This is more like it!!!

[Synthtron]

I sold my Jupiter-80 and 50 a few months ago. This new Jupiter-X is exactly what I have been waiting for.

[sompost]

Yes!! A Jupiter-8 for a price that won't bankrupt you! It's not analog, mind you. But then again, who cares if it sounds good, especially considering that there's a Juno-106 and a JX-8P inside...

The last synth that I'm going to buy.

[Bach42t]

The last synth that I'm going to buy.

And I hear that every time!

[Synthtron]

I think this new Jupiter is really good. I wish we had gotten this in place of the Jupiter-80/50 originally. I am planning on getting the Jupiter-X but there is one thing I do not understand and that is why in the world Roland chose to put all of the outputs and connectors on the middle of the rear panel. That stinks if you use a column stand like the Apex stands I use.

[Chrisk-K]

I'm buying one! The Jupiter-X is the sexiest looking synth since the JD-800!

[Tom_1970]

Is it Aira link compatible?

Not a dealbreaker for me if it isn't but a nice bonus if it is.

[Fourfiftyfour]

This is a true successor worthy of the Jupiter name. Yes Roland keep the innovation going and don't ever give in to trends.

[Happy]

"Using their new A-Core synth engine, this differs from ACB in that is is more CPU efficient and can provide up to 256 voices across 5 part multi-timbrality" The sonicstate interviews said "A-core is better than ACB but Roland have not given up ACB". and "The ACB technology is slightly more restrictive". Well.. this one looks to be totally unrelated with ACB but a JD-XA/JP50/80 supernatural repackaged and recycled, less multi-timbral parts than an Integra 7 (16) but adds $1000 to the price tag compared to the X and same price as Xm. Expecting the parameters sysex etc..to be very similar than other SN products. (Roland probably will forget an MIDI editor as what happened before on JP). The goods news must be that everything is X now and it becomes more likely now for ACB a System X will see the light of day soon. Even an Integra X with all this new A-Core .Nice for those who are Generation X :-)

[Fourfiftyfour]

"Using their new A-Core synth engine, this differs from ACB in that is is more CPU efficient and can provide up to 256 voices across 5 part multi-timbrality" The sonicstate interviews said "A-core is better than ACB but Roland have not given up ACB". and "The ACB technology is slightly more restrictive". Well.. this one looks to be totally unrelated with ACB but a JD-XA/JP50/80 supernatural repackaged and recycled, less multi-timbral parts than an Integra 7 (16) but adds $1000 to the price tag compared to the X and same price as Xm. Expecting the parameters sysex etc..to be very similar than other SN products. (Roland probably will forget an MIDI editor as what happened before on JP). The goods news must be that everything is X now and it becomes more likely now for ACB a System X will see the light of day soon. Even an Integra X with all this new A-Core .Nice for those who are Generation X :-)

If there is one thing I can say about Roland because of all the gear they make obsolete when they drop something new it's that they don't recycle stuff. When they have an idea and they drop it it's gone.

What I will say is that the Integra seven needs more multi timbral abilities because it's housing pretty much all of their sound modules in one unit. If you need orchestral sounds, Drums galore, brass sounds, a church organ or whatever it's in there. The Jupiter isn't that it's a Digital with Synthesizer with an Analog sound engine. From what I gathered if I want to make it sound like were in the year 3000 you can or you make it sound like 1984. I don't think Rolands aim is to market this as a Retro Digital Analog Jupiter 8 but a Jupiter for the current era just like the Jupiter 8 was THE keyboard of that era using the best technology till Digital came along.

With ACB when I compared it to authentic Analog of the gear it's mimicked after it just sounds only a tad bit cleaner. I always suspected it was because of the aged electronics. The analog drone and slight nuances were still there in the ACB tech though. In a recording you would not know the difference at all. On later Roland gear I noticed they added in features to control the ACB effect to make it sound more digital or Analog. Everyone has their guesstimates about ZEN-Core but they don't even know what ACB is hardly I doubt ZEN-Core will be any different except more sensitive to executing analog patterns for an identical playing experience.

Where I find myself at this point in time is that Analog is a trend and we're not in the 90's anymore. Emulating or recreating Analog sounds isn't much of a challenge with today's tech. Most stuff on the radio feature software emulations. Roland seems to be the only one trying to perfect it in a hardware version. Thing is that modern Analog doesn't even sound like Analog it sounds extremely clean and controlled and more digital. Even DSI had to add a "Slop" feature to dirty up the signals on their gear.

