Hello,
I'm considering the purchase of a Roland JP8000...does anyone own one? are they quality instruments?

The JP-8000 is a wonderful piece of equipment. If offers a lot of flexibilty and it's been completely reliable for the year I've had it.

I can see only two major problems with it.
MIDI isn't that good. It crashes when you use it with some sequencers. Earlier versions of Cakewalk have trouble with it. There's no MIDI through.

Resources are few and far between. I have trouble finding patches and the upgrade is scarce.

If you're looking at making techno music, I'm all for it, but it's probably not the best thing for a classical composer.

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http://www.mp3.com/bzrec

I used a JP-8000 for around a year in college. I loved it to hell and was able to produce very expressive quality sounds. All of them were unusual, very fluid and very JP-8000.
If, however, you are seeking a machine that can emulate analog synths and produce other interesting sounds you should really check out the Yamaha AN1x as well. It looks like a piece of crap, but is a very very strong synth which can outrun a JP when it comes to the crunch. This may be blasphemy to Roland users (of which I am one) but I've had to use JP's in serious studio situations and they let me down in terms of doing what I wanted them to do. The AN1x will sit up and beg on demand and should not be underestimated.

Best of luck.