street priceJupiter-4 is a synthesizer launched by Roland in 1978. The monotimbral instrument offers one VCO per voice. The oscillator generates triangle, square, and square with PWM, there’s a sub oscillator included. One LFO produces sine, square and ramp (ramp up/ramp down).
Filter section is represented with high pass filter and low pass resonant filter. There are two ADSR envelopes one of which is dedicated to the filter and another – to VCA.
The effects section offers ensemble and stereo chorus (based on two MN3004 ICs). There’s an arpeggiator onboard.
Jupiter-4 is the first synth in the series. It’s not the most successful Roland’s synthesizer and is hardly popular today but it started the Jupiter series and back then was among the first polyphonic synthesizers. Memory stores 8 user patches and 10 presets but the piano, strings and brass sounds don’t seem authentic. Anyway you could sync 4 voices together and get a thick sonic flow. Arpeggiator was quite amusing for some tricks, LFO was good for filter sweeps.
The synthesizer comprised digital control parts for analog circuitry which allowed programming.
Jupiter-4 was cheaper than its rivals Prophet-5 and OB-X though not as popular. Anyway Jupiter-8 solved all the problems.
The eminent arpeggio part is clearly audible in “Rio” track of Duran Duran while many new wave musicians, including Phil Oakey, made Jupiter-4 one of their favourite instruments.
Tags: analog synthesizer
Country of origin / production: Japan
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| Usage area | |
|---|---|
| Synthesizer | |
| Usage Design/ Form Factor | |
| With Keys | |
| Archetype | |
| Analogue (A) | |
| Polyphony | |
| Voices | 4 |
| Multi Timbral Capacity | 1 part(s) |
| Tone Generator / Sound Synthesis | |
| Synthesis Method | Analog Subtractive |
| Oscillator Type | VCO (Voltage Controlled Oscillator) |
| Oscillators per voice | 1 |
| Sub-Oscillators per voice | 1 |
| Waveform/ Spectral form (main generator) | Sine |
| Waveform/ Spectral form (main generator) | Square |
| Waveform/ Spectral form (main generator) | Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) |
| Waveform/ Spectral form (main generator) | Triangle |
| Waveform/ Spectral form (main generator) | Saw |
| Waveform/ Spectral form (main generator) | Reverse Sawtooth |
| Waveform/ Spectral form (main generator) | White Noise |
| Filter | |
| Voltage Controlled Filter (VCF) | |
| High-pass Filter (HPF) | |
| Low-pass Filter (LPF) | |
| Resonance | |
| Envelope Generator (EG) | |
| Attack | |
| Decay | |
| Sustain | |
| Release | |
| Filter | ADSR |
| Amp | ADSR |
| ADSR | |
| Modulation | |
| LFO: LFO Count | 1 |
| LFO | Self-oscillating LFO |
| LFO Waveforms | |
| Ramp Up | |
| Ramp Down | |
| Effects | |
| Chorus | |
| Arpegiator/ Portamento | |
| Arpegiator | |
| Portamento | |
| Keys | |
| Type | Synth Action |
| Velocity Sensitivity | No |
| Aftertouch | No |
| Size | 4 |
| Number of Keys | 49 |
| Built-in controllers | |
| Pitch Bend/ Modulation Lever | |
| Slider/ Drawbar | 20 |
| Potentiometer | 7 |
| Knob/ Switch | 11 |
| Button | 31 |
| External controllers | |
| Expression foot pedal | |
| Damper pedal | |
| CV/ Gate IN | |
| VCF | |
| Ext Clock | |
| Audio out | |
| Dedicated output per voice | |
| All voices mixed in one output | |
| Analogue: 1/4" (6.35mm) headphones preamplified | 1 |
| Case/ body | |
| Metal&wood | |
| Color | |
| Black | |
| Production start | 1978 |
| Production end | 1981 |
| Production ended | |
The Roland Promars MRS-2 is a vintage analog synthesizer released by Roland in 1979. It features two oscillators, a low-pass filter, and a voltage-controlled amplifier (VCA). The Promars is capable of producing a wide range of sounds, from bass and lead...
