Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Jupiter-8V2 Review - How does the Jupiter stand up with a fresh pair of 64-bit legs?


From the upgraded collection of the Arturia plugins comes another vintage synth, the Jupiter-8V2.  The Jupiter-8 is, again, regarded as one of the classic and legendary 80s synths.  A quick look on eBay will show you that right now, these are hot, going for as high as $8,000, which is money you could build an entire studio with.  The Roland Jupiter-8 was first released in 1981 and was Roland's first great synth.  It offered all the bells and whistles of the time-- it was multitimbral, it had an arpeggiator, dual oscillators for each of the 8 voices, and two envelopes.  These are pretty standard and almost expected today, but at the time, it was an important step forward.  Roland filters have always had a unique sound to them, and the Jupiter-8 is no different, being the favorite for many who are making string sounds.  Of course, it does many other fantastic sounds as well.

Peter Gabriel and Fairlight CMI


Here's an old video of Peter Gabriel working in the studio.  Gotta love his use of the Fairlight CMI and his creative songwriting.