Roland Jupiter 8 :

Roland Jupiter 8 is an eight-voice polyphonic analog subtractive synthesizer introduced by Roland Corporation in early 1981. The Roland Jupiter 8 was Roland’s flagship synthesizer for the first half of the 1980s. Although it lacked the soon-to-be standard of MIDI control.

Roland Jupiter 8 History :

The wide range of sounds that the Roland Jupiter 8 can produce, the efficient front panel layout , and its sturdy construction, make the Roland Jupiter 8 a desirable instrument even 30 years after its initial design. Roland Jupiter 8 in good condition still fetch more at auction than most new synthesizers. While the characteristic sound of the Roland Jupiter 8 can be heard on many songs from the early 1980s, it is still being used in recordings to this day. Alicia Keys can be seen playing one in the video for the number one hit “No One.”

Roland Jupiter 8 Specifications :

The Roland Jupiter 8 is an 8-voice polyphonic analog synthesizer. Features include adjustable polyphonic portamento and a Hold function for infinite sustain of notes and arpeggios. A versatile arpeggiator can be synchronized with external equipment by using the proprietary Roland DCB interface. From the factory, the Roland Jupiter 8 could store 64 memory patches. Memory Patches could be stored to, or loaded from, a standard analog tape/cassette. A Zilog Z80 CPU was used for managing storage of patches; scanning the keyboard and front-panel controls for changes; displaying the current patch number and other information on the display; and taking care of the auto-tune function, among other things.  The envelopes were generated in hardware by the Roland IR3R01 chip, and are much faster than the software-generated envelopes used in the later Jupiter-6, Juno-106 and MKS-80 “Super Jupiter”.

Roland Jupiter 8 Versions :

Throughout Roland Jupiter 8 production there were several changes. Starting at serial #171700 the D/A converter on the Interface board was changed from 12-bit to 14-bit. This change was made mainly to improve tuning stability. The problem with the 12-bit digital-to-analog converter on the original JP-8 is that it could cause the auto-tune to be inaccurate in some instances. Starting at serial #242750 the LEDs of the display were changed to brighter ones. Starting at serial #282880 the JP-8 came standard with a DCB port. The DCB, or Digital Control Bus, was Roland’s pre-MIDI interface that allowed the JP-8 to talk to other DCB enabled hardware, such as the Roland MC-4 and MC-8 microcomputer.

Roland Jupiter 6 :

The Jupiter-6 was released 2 years after the JP-8 and was an attempt at more affordable version of Roland’s flagship. It features a similar voice architecture and appearance. It stored fewer patches, and had six voices. In order to make it cheaper to manufacture, a move towards integrated circuits (Curtis) was made, to replace discrete circuits used in JP-8’s oscillators and amplifiers. The JP-6 is built using CEM 3340 chip for its oscillators, and CEM 3360 for its voltage controlled amplifiers. These changes imparted a change in sonic character, meaning that the JP-6 is not simply a less-expensive version of the JP-8, but an instrument with its own distinct sound. Additionally, the Jupiter-6 features a true multimode resonant filter, built-in MIDI, unison detune function and the ability to activate multiple waveforms on a single oscillator.

Roland Super Jupiter :

The Roland MKS-80 “Super Jupiter” is a MIDI-controlled, rack-mountable sound module with a similar voice architecture to the Jupiter-8. However, its first released incarnation in 1984 (revision 3 and 4) used hardware identical to its predecessor, the Jupiter-6 (which had a combination of Curtis VCO and VCA chips combined with Roland’s own proprietary filters). In 1985, Roland released another revision of the MKS-80, known as “Rev 5,” which used different VCO, VCA, and filter circuits. As a result, the MKS-80 Rev 5 can sound quite different from its predecessors. The Rev 5 filter was also used in the JX-8P, JX-10 and MKS-70 synthesizers.

Roland Jupiter 8 Specifications:

• Polyphony: 8 voices
• Memory  Size:  64 patches and 8 patch presets
• Synthesis:  Analog Subtraction
• Date Produced:  1981 – 1984
• Original Price: $ 5295 USD
• Keyboard: 61 note keyboard
• Effects : None