JX-10 / MKS-70

LFO Xperiences for JX10 / MKS-70

The JX10 / MKS 70 sounds sprung from a bit of initial frustration since it wasn’t really two JX8Ps in one. Like all people say. Or said back then too. They have the same filter circuits but they don’t really sound the same. I consider the JX8P to have more ‘punch’ especially when programming sounds with a lot of resonance. The JX10′s resonance is actually more similar to something like the Jupiter 4 in my opinion; more analog perhaps but also more ‘broken’ somehow. What’s worse the JX10 couldn’t easily make bass sounds as the one in Kraftwerk’s ‘The Robots’; sweeping the filter with a slow LFO since the JX10 / MKS-70 re-trigs the LFO on each keystroke, again something the JX8P doesn’t do.

Given these Xpericences, I spent an entire summer deciding I’d still make the JX10 sound fabolous. Just as fabolous as it looks. Considering this as one of my never-to-be-paid-for classes in synthesizer knowledge, I’m putting these sounds out for a little cash, basically not to see them end up in some boring and useless “154,000 sounds for the JX” sound collection. Instead, you’ll get your JX or MKS 70 filled up with all that it’s internal memory could take – which on the RAM side of things was 50 tones and 64 patches.

What took most energy and time was actually the patch programming. Deciding whether tones would be layered, split or played back in some other fashion. Not the easiest thing to do with a stubborn hardware interface. Therefore – get this majestic file and enjoy playing with it instead.

Since, again, the JX10 couldn’t do just that LFO trick, I found out many others during this major programming project. For instance, you could carefully program two tones to lock into each other in different ways. Or they could overlap. Or they could just be super fat. If you have one of these synths in your studio, you should upgrade them with these sounds. I can not imagine anything else but utter satisfaction and a huge smile upon your face once playing them.