The Boutique series emulation of the last ever Roland flagship analog synth, the famous JX-8P and its follow up 12 voice JX-10 or Super JX

In 1985, Roland’s innovative JX-8P took hybrid synthesis a step further with a compelling new analog-digital voice. The instrument was instantly embraced by top session players, who forever embedded its warm pads, shimmery chorus, and crystalline textures into the era’s most popular tracks. The JX-08 reintroduces the unique sound of this sought-after classic in stunning detail, coupled with powerful new effects, a polyphonic sequencer, and more. And to enhance your creative flow, there’s a full panel of hands-on controls derived from the companion PG-800 programmer unit for the original hardware.

So says the Rolamnd website promo... The JX-08 is the Boutique series emulation of the last ever flagship analog Roland synth, the famous JX-8P and its follow up 12 voice JX-10 or Super JX, which was a true analog DCO synth but with advanced oscillator design allowing it to create very digital & FM sounding patches to compete with the main flagship synths from its competitors of the time which was mainly Yamaha & Oberheim. The JX-08 gets you that sound but includes - albeit in very small micro size form - a full compliment of slider controls which with the original would require a seperate purchase of the PG-800 controller or a 3rd party equivilent.

Unlike the initial earlier Boutique range offerings which used Roland's ACB (Analog Circuit Behaviour) modeling, the JX-08 engine utilises a different DSP code Roland calls Analog Behavior Modeling or ABM. ABM is less processor intensive and thus the JX-08 does not suffer from the low 4-voice polyphony which was a main criticism aimed at its earlier Boutique range offerings like the JP-08, JX-03 & JU-06.

With the ABM modelling engine the JX-08 gets quite close enough to imitating the original flagship Roland synth but delivers a whopping 20 voices of polyphony, giving the user either a full 20 voice patch in standard play mode or two 10-voice patches in either Split or Dual mode, far more than the original JX-8P or Super JX's 6 or 12 voices.

The K-25m keyboard unit

Like all the Boutique range, the JX-08 can be used as a tabletop module triggered from any 3rd party MIDI keyboard controller or directly from any DAW external MIDI track, but a further option is to add the optional K-25m keyboard unit which connects to any of the Boutique modules using an included ribbon cable.

The K-25m is a 25-key, velocity sensitive keyboard designed for use with the Roland Boutique series. Measuring less than 12″ across, the K-25m acts as a dock for any Roland Boutique module, and once in place the module can be tilted at two different angles for easier viewing and sound programming, or can be laid completely flat.

The K-25m retails at around £95 from most music tech suppliers.

Finally, like with most of the Roland Boutique range the JX-08 has USB as a non-battery power source and can also can connect and stream its audio to your DAW via USB & also function as a USB audio & MIDI interface with a mini-jack stereo input.

Category:

Products » Synthesisers » Modeling synthesisers »

Added: 26 November 2023
New price: £290
S/H price: £250
Company: ROLAND UK

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This product is part of
Roland's
Boutique series

JD-08

JP-08

JU-06

JU-06A

JX-03

JX-08

SH-01A

TB-03

2015 saw Roland debut a new series of modelled synth modules & drum machines derived from their old classics catalog and delivered in a portable, mains or battery powered, table-top sized format.

Initially offering emulations of the Jupiter-8 (JP-08), Juno-106 (JU-06) & JX-3P (JX-03), Roland went on to add further models from 2016 onwards until the full range included emulations of the TB-303, Juno-60, SH-101, D-50, VP-330 Vocoder, JX-8P & JD-800, as well as their TR-808, TR-909 & TR-606 drum machines.

All these modules comprise what Roland calls its Boutique series.

The Boutique series is related to the over-arching Roland AIRA collection of products which included the AIRA hardware units & related Plug-OUT software emulations. Like most of the AIRA series hardware, all these Boutique series modules can connect to a host computer via USB allowing saving & management of patches while they also function as a 24-bit 44.1kHz USB audio i/o interface which includes USB streaming of the module's audio output IN to the end user's DAW & in most models also included streaming of a physical stereo audio input from the unit to the DAW, albeit line level only with no mic' pre-amp included.

For initial Boutique models Roland used a DSP technology they called Analog Circuit Behaviour (ACB) to model the sound of the instruments and they are rated as very accurate. The downside is a reduced 4 note polyphony with the first three models. They do however have a technology built-in which allows more than one unit to be chained together, so you can have two or three JP-08's for example chained together to get a super-accurate 8 or 12 note emulation of the Jupiter-8 and the slave unit/s sync to the master allowing you to edit & control the overall synth patch via one master unit. Later 2022 Boutique series models like the JD-08 & JX-08 are less accurate in terms of absolutely emulating the original's synth engine & use a newer system-on-a-chip modelling which Roland calls Behavior Modeling Core (BMC).

All the synths in the Boutique series run off battery or mains & even include a small built-in speaker. All the synth modules can work with the optional K-25m plastic keyboard mount. The synth modules clip into the keyboard unit and can be angled at different degrees and then played via the small 2-octave keyboard.

With the K-25m keyboard/stand & the built-in little speaker, any of the Boutique synths can be played on location with no other equipment in a rudimentary way if required.

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The Roland Boutique range is a major range of modelling emulations of classic old hardware products and therefore - like the Behringer analog synths section above - we're giving them their own mini-section here so you can see the possible range, albeit you'll only be able to get some of these products secondhand now from the free ads or Ebay.