Classic Synths: Jupiter-8

Beyond the "How to's" of synthesis, I'm also trying to expand my knowledge of the history of synthesizers. So from time to time, I'm going to focus on a classic synthesizer.

Today is the Roland Jupiter-8.

In the late 70's and early 80's, the Oberheim and Prophet 5 were the main rock synthesizers. When the Jupiter-8 came out in 1981 it suddenly took over as the "must-have" synthesizer. Frankie Goes To Hollywood's "Relax" made extensive use of the Jupiter-8



The Roland Jupiter-8 was an 8-voice analog polyphonic synthesizer (hence the "8" in the name) that came out in the Autumn of 1981 and was quickly adopted by many influential bands at the time. Some of its features included the ability to split the keyboard and assign two patches on the top and bottom of the keyboard or layer them on top of each other. It also had an arpeggiator that can be easily recognized on such classic songs as Duran Duran's "Hungry Like The Wolf" and Queen's "Radio Gaga."

According to Wikipedia the Jupiter 8 was used by the following bands, many of which are personal favorites:

• Duran Duran - "Hungry Like the Wolf"
  


• Michael Jackson - Thriller


• Depeche Mode


• Howard Jones - esp. Human's Lib
  


• No Doubt


• William Orbit


• Journey on different albums. It is shown in the "Separate Ways" music video.


• David Bowie


• Underworld


• Moby


• Queen - The Works (1984), A Kind of Magic (1986). Radio Gaga's recognizable bassline was created using the Jupiter-8's arpeggiator, and the solo on I Want to Break Free was performed on Jupiter-8 as well
  


• The Cars - Heartbeat City, Door To Door


• Roger Joseph Manning Jr.


• Devo - Oh, No! It's Devo


• Freur - "Doot Doot"
  


• Go West - "We Close Our Eyes"


• Rush - Signals, Grace Under Pressure Notably, the bass line for "Red Sector A"


• Tears for Fears - "Head over Heels" and "Shout" on Songs from the Big Chair


• Toto - on Toto IV Africa, Rosanna


• Simple Minds - New Gold Dream


• Blancmange


• Scritti Politti


• Prince

On the Jupiter 8 page at synthmuseum.com some other favorite bands are listed that used the Jupiter:

Damon Albarn of Blur, Alphaville, Cocteau Twins, Martin Cooper of OMD, Thomas Dolby, Jan Hammer, Paul Hardcastle, Human League, Brian Kehew and Roger Manning of The Moog Cookbook, Pet Shop Boys, Robert Smith of The Cure, Swing Out Sister, Talk Talk, Tangerine Dream, Ultravox, and Wang Chung.

Vintage synth lists a few others:

A Flock Of Seagulls, Heaven 17, Huey Lewis and the News, Yes, and Stevie Wonder.

There were only about 2000 Jupiter-8s made, so it is very hard to find these days, but Arturia has recreated the classic synth virtually with their Jupiter-8V:

http://www.arturia.com/evolution/en/products/jupiter-8v/intro.html

The reviews are a little mixed on whether it truly recaptures the original sound or not, and supposedly it's a huge power hog for the computer, but it's certainly much cheaper than tracking down an original vintage and still working model.