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.

sras

April 25, 2011 @ 8:59 am

JP-8 once was a very cool synth to have. Roland JUPITER 80 has just ruined the JP-8
With the help of the geeks who can't play, Buying them thinking it's an investment.
Dyeing breed, Just like the TB-303. SHAME ON YOU ALL, YOU DESERVE TO LOOSE MONEY.

Rippitt

April 22, 2011 @ 3:21 pm

THe Jupiter is NOT back. The Jupiter 80 is just another VA workstation, expanding slightly on the GAIA engine. Roland has succumbed to the degradation of the music industry by releasing these instruments with which the garbage music of today is made. Make a meat and potatoes machine, out comes meat and potatoes. Roland is a dying breed. So sad.

Rtype909

April 18, 2011 @ 11:25 am

Its not just the price of vintage synths but have you noticed how it costs to buy an Access Virus or a V-Synth GT compared to the preceding models cost?

Rtype909

April 16, 2011 @ 4:01 pm

There is one on eBay uk already at £3600!

Max

April 15, 2011 @ 1:32 pm

Man I love these comments. I agree with you guys, but I just had to get one anyways even though I never use it and don't play music. You have to understand how awesome it is to have sitting my living room. So sexy and desirable. Better than solid gold.

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