Roland's Forgotten 8-Bit Sampler
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- čas přidán 1. 08. 2024
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Pause, does JS stand for Jockey Sampler? Dope.
I have really enjoyed using this, I think with a little more familiarity I could be flying, using it often.
0:00 Intro / Acquisition
3:34 Repair Begins / Disassembly
5:15 Removing Bad Faders
7:57 Replacing Tact Switches
9:43 How it Sounds / How to use It
11:58 Play Mode
15:25 Edit Mode
16:49 Record Mode
19:57 Sample playback into use cases
22:22 Example Use Case 1, Live playing
26:49 Use Case 2, Just Sound Processing
29:06 Use Case 3, Sequencing with External Gear
32:00 Final Thoughts / Finale - Hudba
This might not please the algorithm, but I love this content. Maybe it's just because I'm a huge nerd with GAS, who salivated at the gutshots of that sampler. Then the soldering iron came out, and I splooshed.
😂😂🙏🙏🙏Same honestly
I have also been looking for an appropriately crappy sampler to go with my JX3P, and MG1, and this is now a candidate.
Actually, the obvious sampler is a realistic concertmate 500, duh.
@@JeanDearCanada good luck finding it though.
can confirm, you are not alone
Roland's takeover of Italian synth company SIEL in 1987 became the base for Roland Europa. Their focus was on the home keyboard market which they went on to dominate in the 1990s.
Oh I didn't realize it was former Siel!
I just saw a siel Orchestra on stage, the band parcels
As Roland made so many things for SO many decades it's always fun to discover things we've never heard of. This is a case in point - very thorough video Jorb!
Flattered, and happy to introduce you to it!
Consider it the start of paying you back for all the information I've gotten from your videos 😅🙏
The js 30 is a filthy dirty sampler but it actually sounds good for gritty boombap the crunchy drums and lofi sample rate make it perfect
That sampler both aesthetically and specification wise feel more late 80's more then Mid 90's.
Very true! Italy was behind the times I guess? 😅😂
@@JorbLovesGear which is even weirder since they had made the far superior DJ70 , which is essentially a 20-bit scaled down W30 (physically). In '92.
The company who was building these for SCI at the time is called Moridaira
P.S.: I just checked:
In Sound on sound you can read this:
"However, worry not - an easy to install 4Mb upgrade not only doubles your sampling time, but brings the JS30 up to full 16‑bit operation. (Sampling time with the standard unexpanded 1Mb allocation of RAM is a total of 22.5 seconds at 44.1kHz and 45 seconds at 22.05kHz, by the way, with the user RAM split however you like across two banks, with 12 sample locations each)"
1MB to 4 MB?
That smells a little bit like my old companion Atari 1040 STE...
Really cool option tbh. The connections to early PC's are amazing!
My first sampler was the Roland DJ-70, a sampler with 4mb’s of memory you’d be lucky to find, it had the Roland S-760 sampling engine inside that enabled full synth editing, with wave editing on screen, and a must have for no one, which is the only reason I can see why it wouldn’t sell in big numbers, a scratch wheel. Yep, you heard right, a sampler with a scratch wheel, which sounds like a great thing, but how many uses can one really get from a scratch wheel. Actually today you could probably get a few more than occurred to us back in the day. Seemed Roland believed all the DJ hype, when in reality, the vast majority of DJs only ever played other people records...... it was easy and quick to use and had a useful basic sequencer for creating demos and phrases. Wish one would come up for sale in my area, I’d buy one again.
Not familiar with these, souds kinda dope though.
If I remember correctly the pitch bend acted as the cross fader and the cut in wasnt great so it was tricky getting decent scratches other than the basics. Sound quality was good though but I prefer the S760/750, I sold my DJ70 to a guy who was hyped up about using it for live scratching as he was going on top of the pops or something.
I love that you video the repairing of this unit, thanks for sharing. I want one so efn bad!!!
Cheers thanks! Just put mine up on reverb, actualy...
This was a very professional video. You definitely understand the medium.
🙏🙏🙏Cheers, proud of it
Love the workshop feel to this channel, subbed!
Cheers thanks! Proud that the videos still feel like me just chatting.
Terrific video! Excellent repair info and those pre-loaded samples made my day.
Cheers, appreciated.
They are a bit of a time capsule, aren't they 😅
Nice video of the Jorb Sampler-30. I know I've heard those factory samples on chart records in the late '80s & early '90s, now I also know where the bands got them from. Thanks Jorb. Liked & watched end to end.
Lmaoo jorb sampler is probably correct.
