Arturia Jupiter-8V - not impressed!

[cubbyhouse]

I really don’t mean to flame the software Jupiter-8V from Arturia here, but really, is it worth the price for it??

I compared it directly with my Roland MKS-80 – and I couldn’t resist laughing, sorry. I didn’t laugh to be mean, but the difference in the sound was too big for not to laugh. Then I rigged up my friends Jupiter-6 – still two different synths in the sound character. Then I rigged up my little Roland baby, the dusty Juno-60, which hasn’t been used for a while – and the Juno sounded a lot better with some dull preliminary sounds. So what was next? Even my JP-8000 made warmer and filler sounds, so I gave up.

The bottom line, it doesn’t sound like a Jupiter at all! I don’t saying that it sounds bad, because it doesn’t, but the only similarity with the hardware model is the picture of the plug-in itself. And I do have a lot of softsynths that are a lot cheaper but still sounds better, in my opinion.

 

[DonaldCrunk]

Jupiter 6/MKS80 and Jupiter 8 don't sound anything alike, you know...

what AD/DA were you using?

my A/B said it replicated leads well, and control changes were much more similar to the real version than previous Arturia softsynths. Pads were colder than the real, but that was to be expected - and i was more interested in the leads anyway.

 

[Trusty]

Jupiter 6/MKS80 and Jupiter 8 don't sound anything alike, you know...

what AD/DA were you using?

my A/B said it replicated leads well, and control changes were much more similar to the real version than previous Arturia softsynths. Pads were colder than the real, but that was to be expected - and i was more interested in the leads anyway.

So, does the Jupiter-8V, regardless of warmth or thickness or whatever obvious differences between a software emulator and a hardware analog, sound like the real thing interms of sonic character? If so, then it would be a winner in my book. I haven't heard the synth firsthand so I don't know...but it looks and sounds nice from the examples and reading the features/specs.

What's the real deal on this one?

 

[DonaldCrunk]

nah, it's not dead on. they did a good job with the filter, but i think their oscillators are revamped CS80 osc's.

but like i said, the leads sounded nice, and on certain settings were almost indistinguishable from the real thing.


its not dead on by any means, but its not a rip-off either. pretty decent product, when you consider what you're getting for the price you're getting it at.

 

[Trusty]

nah, it's not dead on. they did a good job with the filter, but i think their oscillators are revamped CS80 osc's.

but like i said, the leads sounded nice, and on certain settings were almost indistinguishable from the real thing.


its not dead on by any means, but its not a rip-off either. pretty decent product, when you consider what you're getting for the price you're getting it at.

That stinks, I wish they'd got the oscillators right. I don't care for the CS-80V personally, but I know some people still consider it the greatest softsynth ever...

 

[DonaldCrunk]

apparently they've only developed one oscillator from the ground up, and they've just 'tweaked' it for every soft synth they've released. that's dissapointing to me, too - i put a lot of importance on that part of the synth.