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Slagging the Jupiter 8 - most overrated synth ever?


grumphh

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uh huh, Grumphh, youre shooting yourself in the foot here - if all u could get out of this beast is XMod and "80s sounds".. it speaks more about your abilities than about the board itself. no offence,

None taken :D

purry, organic VCOs and silky 12dB JP8's filter...

 

Hehe, these last words of yours that i chose to quote are exactly what makes me think that there is too much hype about the JP 8 :D

I do agree that it does have a very nice quality about it, but to my ears it is far to "Roland-like" to justify the expense - since you can get very nice approximations of those sounds from other much cheaper Roland gear.

 

... and when i say approximations i mean quite close. Close enough to not let me miss the JP 8 ;)

The trick to getting good approximations of VCO sounds is to NOT use the plasticky onboard chorus of the subsequent Rolands. That actually makes them sound much more organic. Simple, eh? :D

 

And as for my love of the JP 4... to me that is an entirely different synth . much rougher (in a good way) than the 8 :)

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I still insist that the solo part of "Forever Young" is a JP8, and opening pads are JX8P's "Soundtrack". Any comments ?

 

Solo part is definitely JX8P, it is too plastic to be a JP8 actually. I also remember a reading about that.

 

BTW; if you have more JP-8 involved videos, please go on. But, no you can't convince me to buy one...:D

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Animotion 'Obsession' (1980s)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXxHY-ZYiTI

 

This trumpet style brass is my favorite JP-8 tone. It is almost the same as Michael Jackson's ''Thriller'' intro. I am not sure how close I can get to that sound with my A6. But some varieties of this patch can make me compose zillions of music. :thu: Any suggestions to rough settings of such a patch is welcome. This tone is actually only obtainable with A6 with certain precision, apart from older Rolands. No CEM/SSM or any other synth is capable of this tone. If its processed thru a vocoder, a pitch shifter or something like that, I can't imagine the result.:love:

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I vote for the TB303 as overrated over the jupiter any day.

 

 

I disagree. There are a lot of synths that can more or less cover what the JP does. There is nothing like the 303. It may be overrated to you based purely on popularity of an icky plastic box, but it does actually do something unique. It's taken 10s of years for people to make anything that could replicate what it does. (for those who care) I think the JP8 is cool, but as mentioned above, I think the 6 is actually a bit more interesting, and the 8 in my mind is quite overrated.

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You guys are kidding.... the CS80 is one fuc&*&ing beautiful monster synth with one of the most gorgeous sound ever !

 

I'd probably lean toward its performance features and expressiveness over the actual sound. I think it sounds good, but I think it's more due to these features, and the musicians that make use of them over the tones it generates. I guess that still makes it a pretty cool synth though, provided you can make use of what it has to offer in the way of expression. :)

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Regardless of the ongoing which-is-better wars, thanks for the music link! Brings back memories of some early '90's Amiga Psygnosis games I used to play, Barbarian, Shadow of the Beast, Leander, Nitro, and my all-time favorite: Amnios! Garvan Corbett was my hero back then (no he didn't do music
).

 

 

Nice! Those were some of my favorites as well. Those and the Factor 5 games.

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The trick to getting good approximations of VCO sounds is to NOT use the plasticky onboard chorus of the subsequent Rolands. That actually makes them sound much more organic. Simple, eh?
:D

 

This is the last time I'm going to tell you to stop revealing ancient Japanese secrets. :mad:

 

:D

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This is the last time I'm going to tell you to stop revealing ancient Japanese secrets.
:mad:

:D

I am ashamed and to honour the ancient code of synth wisdom i will now commit seppuku by having a trusted friend repeatedly smashing a JP8 over my head and neck.

 

Sayonara!

 

 

... that is, if i could find one - otherwise i will just have to live in shame...

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Last Summer, I tested a Jupiter-8 for my brother. I got to play it for about ten minutes. The keyboard is very high quality. The keys have very nice action. The sound is amazing. Keep in mind I own several classics mentioned in this thread (OB-XA, OB-8, Juno-60, JX-10, and many more).

 

MAJOR MOJO in the Jupiter-8!

 

Mark

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If the Jup 8 is overrated, then it's not as overrated as the Minimoog.

