JD-990
Super JD
Synthesizer Module
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This is one of my favorite digital synthesizers. Every time I record its sounds to a DAW, the mix comes out full, powerful and "complete" - without a need to add any sweetening effects. Considered the rack version of the famous JD-800, even though the module is more powerful and several features are added to the internal architecture. This is a great-sounding synth, and it's a bit more flexible than its keyboard counterpart - it does in fact read the SR-JV-xx cards - and typically owners choose to put the Vintage Synth card in, to achieve a large number of patches and waveforms from classic Roland (and non) synthesizers. There's a big display, and it' easy to create custom patches editing. This module is considered "a programmer's dream". It is similar in look to the JV-1080/2080, but many owners swear that the JD-990 sounds better - due apparently to better DAC converters, and the on-board low, high and band pass filters. |
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The JD-990 contains 195 high-quality waveforms derived from the JD-800, an enormous number of parameters to edit, and a fast to use, intuitive display to program it. The "Palette" screen allows to see all tones of a parameter at the same time, and it's extremely easy and intuitive to jump from screen to screen as needed. Again, this is a programmer's dream. There is a powerful DSP chip for digital effects, and it delivers graphic equalizer, distortion, phaser, spectrum, enhancer, chorus, delay and reverb. These are all of high quality. The synth is expandable via PCM and/or Data cards. |
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Roland JD-990 factory demo songs:
Hear the four on-board demo songs:
Roland JD-990 audio demos in mp3:
These demos are 100% Roland JD-990, straight from the master stereo outputs - no other effects were applied. Notice the high quality of the internal waveforms...
| Internal bank | |
| Patch name with audio demo | My comments |
| 11 Deep SEAmphony | Beautiful, complex resonant pad with falling echoed crystals |
| 12 Fourdimensional | Superb phased pad, gentle and expressive. (Heavily phased pad with pulsating synth bass timbres.) |
| 13 Ac.Piano 1 | Respectable Roland grand piano sound |
| 14 Nasty Man Bass | Powerful analog reso synth bass |
| 15 DistSynChorus | Very good analog synth lead |
| 16 Hybrid Strings | Marvelous, intriguing syn strings |
| 17 Slow Sync Lead | Juicy, osc synched solo synth |
| 18 Fantasia 990 | The JD-990's version of the classic D-50 patch. |
| 21 Vectoring 1 | At the time the JD-990 came out, the Korg Wavestation and vector synthesis was popular. |
| 22 Genesises | Majestic, angelic crystal synpad. (Paradise synth plenty of swirling synth textures, breathy vox and deep bass.) |
| 23 Digital Rhodes | Super polished, crispy digital electric piano. |
| 24 Analog Brass 1 | Powerful, 1980s-style analog synth brass, with the typical Jupiter-8 style attack. |
| 25 Throaty Clav | Nice resonant Clavinet |
| 26 Belstring | Classic Roland sound - the bell + string pad |
| 27 Delicate Lead | Not very delicate, actually... cuts like a knife |
| 28 Hearts of Space | Digital, evolving, Wavestation-like pad |
| 31 Swimotion | Excellent New Age setup, trippy and inspired. Seagulls singing in the background. |
| 32 Phlangy Vox Pad | Breathy choir pad, typical Roland |
| 33 Midi Stack | Classic 1980s sound - A few different sounds from different synthesizers, stacked together via MIDI |
| 34 Mr.990 Brass! | Nice brass in small room |
| 35 FX Strat (add C) | Elegant Fender Stratocaster |
