The first Jupiter synth. It was among one of the first poly synthesizers (4 individual voices which could be synced together for one fat monophonic lead), it had a pitch wheel that could be assigned to the VCA, VCF, VCO or all together, there are 8 memory locations and a cool arpeggiator - the arpeggiator can be heard in the Duran Duran classic, "Rio". It also has a very slow LFO for those ever-so-long filter sweeps. Pretty good for 1978!

Not so cool however, are the 10 preset sounds which sound nothing like the piano, brass or strings they claim to be. The placement of all the preset buttons below the keyboard can be inconvenient, especially while playing it. And as with most old analog synths, the Jupiter-4's tuning can go out often. Still it is a nice analog synth for creating weird trippy analog sounds. It's used by Meat Beat Manifesto, Gary Numan, Thomas Dolby, Saint Etienne, the Cars, BT, Simple Minds, Moog Cookbook, Vangelis, The Human League, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Heaven 17, and film-maker Satyajit Ray.

Chris

August 19, 2010 @ 9:37 am

Eric: I rarely have to tune my JP4, and it stays in tune once warmed up, although I have had the machine extensively recapped.

It's worth mentioning the "Io" upgrade kit, which can be found on the http://www.roland-jupiter.org/ message board. It increases the 8 memories of the standard JP4 to a much more useful 64, as well as adding the ability to edit patches. The kit consists of both a MIDI upgrade and replacement programmer, although the latter can be added without the MIDI upgrade if you already have one installed (the CHD kit in my case).

Eric

August 13, 2010 @ 12:40 am

Nick Rhodes and Michael Macneil influenced me to buy mine. I have owned both the Jupiter 4 and 8 for many years. The Jupiter 4 will go out of tuning quite easily, even minutes after an expensive fix. I suggest you learn how to tune one (which is a not so easy). I'd never think of touring with one anymore. I have bought mine many times over by tuning it. Never had another issue other than tuning. The Jupiter 8 stays in tune, but will need have voices go out from time to time. Both are unique. If you can not afford these. A Juno 6 or better yet 60 will put a smile on your face.

GOV

August 5, 2010 @ 1:56 pm

Everything seems to think Nick Rhodes used a JP-8 for the random arpeggio on 'Rio'. It is in fact according Nick himself was done with the Jupiter-4, the random arpeggio on 'Hungry like the Wolf' however IS the Jupiter-8. Go to Duran Duran's web site in the Ask Katy section and search it. Nick himself answers that the Jupiter-4 is the Beast he used for 'Rio'.

Jonas

May 4, 2010 @ 1:42 am

I used a JP4 for the first time a few months ago during a session with a pop band. What a sound! It may seem limited at first glance, but once you put it to use, it delivers like few other synths. It blends and cuts through at the same time, and with a bit of delay and reverb it sounds downright glorious. IMO, it's a must have.

Thomas

December 28, 2009 @ 10:52 am

I own the Jupiter-4 as well as the Jupiter-8. The Jupiter-4 has almost the same sound as its bigger brother, but it's far less versatile, and it's a bit more mellow-sounding, too. However, it has a few unique features including a warm analogue ensemble, LFO ramp up (the Jupiter-8 has LFO random instead) and the fastest LFO I have ever tried on any synth (analogue and digital). The LFO is so wild it can sound just like ring modulation. Another nice feature is that you can easily overdrive the VCA for a very nice sounding analogue overdrive effect (there's even a LED that indicates the overdrive).

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