Roland JW-50

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itsosman

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Ok, so I started producing maybe 1 year ago with fl studio rewired into cubase 5. Ive made some pretty hot beats without a keyboard. I wuz reading up on midi and everything because im getting a midi keyboard. We have this old roland jw-50 sitting in the basement, the screens broken, but itstill works, and i was think if i can use it with cubase. I have a midi to usb cable coming in about a week. and it does have general midi and midi in/out. So will it work?

---------- Post added 03-19-2010 at 02:59 PM ---------- Previous post was 03-14-2010 at 06:59 PM ----------

no answers? it has general midi and i plugged in the midi in/out correctly but still cantr set it p in fl studio or cubase
 
It should but no guarantee cause of the screen. You may need the screen to switch midi channels or whatever.
 
It should work just fine, it may be difficult to read the data that shows up on the screen of the keyboard on account of it being broken, but I'm sure its nothing that you couldnt figure out. Maybe octave transpose info, or patch select or something.
 
Might be a good idea to get some kind of a diagnostic utility such as MIDI-Ox just so you can see whether or not you're getting anything incoming from the keyboard to the computer.
 
that thing is gonna be hell to use without the screen. I know the JW-50 backwards and forwards, you DEFINITELY need the screen working to be able to use it properly.

To be 100% honest, though, you DON'T want to use it for it's sounds. The sound engine in the JW-50 is the same as an old Roland Sound Canvas (IIRC, it's based on the SC55). Since you're using FL Studio, go to www.hammersound.com and grab one of their larger GM/GS soundfont banks and load it into the FL Soundfont Player. You'll get far better sounds that way.
 
logic7 said:
that thing is gonna be hell to use without the screen. I know the JW-50 backwards and forwards, you DEFINITELY need the screen working to be able to use it properly.

To be 100% honest, though, you DON'T want to use it for it's sounds. The sound engine in the JW-50 is the same as an old Roland Sound Canvas (IIRC, it's based on the SC55). Since you're using FL Studio, go to www.hammersound.com and grab one of their larger GM/GS soundfont banks and load it into the FL Soundfont Player. You'll get far better sounds that way.
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yeh im not using it for osunds, i wanna use it as a midi controller, i have midiox but i dont think im getting anything so Immma just buy a replacement screen
 
Good luck and keep us updated on getting it replaces.
 
Taking a shot that someone is still looking. I also have a JW-%0. Bought it new, spent a ton of time composing some really angry blues tunes about my ex-wife. (Gotta have an inspiration, right) Anyway. I changed jobs, went through 2 bouts with cancer and a few other "minor" health issues. The JW-50 has diligently waited in it's box for me to retire, and here I am. My problem is this. I backed up a TON of Roland format files to a hard drive from the 720k diskettes way back when. The diskettes 1) are probably unreadable and 2) Where the heck do you find a low density drive compatible with Windows 8.1?
Does anyone know if it's possible to access the hard drive via a MIDI to USB cable or even hardware.

Thank you in Advance.
 
Guitarrx said:
Taking a shot that someone is still looking. I also have a JW-%0. Bought it new, spent a ton of time composing some really angry blues tunes about my ex-wife. (Gotta have an inspiration, right) Anyway. I changed jobs, went through 2 bouts with cancer and a few other "minor" health issues. The JW-50 has diligently waited in it's box for me to retire, and here I am. My problem is this. I backed up a TON of Roland format files to a hard drive from the 720k diskettes way back when. The diskettes 1) are probably unreadable and 2) Where the heck do you find a low density drive compatible with Windows 8.1?
Does anyone know if it's possible to access the hard drive via a MIDI to USB cable or even hardware.

Thank you in Advance.
Click to expand...

there are USB floppy drives available. A double-sided high density floppy drive should be able to read low density floppies.

I keep a pair of those around for just this reason. I ended up backing up my old ASR-X floppies to CD using one.
 
logic7 said:
there are USB floppy drives available. A double-sided high density floppy drive should be able to read low density floppies.

I keep a pair of those around for just this reason. I ended up backing up my old ASR-X floppies to CD using one.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the response!
My concern is that the Roland only accepts/reads 720k floppies that have been formatted with the Roland and whether or not, even if properly formatted with the Roland, the Roland will be able to read the data when I copy files to a 720k disk with a 1.2 drive. My understanding is that the "head" on a 1.2 meg drive writes files that are half the size of the track on a 720k. I guess I'll take the risk and spend the $$ on the USB drive and find out.
Thank you once again for your response. (I hope I made sense)
 
I totally get your concern. The compatibility between 720k and 1.2 meg drives can be tricky because of the difference in how they write data. If the Roland is picky about formatting, it might still struggle with disks written by a 1.2 meg drive.

Going for the USB drive sounds like a good plan – it might save you a lot of hassle in the long run. Fingers crossed it works out smoothly for you.
 
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