All about the Roland Jupiter-series

From: M.Strijbos [mailto:M.Strijbos@...]
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2001 10:04 AM
To: Analogue Heaven (E-mail)
Subject: [AH] JP-8 and more


Dear Loggers,

Last week i've fulfilled one of my life-long dreams in purchasing a 
beautiful "near mint" and Midified Jupiter 8 (S/N 171735)
for a little under 1700 bucks at the infamous Dutch synth shop Music House 
(http://www.the-music-house.com). Twenty years ago i had the opportunity to 
play around with one for half an hour and this made quite an impression on 
me. And after a week of farting around with it i'm happy to say that this 
still holds true today; it really is an amazing synth. No F/X tricks or 
exotic feature list and a very simple user interface but an amazing depth 
and great variety of sounds.

I've already gathered loads of relevant info from the AH archives and other 
online resources but i was wondering if anybody knew how many of these 
monsters were actually built? I remember reading an interview with a senior 
Japanese Roland official who stated that the actual sales of the JP-8 had 
been very disappointing for such a critically acclaimed model. Anyone know 
the score???

PS: i was back in that shop this weekend and noticed a nice s/h Pulse + 
there for only 250 bucks. How could i resist? So now i can confirm that the 
JP-8 and Pulse compliment each other very nicely indeed :)

In analog heaven,

Mark R. Strijbos
work:   	m.strijbos@...
play:    	xtc@...
	webmaster@...
	mark.strijbos@...

From: geek. [mailto:krisa@...]
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2001 10:16 AM
To: M.Strijbos
Cc: Analogue Heaven (E-mail)
Subject: Re: [AH] JP-8 and more


> I've already gathered loads of relevant info from the AH archives and
other 
> online resources but i was wondering if anybody knew how many of these 
> monsters were actually built? I remember reading an interview with a
senior 
> Japanese Roland official who stated that the actual sales of the JP-8 had 
> been very disappointing for such a critically acclaimed model. Anyone know

> the score???

I'm kind of curious now that VA and Analogue are coming into favor, if it
would be feasable for Roland to actualy recreate some of their better
synths part by part.  I'm sure if Roland dusted off the schematics for the
JP-8, polished it with full MIDI, and put it to market, it would have to
sell. 

Those who keep mint JP-8's in a box waiting to make a cool 2K would be
kind of pissed if I could go down to the local music store and pick up a
brand new one.

Or maybe start from scratch and go head to head with Alesis and come out
with a Jupiter 20. :)

From: Verschut, Ricardo [mailto:Ricardo.Verschut@...]
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2001 10:13 AM
To: M.Strijbos@...; Analogue Heaven (E-mail)
Subject: RE: [AH] JP-8 and more
Importance: High


Mark wrote:

I remember reading an interview with a senior 
Japanese Roland official who stated that the actual sales of the JP-8 had 
been very disappointing for such a critically acclaimed model. Anyone know 
the score???

---x-x-x---

At the synthmuseum the story goes that there were 2000 units produced. I'm
not sure if this is the actual number of units that also got sold...hell,
I'm not even sure if this figure is correct. 

Not strange that the sales figures were dissapointing; I once saw a JP8 for
14,000.- Dutch guilders ($5,866 - 6,000) which was really A LOT of money
seventeen years ago...it still is....

Congratulations on your purchase!

RVe

From: Eric manley [mailto:Djadun@...]
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2001 11:01 AM
To: analogue@...
Subject: Re: [AH] JP-8 and more


> Or maybe start from scratch and go head to head with Alesis and come out
> with a Jupiter 20. :)

Isnt that what the jp-8000 was supposed to be all about? When people talk
about jupiters they often say jp8,jp6 etc. Too bad roland didnt think to go
analog like alesis. You know what else I miss besides just the sound of
analog? Most of the things are built like tanks, where as many new synth are
not built very sturdy at all, whats up with that anyway? And korgs ms2000,
and oberheims ob-12. Everyone seems to be trying to cash in on themselves.
Whens the sequential circuits pro-5000 coming out? Anyone else on this list
a beta tester? Mine looks great sitting right next to my sage.



Djadun

From: David Evans [mailto:dfevans@...]
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2001 2:22 PM
To: geek.
Cc: M.Strijbos; Analogue Heaven (E-mail)
Subject: Re: [AH] JP-8 and more


On Mon, Jan 29, 2001 at 01:16:28AM -0800, geek. wrote:
> 
> I'm sure if Roland dusted off the schematics for the
> JP-8, polished it with full MIDI, and put it to market, it would have to
> sell. 
> 

  Perhaps.  But it likely wouldn't be any cheaper than an Andromeda.

