+ List Help : finger: jv1080@emccta.com, web: http://www.emccta.com/~jv1080 + List Admin: mvitek@emccta.com, http://www.emccta.com/~mvitek +------------------------------------+ | Roland JV/XP Comparisions - Part 1 | +------------------------------------+ Due to the GENEROSITY of another list member I now have copies of the XP-80 and JV-2080 Owner's and Quick Start manuals in addition to the XP-50 and JV-1080 manuals (and synths) which I already have. Because of this I am perhaps in a unique position among most if not all fellow list members to make such a Manual comparison ESPECIALLY in terms of what "general" concepts/contents and features are or aren't covered equally. I'll first start with a basic comparison of the manuals' "statistics" in terms of pages included ("implying" more in depth coverage) and number of Chapters and sections. Synth MIDI Implementation Chart Date/Version (pages) ------- ---------------------------------------------- JV-1080 July 18, 1994 / 1.00 (156) JV-2080 Oct. 30, 1996 / 1.00 (195) XP-50 Dec. 15, 1994 / 1.00 (150-151) XP-80 Feb. 1, 1996 / 1.00 (229-230) Synth Owner's Manual Quick Start ------- -------------------------------- ------------------------ JV-1080 161 pages/6 Chapters/18 sections (in main manual - 9 pgs) JV-2080 202 pgs/4 Chpts/31 scts 48 pgs/8 sections XP-50 154 pgs/12 Chpts/35 scts 26 pgs/11 sections XP-80 246 pgs/12 Chpts/74 scts 36 pgs/11 sections It should be EVIDENT to ANYONE that in terms of the above "values" the XP-80 and JV-2080 have been not only upgraded in their features but in their DOCUMENTATION which I can say UNEQUIVOCALLY are MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS of which I will have much more to say in the "continuing Parts" of this "miniseries" of articles :-) . I can DEFINTELY say this now though, for anyone whose had a JV-1080 or XP-50 for a "reasonable" enough time to get to know and use it, the advantages for "upgrading/trading up" are TREMENDOUS based on the documentation alone in its organisation, illustrations, charts, indexing, and overall clarity of presentation. I will say one other thing concerning the quality of Roland manuals from my preliminary comparisons. Roland quality has in my opinion improved enough in both of the JV-2080 and XP-80 manuals for me to TRULY recommend them even to NOVICES if they SINCERELY read through them methodically and patiently. Both manuals have shown several improvements in detail and illustrations. In the XP-80, a major improvement is Chapter 11. In the XP-50 manual it was called "Using external MIDI devices". In the XP-80 manual, it is now called "Getting the full potential of the XP-80" which is of far more PRACTICAL value even for XP-50 users. The JV-2080 manual has been completely reorganized (for the better IMHO) than the JV-1080's buy "focusing" on getting started, basics, advanced, and appendices of NUMEROUS convenient charts and info. +------------------------------------+ | Roland JV/XP Comparisions - Part 2 | +------------------------------------+ The feature list between all of the synths can be clearly understood by examining their sysex parameter address map tables. Note that additions, if any, are cummulative from the "base" synth JV-1080, in the order as listed, from XP-50, XP-80, to JV-2080 having the most additions. SysEx Size Comparisons Data Sizes JV-1080 XP-50 XP-80 JV-2080 Comments 1-1-1. System Common 40 82 96 98 1-1-2. Scale Tune 12 12 12 12 same 1-2-1. Performance Common 64 66 66 68 1-2-2. Performance Part 19 25 25 26 1-3-1. Patch Common 72 73 73 74 1-3-2. Patch Tone 129 129 129 129 same 1-4-1. Rhythm Common 12 12 12 12 same 1-4-2. Rhythm Note 58 58 58 58 same References: JV-1080 Owner's Manual pages 150-155 XP-50 Owner's Manual pages 142-147 XP-80 Owner's Manual pages 221-228 JV-2080 Owner's Manual pages 188-194 -------------- You can see that four areas have differences, for which those differences from the JV-1080 will be documented below. All differences, for offset address compatibility, are