Roland now has 4 ways to play their 1991 JD-800 polysynth; here’s a breakdown

Until recently, the only way to get your hands on a Roland JD-800 was to get the early-90s original hardware. But now Roland has this year unveiled two independent hardware and two independent software recreations. Let’s make sense of it all – and why it’s suddenly happening now.

Tiny Poly: Roland is making Boutique versions of JD-800, JX-8P

Roland is continuing its series of tiny synths with some unlikely additions – the 1985 JX-8P and 1991 JD-800. But maybe the big news is, under the hood, you finally get serious polyphony.

Peter Kirn - November 9, 2021