-- 
David Evans          (NeXTMail/MIME OK)
dfevans@...
PhD Student, Computer/Synth Junkie
http://bbcr.uwaterloo.ca/~dfevans/
University of Waterloo         "Default is the value selected by the
composer
Ontario, Canada           overridden by your command." - Roland TR-707
Manual

From: ModularMoog [mailto:modularmoog@hotmail.com]
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2001 2:58 PM
To: geek.; M.Strijbos
Cc: Analogue Heaven (E-mail)
Subject: Re: [AH] JP-8 and more


on 29/01/01 10:16, geek. at krisa@... wrote:

> I'm kind of curious now that VA and Analogue are coming into favor, if it
> would be feasable for Roland to actualy recreate some of their better
> synths part by part.  I'm sure if Roland dusted off the schematics for the
> JP-8, polished it with full MIDI, and put it to market, it would have to
> sell.
> 
> Those who keep mint JP-8's in a box waiting to make a cool 2K would be
> kind of pissed if I could go down to the local music store and pick up a
> brand new one.
> 
> Or maybe start from scratch and go head to head with Alesis and come out
> with a Jupiter 20. :)

I´m willing to bet quite much that if Roland made a JP-8 copy today they
would be going in the bankrupt direction. The JP-8 "has been re-made" with
JP-8000/8080 and they do sound very good actually, besides parts etc... is
long gone. I think the real desire here is.... collecting!.... people want
Roland to make a JP-8 because they want "the real thing" in the house...

The truth is that there are a lot of new stuff beeing made which play´s the
shit out of (most) analogue gear. There is only one right way for companies
like Roland... VA synths, with today´s specs... and to improve algorythms
and all that shit.

Bring your JP-8 to a friend with i.ex the Virus TDM plug-in and play them
side by side... I think you´re about to experience a minor shock!.

Of course, a synth has physical sliders and knobs but the real deal here is
that sliders dont count, sounds does... or.... _music_ does.

Something very good is going on today.... _computers/va/DSP_ and it will
only grow in the future.

I know there is a huge risk letting my thoughts out this way but please do
not read this as a "analog sux" or something because I _do_ own a encore
electronics midified JP-8 and I love it very much, but the thing is that
(some) of the va´s out today are competing very good with old great synths
and the production cost is ??? 1/1000 ??? and on top of this you get midi
and all that from (wherever-you-want-to-your-arse :-O

This is what _musicians_ want... there is no room for collectors.

Regards.
Henning.

From: Mike Kent [mailto:mikekent@...]
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2001 8:48 PM
To: geek.; Analogue Heaven AH
Subject: Re: [AH] JP-8 and more


> I'm kind of curious now that VA and Analogue are coming into favor, if it
> would be feasable for Roland to actualy recreate some of their better
> synths part by part.  I'm sure if Roland dusted off the schematics for the
> JP-8, polished it with full MIDI, and put it to market, it would have to
> sell. 

That's not feasible. David already pointed out the price would not be below
the Andromeda. In fact, one way the andromeda price is kept comparitevly low
is that Alesis designed some custom ICs with a large number of analog
components all put onto one chip.

So to reproduce the JP-8 "part by part" would be more expensive. I bet such
a synth would easily end up at the same price as the original $6000 or quite
likely even higher. I don't think there is any market for such a high priced
reissue.

> Those who keep mint JP-8's in a box waiting to make a cool 2K would be
> kind of pissed if I could go down to the local music store and pick up a
> brand new one.

I honestly don't think there are any mint JP-8s sitting in boxes anywhere.
And there's no way a brand new reissue could be produced at anywhere near
the price to make that guy worry.

This has been discussed before, relating to both JP-8 and TB-303. For more
detials search the AH archives with the word reissue.

Regards,
Mike.


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From: Scott Fiorenz@ [mailto:sfiorenz@safemail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2001 6:11 AM
To: ah
Subject: Re: [AH] JP-8 and more


> Bring your JP-8 to a friend with i.ex the Virus TDM plug-in and play them
> side by side... I think you´re about to experience a minor shock!.

yeah cut back the layers of fx and you will be in even more of a shock!