30 Years | Feature
WHAT IS IT?: SUPER SOUND MODULE WITH EXPANDABILITY | LAUNCH YEAR: 1994 | LAUNCH PRICE: £1,085
ITS QUALITY, DIVERSITY, EASE OF USE AND EXPANDABILITY, GAVE IT THE KIND OF MOMENTUM NOT EVEN ROLAND COULD HAVE FORESEEN
In the 1990s, the world of the synth was (broadly) divided into smaller, newer companies trying to make the sounds of yesteryear for the kids of tomorrow, and the old guard trying to make every other sound. There were virtual analogues for dance music and great big digital workstations designed for everything else. The big Japanese companies, mostly kept their feet in this latter camp, producing keyboards and modules full to the brim with presets, polyphony, multitimbrality, effects… you name it. And Roland were the biggest proponents of the all-singing sound module.
In the middle of the decade, their JV-1080 was an unassuming release, just another of these power-packed modules, yet its quality, diversity, ease of use and expandability, suddenly gave it the kind of momentum not even Roland could have foreseen. The breadth of sounds it came with was pretty good to start with: everything from electronic basses, leads and pads, to authentic acoustic and orchestral samples. But the easy to install expansions – initially covering Pop, Orchestral, Piano, Vintage and World – gave it a bespoke route to expandability that producers of the time loved, and its sounds and those of the expansions ended up on many a chart hit and on even more film and TV scores.
What we said at the time
“It really is the icing on the dog’s bollocks. It features a massive 64 notes of polyphony and 512 sounds (plus 128 user) as well as the option for expansion by sound cards. Massive eh? It’s quite easy to get around the JV-1080, to set up combinations and MIDI controllers but its biggest attraction has to be its catalogue of sounds: great grunge guitars; fine basses; loads of pads, fab pianos and organs; and a heap of indescribable sound effects. Whatever your taste, you’ll find a set of sounds here. What more could you ask for?”
Legacy
With 64 notes of polyphony and 16 parts of multitimbraility the 1080 was
