Sunday Synth Jam: This retronica synth jam, via MrFirechild, explores the sounds of the vintage Roland Jupiter-4 analog synthesizer.
All sounds from the 1978 Roland Jupiter-4 analog synthesizer.
The Roland Jupiter-4 has a simple, but effective, voice design: 1 VCO per voice + a sub oscillator, 1 LFO, 2 EG, lowpass + highpass filter & chorus effect. It offers 4-voice polyphony.
While under-spec’ed, compared to many of its contemporaries, the Jupiter-4’s combination of sub-oscillator & chorus effect allow it to create some ‘huge’ sounds.
I didn’t know steven slate played keyboards
Nice track and nice Keyboard!!!! This is when Roland was a awesome company!!!!
Someone loves Kraftwerk!
Great track and yes, back in the days Roland did make some very good synths… no ghosts, phantoms or airy stuff… The Jupiter 4 rocks and your track proves it!
I like it
lol @ the edits and dramatic staring off into the distance
Worst song I have ever heard
The JP-4 sounds a bit too much like what it was designed to be: an added solo voice on top of an organ. Its TOO vintage. I wish Kraftwerk had expanded from the point of “Ralf & Florian,” because that album had real creative range. They went so simplistically mechanical, that golden nugget got buried. YouTube is a strange tool, but tell me if I’m “wrong.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7-8AoJtaE
Same with “Cluster & Eno,” where they played off of one another’s strengths with simple yet cinematic results. These are loosely-30-year-old works and yet they’re far more varied and lively than Daft Punk could ever be. So its not that the JP-4 is a bad synth. Its that it led to the Jupiter-8 and resolved a couple of key issues for serious players. On the surface, I’ve always found that when soloed, Roland synths are a bit more clean and conservative in tone than others. I always seem to layer them, which leads to really rich results, so its a matter of using things in their best roles. Pecking away at a vintage synth just leaves me restless for some modern beef. I was raised on the pianny, so that boop-beep stuff has too little muscle for me. Music needs to roar once in a while.
Needs more SH-201.