25 thoughts on “A Tribute To The Roland Jupiter-8”

  1. That is a really fantastic track, Michael. It is rich, powerful, and wonderfully layered and melodic. I love synth music like this. I am always amazed how such deep, wonderful sound one can get out of such a vintage polysynth with only two VCOs/voice.

    When I compare this one to a modern, premium priced, vastly more feature-rich polysynth such as the Moog One, I really pause. I absolutely love the sound of both and, with modern DAWs, I believe I can pretty much do the same music with either, it makes the choice kind of hard: do I invest in a valuable vintage machine that has proven its value in the world of electronic instruments; or do I invest in a valuable modern machine with capabilities no analog polysynth has ever had before and, in this case, has that incredible, indescribable “Mooginess” to it that I also love so much. Not that I am going to have the funds to purchase one in the foreseeable future but, it is nice to dream.

    1. That’s not how markets work. Your opinion (and my opinion) is irrelevant.

      What you probably mean to say is that vintage instruments now command prices above their value as musical instruments. That’s subjective, of course, but there are lots of great modern analog synths these days to choose from.

  7. Very nice piece, enhanced by the vintage vibe of the reel-to-reel rolling along behind it, heh heh. The synth deserves its legend, but keep in mind that it had a capacitor cap “warming” sheet you could use for baking muffins. It kept it all in tune where others drifted (sometimes a lot), but not cheaply or simply.

    Keep that maintenance in mind when you see one on reverb dot com for $15K! Go for the Jupiter-X instead. Its a proper successor that has The Sound.

    1. Yup. 99.99% of music listeners can’t tell and don’t care about the differences between an authentic hardware Jupiter 8 and a Jupiter 8 VST.

        1. The price did go down, for awhile. I remember when you could buy a used Jupiter 8 years ago for under a grand. They would show up once in a while in the Chicago area classified/sales publications. This was early 90s (before the internet took off). I also remember seeing ARP Odysseys in the $200-300 range. Everyone wanted romplers like the M1, not analog “dinosaurs” How times have changed.

          1. iv been offered a jupiter-8 for 2k$ about 10-12 years ago and i said no 🙂 it seems expensive to me, it still do. but if i said yes i could have sold it today for at least x10 the price.

            1. Yup. When I was in high school, you could buy a nice, used Volkswagen Beetle for less than $500. Nobody thought that a Beetle would ever be a collector car. Now, you’re lucky if you can get a rust bucket Beetle for many times that price. The same goes for the AMC Gremlin. It was considered a $#@%box back in the day.

              My first synth was a Univox Maxi-Korg. I think I paid $200 for it in 1980 and sold it a few years later for about the same amount. In hindsight, I should have held on to it (how many musicians say the same thing about a piece of gear they regret selling). Back then, who would have thought that a Maxi-Korg would ever go for thousands:

              https://reverb.com/item/46062013-univox-maxi-korg-k-3-70-s-wood-trim-black-body

  9. I thought I should contribute to the general consensus: I cannot afford a Jupiter-8 at current prices. Therefore it is not worth that much money.

    Any virtual analog synthesizer with two oscillators ought to fit the bill. Nobody will hear the difference.

  10. Great video on a piece when Roland made beautiful instruments.

    Maybe some day Roland will care enough about their own past instead of milking it with emulations every year. Nah they won’t cause we keep buying their overpriced and deliberated limited devices.

    Now I gotta buy a Behringer System 100 and RD-8 because their own System 500 series isn’t even complete, 3 or 4 times the price and probably not even better quality wise. And their TR8 sounds no way as good as the RD-8 when compared to the original 808.

    I’m not against emulation btw but its very said when a company builds instrument so amazing and than just stopped caring about them. They could easily bring those back to life and sell them at premium prices but these giant companies clearly don’t work that way. Instead it’s up to individuals to bring it to the market (and then probably get sued for doing so).

    Does anyone know a good site with everything about these synths is collected? Maybe when enough information is collected a crowdfunding project could get off the ground. That way Roland can do whatever and we will have those beautiful instruments back in our hands again.

  11. I wish Wendy was active enough to debate it publically! You can do ALMOST “all of it” with one any current synth of merit and if you have one from three major columns, you’re covered to the bone.

    From general experience, I have to agree with lala. Roland sounds really do blend better than most, just like E-mu Proteus-2000-era sounds mysteriously brighten things up well without stepping on the rest of the sonic field. I’m about 12 years in using Logic and you never learn all of a thing, just the main spots that let you work in your way.

  14. Thank you so much for featuring me! Thanks to everyone for the super nice feedbacks! Much appreciated! Wish I could have kept that beast!

    Cheers!

  15. Ive got
    the new Roland Fantom 7 it has modals of the Jupiter 8 Juno 106 JX8p i bit there are spot on lol i wouldn’t pay the pice of Original Jupiter. I do have a New Moog One 16v It;s ££££ But love it. what that can i say thats a M-One. but i woundn’t pay that a old synth

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