A good friend of mine forwarded me a link for this with some of his comments. Aside from the name and some of the aesthetic elements of the original Roland Jupiter 8 synthesizer, I don’t see many similarities. Still, this looks like one super powerful synthesizer with lots of flexibility and sound capability. This feature filled synthesizer offers up some of the elements that we have come to know and love about Roland synthesizers over the past couple of decades. While other companies like Korg are going back to the more analog domain and making us all giddy with joy, it is encouraging to see Roland doing things a little different. I probably wont be rushing out to buy one of these. To be honest, right now all I wish is that I could find someone to fix my Roland Jupiter 8. It’s really sad that I can’t find someone locally that understands my beast.
I can see the Roland Jupiter 80 in the studios of many producers in the studio looking for a synth with a wide range of sound capability. I’m sure we’ll being seeing this on many a prime-time live bands too, just like the Roland Fantom.
From Roland U.S.
JUPITER-80: Synthesizer
Metamorphosis of Sound
One of the most revered prefixes in the history of synthesis returns. Welcome the arrival of the JUPITER-80—a live-performance powerhouse that pays homage to its legendary namesake with road-proven hardware and massive sound, yet blasts into the future with advanced SuperNATURAL® technology. The JUPITER-80’s expressive, organic approach to synthesis makes a new world of sound design possible with multilayered SuperNATURAL textures under the control of a full-color touchscreen and creative hands-on controllers. Experience the metamorphosis of a legend with the all-new JUPITER-80!
-Powerful integrated SuperNATURAL synthesis engines designed for legendary vintage synth sounds to realistic organic acoustic sounds and more
-Single Tone is equivalent to the performance of powerful single synthesizer—stack four of these to create a mind-blowing “Live Set”
-Tone Blender tweaks multiple parameters of tones in realtime for complex, emotive sonic movement during performance
-Fast, friendly operation with intuitive front panel and color touchscreen optimized for live performance
-76-note semi-weighted synth keyboard, and 256 polyphonic voices (varies according to sound-generator load)
-USB-memory Song Player/Recorder for backing tracks or quick idea capture
-Easy integration with computers via built-in USB-MIDI/Audio interface
Past, Present, and Future Sound
The JUPITER-80 nods to its past with lethal, multi-layered SuperNATURAL synthesizer tones so fat you’ll need a knife to cut through it, but that’s only the beginning of what this powerhouse synth will do. Gigging musicians will love the stockpile of essential sounds onboard, including Roland’s famous SuperNATURAL Piano, strings, brass, and much more. The JUPITER-80 puts a fast-access user interface under your fingers—a dream for live performance. Its heavyweight design, complete with metal side panels, recalls the legendary JUPITER but with a modern twist.
Powerful Live Sets Featuring Four-Tone Structure and Registrations
JUPITER-80’s sound engine handles four x tones with dedicated DSP per tone as a basic unit “Live Set” for manual performance. Layering of Upper and Lower Live Sets, plus a specialized “SOLO” part, means the incredibly massive nine-tone-stack sound. Customized complex settings can be saved as Registrations, and easily recalled during live performance.
Tone Blender
You will love the deep possibilities of the stackable SuperNATURAL architecture and unique features such as Tone Blender, which tweaks values of multiple parameters simultaneously and lets you “Capture” any new combination and save it as a Live Set. Create complex, emotional textures that respond, react, and evolve like nothing you’ve heard before. Tone Blender can also dramatically enhance your live-performance capabilities by letting you assign its multiple parameters to controllers such as the D Beam.
For more information on the Roland Jupiter 80 click here.
The Synthesizer Book 