You forgot every modular ever created as being more overrated as well.

 

Personally I'd love to have a Jup 8 more for a collection item than actually for making music though. It looks purdy and it has tradition, what else do you need?

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Duran Duran

Howard Jones

Eurythmics

Nik Kershaw

Talk Talk

Thomas Dolby

Micheal Jackson

Simple Minds

Go West


for all (I think), the Jupiter 8 was a main part of their sound.

 

 

nope

duran used jp 4 mostly and the jp 8 was just for bread and butter stuff

eurythmics used the juno 60 on sweet dreams et al not jp8

dolby owned every damn synth out and used a ton of stuff so no stand out jp8

simple minds sound was pretty tame so maybe a jp 8

go west used one but had it run through tons of effects and eq'd it to sound better on we close our eyes

 

best 80's example of the jp8 and it's cheesy sound is journey. they used it all over their crap. and yeah i much prefer the sound of the jp6 or even the 4 over the 8. the jp8 sounds like a tame jx8.

 

the jp6 filter gets much nastier than the 8.

and yes I have played both the 8 and the 6.

in fact right now the studio I share with a friend has a 6 in it. and the juno 60 and a rev 2 prophet 5. the prophet was a much more capable synth than the jp8 except for the 3 voices of poly the prophet kicks it's ass.

 

if your looking for a great poly from that time the 6 is better and the prophet is better yet and the matrix is best of the three.

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nope

duran used jp 4 mostly and the jp 8 was just for bread and butter stuff

eurythmics used the juno 60 on sweet dreams et al not jp8

dolby owned every damn synth out and used a ton of stuff so no stand out jp8

simple minds sound was pretty tame so maybe a jp 8

go west used one but had it run through tons of effects and eq'd it to sound better on we close our eyes

 

So they still mostly used one then :rolleyes:

 

BTW In an interview with Nick Rhodes, he said the Jupiter 8 was one of his favourite synthesizers. Bread & butter sounds? What? Nicks the first person mentioned associated with the JP8. Its sounds and Arps are all over his music.

 

Im a major fan of Thomas Dolby, and know he used the JP8 extensivly in his wonderful music. Check many live videos from the 80s (One of our Submarines etc) There he is playing it through out the song.

 

 

2:23 JP8 Solo

 

I would agree the JP6 is a great synth, i may get one soon, but its sound charactor is quite different from the JP8.

 

I wouldnt call it better or worse, just different.

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if your looking for a great poly from that time the 6 is better and the prophet is better yet and the matrix is best of the three.

 

know your history then - Jupiter 6 wasn't even used in like 95% of synth pop/new wave that counts. sorry bro, it was mostly over when jup6 hit the stores. and even then, most jp8 users complained its not as huge sounding. listen to recordings and read old keyboard magazines its all there in black n white.

 

not until techno and acid in early 90s, did the cutting, ripping sound of Jup6 resurfaced into much use. that's why ebay is full of jp6's in mint condition, whereas JP8's have seen a lot of action, and are harder to come by, esp in cosmetic mint shape.

 

 

i agree JP6 has a more agressive filter, its all been said a zillion times, yet what is "better" is subjective. for Rolandese sound i prefer richness of JP8's filter, and if i do want agressive i like full-cem sound, and engage my OBXA that, truth be told, wipes the floor with Jup6.

 

Rev2 Prophet is a beautiful machine agreed, but imo does not replace Jup8, and vice versa. however, funny u mention it, as Rev2 together with Jup8 and OB-X is trio of my all time favorite polysynths.(i was lucky enough to obtain them all).

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i agree JP6 has a more agressive filter, its all been said a zillion times, yet what is "better" is subjective. for Rolandese sound i prefer richness of JP8's filter, and if i do want
agressive
i like full-cem sound, and engage my OBXA that, truth be told, wipes the floor with Jup6.


 

 

But... but... the JP6 is actually affordable.... and it has more sonic potential and modulation capabilities than the OB-XA.

 

I'm considering picking one up as my first synth.

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For mw the JP6 falls between the JP8 and OBXa... I don't like Rolands which are CEM based too much. If you think CEM go OB, if you think classic Roland filters than JP8 is your best choice ! Still looking for a non functioning JP8 btw ;)

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