I have tried out the JV/XP series sounds (mostly in the XP 30) and I am not entirely thrilled with the organs. I presently have a Korg N5, and while I prefer the Roland sounds I've heard over the N5, I still like the Korg's Hammond sounds a lot better. I think it has partly to do with the rotary speaker effect, which doesn't seem to sound as good on the Roland. Everything else on the Roland I really like and I hope to get an Orchestral board if I do buy a JV1010. However, can the preset organs be tweaked to sound better?
I specifically think that it has to do with the rotary speaker effect, and perhaps control over distortion, but I'm not sure.

Try the Expansion board"keyboards of the 60's and 70's. There are more than 100 organ patches, they are great!!They will make you forget Korg...Fran

Personally I think the one B3 patch on the session board & in the XP30 / JV1010 is the best organ sound I've heard from the JV range - I had a quick play on the 60's & 70s board in a shop and wasn't that impressed, though I didn't have time to hear all of the patches. Not a big fan of the built in patches in my XP80, though IMHO the 3rd GM (!) organ patch is the best of a bad bunch.....

Pete

THe guy above me is right. The GM [Organ 3] is probably the best B#-like organ on a stock JV/XP. I'd recommend learning how to man your machine. Learn to tweak sounds. You CAN get some very convinvcing sounds if you know how to get in deep.

As for the rotary speaker effect, not all of the stock B3's (in the XP) use this effect. Some use ALTERNATE PANNING and other tricks to get the sound to move from both ears. the waveforms themselves are not bad, but you have to thank Roland for thinking of this so you don't have to use the ROTARY effect in one of your performances, you could use a different effect instead.

You should either consider the the [60&70's], [Session] or the [Experience II] boards. They all have some great B3's.

Also, the Rotary's built into Rolands JV/XP-like SC880 are some of THE best that I've heard, and some have the ROTARY effect built in!

Just my 0.02!

The Infamous EPU.

Sorry to disagree, but I think any of the stock Roland organs aren't good at all. Buy the Keys of the 60's and 70's. I know it doesn't work for a hardcore B3 player, but it's great for everything else. I haven't heard other B3s by any other major manufacturer, except Yamaha S80, which has good organs, but bad leslies.
Josh

I think the general problem with all synths organ soubds is that the quality is too good. I personally started running organ patches through a phaser & tube amp with a distorion channel and found just using the stock waveform with external effect processing creates a more accurate and realistic sound. I think the leslie simulation is the problem with most synths, and unless you come up with an accurate work around the organ patches just won't cut it on their own-IMHO.

I have an Xp-50 which I picked up quite cheaply. many people don't enjoy the ROland setup, but as I have techno joy (as opposed to techno phobia...) I spend hours playing with things (take a distortion guitar out of the gm sounds, add pan delay, through a stereo speaker, after a bit of tweaking I had the heaviest darkest sound you could imagine). however I digress...
Taking the organ sounds I use aftertouch, effects, and re-combination of the patches to tweak the sounds. Effects first, patch tweaks where necessary...
One thing to remember for people like me who use organs predominantly as a backing sound, is that bass adds a lot to an organ, remember that most of these were originally played with two manuals (keyboards) and a pedal board, that's a big sonic dimension, and adds all sorts of spacial effects, bass caused distortion etc. etc. Personally, if I really wanted a great organ sound for a lead line, I'd get a dedicated organ module. Otherwise just be prepared to experiment, works for me...
Al
who loves his xp-50, all apart from that damn five octave keyboard!!!!!!!