Three Roland Boutique Synths Compared – JU-06 vs JX-03 vs JP-08

This video, via Earmonkey Music, is a demonstration and comparison of filters on Roland’s three Boutique synthesizers: the JU-06, JX-03JP-08.

Video notes:

“They each have a unique character. They truly are different synths, not just three different boxes. Hope this might help anyone wondering what some of the differences are.”

18 thoughts on “Three Roland Boutique Synths Compared – JU-06 vs JX-03 vs JP-08

  1. Thx for your efforts. But i don’t like those small stuff like roland boutique and yamaha reface. It’s only there for generating more cash into the manufacturers pocket. I had a roland juno 106 in the 80’s myself btw. But I always prefer a full size keyboard and no minikeys or modules with half the functionality over the full size.

    1. i didn’t know all youtube videos and products exist for only one person. I kid, but I do find it odd that people assume everyone else is interested in what said individual wants or doesn’t want or is going to buy. I don’t understand how it adds to the conversation.

      I also disagree with your assessment of the boutiques. I personally find them very useful, especially when paired with a big sky or mutable instruments clouds. To each their own, otherwise music would be pretty boring.

      1. If you compare these to korg’s volca range, you have cheap, ultra portable synths that actually sound great. I got the jp-08 and from the thirty pluss synths i have had(mostly analog), this is one of the most usefull and best sounding synths.

  2. Man, the JU-06 sounds good. Best sounding VA I’ve ever heard. I am constantly surprised by how great it sounds. I’d love a full size JU-06 synth.

  3. I got a little nostalgic to see the EPS 16 plus in that vid still. I had one once. It was an unreliable piece of crap, but it was a brilliant sampler in its way. Apart from the stability and reliability problems — and the hardware limits of that era– it was an impeccable architecture.

    If someone made an iOS app of the EPS 16 plus, with the same basic structure, but tons more memory, I would shit a joy brick

    1. That’s exactly what I was thinking

      I still have my EPS, Plus, and ESQ-1 hooked up in my studio.

      Still amazing to work with!

      1. One of the things that was so amazing about working with the EPS (and 16+) was how you could edit the sound parameters at the sample level, at the layer level, or at the instrument level– interchangeably. AND you could change the value of multiple samples/layers either in absolute mode or relative mode!!! The AMP, PITCH and FILTER logic was fantastic. And a sampler that had more ways to crossfade a loop than you would ever want to use, and the ability to realtime modulate start, end and loop points– hell yea.

        Oh yea, and Poly AT.

        Oh yea, and tuning maps that weren’t constrained to an octave.

  4. Jupiter is the way to go and is cheap as hell 🙂
    Than again, I can get that and more from NI Komplete 10 Ultimate… 😉

  5. The ultimate irony was that we all wanted more control away from software… Then the hardware became shrunk for midget fingers. Fail.

    1. No – the ultimate irony is that people always complain about synths being too expensive, and then complain when Korg, Roland & Yamaha all make good, cheap synths.

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