I'm using Cakewalk as my sequencer, and trying to record from my JV-2080. I'm finding that the midi information is not completely consistent. For example, I've been struggling for about a week now with a track that consists completely of short, continuous 16th notes, and I'm finding that some of the notes end up smearing together or missing by a few ticks. It's not "perfect". I've checked a few things, swapped cables, swapped instruments, and I think I can nail it down to the JV-2080. Am I missing something in the setups that I haven't seen? My computer is a 500Mhz PIII, and I'm connecting out through a USB Midiman Midisport.

Can anyone comment or provide any advice? I can't believe this thing can't handle this kind of continuous midi stream.

Sorry to let you in on this one mate, but I had a JV2080 for a year and a half, and it took me a while to work out it was the 2080 that was causing midi timing problems. Their crap timing is caused by roland using the same processor as the 1080, but making it produce 3 efx's rather than 1, in other words the processor aint fast enough to handle the amount of data. I tried everything with Roland, they took the unit back etc, but got stuff all out of them.

My advice to you is to watch tight envelope settings, lots of lfos and big layered sounds all screw timing up. Oh and dont use too many voices, anything over about 20-30 i found timing got progressively worse. (Seems abit mad forking out for a 64 voice synth doesnt it?!)

Unfortunatly, there is nothing else you can do, I sold mine as i was so cheesed off with it, Ive got a 5080 now, it's too early to say whether this thing has got similar problems, as im not using anywhere near 128 voices, but from what ive heard Roland are now using seperate processors for the effects which means that the synth engine has the same power as the xv3080

My problem is that this is doing this in Patch mode. I'm only using one sticking patch, with 4 tones, and only using reverb, no other effects. And it STILL won't hold steady. I could understand it in Performance mode, but when I lay down tracks to the VS-880, I always use the native patch and print them one at a time.

I did save the patch in question to the user bank and turned off aftertouch and other non-necessary Rx settings, and that helped a little bit. Geez, for a couple grand you'd think this thing should be steady as a rock! Especially one patch at a time!!

I'm curious to know how the XV-5080 does. I'm considering upgrading, but absolutely won't if the midi timing isn't anything but perfect.

I have heard from someone else before that they could notice timing discrepencies even playing anything over 2 notes at the same time! All i can relate to this is that the 2080 never sounded right to me, it seemed to have an uneven feel to it. I think Roland thought that no one would notice, but hey, its so bad sometimes, who wouldnt.

With regards to the 5080, i cant comment too much as Ive only had it a week or so, but i did chuck a very dense sequence at it the other day and it does sound better. However I have noticed 1 thing. Roland have put a "feature" in performance mode called phase lock, which the manual describes as, when you have lots of differerent channels playing at same time midi cant send it fast enough. What it does is delays all parts on the same channel so it can trigger them exactly at the same time. Fair enough! However this isnt all true as I layed up a patch with 8 tones and copyed it to 8 parts in a performance. In theory there should not be a delay because i was only pressing 1 note rather than sending 128 down the wire. But it sloppily triggerer 128 sounds at once, which brings me to think Roland push their hardware right up to the limit, and over to get the specs up.

As I said i am not as bothered as before about this as the 5080 does play much better IMHO, and i bought it knowing about the previous problems, I just couldnt bear to be without that JV/XV sound i suppose!!

Well, I don't know what to do with this. The timing is so off that there's no way I can personally press this. It's noticeable to the point that anyone can hear it. I really like the sounds, but I can't justify this. I'm really disappointed in Roland. With this much activity, and I can't even punch in with accurate timing and not have it heard. Every take there's always something wrong. And in this particular song, one of these is a driving bass line that I'm going to combine with a heavily compressed version of the same track, to add more punch. But if these two tracks aren't synched properly by the JV-2080, it's going to sound even worse!

Is there any kind of firmware upgrade for the JV-2080 that I might have missed?

If I recall, the XV-5080 has all of the patches that the JV-2080 have, plus some. But I don't know if I want to spend that kind of money on the hopes that this will correct the problem.

Roland has been using totally outdated parts for their synths these days. Beware.

RKB,

Can you adjust the sequence start times a few ticks earlier, so that it will seem more on time? Not sure if this will work, but I just thought of it. Very disheartening to hear, as I have a JV-2080 as well. The only good thing is that all my other gear is older, so I don't notice any timing problems.

