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.

Iqmatul Fazreen

August 6, 2012 @ 9:13 am

Haruomi Hosono used Jupiter-8 at their '93 'Technodon Live @ Tokyo Dome' concert,where he played it for adding synth bass sounds for their revamped version of 'La Femme Chinoise'

Jupiter Fan

July 20, 2012 @ 11:18 am

Great Jupiter 8 Video. Love the bass!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3A1UZqKK2U "Planet X"

Synthartist69

July 12, 2012 @ 11:53 pm

I took my Jupiter 8 to Mike at Thesis Audio in Wichita Kansas for repair, calibration, and an overall tune up. I am amazed at how much better it sounds now! Mike is top notch and knows the Jupiter 8 well. If you need service, then I can tell you that he is the guy to talk to!

Sean Ober

June 24, 2012 @ 9:53 pm

Just picked one up for $4k. Wasn't looking for one, just got a call... "Hey buddy we got a Jupiter 8 that's been sitting in storage for 20 years. You want it?". Really clean and sound great!!! Talked them from $7k down to $4k... Sweet!

Carl

May 16, 2012 @ 6:08 pm

I had purchased a used one in 1983 from the previous owner.. Stevie Wonder - through a store north of Toronto! I still have it (with the flight case i oredred back then), got it all fixed up, cleaned up & working like a charm.. even have the original manual for it! This is one [beep] er I am very happy to have nabbed at the time! My son is exploding having spent his 1st 24 hours with it! Such a menacing machine! I'll be using it to record.

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