The introduction in the manual states that Roland's intention with the JD-800 was to "return to the roots of synthesis".

The waveforms span a variety of categories such as analog synthesizers, acoustic instruments, and voices.

The JD-800 was Roland's first instrument to have its core presets developed entirely in the United States, under a short-lived branch of its R&D-LA office in Culver City, California.

The special patch has different waveforms assigned to the 61 different keys on the keyboard, so is used for drums and percussion sounds.

The Palette sliders allow the player to edit the last active parameter of all four tones individually at the same time.

We at Roland asked, 'Why don't we return to the roots of synthesis; the enjoyment of creating original sounds?'