I believe Roland used a lot of the same samples in different things, like the sc-88 etc have some stuff shared with the d-50 samples. Wonder what else these were on.
Appreciate that, cheers!
Watched the whole video, great work man! You just gained a subscriber - Also shouts out to Marlow Digs!
Cheers, appreciate it, and welcome aboard
that chord is gorgeous
It is fr
I like the down pitched tambourine that had a familiar industrial sound to it. I do like the crunch and artifacts it adds to the sound. I think with devices like that the sound is the sum of its parts. Much like the sound of the Yamaha RX-11 I have. There's sort of a magic to loading a sound on to a semiconductor.
I had completely forgotten about this thing. Thanks!
That's pretty crazy. I was making music and either missed this or block out all memory of this. Certainly it has more charm today than in 1995. Thanks for sharing! I started making music with 8-bit sampling software on MacPlus computers in 1996 and was still using that software in 1992 :) How silly of Roland to make 8bit gear in 1995 😂 Cheers, Jorb!
They seem to have gone way under the radar. Happy to have it!
I remember about this time Akai released a similar craptastic phrase sampler, was it called the S01 or something? I think the idea of low spec units was to have a low cost line compared to each maker's high end gear. Cheap in the 90s was probably $800-$1000, not cheap by today's standards!
That's kinda like processing samples and saving them in a daw folder
Florian from Bad Gear must be salivating to get his hands on one of these!
If he gives me a ring, I'd love to send it to him.
Maybe I'll hand deliver it at superbooth 😂🤔
It is definitely ticking all the boxes
And as my brain kicks into gear, I remember two more samplers from this period, the Roland MS-1 and the Akai Remix-16, go forth young Jedi, know sampling you will!
I've got a blanket Akai alert on ebay, I see stuff like that pop up all the time.
Eventually!
Thank you for this. My neighbor moved out recently and handed me his dusty old JS-30 on the way out the door (Thanks, Dave!). I now know how to get some use out of it :-)
10:52 That sample is in luke viberts song "De-pimp act" so that's at least a little legacy for this thing.
yooooo
thanks for the amazing video once again.
I really wonder what kind of magic could happen when you did some circuit bending on those cute old (or also new things) things 💥
Cheers, thanks! I havent done much circuit bending, may go wild on old casio one of these days
Yeah. I remember seeing this sampler in a Roland catalog back in 1995.
Dope, i love looking around those old catalogs
you had me at Marlow Digs.
He got me with this, his beats are always so good
Great video. I love attention to detail 👍
Cheers, thanks! Clearly, so do I. lol
Love the first factory sample on the A key, actual reminds me of a sound on the analog rytm!!!
You reminded us why it was forgotten.😵💫
😂😅😅Maybe so
I never, ever, ever failed to forget to switch to the user banks, hahaha. Used mine constantly from 98-03, when my last Zip drive died (the walls of Salvation Army stores were lined with Zip drives for a short window of time back then). been meaning to drag this thing outtta the closet, only it takes up so much space. I mostly used it for the chromatic mode.
The Akai in the background is a great instrument. Had one in the 90s. Sounds like an SP-1200, but has its own keyboard - with a modwheel and pitchwheel, and all kinds of other functions. Full editing capabilities. But mainly just has the great sound of 80s sampling.
My x7000 is in pretty bad shape, have had a lot of trouble getting along with it.
Its an 8voice analog monster, still got mine , hooked up to a S-2000 😝
It's got a very KLF sound to me , my first sampler was the trusty old boss SP 202 back in around 98-99 , I loved that thing ,and back then I used to find TR 707s in hock shops here in Australia for like 200-300 Aud,
202, rad place to start. The golden era, when stuff was just around! lol
at 20:58 i just closed my eyes and teared up, it's around midnight where i am, i didnt expect such a beautiful sound, but when i heard it i just felt so happy
🙏🙏🙏
Nice to see someone with a successful channel doing a show on the js-30. I bought mine in Chicago around the year 2000. I got it without a manual and it took me years to find a manual for it online. Mine has the simm expansion but I wish I would have known the save to tape function when I was still trying to use it. Is there a internal battery?
Cheers thanks!
Manual is around online now, no sweat. There is an internal battery, but I'm not sure if its just for settings or what.
Dear Mr.Jorb,
Cool video. I dont know if you make a lot of videos like this one, but please keep it up. I really enjoy watching videos like this. If you ever get the chance to make a video about the Roland R-8 drum machine from 1989 I'd be very interested in watching it.
Keep up the good work!
Sincerely,
Marcus
Cheers thanks! If I end up with one I'd be happy to. Prettty rad era if you ask me!
