Jp8080 is not perfect and will not satisfy everyone but it has that certain combination of characteristics that makes it extremely *unique*.