| 36 Beauty Stack | Gorgeous, classy pad |
| 37 Voice Pipe Solo | Nice ethnic "shakuhachi" type sound. |
| 38 Clear Bells | Extremely sparkly bells |
| 41 TechnoLFO | Reminds of Keith Emerson and his sample-and-hold sounds from the modular Moog |
| 42 Dawn Sweep | Magnificent synth sweep which totally reminds of the famous D-50 preset "Spacious Sweep". |
| 43 Pizza Hutt | I think this is the base sound used by Faithless for "Insomnia" |
| 44 Orch Stab 990 | Typical orchestral stab - aftertouch adds bass |
| 45 Funky Chicken | Nice "liquid" synth |
| 46 Look into Abyss | Another excellent pad with bells - perfect for soundtrack work. |
| 47 Lyric Pipe Solo | Classic pan flute type sound |
| 48 Psycho (..) | Huge sound fx |
| 51 Vectoring 2 | More classic Wavestation-like vectors |
| 52 Golden Sands | Spectacular, evolving resonant pad |
| 53 MIDIed Grand | Good for '80s ballads |
| 54 Tenor Break | Cool tenor sax. |
| 55 Ming Dynasty | Asian feel |
| 56 JD's Sentiment | Ok |
| 57 World -(.)- Lead | Squiggly and raspy lead. |
| 58 Deduk | Outstanding duduk |
| 61 Flourish | Nice |
| 62 Vectoring 3 | Beautiful evolving pad |
| 63 Crystal Rhodes 1 | Quintessential Yamaha DX7-type FM electric piano. |
| 64 Mo Funk Bass | Note how powerful the bass is in the Super JD |
| 65 Wailing Guitar | Excellent, expressive creamy distorted guitar - that fades into feedback. |
| 66 Ghosts | Superb sci-fi/scary sound design |
| 67 Digirez Lead | Nice digital comp |
| 68 Radio | A masterpiece of programming (Perfect synthesized emulation) |
| 71 Lover Dance | Cool limpy evolving synth |
| 72 Thor!!! | Great resonant filter action |
| 73 Space Harp | Medieval feel |
| 74 SyncStringsBass | Splendidly aggressive, full synth |
| 75 Gamelan 990 | Very interesting Gamelan emulation |
| 76 Velo Syn Strings | Happy, full synth strings |
| 77 Fusionic | Useful solo synth, great for Fusion and other jazz/pop styles |
| 78 CrazyHorse | :-) |
| 81 Ring Boom | Spacey sci-fi fx |
| 82 The RiverII..... | Again, great filters in this machine. |
| 83 Piano & Voice | The modulation wheel brings in and out the voice mix. |
| 84 Big Apple Bass | Powerful slapped bass |
| 85 Book Mark | Very nice percussive synth, with distinctive delay |
| 86 Bell-Ringer 990 | Beautiful bell pad |
| 87 Analog 5th Lead | Very good old-school, '70s Moog type synth |
| 88 Mellowtron Str | Beautiful Mellotron strings |
| A bank | |
| Patch name with audio demo | My comments |
| 11 Killer Pad | Great analog impression |
| 12 Pulse Pad | Spectacular, hypnotic soft pad |
| 13 Lovely Vox Pad | Classic vox "Fairlight" pad. |
| 14 Tempest | The aftertouch opens the filter (a lot!) |
| 15 Deep Breath Pad | Fantastic, hypnotic digi pad |
| 16 Pure Glass | Classic FM glassy pad |
| 17 Cherish | Delicate glassy pad |
| 18 GlassVoices | Ethereal, glassy pad |
| 21 Ac.Piano 2 | Cool piano |
| 22 Ac.Piano Hybrid | Ballad mix |
| 23 Crystal Rhodes 2 | Very sweet-sounding ballad FM piano. |
| 24 E.Piano 1 | Digital |
| 25 E.Piano 2 | FM |
| 26 Agogo Rhodes | Yep |
| 27 Seq E.Piano | Fast attack suitable for sequencing |
| 28 Whispery Piano | Nice variation |
| 31 Pipe Organ | Powerful church organ |
| 32 Choir Organ | Bubbly organ |
| 33 CLS 222 (Mod) 1 | Nice Leslie emulation. |
| 34 Ring Organ | Wobbly |
| 35 CLS 222 (Mod) 2 | Happy organ of the 1950s/1960s :-) |
| 36 Jazz Organ | Very woody |
| 37 Dist.Organ | Ok |
| 38 French New Organ | Beautiful, expressive chapel pump organ |
| 41 Authentic Harp | New Age patch |
| 42 Harmo Harpo | Nice harp, realistic |
| 43 Authentic Clav | Classic, "tubey" Hohner Clavinet patch. |
| 44 Digital Clav | Yes |
