I know that when writing that, many people are going to be upset after BUT honesty I must write what I felt when trying the XV 3080 and XV 88 at Music mania in Paris ; Went 2 days : tested the two instruments for more than 2 hours...

So : Drums are very good. Better than old JV. No question. Analog like sounds kill (mostly super jupiter).
Steel guitar is a joke. I mean I get much better with the SESSION card or POP card.

The XV piano in basic rom is improved compared with the JV series BUT, lacks many harmonics and realism when playing after C5. 5i compared with FP9 piano which is really fantastic).

Audio Converters are really better than JV XP series except with JV 2080 : OK there’s still a difference but a little one...
Reverb is really improved.

So What Am I going to do ? I probably buy the XV 5080 with the SRX piano card and will extend it to 128M° to read akai and Roland Samples.

But sincerely, this is not a revolution compared with a JV 2080. I think it’s really too expensive campared with what it can do (ok 128 voices...NOT 128 note polyphony ! ! !).

I tried the K2600 W kurzweil with full options.
Sound is brighter, may be a little more dynamic than some sounds of XV BUT XV 3080 and XV 88 are killer because less expensive and really more rom sounds...

To finish, I really believe that XV 5080 is great for all its options. I wouldn’t buy an XV 3080 or XV 88 : can’t read samples, only 2 ports for SRX cards., no COSM effects.

Best regards to all

Enjoy.

I forgot to add :

I'll buy the XV 5080 full options BUT
Of course, I keep my JV 2080. I will sell my old XP 50.

Best regards

Hi KIKO,

Why would you keep your JV-2080? The XV's all have the same sounds plus a few more. Are you keeping it for the polyphony or for the card slots? or both?

The JV-2080 has terrible timing (when played with a sequencer). I know since I own one. Has the timing improved on the XV's? I guess maybe only when you get one home will you know that.

What will you be using it for? I know that you tried out the K2600 and were not impressed that much (from what I can tell). I agree that it is quite expensive. However, it does quite a bit more and is more flexible in terms of sounds. I find that the JV sounds the same, no matter which card you use. The K is more capable of a wide variety of sounds. It can give you anything from acoustic sounds to electronic sounds and fat warm synths.

I'm not trying to dissuade you from purchasing the XV-5080. I, myself am looking at the K2600 as I need it for live use (it is really, really flexible for that) to complement another keyboard. The only thing I wish that Kurzweil would do is improve the polyphony count on the K. While they have a good voice stealing algorithm, 64 or 128 voice polyphony would be much better IMHO.

Good luck with your XV.

Fernando

Fernando, i will do you a big favor and buy your 2080.

Kiko, I know what you mean, many Roland users are fanatic about the new gear. I don't see anything more than an incremental improvement of the 3080 vs the 2080.
Maybe the expansion for the Xv will make a bigger difference.

As I said, even though I'm going to buy a XV 5080 (for sample loading and 128 voices polyphony), I keep my JV 2080.

Why ? Because we elle know that 128 voices polyphony DOES NOT MEAN 128 NOTES POLYPHONY.
I mean, play very fast 4 chords of 5 notes of strings made with 4 tones : you eat 80 notes polyphony !!!

Considering the timing of JV 2080 : Ok if you use it with more than 8 parts playing simultanously you get delay.

But about this delay, I could write hours about it. I made a doctorate about Midi timing problems. See I own Mac, PC and Atari.

Want to get rid of these problems ? Use an Atari with Notator SL.

I sometimes do. But I more often use Cubase VST, Digital Performer, Logic on Mac and PC and it's true I get delay in the conditions written upper.

I still say XV 88 and XV 3080 both lack all the options we find in the XV 5080.
XV 88 is too expensive considering what it can really do.

About the K 2600 : Sorry I own for many years Kurzweil Px 1000+, Pro2 and Gx 1000 modules.
I found many of those sounds in the K 2600 (with better AD DA converters, true).Remember it has only 8 megas of rom (+ 4M° for the piano = 12 M°)
You know what is Kurz technology ? They say, the most important stuff is to emulate the sounds in the fist miliseconds so that the ear doe not need a long sample that takes too much memory. It was a great idea in the 80's when technology and rom was exepensive. But nox it appears obsolete. Synth power in k 2500 is not that strong... You only find hundreds of templates for the enveloppe you look after BUT never the ONE you really want or need...

