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. There's also a killer resonant analog low pass filter, same as the Juno-6 / 60, with the added option of choosing 2-pole (12 dB/oct) or 4-pole (24 dB/oct) modes as well as a separate high-pass filter. 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.

eebs

January 1, 2011 @ 9:23 pm

Its a great synth, i've found they do sound different year to year, I have an early 12 bit model and its quite grainy and chunky sounding compared to the the later model I had and ended up selling. It has a really great sound, really recognizble if you've listened to early eighties electro/italo records but its a combination of the quality build, decent key action, reliability, easy layout, patch splitting etc, that make it a great experience. its just a good design.

eebs

January 1, 2011 @ 9:23 pm

Its a great synth, i've found they do sound different year to year, I have an early 12 bit model and its quite grainy and chunky sounding compared to the the later model I had and ended up selling. It has a really great sound, really recognizble if you've listened to early eighties electro/italo records but its a combination of the quality build, decent key action, reliability, easy layout, patch splitting etc, that make it a great experience. its just a good design.

Rafael Rodrigues

December 11, 2010 @ 12:20 pm

These days it is real collector piece that commands price.
Compared to some guitars that fetch 100.000 $+, classic synths are still comparativelly affordable instruments.
I think it will remain on the top of choice for years, but onwers will need to invest some time and efforts to keep it functionally OK.
It is very fluid sounding analogue.

drkam6

December 10, 2010 @ 2:50 pm

I'm blessed to own a Jupiter-8 14-bit, a Musonics Minimoog, and a Roland D-50. My Jupiter was gigged in the 80's and it has very few and minor scratches. It tunes up in 2 seconds and after that it's absolutely rock-solid. It's got a sonic spirit of its own, maybe tends to sound more moog-ish than arp-ish but the tone is well balanced and sweet. A truly spectacular-sounding machine. Curiously, both the D-50 and the Jupiter-8 together complement each other very well.

Wayne Kerr

November 21, 2010 @ 3:22 pm

I just bagged an early version for £3200 and I must say I think it's well worth the money, really fun to use. Not quite as chunky and 'alive' (or unpredictable and moody) as my OBX but a lovely companion in the mix..... a stunner that will retain it's value in these hard times.

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