BLAST FROM THE PAST: ROLAND JX-3P
The JX-3P was an odd duck. Released during the reign of Yamaha’s all-digital DX7, it was meant as a budget-priced poly for those who didn’t need – or couldn’t afford – a high-end machine such as the company’s Jupiter-6. But priced for less than half of what a JP-6 cost, the ‘3P was not actually a cut-down version of the former, nor did it slot in with the company’s budget-minded Juno series.
The JX-3P was, in a way, a precursor of things to come – the first in a line of programmable polyphonic subtractive synths with spartan front panels and optional slider-laden programmer boxes. Like the Jupiter-6 it also sported the then-new MIDI interface, allowing it to interact with a growing number of other instruments and devices – if only just.
The JX-3P was almost a sampler platter of some of Roland’s tastiest instruments, if in truth unable to rival any of them – but then, maybe it didn’t really need to. Like the costly JP-6, it offered a dual oscillator structure, giving it a bit more beef than the contemporary Juno-60. Like the Juno, the JX-3P’s sound generation came courtesy of stable DCOs. Cross-modulation and oscillator sync were possible and DCO 2 could produce white noise.
Filter duties ies were provided by an IR3109 chip with both low- and high-pass filters. Modulation was simple: a single ADSR envelope could be lashed to amplitude, filter cutoff, and pitch. The one LFO had three wave shapes, one of which was sample-and-hold. A built-in polyphonic sequencer was included, and could be locked to a connected drum machine or another sequencer courtesy of a clock pulse jack.
Unfortunately, MIDI sync was not possible, nor was there any support for ‘sophisticated’ MIDI functions like SysEx or MIDI Continuous Controllers. This meant that the 32 user patch slots could only be loaded or dumped via the dreaded cassette interface.
Also missing? Velocity or aftertouch. Still, there were a full five octaves of full-sized keys, even if the case was truncated by placing its pitch wheel horizontally above the left-most range keys. If the keys were redundant, there was a 2U rack version called the MKS-30 Planet-S, bringing with it better MIDI specs and the ability to respond to incoming velocity.
Unless one ponied up the extra dough for the PG-200 programmer, all patching was achieved by selecting and editing a single parameter at a time. Though this lacked the immediacy of
Roland’s other budget synths, it wasn’t crippling and befitted the ‘Programmable Preset Polyphonic’ that gave the instrument its name.
More importantly, any programming one attempted would – more often than not – result in some rich and evocative sounds. The JX-3P was an excellent source of thick string swells and simple pads, the included chorus adding the requisite swirl.
These days, the Jupes, Junos, and SHs get all the love. However, the JX series is beginning to be rediscovered. Roland themselves have acknowledged the JX-3P with a hardware ‘Boutique’ re-creation as well as a virtual re-imagining as part of their Roland Cloud subscription service.