Bad Gear - Ri-di-cu-lous

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Welcome to Bad Gear, the show about the world's most hated audio tools. Today we are going to talk about the Roland JD-08. Is this digital synthesizer, member of the Roland Boutique family and miniscule version of the somewhat legendary Roland JD-800 a worthwhile alternative to the 1991 original? Did they emulate the red glue too? Is this synth just ri-di-cu-lous ?

Thanks to Klangfarbe for helping me out with one of their Roland JD08 :

I carpe diemed the hell out of Beeple's public domain VJ loops in the finale:

Chapters:
00:00 Intro tune
01:07 Overview Roland Boutique JD-08
01:45 Palette Faders
01:54 Displays, Menus, Differences to the Original
02:21 Polyphony, Engine, Tone Layers, Multitimbrality
03:03 Waveforms, ROM expansions (or lack thereof)
03:27 Filter (Roland Zenology)
03:52 Envelopes
04:19 LFOs, Additional Features
04:35 FX Section
04:52 Patches (Sound Examples)
05:22 Sequencer
05:45 Arpeggiator, Clock Input
05:53 What else??? (Noise Issues, Rear Panel, Pricing, Thanks)
06:22 Hate
06:47 Jam 1
07:40 Jam 2
08:41 Finale
09:16 Verdict

[scottnelle]

"Nothing is more 80s than the early 90s" Truer words were never spoken.

[DJ_TideWave]

I laughed so hard when I heard the pan flute sound while blowing in the cart appeared! 😂😂😂 Awesome episode! The JD-08 is is on my wish list. 😊

[thelateraledge]

Roland really gunning for that "Smallest throw fader of the year" award

[mike.thomas]

I made the mistake today of trying to eat my lunch while watching. I had to save it for later because I realized that if I look away for only one instant I miss something. I should know I have to stay on the pause button because my old addled brain just can’t grok every awesome tidbit in real time. I have a JD-08 and love it, but also laughed out loud at all the shade thrown its way. But I also love that you find something to like about everything you review, and that plus the entertainment is worth some cash.

[michaelmoore]

The genius of Roland Boutique is just tapping into the impulse of humans to want to own a complete set of things.

[AreaResort]

Easily one of the funniest Bad Gear episodes since the Roland T8 one! "Fridge magnet version" and "Vintage time bomb contraption" represent some of your finest descriptive writing to date. You have created one of the very best channels on YouTube, congratulations! Keep up the amazing work!

[DJ_TideWave]

No Friday without an episode of Bad Gear! 😊🎉

[dumafuji]

The pan flute / nes cart blow is a perfectly executed joke 30 years in development. Unlimited props! First track sounded perfectly like Depeche a la Ultra.

[hevvyserve]

the third attempt jams always go so hard we need a full release

[oliverpilatiz]

I‘m not a musician, but this channel „ist einfach Kunst“!
Weiter so Bro...🎉👍

[mishaoosterhuis]

As long as Roland keeps releasing, we keep getting Bad Gear episodes, it's a win-win? ;)

[ShootOnFilm]

These videos are so well put together. Amazing editorship and musicianship and all other kinds of ships! Well done!

[themattschulz]

Note to self: no more bad gear episodes while eating dinner, that cartridge pan flute almost made me spit my food across half my studio (again) ... well played sir :D

[prtection]

This is the best sounding synth that has been on the show

[jameshitt]

The density and layering of the comedy gold in these videos is just too good. Like Arrested Development tier layering. I can watch them all at least twice and keep finding more gold.

[bitsmasher]

Aww yiss another ridiculously GOOD piece of gear! Keep it coming dude!

[Vim-Wolf]

I was an early adopter of the JD-08 and wasn’t particularly knowledgeable of the original. While I did start to find some of the restrictions and was made aware of more as I started reading reviews, the thing that makes me not regret buying it is … it just sounds so good. Just hoping Roland will cave in and do a firmware update that provides sysex so we can control the thing with something with proper sized controls.

[Dandelion]

I have no fucking words to say how fucking incredibile this fucking channel is. It's beyond "best reviews". It's the greatest review channel that ever existed. Thank you brother.

[AndrewTSq]

Oh I love it. The bass sound at 8:46 went directly into my heart . nice songs, and some great memes :D

[RobKeay]

Man, I really find your videos very informative and incredibly humorous. The video work totally rocks. Thanks, Bro