Review of the
Roland Orchestra I Expansion Board and others

The JV 80 board for the JV1010, XP30 and other Roland Synths

the Roland Orchestra I Expansion Board Provides extraordinarily realistic sound for classical orchestration, covering a variety of string, woodwind, brass and percussion sounds. 174 waveforms and 255 patches.   I prefer the Orch I to the Orch II board. (Don't think the Orch II is better 'cause it's newer).  This expansion board is gets my award for tweakmanship.  I have it installed in my JV1010 and its not leaving soon! 

They programmed a little magic into it.  When you play it, the hands do this thing, its hard to stop playing.  If you have movie scores, commercial music, or are doing classical, you will get a lot of mileage out of this board. I can go on for days about it.  I thought I had the orchestra covered with my proteus 2 and emu orchestral sample CDs--wrong!  The Orchestra I board has many different articulations of strings, and at first glace they all sound similar, but when you get down to composing, you find you need them and they blend with beauty.  You can do thick and powerful string sections that move you in your soul. The patches use aftertouch in ways so sensitive and tasteful, its just a joy to play with the patches. The folks that made these sounds did their homework, and the tweakmeister appreciates that greatly!  Hehe, since I've gotten this board I've been kicking over the chair and conducting in my room with my "air baton" again, always a good sign!  By the way, this board comes with the XP30 keyboard--so don't buy it if thinking of an XP30, OK?

  Roland Techno Expansion Board (JV, XP series) Dance/Techno sound expansion board for XP-50, XP-80 and many JV-Series synths featuring 255 waveforms, over 200 patches and 8 full rhythm sets. Learn more...  Tweak says: If you are thinking of getting an XP30, don't buy it for your JV--its in the XP30 already. But if you are a hardcore dance composer, you may need this. I've heard it, played with it.  If you find yourself wishing there were more dance sounds in your stock JV, this is the board.

Roland Asia Collection Expansion Board (JV, XP series) The SR-JV80-14 World Collection "Asia" wave expansion board offers expandable XP/JV-Series synthesizer owners a vast collection of authentic Asian instruments, including distinctive sounds from China, Indonesia, India, Japan, Korea and more. Learn more...Tweak says: I don't have it..yet!  But I want it!  The info says they actually traveled to get these samples.  I love the fact that I can use instruments around the globe in my productions.  That's why i want this one!  Unfortunately I don't have room for it as the JV 1010 only allows you to add one board.  Should have bought the XP30 (muttering)