Roland JP-8

[F5D]

I never could have believed that DS (after all that experience with analog synths) actually says that virus sounds better than andromeda. I agree that virus sounds good but imo what comes to the pure sound quality, the power of oscillator tones and the quality of filters, the a6 is the clear winner. It doesn't sound like a jupiter but it's still analog and it shows. After owning an andromeda over 3 years, I can say that nobody can really judge it before owning it at least for 1 year.

Anyway, I would also like to have a synth like andromeda with the tone of jupiter too. That would be really nice!

[DIGITAL SCREAMS]

With the Andromeda I felt it could/should have sounded better. In the case of the Virus I know it cant sound better....not within the constraints of digital electronics.

I grant you this...it's weird that I think the Virus sounds better. Maybe its because I've begun to see the merits of the virus. JP8 will be my bread and butter....the Virus my polyfiller. Nice and simple....like me

DS

[Guzzy]

Just purchase a another vintage unit, a Roland MSQ-700:
.
Sadly my JP-8 don't have DCB or MIDI, but with this box I can sync the JP-8 Arpeggio from Cubase ( I hope). It's Rolands first Midi sequencer.

[Guzzy]

Roland MSQ-700 arrived, funny box

Test setup:
JP-6 midi-out ---midi-in> MSQ-700---midi-out--midi-in> JP-6
JP-6 Sync-out ---midi in>MSQ-700--sync out--sync-in> JP-8
JP-6 arpeggio ON, JP-8 arpeggio ON
Now the three units is in sync, cool to play!.

[-X-]

Personally, I am not much impressed by the JP8. I know, people will think that I do not know what I am talking about. However, I had a lot of synths in my studio and all had their goods and their bads. What I did not like with the JP8 was the modulation depth or better the lack of it.

I got the JP8 for a good deal and at that time I let go of my JP6 to finance part of the 8. The overall sound is beautiful. I especially like the PWM with the sinus LFO. The filters are great too. But there it stops. I did not like that the env amount of the filter cutoff is only covering 1/2 of the overall cutoff range, if at all. Forget about agressive brass!! I did not like how sync and cross modulation was implemented, e.g. when using both the pitch went to hell (even the virus does sync and crossmodulation from Osc1 to Osc2 for both). At the end, I did not like that everything out of this synth sounded nice, almost as I have a preset synth with some subtle changes.

Another thing is, that most of the time the JP8 was resting in the clothed due to failure. I fixed it all myself for pennies in parts, but it took time to trace down problems and so on. But I guess, that is part of having older gear (maybe it is the charme of having older gear). But since I am no Windows user, my stuff has to run and should not give me grief most of the time.

Needless to say, off it went and I bought the JP6 from my friend. Now, the JP6 is a much different beast. Thinner sounding for sure. But the modulation depth is incredible. The sync/xmod works perfectly to make these agressive kind of sounds. The multimode filter is a very nice addition too. At the end, I just got more out of the 6 than the 8. But that is just me, it doesn't mean anything.

Nowadays, I am much more into VA because you have much more control over the sound from your keyboard and controllers. The only analog that can match the control is the Xpander/Matrix-12.

[DIGITAL SCREAMS]

-X-

The JP8 is not a perfect synth by any means. But its sweet spot is pretty large and at times it can make the perfect synth sound. Shimmery PWM pads, sawtooth drones, unison bass and beautiful arpegios are its strong points. Alot of money for simple sounds......but useful nonetheless.

All your observations are correct and a matter of taste. Personally I prefer the tone of the 12 bit. I now have a 14 bit and its a bit more clinical. But still....its a good analog poly to use.

It fills in the gaps where VA sound less convincing.

Im interested to know what your favourite sounding analog poly is. Prophet 5 by any chance?

DS

[-X-]

Originally Posted by DIGITAL SCREAMS

Im interested to know what your favourite sounding analog poly is. Prophet 5 by any chance?

DS

My favourite analog poly has digitial oscillators: PPG Wave 2.3. Nothing compares to this one, not even the uWave or uWaveII/XT. But when you ask me about the most favourite analog poly, it would be the M12. Not that it is perfect (slower EGs, slower LFOs, curtis components), but it gives you so much control over the sound, it is just sickening. It also sounds pretty nice even the guts are made by Curtis. With a little work it can sound like the older OB series, just creamy.

I wanted a P5 badly but when I had one I could care less. The curtis components have a tendency to sound blahh. I personally prefer the JP6 over the P5 because of the xmod/sync setup (osc1 modulates osc2 for both) and the nice sounding multimode filter. Also, you can split and put the JP6 into different modes, what makes it more versatile. BTW, I also had the P5 Rev2 (SSM version) but that was a nightmare in itself and I ended up selling it broken to a guy in the netherlands.

But everybody finds something particular about their favourite synth. Maybe it is the first one you bought, maybe it is the one you could not afford (like me) or it is the one that sounds sweet or cut the mix. You can make music with almost every synth, but it helps to get aligned with your instrument when you really like it.