Roland Jupiter-80 Reviews

4.7/5.0 based on 7 customer reviews

Write your own review for this product

Sort By Date Sort By Rating

Customer Reviews

Nick
from Phoenix, AZ
May 19, 2013Music Background:
Musician

Does Everything Extreamly Well

I feel like Roland created this thing with me in mind (A little self absorbed, I know :-) It just seems to be everything that the perfect synth should be. Amazing sound potential, and geared for live players. I currently play in an 80's pop tribute band, and man, has it made my life so much easier. My old rig consisted of a JP-8000, Sh-201, and a Yamaha P90 digital piano. That combo was sufficient to reproduce 80's pop, but was in no way convenient. My new rig: a Jupiter 80..... by itself, no multiple synths to organize and load. It a heavy mother, but worth its weight in gold. I bought the Jupiter 50 first, then sold it to upgrade to the 80 because I wanted the extra tones in the lower part. I will say this, what makes the 80 powerful is the ability to layer lots of single programs into on massive sound scape. One most of the single sounds on their own sound fine, but the real shock and awe comes from the mix. It's like having 8 JP-8000s running in unison.

Glenn
from Missouri
October 24, 2012Music Background:
Professional Teacher, Musician and Composer

Having owned both the original Jupiter and now this, the legacy of sonic power continues…

Back in 1985 (I hate to even say that) my keyboard rig consisted of a Roland Jupiter 8 on the bottom with a Yamaha DX7 on top. At that time I thought that that was the finest 2 board keyboard rig on the planet.

Today my new rig is a Yamaha CP1 Stage Piano on the bottom with the new Roland Jupiter 80 on top, and I think that this is the finest two instrument keyboard rig on the planet. A lot has changed since then, but one thing that hasn’t changed, when Roland sets their mind to building a premium synthesizer, they know how to deliver. They’ve put out a lot of junk the last several years too, but not here, this instrument is special.

I played my original Jupiter 8 for ten years, and I plan on playing my new Jupiter 80 for at least that long.

Right now there is more misunderstood information about this instrument (on the net) than any instrument in recent history. Many of the expectations were based upon the fact that people were expecting something closer to the original Jupiter, and when Roland gave us something quite new and unexpected, some musicians have been critical. However, they are severely mistaken for this ax is a tonal monster.

This instrument pays homage to, and is an extension of the original in every capacity. It builds on the dynasty of the original and offers fantastic sound sets and function in a modern 21st century setting. Here are three important reasons why you should consider purchasing this ax:

1) Live Performance Synthesizer
This instrument is designed for musicians who play live, musicians who play gigs regularly, musicians who need an instrument that is easy to navigate and change sounds live on stage without scrolling through menus. Roland gives you 8 sets of 32 live Registrations organized into 4 banks of eight presets for each set, and that gives you 256 total registrations accessible with the push of a button located right below your right hand on the keyboard. The original Jupiter only had 64!

If you’re gigging, you can organize the Registrations from Set I to correspond to your Gig Set List. Registrations from Set I = Gig Play List - Set I; Registrations, Set II = Gig Play List - Set II, and so on and so forth. So as you play your gig, push a button and go to the next sound, and if you need several sound changes during one song, no problem, push the next Registration button while you’re playing and change sounds. Therefore, you can concentrate on playing live and not worry about the technology. I’ve set my board up with the first four sets of Registrations covering my Jazz Quintet’s first four set lists, and man is this convenient. On my Registrations Sets 5-8, I’m storing new sounds that I create and develop. Hey if you need more than 256 Registrations to play a gig, then you’re doing more sound changing than playing.

2) Quality of Sounds Available, and Quality of Sounds Possible
There are over 2000 synth sounds (patches called live sets) in this thing, and over 2000 Super Natural Sounds (Roland’s new Instrument Modeling Technology) in this thing. You can layer/split these in infinite combinations. You can go into the synth sounds and Tweak yourself into the next universe, I mean every parameter of every possible element of sound creation can be tweaked and edited. Then you can set up your Registrations, and did I mention that the combinations are infinite, it’s incredible. WARNING, you have got to spend some serious time learning how to navigate this ax and get around the programming functions and master the tweak aspect of this thing, or you are wasting your money. Plan on spending some serious time learning and setting up your Registrations, for the stock Registrations that come with the instrument are for the most part average to lame. But once you learn how to develop and create your own sounds and registrations, look out, you’re going to have the fattest sounding ax around, I kid you not!

