Roland SUPER JX MKS-70

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Overview Link to heading

• https://reverb.com/p/roland-mks-70
• https://www.synthmania.com/mks-70_super_jx.htm
• https://www.vintagesynth.com/roland/mks-70

Specification Link to heading

Basics

Manuals

• Roland MKS-70 Owner’s Manual

Thoughts Link to heading

The synthesizer engine of the JX-10 & the MKS-70 are identical. The form factors are different. The JX-10 is a 76-note keyboard. This is still a pattern that manufacturers are following, i.e., creating a keyboard-less version of a synth for the keyboard players of the world with too many keyboards (like me).

The SUPER JX voice architecture seems derived from the Yamaha CS-80 or Sequential Circuits Prophet 10. This is not confirmed. It’s a conjecture.

It is often said that the Yamaha CS-80 is a 16 voice synth. It is actually 2 identical 8-voice synths in a dual-layer configuration inside of a single keyboard instrument. The Yamaha CS-60 (which I own) is a single 8-voice synth configuration identical to the voice architecture & sound of the CS-80 with many of the same performance controls. (That realization sent CS-60 prices through the roof, by the way.)

The original Sequential Circuits Prophet 10 (not the modern version) is actually just 2 Prophet 5 synths in a DUAL keyboard instrument (which is bonkers).

I believe Roland was striving for a similar “premium” design with the SUPER JX. It has 2 separate 6-voice synth sections (A & B), each with their own stereo output and a summed mono output for everything (which makes for some delightfully subtle & weird phasing). There is a 12-voice polyphony mode if sections A & B are set to play the same patch.

The SUPER JX was the last fully-analog synthesizer architecture Roland produced. “Fully-analog” is doing a little work in that sentence because the instrument has digitally-controlled oscillators (DCO). This was true for many synthesizers of that era (Roland & Sequential Circuits, & others.) Recent synths like the Novation Peak & Summit have similar architecture.

Despite this, it IS an analog synth. Digital control does impact the sound of the instrument, but not in the ridiculous way that people talk about “analog vs. digital” on the internet.

SUPER JX was probably regarded as a failure in the marketplace. Roland was, in that moment, getting their asses kicked by Yamaha’s crisp-sounding, poop-colored FM synths like the DX7. Despite luxurious, premium, professional designs, purely analog instruments seemed destined for obsolesence, like the buggy whip. (This, of course, was not the case at all. Eventually analog synths came roaring back.) Roland’s very digital product response to Yamaha was the D-50: a brash, PCM-waveform enhanced toy with splashy built-in effects you heard on every song from 1988 onwards.

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I’ve had my MKS-70 since 1987. It’s been fully upgraded with the “Vecoven” mods by Alex Bhinder @ Plasma Music Ltd.. It sounds amazing. It has a new, crisp, bright, readable display. I can’t wait to start using it more! It’s one of my favorite things on earth. I also replaced my Roland PG-800 (pictured above on top of the JX-10) with the Retroaktiv MPG-8 Programmer. It has controls for the Vecoven mods that the PG-800 does not.

The unit was a floor demo model I talked my dad into buying for me from the now long-gone Torps Music - a local mom-&-pop music store with 2 prime locations…

The original was on Rice St in St. Paul right around the corner from the Minnesota State Capitol. The store was old, lived in, not huge. It had a dimly-lit basement that I was occasionally allowed to peruse where I found my Cordovox CL10 rotating speaker cabinet.

I frequented the Torps Music on 3rd Av N & Washington Av in downtown Minneapolis. That location was especially convenient because it was directly across the street from the long-open, legendary Monte Carlo - one of my mom & dad’s favorites. We went there a lot. My dad was more pliable after a couple martinis & a basket of Asian-spiced chicken wings. (Who isn’t?)

This location is right in the heart of a neighborhood commonly referred to as the “Warehouse District” or “North Loop”. What was once derelict & somewhat abandoned has very much become the most “tres chic” part of town. The Monte Carlo, open since 1906, has weathered all of the neighborhood’s changes.

Torps Music was part of the earlier, grungier gentrification of the neighborhood in the 80’s. It was in the same building as the now long-gone, legendary Metro Sound Studios. Why legendary? Well, this guy recorded there.

The pretty amazing retail enterprise MARTINPATRICK3 now occupies the space where Torps Music & Metro used to be. Nonchalantly hanging on the wall as a “tres chic” decoration is a wood sound diffuser from the old studio.

Under normal circumstances, this kind of “progress” might make me upset. It doesn’t. MARTINPATRICK3 is the kind of place that is keeping brick & mortar retail classy, fun, helpful, experiential & totally worth visiting. Around the corner is the Hewing Hotel. It has become my favorite place to stay when I visit home.

If you are in downtown Minneapolis, you should visit these places.

What does it sound like? Link to heading

Who played it? Link to heading

According to the internet:

• Angelo Badalamenti
• Duran Duran (lolz)
• Lyle Mays
• Pink Floyd
• The Cure

But, especially, Russell Ferrante of the Yellowjackets. Below is a track that I have always loved for the piano solo & the crazy polymetric synthesizer-ish-ness. Filled with SUPER JX JX-10 (& Yamaha DX7) sounds.

What songs use it? Link to heading