In the 80's when you were taking an Analog sounds, running it through an analog board, and recording it to an analog tape machine and then cutting it to a record or cassette Analog was true Analog. In todays time when you take an Analog keyboard, run it through a digital mixer/interface, run it into your computer on a digital track, digitally mix and master it, then digitally release it in a digital format you don't have analog anymore. It's an analog sound that now converted to Digital. So to me at least the whole Analog vs. Digital debate is bs and for the crowd that spends more time nit picking gear than playing it. This Zen-Core technology would probably give the Moog One a run for it's money. I look forward to seeing the Jupiter X vs threads when it comes out. I whole heartedly believe that like the new Fantom this will be a game changer.

[Stormchild]

The sonicstate interviews said "A-core is better than ACB but Roland have not given up ACB". and "The ACB technology is slightly more restrictive". Well.. this one looks to be totally unrelated with ACB but a JD-XA/JP50/80 supernatural repackaged and recycled, less multi-timbral parts than an Integra 7 (16) but adds $1000 to the price tag compared to the X and same price as Xm. Expecting the parameters sysex etc..to be very similar than other SN products. (Roland probably will forget an MIDI editor as what happened before on JP). The goods news must be that everything is X now and it becomes more likely now for ACB a System X will see the light of day soon. Even an Integra X with all this new A-Core .Nice for those who are Generation X :-)

What the Roland rep actually said is the A-Core emulations are “more efficient” (not better). The reason they haven’t given up on ACB is it still provides the most accurate, highest quality emulations of their analog classics. It’s restrictive simply because it requires a ton of DSP power to model every component of an analog synth. For the Jupiter-X, they chose to use a simpler, less DSP-heavy type of emulation as a tradeoff to allow greater polyphony. As you said, it’s the successor to the Jupiter-80, which took the same approach of prioritizing polyphony over everything else (there was no ACB at the time, but component modeling was already a thing other companies had been doing for years, and Roland chose not to pursue it for the JP-50/80).

The Jupiter-X does sound very good, and the emulations will no doubt be close enough for some people. It’s incredibly versatile and looks very well built. There’s definitely a market for it.

However, for those of us who really just want the closest thing possible to a real Jupiter-8, Juno-106, SH-101 etc. and don’t need or want piano and guitar sounds and other rompler stuff, ACB is still the best option.

[Synthtron]

The sonicstate interviews said "A-core is better than ACB but Roland have not given up ACB". and "The ACB technology is slightly more restrictive". Well.. this one looks to be totally unrelated with ACB but a JD-XA/JP50/80 supernatural repackaged and recycled, less multi-timbral parts than an Integra 7 (16) but adds $1000 to the price tag compared to the X and same price as Xm. Expecting the parameters sysex etc..to be very similar than other SN products. (Roland probably will forget an MIDI editor as what happened before on JP). The goods news must be that everything is X now and it becomes more likely now for ACB a System X will see the light of day soon. Even an Integra X with all this new A-Core .Nice for those who are Generation X :-)

What the Roland rep actually said is the A-Core emulations are “more efficient” (not better). The reason they haven’t given up on ACB is it still provides the most accurate, highest quality emulations of their analog classics. It’s restrictive simply because it requires a ton of DSP power to model every component of an analog synth. For the Jupiter-X, they chose to use a simpler, less DSP-heavy type of emulation as a tradeoff to allow greater polyphony. As you said, it’s the successor to the Jupiter-80, which took the same approach of prioritizing polyphony over everything else (there was no ACB at the time, but component modeling was already a thing other companies had been doing for years, and Roland chose not to pursue it for the JP-50/80).

The Jupiter-X does sound very good, and the emulations will no doubt be close enough for some people. It’s incredibly versatile and looks very well built. There’s definitely a market for it.

However, for those of us who really just want the closest thing possible to a real Jupiter-8, Juno-106, SH-101 etc. and don’t need or want piano and guitar sounds and other rompler stuff, ACB is still the best option.

I do not understand what the Zen Core or A-Core marketing terms mean yet. Is there any documentation or videos??? share links if so, thanks!!! LOL!!!

