He'll never run out of "bad gear" because no matter what gear it is SOMEONE is complaining like it's the bubonic plague on some music forum

He’s clearly running out of real bad gear this one is legendary

The JX-8P holds a special place in my heart. I picked one up in 2012 the day my mother died. I recall having a rather mundane conversation about buying the synth, little did I know it would be one of the very last conversations with my mother. It's been since loaded into a case in favor of other hardware but I will never part with it. It reminds me of her every time I play it. It's been long enough now that there isn't sadness, but a soft smile and happy memories. Love your show man, keep doing your thing.

I love how he says "at first glance, this synth is ticking all the boxes" --he literally says that IN EVERY VIDEO 🤣

I think Espen has earned his place on KZfaq as a respected individual. Not only is he a fantastic purveyor of information about the classic models such as this one, but he also is a fantastic musician like you are. even if you can say that your keyboard playing skills are limited, there’s no debating your musicianship. I have a JX-8p w/ PG-800. It might not have been the first analog synthesizer I got my paws on (that honor going to original ARP Axxe from ‘75), however it was the first that I got to play more than once. It belongs at the time to my mentor and represented one of the best teaching tools a beginning synthesis could turn to for info about sound shaping and how an analog polyphonic worked. This guy had received it from his protégé, a pianist extraordinaire that was naïve enough about synthesizers to get this one and discovering that he wasn’t as into it as he thought he would be. I suspect he was looking for the DX7 but wasn’t discerning enough to choose it. When this teacher we both had in common passed away, this other student of his repossessed the JX and then sold it to me for a real paltry sum.

Happy Christmas sir. I saved this delight for boxing day. Your video reminded me that I grabbed JX-3P back when they were cheap and then had to pay almost the same to get the controller! Ha. Sold the pair 18 months ago. Funnily enough, my old PG-200 has since appeared in a video by a certain Mr Kraft. And yes, he will be after you. 😉

Have a JX-8P - and it's one of the most underrated synths of all time in my opinion.

Holy shit my old high school band teacher has one of those PG-800's stored away in the school "recording studio", he doesn't even have any gear that's compatible with it. It's been almost 5 years since I graduated, but I think it's time I paid him a visit.

Honestly, as an owner of both the JX-8P and PG-800 since 1994, I have to say I've coaxed every possible sound out of this synth over the years and love it. Maybe it's because it was my first ever synth, but largely I think it puts more revered synths through their paces. It can do snappy bass! It's full of bass a plenty. It can do amazing pads and brass. It can do drum sounds. It can do leads. It can do FM-y sounds thanks to the aforementioned cross modulation. There's very little it can't do really. Despite what people say about the envelopes not being that snappy or punchy, I beg to differ. I actually think its biggest drawback is the filter. The bottom end disappears when you crank up resonance and it's not that great sounding compared to other Roland synths of that era. Yes, it's also a pain to program without a programmer but there's so many aftermarket programmers out there now that's now a moot point. Obviously I never experienced this, but I do own a JX-3P and up until recently didn't have a programmer for that and it was still easy to program. Unfortunately that's not the case with the JX-8P sans programmer. This is still a dark horse synthesizer. Out of the 20-odd synths I have in my studio, this one is the one I know inside and out and I am not afraid to say I'm an authority on this particular sound generating product!

This is so much the best KZfaq channel that I refuse to believe that there's a second best one. Merry & Happy stuff, everyone!

My mother was a musician in the 80s and this is one of the first synths she purchased. I loved playing on this thing and it made me want to make music XD The "Soundtrack" preset is a classic

My dad's workhorse synth. He's used it in practically almost every piece of music he's ever done by himself... and still has it! Complete with the PG-800 permanently stuck on it like a fridge magnet.

It sounds amazing. It must only be bad gear if you don’t have a programmer

A truly worthy Christmas address, awesome tune too.

Andy Warhol: Everyone will be famous for 15 minutes Bad Gear: Every electronic music instrument will be on my show eventually 😁!

Next week on bad gear: “TR-808: Cowbell almost usable?”

I’m not sure where you’d be without Roland. Great vid once again. If nothing else I think that synth would be awesome for making 80’s video game music.

Festively plump episode, many thanks! Hope the new year finds ways to bring you all kinds of new and old bad gear!

So amazing you play the same intro track with every synth! Big up respect!

