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Forum: General Discussion

Topic: Roland JD-Xi Crossover Synth

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OMG this JDxi is unbelievable.. I was so indecisive about what to get as a sequencer and I decided on the JDxi which is both a sequencer and keyboard and drum machine and synthesizer... 5 minutes of playing with it is unbelievable.. This thing has preprogrammed a bunch or sequences out of the box. I started up Trance 1 and thinking I like it. Now the real test does it sync with virtual dj. Will it be the bad boy master or slave.. I hope the slave so VDJ can tell it what to do.. Bingo went right into VDJ settings and saw it without installing a driver on a Win 10 (64) PC. Great let's send it output midi from VDJ.. Ok nothing happening.. Hey I need to setup JDxi as the slave.. Right throught the menu.. Shazammm it's slave. All went silent. My beat stops on the keyboard. What do I do? Hey start the music dork.. Yeah good idea.. pressing play...I started up my song and would you believe it BINGO, perfect, the JDxi is matching the beat.. the acid test let me speed up and slow down the tempo.. POWWW (sound like old batman tv show)... Hey but i'm probably easier to please than some hard cores.. I got what I wanted now I can play..
Did I mention it has a vocoder.. oh man... soon you'll see more crossover DJ's playing keys and djing.. but hey I'm usually behind the times, maybe you guys know a few already .....
 

Inviato Wed 29 Mar 17 @ 1:10 am
Anyone following this might now ask.. OK it works one way. Does it work in the opposite direction.. Let's see how magical it is... Went into VDJ settings and let's see if I can program the keyboard... abra cadra it works! I pressed a key on the jdxi (for example the default octave C which shows up as 1-BUTTON36 on VDJ keymappings) and let's make that vdjscript STOP for now... and test.. and it's a homerunnnnnn. Tapping the C note on the keyboard stopped the song in VDJ
 

Inviato Wed 29 Mar 17 @ 1:26 am
I am very interested in this unit. It's exactly those kinds of things I would love to add to my setup.
Of course the timing is very critical that CBG is correctly adjusted on your tracks.
 

Inviato Wed 29 Mar 17 @ 7:22 am
I don't think adjusting the beat grid will help out. The reason I see it is that i don't think there is a way to get the output signal from the JDxi back into the laptop. If we could see the JDxi's waveform back in VDj then that would be the bomb and we could double check alignment (while listening for a beat match).

Right now at home I don't have my controller setup but plans were for me to send the analog audio out of the JDxi back into the analog input port of the mixer as an extra channel.


Oh yeah just for the record, though I do love the JDxi so far, I just want to mention the cons before anyone thinks they're getting perfection.

  • Some people who are true keyboardist (me not one of them) have a problem with the odd size and tactile feel of the keys,
  • Some people don't like that it's a mini keyboard missing a way to power it by batteries, and only works over the included power adapter.
  • Someone compared the $500 mini JD-xi to the $1500 full sized JD-xa which wasn't fair in my opinion because it's 3x the price so 3x better or more
  • First of it's kind so it's not going to be the best for any hard core chore.
  • One reviewer said the LCD with controls could be designed better and easier to navigate. I have no problem yet but some features would be nice for quicker access.
  • After the fact I realized the case is $79 and could have got it for $29 if I got it as a bundle (grrrrr)
 

Inviato Wed 29 Mar 17 @ 11:38 am
It's getting hot in here! I guess I should be waiting for something negative just to not be too high and fall but I got the audio back into VDJ. Simpler than i would think. Roland recommended that I first update the firmware since the keyboard came with ver 1.1 and they were up to ver 1.5 which has some new cool features and bug updates. Anyhow here is the trick.


  1. Update Firmware. Just hold down the tap button as you power on the JD-xi and drag the .bin file update you download from their site onto a folder that pops up on your desktop (Talking Windows right now)
  2. Go into Virtual DJ settings and add a line input. I had to click on microphone in the audio interface then select linein 1 from the inputs list. On that same row attach that (select) JD-Xi.
  3. Save your changes
  4. Start a song on the left deck, press play on the JD-xi, click LINE IN button on the right deck (skin dependent I'm using the default VDJ 8 skin)
  5. That's it. You can now a use it as a channel in VDJ

Now the last step is matching the beat grids since this still doesn't match them.

 

Inviato Wed 29 Mar 17 @ 1:32 pm
Using VDJ as mastertempo to sync the Roland unit, I cannot think of something else than to have CBG precision.
How else should it sync ?
The same thing goes using VDJ sampler on top of a non sync CBG track, it's crap

I think DJ's need to add such creativity to their mixes, it's not "OK" to only play tracks "as they are". Now the musical skills will come into play.
 

Inviato Wed 29 Mar 17 @ 3:46 pm
938MyDJPRO InfinityMember since 2007
I am surprised VDJ hasn't announce any support for the DJ-808 yet...

As this unit has 5 pin Midi-Out and 2 USB ports for Audio/Midi use, the MIDI implementation is so easy and efficient.

Not right-away but I could sense that MIDI-out port will become standard for Pro-Controllers eventually (has been in a lot of Pioneer mixers already / NI S4).

I know it's not for everyone but the way things go like: 8 pads, screens on controllers, standalone mode, video and DVS capabilities etc... MIDI can become the next focus on development of new controllers/mixers.

The DJ-808 opened up a new door for me.

 

Inviato Wed 29 Mar 17 @ 6:39 pm
Lesson 1: Don't walk away from something you enjoy for too long or you'll forget it all. I had to reteach myself how to setup the Roland JD-Xi and hook it up to Virtual-DJ

Tips to get back again:
1) Plug JD-Xi into PC with USB cable and for this test don't plug audio cable from JD-Xi to external speaker
2) Make sure JD-Xi is in Sync Mode SLAVE. Use controls on JD-Xi keyboard Menu->Enter->Cursor Right or Left til over SyncMode-> Choose + - Value to select SLAVE ->Exit
3) In Virtual DJ go to Settings->Controller->Right Click the JD-Xi (custom mappings) choice in the left drop-down menu (Remember RIGHT CLICK not LEFT) ->Click to put a check-mark on Midi Clock Output
4) In Virtual DJ go to Settings->Audio->Outputs->Master->Choose your output speaker device
5) In Virtual DJ go to Settings->Audio->Inputs (Add if necessary)->Line In 1 ->Choose JD-Xi (WASAPI)
6) Play a song in the left deck and drop master volume to zero to test the JD-Xi coming out of your speaker
7) You should see a LINE IN (Rec) button in your decks (using the default skin at least) and enable the right deck Line In
8) Pres the Pattern Sequencer Play Button (Triangle) which you should then hear the pattern which you can speed up or slow down with the left deck which is just being used right now for speed control.
 

Inviato Sat 02 Jun 18 @ 9:34 pm


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