ALWAYS love me a good repair video! ;) I was not aware of the JS-30 until this video, so thank you. It looks solid, plus that synth pad sound... lovely!
Have you ever used the Roland MV-8000?
Ah thanks Jack.
I haven't used one, trust your rec though, I should keep my eyes out!
@@JorbLovesGear I think they are super interesting & immensely capable... but flopped because they couldn't breach the MPC user base. IMO though, it's way beyond an MPC (for good or for bad) - pretty much a full featured DAW. Roland must have put an immense amount of R&D into it. They still go for under $400-500 regularly. I'd love to see your take on it someday.
The Cult Of Lofi Sampling exists for the Mirage.
Oo I should keep my eyes out for one
I initially saw this as "Nintendo's Forgotten 8-Bit Sampler" somehow
Maybe Nintendo is just on your brain Mr Luigi64
BTW just glad I have a Force now. I have zero desire for any other samplers or MMT-8 style sequencers now.
I'm dying over here. I want to show you the soldering iron and desoldering vacuum I use.
😅 My RadioShack closeouts probably look pretty wack to the pros. I'd love to see it!
Since you've done your video on the js-30 the price for a used js-30 has jumped by $200 (from $250 to $300 to $500 to $550). It's crazy what a good CZcams video can do to the price of gear. I'm definitely not complaining since I own a js-30.
Appreciate it
Happy to do it!
your super cool bro , i love your vids
Ahh cheers, appreciate that
Goddam great channel ! 😉
Cheers, appreciate that!
So that's where Moby got his GO!
Ohhh for real, dope
@@JorbLovesGear sounds the same, but Moby - Go came out in 1991. Hmm where did that sample come from?
@@DJDigitalJosh Roland reused stuff all the time, wouldn't be surprised if it was on a commercial sample cd or another sampler before this
Love the colour of your AT headphones :)
My red ones are approaching ten years old and slowly disintegrating as we speak (all the soft parts anyway 😭)
Might have to keep a look out for these ones
Oh how you tease me., I am so envious. This is the one Roland sampler I desperately need for my collection!!! These are so hard to find here in Australia. Please let me know if you are ever thinking of selling it... Great video on this wonderful older machine, the best one I have ever seen. Only making me want one even more.....😎
Ah cheers thanks. I'm sure theres one over there, you'll get your shot!
@@JorbLovesGear I'll keep looking, six years so far....
That rave stab, where you asked what they used to record it, seems to be Alpha Juno. The ‘hoover’ preset ("What The?").
Love this content screw the algorithm
Okay this video has done better than expected but THANKS
Low bit rate samplers are great for snares and samples of dialogue from movies and the like. And hey this is history good to see machines in action.
I'd love to have a proper spot for it, want to push it even further
Trouble is these old samplers are never that easy to use, better off with a S10 as thats very simple to use and sounds lofi but good, far better to use them as a DAC. I personally prefer using a bit reducer plugin as its good enough for most things even though I have Roland and Akai hardware samplers.
@maccagrabme as someone who has been using samplers since the mid 90s I gotta say that I don't miss them. Quirky and cryptic OSes, floppy disks, zip disks and scsi, bad and small screens, unaddressed bugs, etc. These days it's way better to go with something modern like a mpc live 2, mpc x, one, etc. Or a DAW like ableton live, which is the greatest sampler ever.
@@VincentsVideoVisions Hey to each thier own, I have an amiga 600 I use for certan things. It has an 8 bit sound chip Im a huge fan of, No one is saying any of this stuff needs to be in your set up or they are better than modern machines. Im pretty sure there's tones of modern stuff with good 8 bit and low sample rate options if you want them.
A few have been popping up for £400-£500 pounds very recently, some of those are beaten up too. Mine cost me £100 four years ago, I am tempted to sell it but I'll hold off for now.
Kinda makes me wanna put aside a week or 2 do a deep dive into my su 10
Do it, worth it
I started at Sam Ash in 86. These had just come out and none of us could figure out how to use it. We were supposed to sell with a Zip drive. Also relatively new at the time. This is the one piece I never figured out
*96
I almost bought one when guitar center blew them out, but someone bought the last one they had. They were very ahead of their time, and the market just wasn’t ready for this sort of thing yet.
Ohh, that's a dope era.
@@JorbLovesGear It really was. Knobs were just starting to come back to synthesizers, MIDI sequencers were starting to get audio capabilities (we didn't all them DAWs yet) and a little company called propellerheads started a revolution in software synthesizers. Im going to be the old guy here and just say "those were the days..."
oh hell yeah thanks for telling me about this
Happy to , hope you get one
I just came across Keyboard magazine May 1995 issue article re NAMM show new gear, and JS-30 (MSRP $1,695) is stated to be upgradeable to 4MB RAM from its standard 1MB, plus upgradeable to 16-bit sampling (!). It also had a little brother model MS-1 (MSRP $595) with 384KB RAM. ;)
Oh wow. Really cool details!