Was habe ich wieder gelacht! Wie immer bis ins Detail perfekt recherchiert und mit erheblichem Aufwand produziert. Vielen Dank, A.P.!

JX8P is a gorgeous sounding synth. I’ve had many analogue Polys and it’s up there in the top 5 🎉

I love that Christmas Bad Gear reviews a good bit of gear. Our present for sticking with the show :D The SOUNDTRACK preset is still probably one of the all time greatest and most usable pad presets of any synth.

cant wait until you inevitably review the boutique version of the jx-8p. merry christmas, florian!

That was absolutely awesome! I was able to get a JX-8P in 2009 or 2010 for $200 in almost perfect condition when no one really liked them. It was my first synth.

Nice video! The JX-8P is my favourite synthesizer of all time. Yes slow envelopes, and the nice chorus can make everything sound a bit 'samey', but the strings and pads are so good. A great organic and spacious sound! The PG-8X VST is a fantastic free virtual emulation that nails the sound - I used that a lot while my 8P was in for repairs (replacement of the elusive FIP display coil). Thanks for another great video!

Look at us, watching Bad Gear on Christmas

This is a surprisingly nice sounding synthesizer, and you really did it justice with that Rick 'n' Roll grand finale at the end!! I hope you had a lovely Christmas as well :)

Bless Roland for keeping this show awesome!

I'm in the middle of making a track, and what you did at 4:07 inspired me to do the same thing in my track for my lead sound, and it made it sound way better, so thanks for that!

I always enjoy your content Florian so thanks for all the work that goes into putting them up. I look forward to more controversial bad gear next year!

No way, you did it! A true Christmas present :D Thanks so much, I really enjoyed this!

Flawless episode as always, but for the love of Santa and all his elves I do hope Wendy has some Emu hardware laying around, poor old Roland :-). Merry Christmas Florian thanks for all the joy your have brought this year.

this one is actually good. I dont think I've ever heard describe this synth as bad. It sounds really good!

Happy holidays. Thanks for all the bad gear episode that keep my spirit up every week.

Glad to see your channel growing! You make excellent videos!

I love how you're going through some synths that I own. The microbrute, minibrute, and now the 8P! Just beautiful! I'm looking around my room and I see my Ensoniq SQ-80 and VFX. Please do a video on one or both of these!

for a while, the JX-8P plugin PG8X was one of my favorite synths to use as a pad sound in my songs. It's all over my first EP.

And a very Merry Crimbolio to you too sir! May you bless us with more bad gear in the new year!

This was beautiful. Merry Christmas

My first analog was a JX-8P 😊 sold it when I got a Juno-60 and regretted it so much that I got the JX-10 as a replacement. I, too, love that Soundtrack patch... While not a punchy set of machines (8P and 10; the 3P is a different machine compared to these two), having 24 oscillators in one machine is just incredible (and I got my Soundtrack back 😅). The JX-10 was 2 8P's in one package, but was also intended to be the successor to the Jupiter-8, so it became Roland's last flagship analog before the advent of the D-50. The stock JX-10 has some serious MIDI issues - maybe a nice thing to dive in to at some point? 😉 Thank you for a nostalgic flashback for me and merry Christmas 😊

Merry Bad Xmas ❤️❤️❤️

I thought you'd be making cacophonies like wonderful Christmastime. Thank you so much for making an episode this holiday time.

You never fail to bring a smile to my face. Thanks for making christmas more bearable lol.

The JX-8P has its place. It has some very inspiring musicality for some types of sound classes. I bought a used one in great shape for $150 a few years ago. Guy had to sell eveything quick and get out of town. Best deal I ever got. So I have a lot experience with it, and even with an external controller mapped to eveything, you will not get the true "poly analog synthesizer" experience from this. It's too well behaved. Now for those of you who had used a Jupiter 6 for example, you will instantly know what I mean by having the "proper synthesize experience" or even if you messed around with the SID chip on a C64, or just a few other classic synths out there that have the same essence, those synths that most of the newer generation of synth nerds never laid hands-on before. It's these few first generation of un-refined synths where the magic is, as only these can do because of their imperfections that will most often lead you down those rabbit holes, losing time you'll never get back, but worth it just for the "experience". It's these rare few that qualify for a proper synth experience. The JX-8P or ones like the JX-3P or JX-10 , and even a real jupiter 8, OB-xa or many modern Behringer analog clones I've used/or own, or the many emulations. It goes without saying not one of the best modelling software attempts to date, as good as some of these have becone, can touch a Jupiter 6 experience. While the Jupiter 8 or Juno 60 are some of the best and musical synths in their own rights, they are still too tame, too well designed and refined to do what the Jupiter 6 can give you in terms of simply moving a control around and instantly hearing the most interesting but unexpected results that reach deep into your soul. Yet at the same time you're hearing something you've heard all over classic records, but you never could quite get close to achieving it on any of the other synths you own or extensively used. And these things in my opinion constitute the core definition of what makes for a "proper analog syntheszier experience" I would to see a bad gear episode on the Roland Jupiter 6 since this channel seems to be running out of truly bad gear to talk about. Lets start talking about the bad gear that turns out over time to be the best gear.

