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.

James

April 11, 2011 @ 3:40 pm

The reason great sounding vintage pieces like the Jupiter 8 (and just about any good analog) are spiraling up in price is a 'negative reaction' to modeling and VA technology. So what Roland is doing with the Jupiter 80 is just bewildering! Everybody should be embracing Dave Smith right about now.

Josh

April 7, 2011 @ 1:28 am

The Jupiter is back. Roland got new one call The Jupiter 80 it look like Jupiter 8 in ways unlike Jupiter 8 it has 76 semi-weighted keys and a touchscreen,the presets have 4 parts Upper, Lower, Solo, Percussion go the roland site cheak it out i cant say if it sounds like the jupiter 8

HIGHTIMES

March 23, 2011 @ 8:27 am

JUPITER- 8 is a great synth. But at the price it's going for now, You got to be insane to buy at this ALL TIME HIGH. If you just payed out for one, Tell me your hand was not shaking, thinking this best be a good one with nothing on it,s way out ??????£££$$$. If you paid your max, Then it is at it's max. SOFTWARE INSTRUMENTS are not to far off getting the filters and envelopes spot on like the analog. we already have the warmth grain and grit plugins. New HARDWARE synths will soon start to sound just as fat and with grain as an effect. TECHNOLOGY we love it.

gridsleep

March 3, 2011 @ 12:26 am

I love that estimated value. I dare anyone to find a Jupiter 8 that's going for less than three or four grand. The little musician is deprived while synthesizers change hands like commodities, very often probably to be shown off in the living room of some wealthy l4m3r who can hardly play two notes, like a trophy. It's sick.

Stu Goldman

February 26, 2011 @ 4:27 am

Almost everything about Jupiter 8 is well covered and documented.
For me the best sounding synth ever made (although it is same top class like early Oberheims, Prophets and Yamaha CS80) and by far the best quality of build.
I've continuously played it for almost 30 years without single failure and it must be a record among musical instruments.
It is '59 Les Paul among synths, the best and the most sought after.

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