Hi Jorb,
cool video! I sure love old gear...have some old synths myself.
Just a thought:
At 3:42 of your video I saw slots on the mainboard that look like they are for simms. Like one could expand the sampling time that way. Have you checked into that?
Regards, Thomas
I believe additional ram pushes it up to 16bit sampling, not sure if it can just be utilized for longer times.
You should checkout the Akai S-20 as well, another sampler that didn’t do much, but that is getting a following.
I use a Yamaha SU10 for crunchiness. Adds just the right amount of 'nasty' for tracking jungle.
Hey man great vid! I just got a JS30 and it seems im having the same issue with its pad/button switches. Do you remember where and which ones you replaced them with???
Not sure of the size, standard tact switches. I believe the same ones linked in my D50 repair video
@@JorbLovesGear awesome thanks man!
Its a beauty....90s gear just look good!
It is RAD
indeed
yeesh I can't find one for sale anywhere this was a lucky find. do you live in the US? nice vid
I am in the states! Must've been the last one before all of us who saw the Marlow digs video got on board 😅
Excellent repair and usage of the Roland JS-30. I would be curious to see sample storage and load (including AKAI) via SCSI (scsi to add adapter) or MIDI Sample Dump Standard (SDS). If I were to use this sampler I’d have SCSI storage option, load either 16 BIt (if memory expansion is installed) or input sample 8 bit (I think I saw that select option in this video), and MIDI sequence (onboard RPS sequencer seems janky).
I had a mention of the scsi drive, but cut it without anything to properly demonstrate.
Apparently the midi dump takes ages
SDS dump is only good for other samplers that can receive it (AKAI samplers, some legacy computer software). But SCSI to SD adapters have made SCSI musical/instrument devices like JS-30 viable.
I have never seen or heard of that either…hahah. Love it.. Folks were probably grabbing the DJ 70 instead of that? Who knows? Great find….
It is really rad..all credit to Marlow Digs!
If you watch LUGO'S video he shows you a method to resample by running the audio out back in to the audio in. The js-30 allows you to record samples while samples are playing.
rad, I'll have to try that.
The factory bank includes James Brown and run DMC samples? I know Roland got their hand slapped for expansion cards using uncleared samples wonder if this was also a problem for Roland
The wild west of early sampling..lol
Why do you justify your awesome work on this old machine? Work that almost no-one is willing (or capable) to do nowadays and that feels (at least for me) like hell of fun!! It also frees your mind and cleans the tubes for new creative musical output.
When I am not at least one third of my time repairing some gear (actual: Get one functioning out of 2 broken Cakewalk VS-100) or crafting something other in my studio, I am falling very fast into serious writers block.
I said it before and I say it again: you are special. Never apologize for this ;-)
Ahhh cheers, appreciate it.
I sure do like to fix stuff up!
Awesome, 10:39 needs it's own mention :)
That's the magic. Lol
Woo, I got those same m50x’s. But the leather on the inner headband is splitting apart so I get worried when ever I have them on.
Either way tho, love your videos
On the blue pair, I replaced the ear cups and added a like, zipper sleeve to the headband. Easy clean up!
Thanks!
I don’t know if it’s too late, could you create a sample pack of what’s in this? There are a couple sounds I’d like to play with. If not, no problem, enjoyed the video just the same.
I should sample em all, let me get back to you in a few days when I'm back in town
@@JorbLovesGear no rush, if you can, terrific, if not, meh, I complain to myself one night over bourbon ;) but thank you.
SECONDED
Omg!! I could watch a million videos on the akai keyboard in the background..
The AX73 has gotten one!
@@JorbLovesGear hooray!!!
The dolphin 😂😂😂😂
my fav tbh
You should check out the Akai S20, it’s a 32 bit sampler with 16, 8, and 4 bit resample. It’s kind of like the SP404, before the SP404, without FX.
on the radar now, cheers
You're getting Hz and bits mixed up buddy. It's 32khz with 16Khz 8Khz and 4k Hz resample all at 16 bit.
@@Turdbassist thanks 🙏🏼
Crunchy, brah.
We’re not gonna talk about my uncle’s attic or if I found anything there!
lmaaooo I'll keep it on the DL
cool channel just subbed
Cheers, appreciate it. Welcome aboard 😅
11:21 Love that pad(?) Very SNES JRPG like
Oh good ear, I wish I had said that.