The Rez Lead patch became my signature solo sound for a decade. Straight up George Duke funky. Nothing else like it.

Great video as always. The jams are brilliant, great 80’s vibe and the lfo-meme had me laughing so loud my wife was wondering what was wrong with me. Awesome! Merry Christmas Florian, be it a bit late, and keep spoiling us with these great videos in 2022!

now that im more familiar with your channel and recognize your intro theme, its always fun paying attention to the featured gear in the song before the video starts. very engaging little bit

Cheers, and kudos on a great year of Bad Gear. May your oscillators remain on track for years to come.

Lost it when I seen Uli's picture above the fire place. You got the best intros.

It still sounds awesome! Love those big soundtrack strings and pads. Ive got the Roland Boutique JX08 Synthesiser which I use in my techno jams hooked up to my beatstep. Happy days.🤘🏼🎹=🎶

Had one of these - loved it and had so many memory cards with great sounds.

Great video! The tribute to the ghost of Espen past is a nice touch!

You need to package that final Xmas video with its own KZfaq link! That’s Xmas shareable social media gold right there! Merry Xmas dude and thanks for all the synths!

If you can play - the JX8P is a fantastic synth. Throwing down those weighty keys against filter = velocity and aftertouch = vibrato is a aynth players dream. If you want to twiddle resonance for half an hour look elsewhere, but I agree this grey lady was for a more elegant age.

That's tonight's must watch TV sorted! Thanks and Merry Christmas Florian! 👍👍👍

Excellent as usual. Merry Xmas

The George C Scott 1980's version of A Christmas Carol is my all time favorite. Probably came out the same year as the awesome JX-8p!

Just a bit of trivia… The JX8P can be heard on the 80s hit “The Final Countdown by Europe”. The lead brass synth (factory patch 28 I think). Still own my JX8P w/programmer I bought back in 1986 and it still works!

Awesome vid! The genre king returns for Christmas...YESSS!

My first hardsynth was a JX-10, and I am a big fan of it and the JX-8P. You did an awesome job showing what these can do. I especially loved the christmasy piece towards the end! I am extra inspired to fix my JX-10 now. Thanks! Also, Merry belated Christmas and Happy New Year!

P17 forever!!! Worth it for that patch alone. Really comes alive, too, using the Unison 2 and Solo 2 modes. Aftertouch is notorious for going belly up on these. But it’s become one of my favorite synths ever!

So this is where ALL my 80s dreams come from (my 80s dreams have an 80s soundtrack of course...!)

The editing and memes are getting so good. My favourite most consistent channel

Always the best channel and great Christmas video!

Jx8P is a damn good sounding synth!

I had one of these when I started the rabbit hole of synthesizers, back in 2008, got it for NOTHING and I am very sad I let it go a few years later, mainly because I was frustrated by the lack of programmer but miss the sound!

Fabulous production quality.

thanks and Merry Christmas!

1985: 6 note polyphonic DCO JX-8P analog synth 2015: 4 note polyphonic DCO analog section on JD-XA. That's progress!

Yes it is blasphemous to put it under bad gear but it's good to have a proper rendition of what you can do with it. I got this thing around 2003 for maybe 200 Euros. It might be good if prices may sky rocket after this, but I'll still keep mine. BTW the Aftertouch on mine still works perfectly.

