The Roland JD-XA synthesiser has approximately 11,000 parameters per program. The solution for handling such complexity was to design a GUI with logical groupings of parameters in a focused, but not overcrowded GUI.

The JD-XA uses concepts of the ‘Program’ and ‘Parts’ for the four collections of Analog and Digital parameter collections. The JD-xPlay software takes these concepts and adds additional subdivisions with ‘Parts’ divided into ‘Pages’ and pages subdivided into ‘Panels’. Each panel is clearly laid out with enough space around the controls., This avoids a cluttered dense layout which can be difficult to interpret and use easily.

Core shared program parameters are consolidated into the software’s “Program” part, which itself is divided into ‘Pages’ and ‘Panels’.

An easy-to-use navigation system was created to facilitate rapid switching between the various parameter collections. There are various keyboard ‘Hot key’ shortcuts for both Part and Page navigation, window scaling, and sound engineering shortcuts. There are also comparative viewing modes that allow you to rapidly compare common collections such as the MFX or Part Control pages. For those favouring mouse navigation there is also dynamic navigation menu content.

The creation of true real-time bi-directional control was also an important design consideration for the JD-xPlay software. Once you have synchronised the JD-xPlay software with the hardware then the software and the synth become linked. If you move a knob or slider on the synth the control on the software will move in real-time to the same value. If you move a software control the synth parameter will change to match. The only thing that JD-xPlay software can’t do is move the physical controls on the synth!

While the JD-XA synth has a wide variety of physical controls for sound synthesis controls there is greater functionality embedded in the ‘deep dive’ menus. The JD-xPlay software facilitates equivalent access to these groups of ‘hidden’ controls within concise visual groupings on a per part basis.

The 67 MFX effects are among the most challenging to edit directly on the synth and the 6808 individual MFX parameters for each of the eight Analog and Digital parts are accessed through a common MFX page. The Reverse Delay effect is the most complex with 27 separate parameters.

The grouping of components is mostly identical to synth menu hierarchy with a few exceptions where some parameters are grouped to improve visual clarity in the software.

The Preset Manager function enables the saving of program data with granularity down to the ‘Panel’ level. You can save and load Programs, Analog or Digital Parts, Digital Partials or any individual Panel.

While some Panels are specific to Analog, Digital or Program parts others can be common across parts. Thus, you can save ‘Part EQ’ or ‘MFX’ panel data from an Analog part and load it into a Digital part or TFX parts between ‘TFX1’ and ‘TFX2’.

The Value Change Monitor can store a record of all changes made to program parameters since the software was synchronised with the synth.

What if you have created a great patch sound but inadvertently changed some parameters before you could save the program to the synth? The Value Change Monitor keeps a time-stamped record of all previously changed parameters facilitating recover of a previous state.