actually additions by the newer synths to the JV-1080's base parameter map. Some only apply to the XP-50 and XP-80 and are ignored when received by the JVs. And some apply only to the JVs and not the XPs and likewise are just ignored when received. ------------------------- System Common Differences These offsets were added by the XP-50: Offset Description Value ------ ----------------------- ----- 00 28 Transmit Program Change 0-1 (off,on) 00 29 Transmit Bank Select 0-1 (off,on) 00 2A Patch Transmit Channel 0-17 (1-16,off) 00 2B Transpose Switch 0-1 (off,on) 00 2C Transpose Value 0-11 (-5 - +6) 00 2E Keyboard Velocity 0-127 (REAL,1-127) 00 2F Keyboard Sensitivity 0-2 (LIGHT,MEDIUM,HEAVY) 00 30 Aftertouch Sensitivity 0-100 00 31 Pedal1 Assign 1-104 00 32 Pedal1 Output Mode 0-3 (off,int,midi,int&midi) 00 33 Pedal1 Polarity 0-1 (standard,reverse) 00 34 Pedal2 Assign 1-104 00 35 Pedal2 Output Mode 0-3 00 36 Pedal2 Polarity 0-1 00 37 C1 Assign 1-97 00 38 C1 Output Mode 0-3 00 39 C2 Assign 1-97 00 3A C2 Output Mode 0-3 00 3B Hold Pedal Output Mode 0-3 00 3C Hold Pedal Polarity 0-1 00 3D Bank Select Group1 Switch 0-1 00 3E Bank Select Group1 MSB 0-127 00 3F Bank Select Group1 LSB 0-127 00 40 Bank Select Group2 Switch 0-1 00 41 Bank Select Group2 MSB 0-127 00 42 Bank Select Group2 LSB 0-127 00 43 Bank Select Group3 Switch 0-1 00 44 Bank Select Group3 MSB 0-127 00 45 Bank Select Group3 LSB 0-127 00 46 Bank Select Group4 Switch 0-1 00 47 Bank Select Group4 MSB 0-127 00 48 Bank Select Group4 LSB 0-127 00 49 Bank Select Group5 Switch 0-1 00 4A Bank Select Group5 MSB 0-127 00 4B Bank Select Group5 LSB 0-127 00 4C Bank Select Group6 Switch 0-1 00 4D Bank Select Group6 MSB 0-127 00 4E Bank Select Group6 LSB 0-127 00 4F Bank Select Group7 Switch 0-1 00 50 Bank Select Group7 MSB 0-127 00 51 Bank Select Group7 LSB 0-127 The following offsets were added by the XP-80: 00 52 Pedal3 Assign 1=104 00 53 Pedal3 Output Mode 0-3 00 54 Pedal3 Polarity 0-1 00 55 Pedal4 Assign 1-104 00 56 Pedal4 Output Mode 0-3 00 57 Pedal4 Polarity 0-1 00 58 Arpeggio Style 0-32 (1-33) 00 59 Arpeggio Motif 0-33 (1-34) 00 5A Arpeggio Beat Pattern 0-60 (1-61) 00 5B Arpeggio Accent Rate 0-100 00 5C Arpeggio Shuffle Rate 50-90 00 5D Arpeggio Keyboard Velocity 0-127 (real,1-127) 00 5E Arpeggio Octave Range 0-6 (-3 - +3) 00 5F Arpeggio Part Number 0-15 (part1 - part16) The following offsets were added by the JV-2080: 00 60 System Tempo (high nibble) 20-250 00 61 " (low nibble) ------------------------------ Performance Common Differences The following offsets were added by the XP-50: 00 40 Keyboard Mode 0-1 (layer,single) 00 41 Clock Source 0-1 (performance,system) The following offsets were added by the JV-2080: 00 42 EFX-B Source 0-15 (perform,1-9,11-16) 00 43 EFX-C Source 0-15 (perform,1-9,11-16) ---------------------------- Performance Part Differences The following offsets were added by the XP-50: 00 13 Octave Shift 00 14 Local Switch 00 15 Transmit Switch 00 16 Transmit Bank Select Group 00 17 Transmit Volume (hi nibble) 0-128 (0-127,off) 00 18 " (lo nibble) The following offsets were added by the JV-2080: 00 19 Output Select 0-2 (A,B,C) ------------------------ Patch Common Differences The following offsets were added by the XP-50: 00 48 Clock Source 0-1 (patch,system) The following offsets were added by the JV-2080: 00 49 Patch Catagory 0-127 +------------------------------------+ | Roland JV/XP Comparisions - Part 3 | +------------------------------------+ The user interfaces of the Model 6A synth family members can be, in terms of their LEDs, primarily divided into two groups: 1) JV-1080/XP-50 and 2) XP-80 and JV-2080, for example -- >From the JV-1080/XP-50, whose displays are 40 characters, 2 lines (backlit LCD): |< ------- 40 characters --------------->| +----------------------------------------+ |PERFORM PR-A: 01 Jazz Split part= 1| |PLAY | +----------------------------------------+ >From the XP-80/JV-2080, whose displays are 320 x 80 dot Graphic LCD (with backlit), and