Yay! Merry Christmas! 🎄

I just watched the 13 year old Jexus demo video of this synth (and programmer breakout box ) . I remember the eighties , and the edit menu frustrations associated with minimal control surfaces . I had never noticed outboard gear like the programmer until the 2000s and didn't understand the added complexity once I did notice them. This is the reason that it took until my exploration of reason , and Fruity loops to really find my way into synthesis , and electronic music . Membrane buttons are so unkind to timing changes , and expressive playing, musicality in general that I explored guitar effects and also acoustic tricks like miking an amp through rubber heater hose and oscillating fans in my early sound designs .THIS INSTRUMENT design is repellant as a creative inspiration, but amazing sounding . Your jams are astounding , and the videos are iconic art . Thank you for doing what you do , how you do it . Merry Christmas 🎄

As far as big roland synths go, juno 106 is a more apt candidate for bad gear than the 8p. Just one dco, walking the thin line between classic and bland/overdone sounds, crazy prices...

Merry Synthmas Everyone & a Happy Bad Gear!

Also, good job talking about the unison detune function. Some owners don't even know about it. Amazing what reading the manual can reveal.

Dope video post production work

I have one... Picked it up "broken" but just needed a 10 cent voltage regulator. I will say that the attack on the envelopes is slow and thus creates a 'bubble' synth sound. It's great if you don't need fast envelopes. Only gripe is that it doesn't have master transpose but rather you have to adjust each DCO tune separately... maybe it's a feature? Lol Have a good one!

Love this channel. That would be an incredible synth for $200, but no way on the prices now. Truly ruined by the interface, but having a more subtle sound is a nice tool to have.

The homage to Telex in the vocoder shoutouts was pretty sweet! :D Merry Christmas, Florian!

that soundtrack preset is indeed amazing xD Thank you for this christmas video :p 🖤🖤🖤

Nice video! The JX-8P is a real beast, but its UI isn't my thing. The new Boutique reincarnation is the first one, i seriously consider, cause they made the controls a bit bigger and extended the engine to 20(!) voices. Does anyone know, if you could use the JX-08 Boutique as a programmer for the JX-8P? Hope you had nice holidays! Until next year! I wish a "gut'n Rutsch"!

Those strings really are Delicious aren't they? There is a very good freeware version knocking about Internet Land, built by Full Bucket Music I believe. Praise be to the Dancing Reindeers!

i love your videos

This is so true! Love your videos man! Awesome!

from all the things they could've copied from the DX7 they went with the membrane keys

It's inevitable, if he keeps up the 'one each week' rate, he'll drop the DX7 video in early 2023 (it'll tick all the boxes)

Merry Christmas mate , love the show 🙂👍

always love your tracks! merry christmas

The people that hate the JX8P are those who tried to make House and Techno with it. The people that love the JXP8 are those making Synthwave, Italo Disco, Spacesynth etc. It's how you use it that matters.

I really adore the JX8P. Sometimes I think it's been too overshadowed by the 106 that came before it.

Excllent video and great playing!!!

Quality excellent episode

Oh man, you've gone too far this time, lol! One of the most eerily beautiful sounds ever, although it's not Moog phat or Jupiter warm I'll give the critics that, happy holidays!

Those fucking membrane buttons.....just a horrible idea. Those JX strings still sound nice though.

Merry Christmas to everyone here and of course Frohe Weihnachten an Florian und sein Team.... Ihr seit einfach spitze und eure Arbeit verdient größten Respekt... Keep going on‼️‼️‼️

Another great episode of Bad Gear! I love the sound of this synth so much! Used to use the VST clone PG-8X a lot. Awesome mid-80s Roland polysynth sounds. I actually stumbled upon some gear which might be something you could do on this show. A reverb unit from the mid-80s by Korg, the DRV-1000. Seems like a cool gritty hardware reverb. Has most of the typical settings and a reverse and gated reverb as well. They seem to be decently priced online. I got one for actually sub-$100 recently. Anyways Happy Holidays to you Florian, I hope your Christmas was ticking all the boxes! :)

Nothing wrong with the 8P except for the mammoth size for the tiny 21st century homestudios

A bad gear episode about Roland? The balanced has been restored. Though I refute your claims the JX3P/JX8P/JX10P are bad.

A Merry Xmas to you Mr. Pilz! I love my JX8P .. the word that comes to mind to describe it is always 'grand' .. true it's not really at home with snappy bass sounds though the piano patches have reasonable attack and strings are lush. It has a very nice feeling keyboard too and solidly built. Your music samples are always so great, keep up the good work!

More brilliance! Merry Christmas Sir !