I certainly hope the Jupiter-X's analog emulating engine is a bit deeper than the Jupiter-80 and 50. I had those and while they were great at stacking and layering, at the basic tone level it was the exact same signal path as a Gaia which came before it, having 3 partials and the same parameters/signal flow. I hope they also correct any aliasing issues with the PWM. The Jupiter-80 and 50 had horrible aliasing.

I have a System-8 and it is great. I would love to have a synth that is an all a rounder, great at recreating my classic patches from the Juno-106/60 and the JX-3p and being able to also play realistic acoustic sounds, being able to combine those together if wanted and everything in between.

Will the Jupiter-X deliver? I have pre-ordered it because I plan on another visit to Jupiter. LOL!!!

[LA Keys]

I do not understand what the Zen Core or A-Core marketing terms mean yet. Is there any documentation or videos??? share links if so, thanks!!! LOL!!!

Zen core is the architecture of new AMD microprocessors.
See here:https://www.amd.com/en/technologies/zen-core

LA

[Synthtron]

I do not understand what the Zen Core or A-Core marketing terms mean yet. Is there any documentation or videos??? share links if so, thanks!!! LOL!!!

Zen core is the architecture of new AMD microprocessors.
See here:https://www.amd.com/en/technologies/zen-core

LA

Yeah I read that there was an AMD chip called Zen-Core.
I wanted to know what Zen-Core (or Z-Core as I also have read) means for the Roland synth architecture of the New Jupiter-X.

I have found a bit of info from the Fantom manual I will share below:

Looks like structures are used similar to the D-50 or V-synth. (RIng Mods settings, X Mod settings, Cross Mod settings)

It has a four partial structure

Waveforms consist of:
PCM waveforms
PCM-Sync
VA wavforms that are stated to be numerically generated models of waves.
Noise

Filters consist of
TVF Filter types LPF, HPF, BPF, PKG,LPF2, LPF3
VCF filters JP, MG and P5 (Uh-oh! I hope these are better than those found on the Jupiter-80)

PWM (I really hope this is not like the aliasing mess found on the Jupiter-80/50.)

Looks like it has full ADSR on the pitch ENV (Jupiter-80 only had Attack and Decay)

Also look like 2 LFOs

So far it looks much more promising than the previous Jupiter-80 and Jupiter-50 synths. I am not sure about that Filter section though. I hope the filters are better on the JP-X than on the JP-80/50.

Please keep in mind this is from the new Fantom manual not Jupiter-X.

[kimsnarf]

Cool! Finally some action! Jupiter X!

I love that Roland, after all these YEARS of plastic fantastic, have finally returned to building quality synths again. For YEARS it seemed the Jupiter-80 would be the last of its kind. But now METAL is back! This is the first Roland synth since the Jupiter-80 that I am seriously considering. The form factor and the interface looks great. This appears to be a true joy to play, a true instrument. I applaud them for that!

Now it's all down to whether the sound quality delivers. Those inevitable demos can't come soon enough! The few Xm videos I have heard so far did not convince me. ACB does not hold up to the real thing for me. It can kind of get there in certain spots, but it breaks down when I interact with it. I guess it's good enough for certain patches, if you need a certain type of sound for a tune. But unlike the real thing, I found myself unable to tweak the sounds just as I like them while retaining the analog goodness. It has very few sweet spots.

Unfortunately, this new tech appears to be less powerful than ACB (in analog emulation) to allow for more polyphony. But then again, the Jupiter-80 has even worse analog emulation, but that does not stop it from sounding amazing when not trying to emulate other synths. I'm hoping the X can stand on its own in the same manner.

With the arpeggiators and layering this can be a great band-in-a-box and an inspiring sketchbook for exploring ideas. But personally, this ability is not something I need or lack. I prefer combining other gear instead. So everything else aside, it has to be great in the sound department if I'm going to end up buying it.

Let the demos begin!

[Happy]

Probably need to wait for the manuals to be released to see the structure of the engine to make further conclusions if Roland will release it. The SN/PCM group at Roland releases very good manuals with lots of details, in very contrast to the Aira/ACB group which is very poor in doing this. Many of the ACB designs lack MIDI (sysex) implementation and documentation. Bet the JPX will be SNS with some (small) improvements, specially since the JPX also included JV5080 emulation, alike the I7.