Despite me wanting a JD 990, today I will be seeing the differences in the JD 990 and the Triton-Rack to see what I am missing out on, and what I have better than Roland’s golden child.
The Roland JD 990 was built in 1993 and was an ‘updated’ module of the JD 800 which was greatly upgraded from its ancestor, so much to where the 990 and 800 couldn’t even swap presets – this meant that the 990 should have been considered its own thing, and not an updated module. The JD 990 has some notable users which include The Prodigy and Apollo 440 (and the obvious Frank Klepacki)
Korg’s Triton was developed much later in 1999, with the model I am using, the Triton-Rack being developed in 2000. This should mean that this synth is much more powerful than the JD 990, and to be fair to the Triton – it seems to be. The Rack version of the original synth keyboard seems to be rather good at sampling, and some notable users include Phil Collins and Pharrell Williams.
Both can have expansions installed, but this is base model specs/info only.
Observing the capabilities of the JD 990, I will list what I can down in a list, and then compare to the capabilities of the Triton-Rack.
- The JD 990 uses sample-based synth technology.
- 6MB of ROM (Read-Only Memory), which means no editing, erasing or adding
- “Four sets of stereo outputs that are assignable to individual, internal, instruments, and standard MIDI in/out/through ports” (Wikipedia, 2024)
- Multitimbral sounds (7 + 1 Drum Part)
- 3 banks of 64 patches, 3 drum kits with 61 sounds
- MIDI Controlled
- Chorus, Reverb, Delay, Phaser, Spectrum, Enhancer, Distortion and EQ
And as for the Triton, written features involve;
- 64MB of Sampling RAM (Random Access Memory)
- “Storage of up to eight (instead of only two) EXB-PCM ROM boards containing additional sampled waveforms” (Wikipedia, 2024)
- 6-voice polyphony
- Seven total effects processors (unsure what they are reading the article)
It seems that the Triton has bigger memory and is alot better than the JD 990 when it comes to sampling.
Bibliography;
Wikipedia. (2024a). Korg Triton. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korg_Triton#Features [Accessed 4 Mar. 2024].
Wikipedia. (2024b). Roland JD-990. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_JD-990 [Accessed 4 Mar. 2024].