| 45 Nylon Guitar | Well sampled classical guitar. |
| 46 String Guitar | Sparkly clean acoustic guitar |
| 47 Electric Guitar | Classic Strat sound |
| 48 Velo Harmonics | Very nice |
| 51 12 String Guitar | Yep |
| 52 Clang Guitar | Clean guitar |
| 53 Stratomaster PJ | Pickin' |
| 54 That's Funky | yep |
| 55 ChinaGuitar | Nice vibrant instrument |
| 56 Reso Strat | Reso comp |
| 57 Big Country | Jumbo acoustic |
| 58 Velo-Crunch | The excellent distortion effect on the machine |
| 61 Fretless Bass | Nice |
| 62 Woody Bass | Clean jazz contrabass |
| 63 Velo-Switch Bass | Slapped |
| 64 Slap Bass | Standard slap bass. |
| 65 Pick Bass | 007 style. |
| 66 Fingered Bass | Warm and very precise bass |
| 67 Flubber Bass | Cool and synthetic. |
| 68 House Bass | Lots of woofers |
| 71 Rubber Bass | The typical Roland syn bass |
| 72 Stick Bass | Great bass for sequencing '80s New Wave and Electronic, a la Depeche Mode |
| 73 Wiry Sync Bass | Digi bass |
| 74 A Funk Bass 1 | Subtle phasing action |
| 75 A Funk Bass 2 | Superbly resonating filter funk bass |
| 76 Techno Bass | Extremely powerful resonant synth bass |
| 77 Structure Bass | Metallic and resonant, guttural bass |
| 78 Mega Mono Bass | More synth power |
| 81 Warm Vibe | Beautiful vibraphone patch |
| 82 Marimba | Extremely realistic marimba patch |
| 83 Night Kalimba | Quiet and nice |
| 84 Perc Stab | Nice |
| 85 Harlequin 990 | Cinematic |
| 86 Cow Vibes | Nice cowbell patch |
| 87 Ethnic | Metal percussion |
| 88 AfricaMetals | Extremely cool ethnic percussion |
| B bank | |
| Patch name with audio demo | My comments |
| 11 JD-T.Chimes | Superb, sparkly metals |
| 12 Wave Bells | Obviously, bells are a strong point of the 990. |
| 13 Tria Bells | Gentle delayed bells |
| 14 Lite Delay | Nice digital bells |
| 15 Like Dee | Like Roland D (Dee) -50 (Roland D-50 - classic L.A. synth) |
| 16 Reincarnate | Nice open sound |
| 17 Fantasy Bell | Clean bells |
| 18 Ring Chimes | Ok |
| 21 Brass Section | Ok |
| 22 Brass Mix | Ok |
| 23 French Horn | Alright |
| 24 Bad Wolf Horn | Nice trumpet sound |
| 25 Wagner Chorale | Distinguished orchestral brass. |
| 26 Analog Brass 2 | Analog feel |
| 27 Brass Vel.Fall | in a room |
| 28 Sax Tpt Tbn | Realistic |
| 31 Trumpet Solo | A bit thin but okay |
| 32 Harmon Mute | Trumpet with mute |
| 33 Trombone Solo | Excellent trombone rendition, including the slide effect. |
| 34 Alto Sax | Honest alto saxophone |
| 35 Tenor Sax | Well recorded |
| 36 Intimate Flute | Nice |
| 37 Mellowtron Flute | Nice emulation of the classic 1960s instrument |
| 38 Panhandler | Extremely breathy Pan flute |
| 41 Fusion Solo | Another great Fusion/Jazz solo synth |
| 42 Tap Sequence | Electronic |
| 43 Wavy Flutone | Nice ethnic flavor |
| 44 KoreanTongPoo | Wild! |
| 45 Lyric Flute Solo | Good synth |
| 46 BendSaxVoice | :-) |
| 47 Saw Lead | Excellent sawtooth synth with slight detuning on pressure |
| 48 Bubbly Lead | Cool electro lead, a la Daft Punk |
| 51 990 Strings | Fantastic string ensemble!!! This patch is just beautiful and has been widely used in the '90s - This patch reminds me of the strings in "Unfinished Sympathy", the beautiful song by Massive Attack. |
| 52 Pizzicato | Great pizzicato patch - good for both classical and Techno/Dance/House/Trance Faithless style. |
| 53 Soaring Strings | Expressive and beautiful strings |
| 54 Silky Strings | Beautiful string orchestra |
| 55 Carry on it | Good |
| 56 B-V's Oooze | The classic, beautiful Roland vox |
| 57 Dreaming Time | Beauty and perfection. |
| 58 Waveola Vox Rize | Digi stuff a la JX-10 |
| 61 Tangerine | Eminently Fairlightian vox pad |