DanO

Adjusting the sequencer doesn't help, because 90% of the events are right on target, and the other 10% occur randomly. Each take produces different results. I've found this even happens on a snare drum that's playing on 2 and 4!! I might try a shorter midi cable, but I've already switched cables once. I ended up going into the track on my VS-880 and manually moving the events by 1/100 second. What a pain. With a midiman, the midi events should be getting through right on target. Well, a new set of cables is certainly cheaper than an XV-5080!

Well,
Nice to hear there are MIDI timing problems with 2080 ontop of all the rest of the problems I have had.I gave up on useing multiple port interfaces like the Opcode Studio 128x because of bad drivers causing timing problems, and the companies who never upgrade their drivers.I thought this was where all the problems originated from.I think maybe time to hang it up.All this technology just doesn't work!!

I don't mean to be disrespectful, but come-on guys...
There is nothing wrong with the midi timing on the 2080, I recommend you check for problems in the rest of the system (loopback or poor ports) or perhaps the midi stream (ie embedded CCs or Sysex).

I'm running two fully loaded JV-2080s (14x SR-JV80s) plus numerous other Roland synths and samplers on 10 MIDI Ports (160 channels) in a medium-size Project Studio -- I have yet to run into ANY timing problems (unless of course I try to play 64 simultaneous tones on the same measure:beat:tick, but midi will choke on that).

David
* Roland & Cakewalk Resources and Roland Newsgroups: http://www.lilchips.com *

I have to agree with David guys. I don't have the Roland JV2080, but I do have the XP60, which is essentially the same thing.

I've never had any problems with the timing of my XP60 period. Never. I never had problems even when I triggered it from programs like Cakewalk or Cubase. And like David, my X also fully loaded.

The 3FX story is a likely one, but I've come accross people who comaplain about this, and people who deny this all the way. I'm one of tghe deny-ers. Sorry all, check the rest of your systems.

The Infamous EPU.

David,
Is there some settings I'm missing on the 2080 to disable or filter these settings? I'm sending MTC through Cakewalk to the VS-880 for synchronization. But on 2080, I've disable Rx of Sysex msgs and pretty much everything else except pan, bend, and volume.
Incidentally, I sent my USB Midman back and am exchanging it for a Portman serial model.

No disrespect taken. However I will disagree with anyone who says there isnt a problem with midi timing on the 2080. Whilst I accept that cc data, sysex etc can clog up midi timing on anything. On the 2080 that just makes it worse. When I had one I tried it on numerous systems and setups and the result was the same, sloppy/sluggish response to midi data. I also realise that midi is a serial protocol so that midi events happen sequentially (there will always be some delay with lots of stacked notes). However, what i noticed was that it depends on how you program it. At the time I was using the 2080 as a "do it all synth" ie 16 channels of heavy usage, but within the supposed 64 voice limit. Timing became more erratic with the rhythm channel being used, and use of lfos and tight envelopes. I even spoke to Roland at the time, who after listening to a midi file i sent them, had to admit that the timing wasnt as good as the rest of the JV/XP series. (The XP60 isnt't the same, it only has 1 EFX).

Also, one of the ways i found out there was a problem was when I set a reasonably complex sequence up, with one sound having a delay effect added. Then if i dropped in the drum channel the delay would hiccup, due to the voices being triggered slightly later

In my opinion, it is really down to how you use it. I'm sure no one is going to notice if you've got lots of slow evolving sounds coming out, but if, like me, you were trying to get near enough a whole tune out of the thing, with tight parts, you will notice it.

Oh, and mine had a shocking buzz/distortion in the outputs as well!

I'm just trying to let people know the truth, which is that Roland ripped everyone off by saying that the 2080 can do 64 voices and 3efx properly. They just cashed in on an existing processor design, and wrote a bit of extra software.

I look forward to being flamed!!!

Hi all,

Reports of MIDI timing problems with the JV-2080 have reached legendary status, regardless of whether it is pure urban legend or has some basis in fact.

I agree with the others who say to analyze the data stream to make sure controller info. isn't clogging the works, check for MIDI loops, etc.

Interesting bit about 'phase lock': what I'm wondering is, what about using other modules along side the XV-5080? They aren't 'phase locked'.

Regardless, one could make an argument that the XV-5080 contains 2 MIDI IN's for a good reason: Roland learned a lesson about the importance of parallel MIDI processing with the 2080.

Chris

The 2080 midi problem is well documented. However, some sources are actually now saying that it in fact ISN'T a midi problem, but a polyphony problem!

Seems Roland may have not been exactly honest about the polyphony.