Roland JD-990 synth was released in 1993. I personally owned at first two Roland JD-800 synths (I got my first one in 1995 and my second one "died" in 2014). So, I opted for a Roland JD-990 "Super JD" synth module essentially to have the possibility to follow to use my large JD-800 sounds library built through the years. And I'm not disappointed...

At first, JD-990 is largely compatible with the JD-800 (you can edit JD-990 sounds from the JD-800 front panel sliders) and all of the soundbanks programmed or produced for the JD-800 can be sent and loaded into the JD-990 after a conversion that you can do with this free program (middle of the page,"Downloads" part - "JD800 to JD990 Bank Converter - 177 Kb" program) also available here (top of the page, "JD-990 Software / Patches" part - "Patch Converter JD-800 -> JD-990") or this free program (command line utility with no Graphical User Interface). But that's not all...

- JD-990 can read the JD-800 ROM cards, including the SL-JD80-** double ROM cards Series with a slot especially dedicated to the PCM cards

- JD-990 can read the Roland JV-80 ROM cards including the SO-PCM ROM cards Series with the slot especially dedicated to the PCM cards

- JD-990 has a specific slot in the chassis of the unit dedicated to receive an SR-JV80-** expansion board card produced for the JV-Series (it can read all patches but not the loops). The more adapted for the JD-990 is the SR-JV80-04 "Vintage Synth" board card which contains 255 patches programmed specially for the JD-990

My both JD-800 are dead. So, I replaced it by a JD-990.

Basis of the sound is "the tone". You can layer up to 4 tones to create a "patch". Each tone can be programmed independantly via the same parameters as the JD-800 with some enhancements or new added features such as:
- Wave Generator contains 195 built-in sampled waveforms (instead of 107)
- Frequency cross-modulation (FXM) option which permits to add a little roughness to waveforms
- couple of tones (A&B - C&D) can be arranged in six different structures including ring modulation (4/6) in such a way to obtain original synthetic FXs (remaining the structures you find on the D-50)
- new LFO waveforms (sine, trapezoid and chaos)
- oscillator sync
- individual panning of each tone in a patch
- matrix modulation and possibility to modulate the same destination from multiple sources

Complete patch is then routed to a 3-band Equalizer and two effects sections including:
- Group A: Distortion - Phaser - Spectrum - Enhancer
- Group B: Chorus - Delay - Reverb
Each effect can be activated or not and has its own settings. Certain effects parameters can be controlled in real time via the common sources (modulation wheel, pitch bend, aftertouch,...)

You can open the upper slot with a screwdriver to place a SR-JV-80-** expansion board card.

The "Performances" can include up to seven patches plus a rhythm set (for a total of eight voices, each one assignable to a different MIDI channel). One patch in the set can be defined priority and it will "bring with it" its Group A effects in such a way to avoid to lost the overdrive on a rock electric guitar (for example).

Finally, the JD-990 back panel includes eight separate voice outputs, arranged as four stereo pairs.

Super JD is... SUPER!

JD-990 Soundbanks Listing

JD-990 Famous Examples

JD-990 All The Web Patches

JD-990 Video Demos

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