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1. Emulating the Jupiter-8 synth with Arturia’s Jupiter-8V

1 With secondhand prices now nearing $10,000, you’d be right to think that there was a demand for a software version of the Jupiter-8. Roland has steadfastly stuck to hardware, leaving Arturia to step in with the Jupiter-8V, a note-for-note clone with a few extra tricks hiding behind its flip-top lid. Let’s open it up and dial in a modulated brassy pad. 2 It’s a beauty; big and bold, just like the real thing. After a quick perusal of the onboard presets, we’ll click the Open button in the top-right corner to expand a hidden section of modern features. We can create a new patch under the Presets tab by clicking the New Patch button in the upper-right, just above the preset list. We can name the patch and name the new Project here too. 3 Let’s play a few notes of the default sound. Actually, it sounds quite big even at this, its most basic state! That’s because there’s a little detuning between oscillators. Like so many synths of the day, the Jupiter-8 was a dual-oscillator affair, as is this virtual recreation. Let’s dial in a pulse wave for VCO-2 and nudge the Source Mix over toward the VCO-2 side a bit. 4 Let’s scoot over to the VCF, and set the filter Cutoff to about 208 and the Resonance to 132 or so. It sounds like a nice resonant lead due to the Cutoff being modulated by Env1. Let’s change the envelope settings. Increase the Attack to 1497ms and Decay to 5956 so that the filter opens and closes gradually. Set the Sustain to 0 and the Release to 23707. 5 Now to shape Env2, which controls the amplitude. The Attack should be 75 or so, Decay full, and the Sustain set to about half, with the Release at 896 or so. Now the volume fades in slightly before reaching full amplitude, then settles down a bit until the key is released, whereupon it fades out. It’s a bit bright, so we’ll reduce the amount by which the Cutoff is affected by Env1, using the VCF’s Mod slider. 6 Back in the day, Roland synths were among the few that offered a delayed LFO. Let’s try it. First, raise the LFO Mod slider in the VCF section to 750 so that the LFO modulates the Cutoff. Now, select a square wave for the LFO, set the Rate to 8.31Hz and crank the LFO Delay Time up full. Play and hold a chord to hear it.