therefore has variable character size definitions available used but for comparison with the above the following example with suffice: |<----------- 320 dots ----------------------------->| +----------------------------------------------------+ |PERFORM [001/a01] Play Ctrl-Ch=16| |----------------------------------------------------| | EFX| | | USER:01 EasternSplit CHO| | | REV| | | | | Octave: 0 Key Mode:LAYER Part 1(Koto )| | Center:C 4 *ooo oooo oooo oooo| | | |Common K.Range Part MIDI Effects Info | +----------------------------------------------------+ The text above is the same size except for "USER:01 EasternSplit" which is double size in heighth and width. The three EFX are underlined. The bottom row has each word in reverse 7 character highlighting, i.e. white text on a black background. The "*" represents a darkenned circle. The word "Play" has two graphic character delimiters. The highlighted words can be selected by their corresponding Function buttons F1 thru F6 which are immediately below them (beneath the LCD) on their respective synths. It is not my intention to do a complete screen by screen comparison but only to give a sampling comparison which these examples should help anyone to appreciate the obvious improvements made between these two views of a current Performance Preset. Because of the dot graphic character of the XP-80 and JV-2080 displays, graphical display functionality is supported and taken advantage of for subjects such as Tone Structures, EFX routing/levels and Pitch, TVF, and TVA envelopes, and LFO Types. The greater "font" support allows more information to be diplayed/summarized at once. +------------------------------------+ | Roland JV/XP Comparisions - Part 4 | +------------------------------------+ Realtime controller support has been added to from the JV-1080 and XP-50 by the XP-80 and JV-2080, which now include "Sound Palette" (on the XP-80) sliders which are recordable and responded to in the improved MIDI implementation for their synths. Added controller support by the XP-80 and JV-2080 (sound sources) ----------------------------------------------------------------- 71 Resonance Sound Controller 2 72 Decay Time Sound Controller 3 73 Attack Time Sound Controller 4 74 Cutoff Sound Controller 5 80 Tone 1 Level General Purpose Controller 5 81 Tone 2 Level General Purpose Controller 6 82 Tone 3 Level General Purpose Controller 7 83 Tone 4 Level General Purpose Controller 8 To otherwise have the same affect for the JV-1080 or XP-50, sysex messages would have to be used. The parameters affected by the above controllers are otherwsie accessable in Table 1-3-2 for each Patch Tone. Their corresponding offset addresses are: 00 53 Resonance 0-127 00 6C Level Envelope Velocity Time4 0-14 00 6B Level Envelope Velocity Time1 0-14 00 51 Cutoff Frequency 0-127 10 65 Tone 1 Level 0-127 12 65 Tone 2 Level 0-127 14 65 Tone 3 Level 0-127 16 65 Tone 4 Level 0-127 Note that the Time value ranges 0-14 represent the following respective implemented values -100,-70,-50,-40,-30,-20,-10,0,+10,+20,+30,+40,+50,+70,+100. The following example sysex messages will set their respective TEMP Performance Part 1 value parameters to 14 (for simplicity only) for Tone 1. F0 41 10 6A 12 02 00 10 53 0E 0D F7 sets Resonance F0 41 10 6A 12 02 00 10 6C 0E 74 F7 sets Decay Time F0 41 10 6A 12 02 00 10 6B 0E 75 F7 sets Attack Time F0 41 10 6A 12 02 00 10 51 0E 0F F7 sets Cutoff F0 41 10 6A 12 02 00 10 65 0E 7B F7 sets Tone 1 Level It should be noted that the Yamaha XG standard also supports the use of controllers 71-74 (although the Roland GS standard doesn't) which undoubtably influenced Roland's decision to support them . ----------------- Benjamin Tubb brtubb@cybertron.com http://www.cybertron.com/~brtubb "Music creates order out of chaos; for rhythm imposes unanimity upon the divergent, melody imposes continuity upon the disjoin- ted, and harmony imposes compatibility upon the incongruous." - Yehudi Menuhin, from "Theme and Variations"