Drums kill but not choirs, voices and even strings you can get as good in the Roland JV or XV.

I know very famous composers. They all have a K 2500 (not 2600). BUT They use the Roland Library (s760+ samples or JV 2080 with cards) to score movies and add some ensembles to real orchestras.

Touché !

Enjoy.
best regards to all

I had the chance to play with these new toys as well, and was not very impressed at all.

To me it just seemed like a 2080 with better reverb.

And with a TRITON module making it's way over here soon ( for 1109$), those would be all the effects you would need.

Hi again,

WindSongMan, I'll keep your offer in consideration although I'm not planning on selling my JV soon. I need to use it for the time being as I have nothing to replace it with.

KIKO, the midi timing problems *are* there in the JV-2080. Sure, with an Atari and its superior MIDI timing it'll be better but you still have to deal with how the JV clogs up. Even playing it, it can feel sluggish at times. I began noticing it originally with sequences but once I layered it with another module/sampler that has better timing, I noticed it as well. By itself, it is not as noticeable. BTW, I've been MIDI sequencing since the 80's and I know very well about the MIDI spec and how MIDI delays can happen.

In regards to the sound ROM in the K2x00-series of instruments. Pretty much most synths (at least up until very recently) still approach them the same way to save on ROM space used. The samples in the Roland and Korg modules are compressed and capture the first msecs accurately and trim them earlier than they should be. In many cases you get 16 or 24 or 32 MB of ROM. However, usually, many modules use the extra space to put more small waveforms in there rather than using longer and higher quality waveforms. The K2600 will have new updates to its OS in the future. Kurzweil has already said that there will be new algorithms added to give you more flexibility in the sound manipulation.

Please don't take this as a flame KIKO. I like the sound of my JV. The timing is what I can't stand. I think that the Kurz is overpriced myself. However, I need it for different reasons. It makes a great controller for live use, has good sounds, 88 keys and, together with another keyboard, that can make my live rig. Right now, I bring 3 keys and rack of modules, samplers and fx units. If I did only studio work, I wouldn't be looking at the K since my whole rig does everything I need it to. I've looked at other controllers and keyboards and have not found one to suit my needs yet. The K is the last one I'll be looking at. If it doesn't look like it'll do for me, I'll be waiitng until the next winter NAMM and the one after, and so on.

Best regards,
Fernando

The Triton is nice with 5 ins fx and 2 master but it does not do it all. Now when you combine the Triton with an xp/JV you get a good set up.

Isn't is amazing (and fantastic!) how peoples tastes are so varied!

Russ- I totally agree with you! A Triton and an XV synthe would be enough for me if I had to sell all my other bits of gear but just keep these 2! They sound different to each other but very complimentary.

KIKO- I personally think that many of the new patches (and samples) are way better than the older JV ones. The steel guitars IMHO are sooo realistic if you play them thinking like a guitarist not a keyboard player. I love they way you can 'bend' the notes! The pianos definetly are a big step up from the JV's and I must say that comparing the XV3080 and an XP30 (session card sounds) I found pretty much all the important material from that card to be already in the XV3080 (pianos, brass, drums, nylon guitars, strings and choirs). I must say however that for those of you who will be keeping your JV1080 or 2080 and have no intention of going the XV route, buy the session card as alot of similar sounding high quality patches as in the XV's are here (some may not agree here!!).

However, I can definetly hear an improvement between the JV's and the XV's. However, I will still hold on to one of my JV1080's because of the added polyphony and 4 extra card slots.

Yes I totally agree that there should be more expansion card slots in all 3 XV units (especially the XV88!).

I do totally agree that the XV's are not 'revolutionary'. They are definetly evolutionary- there is only so far you can go with sample based synthesis afterall!! For trully deep pure synthesis, get something of the analogue modelled variety like the Korg Z1 or Novation Supernova series. Come to think about it, such a synthe in conjunction with an XV or JV synthe would be killer!!!! Cheers.

Arvon- about the Triton- is that rumor or from Korg ? What's your souce ?