Vintage Synth Explorer

Roland • JUPITER 8

The Jupiter 8 was Roland's first truly professional analog synthesizer. The Jupiter 8 features 16 rich analog oscillators at 2 per voice, eight voice polyphony and easy programming! At eight voices you can get some pretty thick analog sounds. Easy and intuitive programming via front panel sliders, knobs and buttons for all your tweaking needs. The legacy of the Jupiter synthesizers is due to their unique voice architecture and design, creating sounds that were so unreal and amazing that they have to be heard! No other synths in the world can create analog sounds as cool and authentic as these.

The Jupiter 8 was the biggest and fattest of them all (Jupiters and Junos)! It was one of the first synths to allow its keyboard to be split and layered - it's eight voices of trance heaven! Cross-mod, oscillator sync, a great LFO and a classic arpeggiator are also on-board. (The arpeggiator can be heard all over the Duran Duran classic, "Rio".) There's also two killer resonant analog 24dB/oct filters with 2-pole and 4-pole settings as well as low- and high-pass filtering methods. Unfortunately for the earlier models, tuning was very unstable but that seemed to be resolved in later models. Unlike its smaller counterpart, the Jupiter 6, the Jup 8 does not feature MIDI, only Roland's DCB sync can be found on some models. However, MIDI retro-kit's are available from various companies. Patch presets can store keyboard splits, arpeggiator settings, voice assign mode, hold, portamento and modulation settings.

The Jupiter 8 has been used by Tangerine Dream, Orbital, Future Sound of London, Moby, Duran Duran, Underworld, Vince Clarke, Überzone, Jean Michel Jarre, Roxy Music, OMD, A Flock Of Seagulls, Depeche Mode, Rush, Meat Beat Manifesto, Banco De Gaia, Josh Wink, Thomas Dolby, Howard Jones, The Cars, Prince, Gary Wright, Jan Hammer, BT, Adrian Lee, Heaven 17, Kitaro, Elvis Costello, Tears for Fears, Huey Lewis and the News, Journey, Moog Cookbook, Toto, Yes, Devo, Freddy Fresh, George Duke, Greg Phillanganes, Jonathan Cain of Journey, Greg Johnson & Kevin Kendrick of Cameo, Stevie Wonder and Simple Minds.

VISITOR COMMENTS (37)

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Thomas

Posted 77 days ago

A few years back I was lucky to get one in very good condition for 14k DKK (less than 2.5k USD). This is the best synth I ever played, period - and I played a few! The sounds are just great, the controls are all hands-on, and plenty of that, too ... and it looks no less than gorgeous!

Rose Specs

Posted 101 days ago

This synth definitely seems to have one of the deepest drool pools fed by the majority of retro gear nuts: rightly so to- its fully sick! My mate was given one about 10 years ago but when the previous owner realised the value he was made to give it back... a very sad day. Fortunately recorded a bunch of sounds that I still mine to this day. Truly wild, thick and unruly sonic goodness. I recently saw one on ebay climbing past AU$5200

Bon Ton

Posted 115 days ago

A pretty synth aswell as a great sounding one, aesthetically its almost bontempi but somehow they managed to pull it off as looking great. Absolutely lovely sound, but a rather limited range of programming options that still allow you to conjour up a wide palette of sounds. That said there are a lot of synths out there available nowadays that can give you the same sounds so paying thousands for them is for collectors rather than musicians in my opinion.

David

Posted 118 days ago

I bought a Jupiter 8 very cheaply when I was 19 at a time when analogue was out and digital was in. I was forced to sell it when at University, then once I finally got a well paid job, I bought another one, then was forced to sell that due to more hardships later in life. Here I am now at 40, and I still stare at Roland equipment manuals and the cover of Howard Jones (1982 ish?) single 'New Song' (with him and his Jupiter 8). Despite all the years and all the synths released in between, it is still one of my favourite instruments. Absolutely gorgeous to look at and listen to. Wish I had the money to get another one. Well worth £2-£3k

Jonathan David

Posted 122 days ago

Also used by Micheal Jackson for The big synth blasts that begin “Thriller.” Jupiter-8 in double four-voice mode.

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