Programming the Roland JVs

Getting more into synth programming is one my year resolutions for 2021. I thought that it could be interesting to document my progress here! It’s a nice topic to blog about, isn’t it?

I’m not exactly new to this discipline, but I have to say that I don’t consider myself an expert. Synths have always been my main instruments, but they have so many options, and there are so many different models and synthesis methods, that it’s hard to know them completely. To narrow down the scope a bit, I’ve decided to focus on the Roland JV series. What I want to do is to build my own library of sounds, exploring all the options and tricks that I can learn and discover. 

There are many reasons to love these synths! They are true classics, with many classic patches that have been sounding everywhere for the last +20 years. And even if they were released in the 90s, they’re still reliable: it’s quite easy to find (still cheap) full-working units! There are many editors available for them in different platforms (PC, Mac, iOS) and they’re growing again in popularity thanks to the JV1080 software version in the Roland Cloud service.

I own two units: a JV1080 and a JV2080. I have many expansion cards, including the super popular SR-JV80-04 Vintage Synthesizer. I also have a Roland Fantom-X6, which is a grand-grandson in the family. I’m going to stick to the JV2080 (it’s the one I have at home right now), with the standard waveform collection and the Ctrlr panel made by dasfaker. If you would like to learn the basic about this synths, I recommend you to take a look at this website, which covers lots of technical details. The user manuals, your best friends, are available in archive.org.

Some people will say that these synths sound dated. Obviously they’re not the best choice if you want a realistic acoustic piano comparable to today’s multi-Gb sample libraries, but there are so many things these synths can do! They can make a really good work with acoustic patches in old school sounding arrangements in the aesthetics of PS1 game soundtracks tho (Symphony of the Night anyone?), so even if cheesy, these sounds can be still useful under some circumstances and in many styles.

 

I'd like to focus mainly on electronic sounds, because those are the ones that I think can be most useful for making my music today. Some people will say that trying to recreate analog sounds in JVs doesn't make sense either, but... Why not?! There are lots of VA synths out there, and even new great poly analogs being released, which are probably better options for this. But hey, this project is all about learning and trying to get the most out of the machine. I've always been fascinated by self-contained music systems and the idea of, for example, making a record with just one of these devices makes me very excited.

In each of the updates I will try to cover a particular technique or special feature of the synthesizer. I'll try to share some musical examples (although I hate posting stuff on soundcloud, but...) so I can comment in more detail what comes to my mind. Don't expect me to be overly systematic!

New Blasphemous DLC: Strife & Ruin!

My friends from The Game Kitchen have just released their new DLC for Blasphemous, called “Strife & Ruin”, and... I'm glad to announce that it features some music by me!

Mauri contacted me some months ago because they’d like me to write some classic chiptune tracks for a special “8 bit zone" they were working on. Inspiration in the classic NES Castlevania titles was pretty obvious (genre, graphics, etc.), so I had to go and do everything in the old good famitracker! I knew that some of the developers were big fans of the classic Akumajou Densetsu  soundtrack, so VRC6 channels were mandatory. I was superthrilled and excited about the commision!

My favorite music genre on the NES is that baroque-clockwork-rock from oldschool FX! EP by Virt, which is for me a step beyond in the classic Konami style... I started to write some stuff in that direction, but I guess that my first tests were way far too proggy. You know, getting to know what you shouldn't do is part of the job, and sometimes there's a bit of trial and error.

I had a general idea of what was the sound of the game because I've been following its development since the very beginning, but at that point I had to stop to study in a deeper way what my friend Carlos Viola had been doing with the compositional work on the game (something that I should have done since the beginning TBH 😅). The soundtrack is a bit in the foreground, especially if you compare how "in your face" was in The Last Door, their previous game. Music comes to the forefront in boss battles (which are one of the strongest points of the game) and narrative moments (dialogs with special characters, animated sequences, etc.). 

This meant that there weren't many tunes I felt I could transform into chiptune style easily, because the original tracks are all about ambience, so I had to look for something else. The team linked me to one of the most beloved tracks of the previous DLC, called Baile de violetas, which was a nice bet for a 2A03 adaptation. I also liked the music from the original trailer too, so it ended up like the base for the "Press Start" tune.

With a little bit of this and a little bit of that, I ended up with five tunes! That's a lot more NES music than my average in the last five years! The last one, the track for the boss fight, was inspired in the original classic NES game, which at the same time, was inspired by Night on Bald Mountain by Mussorgsky (thanks Narek for pointing this out!). You have to love the crazy use of that saw wave!!

My friend Parejo did a really good job with the audio implementation and sound effects and well, I think that the overall output is really nice! The Game Kitchen is one of the most solid teams I know of, and I'm sure they're going to do even greater things in the future! Thanks to Mauri, Enrique, Maikel, David, Dani, Baxa, Parejo, Carlos and the rest of company for letting me join this great adventure!

If you don't have the game yet (you should!), you can watch and listen to this gameplay video!