JD-800

Vintage Digital Icon

The Authentic Roland Emulation

In 1991, Roland released the JD-800—a forward-thinking, digital synthesizer sporting a huge range of hands-on controls and a gleaming, complex sound. The instrument would soon find its way onto classic albums and numerous film and television scores, and it remains highly sought after to this day. Thanks to Roland’s advanced modeling engine that incorporates the original waveform data, users can now have the unique sound and experience of this vintage digital icon in a modern software instrument.

The return of the hands-on synth

By the early ’90s, preset-driven digital synths with limited hands-on controls dominated the landscape. The JD-800 changed all that in 1991, bringing the synthesizer world back to its roots with a massive control-laden panel and an unapologetically electronic sound palette. With its player-focused workflow, evocative sounds, and powerful effects, the JD-800 was a favorite for top electronic music producers throughout the ’90s and beyond.

A different kind of synthesizer

Using D-50-style waveforms with multimode resonant filters, the JD-800 took a different approach to other synthesizers of the day and offered a glimpse at the exciting future of hybrid synthesis. Each of its four layers is like a complete synthesizer in its own right, with flexible modulation routing and time-variant amp and filter envelopes. This unique architecture, complex tonality, and immediate hands-on experience has endeared the JD-800 to many hard-core synth fans over the years.

Authentic JD-800 sound and behavior

The JD-800 Software Synthesizer is painstakingly crafted by Roland to sound and behave exactly like the original hardware. Rather than simply a bunch of JD-800 samples, Roland used the original waveform data along with advanced modeling techniques to perfectly recreate the big, bright, spacious sound that only the JD-800 can deliver.

Special effects

A key ingredient of the JD-800’s sound was its formidable multistage effects section. It’s been carefully recreated here and enhanced with an expanded view perfect for realtime tweaking. In addition to a master EQ, there are seven effects that can be rearranged via drag and drop to customize the signal flow. Choose from distortion/overdrive, enhancer, spectrum equalizer, phaser, chorus, triple-tap delay, and a selection of reverbs, each with multiple parameters that vastly change the sonic character.

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Instantly create with the large sound selection, including 64 original presets from the JD-800 hardware that transport users straight back to the ’90s. There are also 64 new presets, expertly crafted to show how inspiring and evocative the JD-800 can be in a modern context. Or users can dive into the huge array of controls and create never-before-heard sounds that make their music stand out.

A thoroughly modern software instrument

While the JD-800 sounds exactly like its vintage counterpart, it’s wrapped in a modern plug-in designed for today’s creative environments. The hyper-realistic interface is resizable for high-resolution screens, and VST3, AU, and AAX formats ensure compatibility with all major DAWs. While the sound is huge, it’s kind enough to the CPU to run multiple instances with lots of polyphony. And it natively supports Apple silicon for the highest level of performance on modern Macs.

Features

• Authentic sound and behavior with advanced modeling and original JD-800 waveforms
• 64 presets from the original JD-800, plus 64 new presets crafted by top sound designers
• Detailed recreation of the JD-800’s two-stage multi-effects section with drag and drop reordering
• Seven effects including chorus, phaser, enhancer, distortion, spectrum, delay, and reverb
• Detailed, realistic interface that’s resizable and includes alternate views
• Expanded polyphony versus the original hardware
• VST3, AAX, and AU with support for Apple silicon