Likewise, traditional hands-on controls were replaced with a Yamaha DX7-style interface with membrane buttons and one "edit" slider.

JX-8P was among the last true analog synthesizers produced by Roland in the 1980s, with Alpha Juno 1/2 synths, racks MKS-50 and MKS-70, and finally the JX-10.

One of the JX-8P's best known uses is in the opening brass fanfare of Europe's 1986 hit "The Final Countdown", layered with a preset patch on a Yamaha TX816.

It features two DCOs per voice, two software-generated (and relatively soft) ADSR envelopes, high- and low-pass filters, two types of (fixed-rate) chorus effect, three different sync modes, etc.

All parameters are available without the programmer, but editing with the data slider requires patience, and it is severely limited for live tweaking as only one control can be accessed at a time.