Roland Jupiter 80 Review
The Jupiter name brings a lot to live up to, but Roland reckons its new Jupiter-80 has got what it takes. Hollin Jones blasts off...
Price: £2,499.00
Manufacturer: Roland
Website: http://www.roland.co.uk
Roland is well known for having made some of the most legendary and influential synthesizers of all time, and in recent years it has been bringing some of these much-loved classics back to life – only this time around they are packed with cutting-edge technology. The latest to get a makeover is the Jupiter-80, based at least in name on the Jupiter-8. Billed by Roland as a performance synthesizer, it’s an extremely solid piece of kit, and in contrast to the standard muted looks of modern synths has a multitude of coloured buttons and lights, in keeping with the design of the original.
Ins and outs
Before we get to the sounds, let’s look at the hardware. Around the back you get XLR and jack main outputs as well as two sub outputs, a mini stereo audio in jack with level controls, pedal inputs, MIDI ports, coaxial digital audio out and a USB-to-computer port that can carry both audio and MIDI (after you install the relevant driver). As is the case with many of Roland’s synths, this feature is really handy to have since it means you can fire sound directly into your DAW (and MIDI out of it into the synth) without needing to buy any extra kit.
To the left of the front panel is the regulation pitch/mod controller, an additional USB port for inserting a memory stick for the playback and saving of MIDI songs and audio files, plus Roland’s programmable D-Beam controller, which as always can be used as something akin to a Theremin for the real-time manipulation of sounds.
You interact with the Jupiter-80 either via its many physical controls or its large colour touchscreen. Roland has been using these in its higher-end workstations for a while now and has cracked the secret of making the system easy to use on the surface, but with advanced tweaking and programming tools lying just beneath.
The Jupiter-80 is a performance instrument, and as a result the focus is on sounds rather than workstation-style features. Heavy emphasis is placed on the layering and zoning of sounds, to the extent that there are areas of colour permanently marked just above the keyboard to denote the different key zones. These correspond to four sets of controls in the Part Balance section located to the left of the screen, from where you can switch each part on or off as well as set its level. These parts are Percussion, Lower, Upper and Solo; they in turn match up with the colour-coded buttons that run just above the keys. These provide access to banks of sounds, and the colour coding – as well as being a nostalgic nod to the past – helps in visually linking buttons with functions.
Quick flip
For each of these button sections there is an ‘alternate’ button that switches the current sound with a similar one without you having to do any fiddling around on the screen. Unusually, for a modern synth, the Jupiter-80 has a number of Registration buttons along the very front edge just below the keyboard (you would not normally expect to find controls or ports here at all, save perhaps for headphones).
These are essentially ‘quick’ controls that enable you to select previous and next patches or jump directly to a number of preset patches that you have set up in advance, sorted into banks. They are backlit, too, and will be invaluable to anyone playing on a dark stage and needing to flip quickly between sounds without having to bend over to see the screen and risk pressing the wrong button.
As well as the touchscreen there are a number of other physical controls which are both large and user-friendly. They include a MIDI song player and recorder, reverb on/off and a large jog wheel that enables you to zip through settings quickly. You also get transpose controls on the front panel and an arpeggiator that can be set differently for the lower and upper parts. You can activate drum parts as well as control the rotary effect from the front panel.
Supernatural sounds
The Jupiter-80’s sound engine is powered by Roland’s SuperNATURAL technology. As is the case with other Roland synths we have played, it offers stunning sound-generation. It is able to model everything from acoustic to fat electronic sounds with equal ease and is combined here with something called Behaviour Modelling Technology (BMT).
BMT takes performance-related information such as keyboard phrasing, tempo, velocity, chords or legato (as well as any control signals like pitch-bend, D-Beam or control pedals) and uses it to modify the sounds in ways that amaze. You can add all sorts of expression and variation to your playing – and some of the time you won’t even know how it’s doing it. Guitar chords or phrases can be generated with only minimal input from the user, while synths bend and twist under your fingers. The more information you give it or the more complex the part you play, the more interesting it gets. It’s hard to describe how much fun this can be – you can play huge, complex-sounding parts with only minimal input.
The onboard sounds are meant to be zoned and layered, although, of course, you can just play one at once, even if this would be to miss the full potential of the synth. An excellent range of tones are available, from grand pianos, strings and brass through to accurately modelled acoustic guitars, woodwind and more. There’s a curious focus on synthesized brass – a nod perhaps to the original Jupiter-8. More up-to-date sounds are available as well of course: the instrument is packed with cutting- edge, modern synth and bass sounds that almost burst from the speakers.
The output of the Jupiter-80 is smooth but fearsome, buzzing with energy and urgency. This is helped by the onboard effects, of which there are four multi-FX each for the upper and lower parts (each with up to 76 effect types). The percussion and solo parts have a compressor, EQ and delay, plus there’s a four-band equalizer available to strap across the master outputs.
Play it again
The layering and zoning features make this synth almost insanely playable, with interesting sounds leaping from every area of the keyboard. Taking things further is a Tone Blender, which tweaks the values of several different parameters at the same time then lets you capture that perfect sound as a Live Set. You can also assign the Tone Blender to be controlled by the D-Beam.
Live Sets are what Roland calls big, multi-stacked patches. The sound engine can deal with four tones; with some clever setting up you can have up to nine tones going on at any one time. The Tone Blender extends the already vast sound-creation possibilities, making them virtually limitless.
The Jupiter-80 is an incredibly powerful synthesizer that manages to retain some of the spirit of the model from which it takes its name while offering technology that is truly at the cutting edge. A glance at the price tag, though, will tell you that this is no toy, despite the colourful lights. It’s a serious synth that also happens to be great fun to play.
The sounds are by turns huge, rich and attention-grabbing, and you’ll find as many modern sounds as patches reminiscent of the 1980s. With the emphasis on layering and zoning sounds as well as the Tone Blender, these sounds rarely exist in isolation anyway, so you’re constantly mixing and combining to make new ones. Even if you eventually exhaust the sounds on offer – which might take a while – there’s a huge depth of tweaking and editing available via the touchscreen and its clever tabbed interface.
Given the popularity of synth sounds – especially retro synths – in 2011, the Jupiter-80 should find many fans across a range of musical genres. MTM
Verdict
WHY BUY
Stunning sound
Almost limitless blending and patch-creation possibilities
Handy live performance features
Comprehensive real-time sound-shaping controls
Extremely playable
SuperNATURAL technology
Easy to navigate
Advanced tweaking if you want it
WALK ON BY
Not particularly portable
A powerful and excellent-sounding synth that demands to be played. More than worthy of the Jupiter name and heritage.
★★★★★★★★★
Score: 9
This review first appeared in Music Tech Magazine issue 103
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