Roland JD-990

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The Roland JD-990 Super JD is a module version of Roland JD-800 synthesizer with expanded capabilities, which was released in 1993. JD-990 is a multitimbral synthesizer utilizing 'wave-table' sample-based synthesis technology. It is equipped with 6 MB of ROM containing wavetables, four sets of stereo outputs that are assignable to individual, internal, instruments, and standard MIDI in/out/through ports. JD-990 has a large LCD display and programming takes place through a keypad on the front panel of the unit. The unit can generate multi-timbral sounds reminiscent of the vintage analogue synthesizers but is also capable of generation of modern digital textures. There are several expansion boards available for JD-990 that can be installed in the provided expansion slot in the chassis of the unit.

Features

The JD-990 had the following features which were not available on the JD-800:

  • Expanded wave ROM (6 MB vs. 3 MB)
  • Ability to use an 8 MB expansion board from the SR-JV80 series
  • JV-80 patch import
  • 4 additional outputs
  • True stereo engine
  • Individual panning of each tone in a patch
  • Oscillator sync
  • Frequency cross-modulation (FXM)
  • Matrix Modulation
  • Modulation of the same destination from multiple sources
  • Oscillator structures that allow ring modulation and serial dual filters
  • Additional LFO waveforms: sine, trapezoid and chaos
  • MIDI CC control of parameters
  • Tempo sync delay
  • Polyphonic portamento
  • Analog Feel. Adds a very subtle pitch modulation to the basic waveforms intended to recreate an analogue synth's 'drift'
  • Performance memories
  • Additional multitimbral slots
  • One patch can keep full effects in multi mode