| 62 Twinkling String | Beautiful evolving crystal pad |
| 63 Strat'O'Dreams | A strat with lots of reverb/echo |
| 64 Euro E.Piano | Perfect for '80s pop ballads |
| 65 Betazoid Harp | More New Age beauties |
| 66 Glory | Nice |
| 67 Orgatoron | Superb 1960s puff organ, perfect for scoring 'Nino Rota' style. |
| 68 Oasis | Magnificent, wide, soundtrack like atmosphere patch |
| 71 WinterVox | Cool digi pad |
| 72 From Far East | Perfect Asian bells |
| 73 Macho Swell | B I G rising pad!!! |
| 74 R-Mod Brass Pad | Powerful analog style |
| 75 The Pad | The warm Roland filters in action |
| 76 Story Pad | Stupendous warm digipad |
| 77 Hybrid Poly Syn | Cool |
| 78 JX Sweepee | Typical great, wide Roland JX/MKS type sound |
| 81 Let's Dance !! | Typical Roland ROM loop |
| 82 GreatExpectation | Cool wavy pad |
| 83 Letting Go | Weird sci-fi ambience |
| 84 Aqueous Strings | Reminiscent of the famous D-50 preset "AQUA" |
| 85 CyberneticEmpire | Huge sound |
| 86 Kalahari | Nice sound FX |
| 87 Passing Asteroid | Very nice sci-fi effect. |
| 88 Pink Bomb | Excellent pink noise bomb fx |
| Performances | |
| Patch name with audio demo | My comments |
| A-01 The Bomb C4 | Fantastic analog emulation |
| A-02 Perc Child 990 | Toy like |
| A-03 Lovely Time | Another great breathy pad |
| A-04 Break Bass | Low bass, resonant |
| A-05 Ray Brass | '60s section |
| A-06 Witty Guitar | Nice acoustic |
| A-07 The Analog | Incredibly analog-sounding!!! (aftertouch opens the filter) |
| A-08 Armadillo | Very good delays |
| A-09 Just Moment! | Just intonation |
| A-10 Pizzimba | Nice mix |
| A-11 Dignified Bass | Very '80s synth pop |
| A-12 Voice Bell | Christmas like |
| A-13 Flip Clav | Cool! |
| A-14 Flute Organ | Cool street/circus organ! |
| A-15 JD990 Mix Bell | And more bells. |
| A-16 Draw.... | Ok |
| B-01 Nylon Story | Wavy guitar pad |
| B-02 Saw Lead Mix | Cuts into the mix |
| B-03 Secret Organ | Soap Opera organ |
| B-04 Appoint Bass | Goes low |
| B-05 Radiate Pad | Good for "serious" ballads |
| B-06 Ethno Tap | Different |
| B-07 Metal Harp | Inspired by the classic D-50 patch |
| B-08 As soon as | An underground lava torrent |
| I-01 Fourdimensional2 | Superb ambient, evolving pad |
| I-02 Jubilan | More bells |
| I-03 Honky-tonk Piano | Cool, standard honky tonky piano |
| I-04 Bass System | Typical 990 bass sound. |
| I-05 Orch Stab 990 | Great for TV games |
| I-06 Snow Remember | Nice e. piano pad |
| I-07 Metal Gamelan | Cool delays |
| I-08 Seq Hutt | More pizzicato |
| I-09 SessionBrass990 | Realistic brass section |
| I-10 Digital Rezo | Good for many electronic styles |
| I-11 Ivory Color | Very nice effect |
| I-12 Boxer Bass | Powerful syn bass |
| I-13 Crystal Guitar | Very good for New Age music |
| I-14 High Pressure | Weird fx |
| I-15 Power Sax | Breathy saxophone |
| I-16 The End. | Fantastic sound design |
| Rhythm Sets | |
| Patch name with audio demo | My comments |
| INT Drum Set INT | Okay drum set, aggressive and clean |
| PR-A Drum Set A | Nice compressed snare |
| PR-B Drum Set B | Rock and 808 |
The Vintage Board patches for the JD-990
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Typically users outfit the JD-990 with the SR-JV80-04 Vintage Synth expansion board, which gives access to a set of patches programmed especially for the 990, making excellent use of its filters and programming capabilities. Here are some examples from this set:
| Patch name with mp3 demo | My comments |
| 001 Portamental | An incredible resonant synth ensemble, with portamento effect - very vintage-sounding. |
