First Impressions on the Roland Jupiter-80

via an anonymous reader:

"Had 15 mins on it just now Matrix....:))

I hope this doesn’t come across as a hard sell – you know my roots lay in voltages and pulses after all....but I have to say I really couldn’t leave it alone....:)

Beautiful to play – infectious even – only with very limited patches loaded.

Very serious build quality.

Ridiculously rich and smooth sound – ultra hi-fi at the outputs.

Loads of bottom. Loads of warmth. Detailed Tops. Lush effects.

Original Jupiter 8 Main Voice Architecture but deeper:-

Upper and Lower Voice plus Percussion and Solo.

Upper and Lower Voices are each made up of 4 full Poly Voice Patches with can be extensively edited – all parameters.....:)))

Reminiscent of all the good things about JD-990/Wavestation AD but much nicer – not easy to leave alone once you start playing....

Very much a players instrument – keyboard action and response is brilliant.

The SuperNatural voice design makes it very expressive without you even knowing what makes it work.

As Mr Kakehashi states – The Jupiter name always represented Roland’s flagship keyboard/synthesizer – the fact that it was analogue is secondary to the original design concept – that was all that was available to Roland engineers at the time.

The haters on the web seem to wish Roland would re-release the original Jupiter-8. Making a retro 8 voice poly these days is probably much easier in many ways. Making a new flagship players synthesizer that inspires playing and may just prove to be a future classic is a much taller order and in the 15 minutes I just had on it they may just have achieved that......:))))

Yes it has Pianos and Organs and Strings too but the original Jupiter 8 Patch Sheet and Presets were full of Sitar, Strings, Brass and Flutes too – very very bad they were too!!!!!

I want one put it that way...:)))))"

Also see the First Box Shot of the Roland Jupiter-80