Hey, there are over 500 monophonic (Moog type) lead sounds alone and many of them sound fantastic, and when you start to stack/split and layer these in your registrations, it’s off the charts. If you want thin and singular sounds, if you want multi-layered and over the top stuff, synth brass, orchestral, strings, pianos, usable organs, and on and on, it’s all there, but you’ve got to master how go get the sound, manipulate the sound, and then set it up in your Registrations. And the new Super Natural Sounds, trust me, they are very valuable in creating new sonic possibilities; you will use these natural instrument sounds a lot, for they can really ad to your various synth patches. The only sound group that is sub-par in this instrument is the guitar sounds, for the most part they are weak. Other than that, every sound group has usable, good, and very good stuff.

3) Build Quality and Future Development
Roland instruments have fantastic build quality and sturdy design, and this rig tops the charts. And Roland has already come out with version II (a big improvement over version I), and they are just releasing the Legacy Collection of sounds (based on their past synthesizers) that you can download. And from what Online Users Forums have intimated Roland is committed to showcasing and developing sound designs for this instrument in the future.

By the time you buy this instrument and then accessorize it with instrument case, pedals, cables and such, you’re tapping into some heavy bread. It’s designed for the professional user that is willing to spend the heavy bread and then take the time to master the instrument’s capabilities to the fullest. And trust me there is a serious learning curve, and like all instruments, this instrument has its own idiosyncrasies and personality. But man what a personality it is. I love it. Thanks Luke (my Sweetwater sales rep) for helping me set this new awesome rig up, and the legacy continues…

Kgakgamatso
from Free state, SOUTH AFRICA
August 13, 2012Music Background:
Pro musician, recording engineer

Monster synth

If you are looking for monster synth go for this one. From piano to synth you get great sounds if you know your story.

W.A. "THE NIPPER" NAGY
from MARTHA'S VINEYARD, MASSACHUSETTS
November 4, 2011Music Background:
Pro Keyboardist and Composer

too kool for school!!!

I've now had it for a month, and still finding new ways to make and create sounds. I am a bit of a gear-head, but I actually had to crack open the manual to get a handle on navigating this Roland. (Plus checked out the great tutorial videos online)I've got Rolands, Kurzweils, Emu, Korg, Yamahas and Casios, but this one is pretty deep. The sound quality almost rivals any of my plugins, or my (East West, Spectrasonics,Vienna,etc )sample libraries. I bought this for live gigs and am very satified with the sound, weight, and performance of this rig. Love the synth action-maybe the best non-piano non-waterfall action I've ever played. there is nothing like a real piano for piano sounds, but I can actually get a lot of nuance from the action (and a little velocity tweaking) I do have the Roland RD700nx, and the pianos are THAT good. Rhodes-excellent, Basses, great, vocal stuff-hmmm, strings good, clavinet, good but needs tweaking, synths-that is in a league by itself: that could be an entire keyboard in itself.
The way this [Jupiter 80]is setup(registrations) is unique, kind of an expansion of the RD700nx setup, with the ability to layer and split 4 sounds over 4 individual layers (totaling 16 sounds). If you can't get a fat enough sound from that, there is something wrong with your programming. But even just using 1(!) sound is extremely fat, and it must be the updated analog output circuitry that puts this in a class by itself. Is this the perfect keyboard? NO! There is no such animal, but this fills this nitch for a live keyboardist nicely. There are very few gigs that this wouldn't cover, and cover well! (Roland: Have you considered a dual manual keyboard-top a great synth action, bottom, piano action like the RD700nx, tremendous sounds like the Jupiter 80 with an onboard sequencer AND the ability to loop live midi performance or audio (with a pedal) that you could play over, that weighs 30 pounds????? Just sayin'......)

Howard
from Walnut Creek, CA
April 12, 2012Music Background:
Keyboard Player & Audio Engineer

JP80 is excellent

This keyboard not only sounds great it play great also

Jefferson Weber
from Indianapolis,Indiana
September 28, 2011Music Background:
Hobbyist

Awesome Keyboard

Great Keyboard. Love the 76 keys. Super easy to split the keyboard too.Great Action too. Sounds are incredible. Pianos are suberb. Strings are Lush and syth sounds really cut through. Great LIve and Great in Studio also!

Carl Nelson
from Grand Haven Michigan
January 14, 2013Music Background:
Piano player by heart. Keyboard player in classic rock bands for 30 years and counting.

Roland Jupiter 80

Sorry for the 4.0 rating. Mostly because of the new language Roland has moved to. (Registrations instead of patches etc.). I love the sounds the board has. I have yet to spend any length of time learning to program any presets/banks though. I've always been a Roland fan and have several of them. I am sure this board will do more than I'll ask it to but I purchased it for the sound qualities. (Sounds that no other manufacturer comes close two). I purchased this board for a lead synth to be used in conjunction with my Fantom X8 for live performance.