| 004 Andromida Wash | A sample of the power of the 990's filters. |
| 005 Warm Shimmer | Very warm and analog-sounding. Crystals floating around. |
| 008 Mourning Android | Incredible sound design. |
| 010 Vectoring Propht | Presumably inspired by the Prophet VS |
| 021 Sergelow | Analog with long release - reminds of certain tones used by the band "Air". |
| 026 JP-8 Silk Pad | Classic Roland Jupiter-8 soft strings. Aftertouch opens the filter. |
| 029 CS-Strings-80 | Beautiful synth strings inspired by the fabled Yamaha CS-80. |
| 031 Omni II | Very retro and very ARP. |
| 032 Solina Bi-Phase | Classic Solina through phaser. |
| 036 Memory MG Pad 2 | Feel the windows shaking from this pad? |
| 059 CS-Eighty Sweep | More CS-80 incredible tones. |
| 061 Voyager-Eight | A presage for the Moog name? |
| 072 VP-330 Choir | Typical Roland VP-330 sounds |
| 078 Somewhere JX | Nails down the hollow tone of the JX/MKS series! |
| 093 D50 Stacc.Heaven | Remember the D-50? This is one of its best patches!!! |
| 112 Rezo BPF Sweep | Filter power! |
| 117 Mother Matrix | Classic 1980s sound |
| 123 Bendy GX-One | Make sure you're using the JD-990 with a keyboard capable of transmitting aftertouch. |
| 125 OB-Poly Brass-X | Classic Oberheim OB-series patch |
| 135 U.K. Waspy | Inspired by the Wasp obviously. |
| 136 Mini MG Lead 1 | A cool Minimoog lead. |
| 143 GR-300 Lead | The classic Pat Metheny sound. |
| 149 System-100M Lead | Powerful lead synth from Roland's modular |
| 152 Serious Syncin' | Very serious. |
| 161 OB 2voice Lead | Classic Oberheim hollow lead |
| 164 Ultimate Cheese | yep |
| 165 Mondo MG Bass | Shakes the foundations. |
| 174 SH-5 Solid Bass | I would love to get an SH-5 someday...! |
| 182 SH101 Mute Bass | Typical housey SH-101 bass |
| 184 Prophetic Bass | Inspired by the Sequential Circuits Prophet series |
| 187 JP-4 Rezo Bass | Excellent Roland squelchy bass. Inspired by the Jupiter-4 Compuphonic |
| 195 4 Pole Wow Bass | Excellent! |
| 203 Zone Rouge Hit | A classic hit from the early '90s |
| 204 Cyberpunk Mod.Wh | :-) |
| 210 Putney Ramper | Who needs a modular with the 990? :-D |
| 211 960 Sequence | Beautiful analog sequence |
| 212 System700 Panner | Powerful. I suspect this patch inspired the "Blade Racer" patch on the JV/XP series. |
| 214 System-700 S&H | More modular madness. |
| 215 AKS S&H Overload | Sci-fi |
| 221 Mr.B! | They even squeezed in a bit of Hammond |
| 231 Starless Strings | Superb Mellotron ensemble! |
| 239 Big Tron Vox | Classic Mellotron vox |
| 244 Death Race 2000 | Very nice |
| 245 Future Siren | Spectacular. |
| 247 Catch the Wasp | Fun! :-) |
| 249 VCF Reso 2600 | Is this a real 2600?? |
| 250 2199 Bath House | Phenomenal sound design. |
| 251 Aural Enigma 990 | Outstanding sci-fi effects |
| 255 Time Warp | MARVELOUS. Marvelous. This is the PERFECT science fiction sound. |
| Roland JD-990 Super JD | |
| Year of release: | 1993 |
| Polyphony: | 24-voice |
| Sound generation method: | PCM |
| Preset memories | 3 banks of 64 |
| MIDI: | in, out, thru |
| Sound expansion capabilities: | PCM and Data cards |
| Sequencer | no |
| Arpeggiator | no |
| Effects | yes |
| Velocity | yes |
| Aftertouch | yes |
Resources:
- Review in "Keyboard magazine" August 1993
Additional JD-990 audio demos
This is a song I composed using one JD-990 exclusively, multi-tracked in Sonar 5 PE. Every sound comes from the JD-990. I used a mix of custom and preset patches:
Roland JD-990 pictures (click on thumbnails to enlarge)
Roland JD-990 manual
available at www.rolandus.com
Links
| SITE | Type of resource | DESCRIPTION |
| home page | ||
Roland JD-990 Super JD review with audio demos