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A real winner!
I knew that they'd been well thought of by the likes of Numan (who bought no fewer than five for a tour in 1985 when they came out!), Martyn Ware (of Heaven 17) et al and their recommendation is good enough for me.
It has a beefy presence and a great amount of character. There are only two ways it could be even better: if the knobs and switches of the PG-800 (now quite rare and very sort after) were integrated into it like a Juno 106 or Juno 60 and possibly multi-timbrality. Sometimes I've had exactly the right mood on a song with the JX's fantastic string sounds and then wished I could run a cracking JX bassline underneath but it's a product of the early MIDI era and these things weren't that far up the scale then (except for the likes of Yamaha possibly...).
That said, it's a belter. The velocity sensitive keyboard makes it well useful as a master keyboard and local control - the ability to disconnect the synthesis engine from the keys - is useful if you're playing stuff on other channels, modules etc.
It's also built like a tank and has plenty of sparkle for live use. The string sounds are typically Roland analogue and once you start using them (like the bass sounds), you'll wonder why you ever bothered with any other.
There's loads of scope too for programming. As I was unable to afford a new mortgage to buy a PG-800, I was advised to buy a Philip Rees C16 control box which has two programs dedicated to the JX for lots of instant tweaking gratification.
If Roland ever decided to develop a mark two of this, multi-timbrality and lots of switches etc (a bit like a JD8000 or JD800 maybe) would make it a real world-beater.
If you see one of these, buy it. No danger of buying a turkey as this one flies like a bird!
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