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[mandala music]

Markus Fuller answered my question about whether a battey was needed to retain patch memory (in the comments area under his Youtube video showing him dismantling the JD-XA).

He said that the coin like devices on the digital board are capacitors. The patch memory is in flash RAM so no batteries needed.

He said in his video that he would probably switch out the red LCD for a white one that would be easier to read. He also said that the color of the knob labels has been changed by Roland to more of an orange color which was easier to read than the orignal red labeling.

His video was especially interesting because it shows how the 4 analog voices are set up side by side on the analog board. It shows you about how much more room they would have needed inside the synth to add another voice or two. (At least Roland could have increased it to a five octave keyboard to make the additional room if they wanted to release a real flagship synth).

Also if Roland had decided to release a new true Jupiter 8, they could have chosen to replace the digital board with another 4 voice analog board for a total of 8 analog voices.

The JD-XA has a keyboard that generates aftertouch and I applaud Roland for that. Korg's Kingkorg doesn't generate aftertouch and I don't think Krome does either.

BTW another poster on this forum praised The Roland JD800 for its aftertouch keyboard. But I had 2 Roland JD800's and the aftertouch didn't work on either of them. To get any aftertouch at all I would have to press down with enough force that I was afraid I would break the keys off.