SR-JV80-02
Orchestral
Expansion board
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The second expansion board for the JV/XP series was
dedicated to the beautiful sounds of the modern classical
orchestra. Roland managed to squeeze the essence of a symphonic orchestra in this small board, and did so admirably. Many of the sounds on this device still hold their own against dedicated multi-Gigabyte DVD libraries. The SR-JV80-02 board opens with one of the most beautiful string patches I've ever come across, the stupendous "Warm Violins". This patch opens a huge selection of string patches (without a doubt, the highlight of this board), characterized by a very warm, gluey if you will, sonic timbre. There are many variations on the strings theme, all very charming and interesting: from legato, to staccato, agitato, vivace, spiccato e marcato, there's a long offering of instruments in both group and solo versions. |
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The expansion then focuses on the other instruments of the orchestra, and there are beautiful renditions of all the instruments of a typical romantic-era orchestral setup. There are even a few patches where solo instruments that typically play together in a score, are combined together in a single patch. Very useful. There are also full-blast brass patches, classy bass clarinets... everything you will ever need to compose an orchestral score. The board is completed by a pretty thorough rhythm patch, that collects together the percussive section of the orchestra. This board will also see an Encore! with the follow-up Orchestral II expansion board. |
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| Patch name with audio demo | My comments |
| 001 Warm Violins | Breathtakingly beautiful, melancholic, hypnotic, sweet, quintessential orchestral strings. |
| 006 Marcato Vls1 | Very cool, typical strings played marcato. |
| 012 Sad Vln Sect | Don't cry, now... :-) |
| 021 Vcs Legato 1 | Beautiful, classy cellos. Reminds me a bit of certain sounds used by Philip Glass. |
| 024 Agitato Vcs1 | Very agitated :-) |
| 028 Wide Basses | Deep, excellent contrabass section |
| 042 Strings Arco | Another sweet strings variation. |
| 046 Bad Guy STR | Coming after you... |
| 047 Ominous | Shark! Shark! |
| 049 DramaStrings | Very nice, '60s style cinematic string section, perfect for dramatic scenes |
| 050 Solo Vln 1 | Very expressive and realistic. |
| 058 Stereo Viola | Nice and realistic. |
| 061 Solo Vc 2 | Beautiful (violon)cello tone. |
| 065 Solo Cb 1 | A cool solo contrabass patch. |
| 076 Pizzicato 2 | Cool |
| 083 Lower Marc!! | Nice |
| 086 Fast Attacks | A bit of cartoon comedy :-) |
| 087 Flute | Splendid classical tone |
| 091 Recorder | Useful |
| 092 Oboe 1 | Realistic |
| 098 English Hrn2 | Woody and nice. |
| 100 Bassoon 1 | Nails it :-) |
| 103 Clarinet 2 | With nice reverb |
| 104 Bs Clarinet1 | Not often found in synthesizers' ROM, this is very realistic bass clarinet. |
| 107 Trumpet 2 | Typical classical trumpet |
| 121 Tuba 1 | Goes low |
| 130 F.Hrn Sect3 | Nice French horn section. |
| 136 MuteHrn Sect | Alarm! |
| 150 WoodwindSplt | One of the very useful combo/split patches |
| 152 4 Trombones | Brassy and good |
| 164 Full Brs 1 | Powerful! |
| 174 Horn Strings | Nice, typical mix of horns and strings |
| 175 Full Orch.1 | Majestic yet classy |
| 176 Full Orch.2 | Floats nicely |
| 177 Full Orch.3 | Beautiful tone, perfect for several styles |
| 184 Min Hit 2 | Yep |
| 185 Classical Gt | Beautiful classical guitar |
| 188 Plucked Harp | One of the superb harp offerings. |
| 192 ClasclPiano1 | Very nice tone, but due to older technology, the sample loops are way too short and so it decays too fast. |
| 196 Harpsichord1 | Realistic, with the typical click release. |
| 201 Celesta 2 | Intimate and classy |
| 209 Xylophone 2 | Always fun |
| 212 Glocken 2 | Cool |
| 216 TubulaBells1 | Nice tubular bells |
| 224 MalletStack5 | Another excellent stacked patch |
| 227 Choir 1 | Very nice choir, flexible for many uses. |
| 249 Rhythm Set | All the much needed percussion of the orchestra. |
| 253 Presenting! | :-) |
| 255 Christmas!!! | Jingle, bells! |
at the Roland site
Links
| SITE | Type of resource | DESCRIPTION |
Roland SR-JV80-02 Orchestral review