The rainy bits in Lttp, hits my head
12 or 8 bit?
yo... was that the goldeneye sound? 12:54
😳😳😳
Did you see a internal battery when you took it apart?
I did, but haven't replaced it yet.
Not sure if I need to find the factory content somewhere or if it would persist through a factory reset
@@JorbLovesGear I'm not really sure what it would be for? Maybe to save your settings for the factory presets if you edit them. I think the factory presets themselves are saved on a chip.
Were those empty memory slots on the inside?
They are! You can expand the ram, apparently that bumps it up to 16bit.
4:55 looks like asrx there
Ha I almost bought one from a shop in San Diego for like 40 bucks and I always weirdly regretted not getting it. Sounds pretty great though tbh
I really dig it, never to late to find one
Awesome video! The sound of this seems about as great as the workflow seems horrible... Started looking into 12 and 8 bit samplers some time ago but was hesitant about buying the JS-30. I just recently bought an old Yamaha SU-700 that has the ability to sample at different rates, also 8 bit. It also comes with some amazing (digital) filters. The problem with the SU is its decoders which are known to go bad but when you find a way to repair them or control the unit externally, it can do some amazing stuff! I very much enjoy watching your videos, thanks for making them!
Cheer appreciate that! I'm not familiar with the SU700, but I might have to go looking...seems rad
C&C music factory and Marky Mark and the funky bunch used this sampler
Wow ! slightly better than MC101 sampling features!!
Lmao @roland
Can i plz buy this machine from you , ive been lookin for one for 10+ yrs and couldn't find one , i had one when i started makin beats and sold it like a fool ...i would buy it from u it would be a blessing to have this machine in my life again
Already sold mine, sorry to say. Set up alerts on reverb, they come up
@@JorbLovesGear no worries i just found one on reverb , its a bit pricy but cant put a price on love ...
Someone's probably already said this but, 99 % of dirty switches and faders can be fixed by spraying them with electrical cleaner and using them repeatedly. I've fixed countless amplifiers and tape deck switches and never replaced one switch. If something is desperately dirty I resort to wd40 and let it dry before plugging it in. I've had amps go from unusable to as new just from cleaning pots and contacts.
These little panel mount tact switches, I've never had much luck just cleaning them.
Plus, it really isn't so bad to replace em.
And actually for this video, I cut a whole bit about trying to clean the faders, and never getting them close enough to spec.
@@JorbLovesGear weird that you couldn't fix the faders, they're usually really easy to clean. But it's true that often replacing is just actually easier than cleaning. Especially when disassembling is that easy. It's just that from the video it looked a bit like you skipped that step when you rightfully cut it out. Love your vids btw, your deepmind videos really helped me get started with mine. And with choosing the 12 rather than 6 voice.
Haha! Nice!
🙏🙏
the js30 is basically a roland dj70
Man I’m gonna buy this sampler from you and give you what you asked for cause you refurbished it anyone would be a fool not to at that price. Jan 26 I’m gonna need that bad boy shipped to me!!!!
😅😅😅Still on reverb!
@@JorbLovesGear yes sir I am.
I made the offer that was $5 higher than your listed price LOL
@@cokedoutmarv2006😭😭😭😭 I saw that too late, offer asking and I'll accept immediately
I can’t wait til it gets here!!!
What was Roland thinking to release an 8-bit sampler in the mid-90s??? Very strange. Saying that I can imagine this being very appealing now.
It is actually capable of sampling in 16 bit, 44,1 kHz when you have the maximum memory installed (4MB). When you have only 1MB of menory installed, sampling automatically defaults to 8 bit, 22,05 kHz.
I swear that rat sound was in Donkey Kong 64
I should really find out for sure, that would be dope
Hi buddy, do you have a link for the tactile switches that fit?
10:52 Luke vibert used that
dope
Irrelevant comment, however I feel like Jepp needs a TX81Z...you know the one synth objectively accepted by the cosmos as the best synth ever made.
Jepp sure does need one! Lol
So it shall be.
I forgot to comment quickly
Lmao same
Dude, the column in the middle is german ;-)
Que?
150$!?!!!!!!!
These were made in Italy? That totally makes sense because the Roland DJ-70 (Keyboard version of this) the only video manuals available are italian and they seem to have loads of them there, and no where else in the world.. Globalism I guess?
Someone else mentioned they had just bought out some other company, seil or elka, i cant remember.
@@JorbLovesGear Hmmmm interdasting..
Who´s Roland? Don´t know this guy. Did he forgot something or what happened?