An 8-voice
polyphonic analog synthesizer with a 61-note
keyboard. The
flagship of the
Jupiter line, manufactured between
1980 and
1984.
The JP-8 features 2 syncable
VCOs per voice. VCO1 has a 4
octave range and is switchable between
sawtooth,
triangle,
pulse and
square waveforms. VCO2 replaces square wave with a
noise generator. The
oscillators can be modulated by either or both of the LFO and ENV1.
A simple
mixer is available for adjusting the
oscillator levels, with a
slider for cross-modulation.
PWM has its own slider for modulation level, and it can be switched between LFO, ENV1 and manual.
The
filter section offers a low-pass
resonant VCF switchable between 12 and 24
dB/octave (2-/4-pole). It has controls for
frequency & resonance, and can be modulated by one of the envelope generators, LFO or keyboard tracking. Sliders for controlling modulation amount are available for all the
sources.
A non-resonant high-pass VCF is also included, but it can't be modulated and only has a single slider for adjustment.
The
LFO features
sine, sawtooth, square and
random (
sample/hold) waveforms. There are typical controls for
rate and
delay, as well as modulation amount for the VCO and VCF.
Two
ADSR envelope generator are included. The
polarity of ENV1 can be
inverted, and ENV2 controls the
VCA.
The keyboard can be
split and
layered. In the dual mode, the polyphony is dropped to 4 voices, allowing two instruments to be played at once.
4 modes of play are available.
Solo is a
monophonic mode with 2 oscillators.
Unison uses all the VCOs dividing them between all played voices, which means whopping 8 VCOs at once when playing a single note!
Poly 1 is the normal 8-voice polyphonic mode, while
Poly 2 cuts off the release of all playing notes as the user lifts their hands off the keyboard.
64 user
patches can be stored in JP-8's
internal memory. It can also hold up to 8
"patch presets", which can contain keyboard splits and modulation settings.
Other features include an
arpeggiator * with external sync, a
bender with an exceptionally wide range and flexible modulation routings, a programmable
hold function and external
input to the VCF and VCA.
No
MIDI is featured on the JP-8, but third party retrofit
kits are widely available and relatively easy to
install.
* can be heard set to the sample/hold in the 80s hit Rio by Duran Duran
back to Roland