Roland Jupiter-8 Synthesizer

Manufactured: 1981-1984
Type: Analog synthesizer

Gear info:

The Jupiter-8, or JP-8, is an eight-voice polyphonic analog subtractive synthesizer introduced by Roland Corporation in early 1981.

The Jupiter-8 was Roland's flagship synthesizer for the first half of the 1980s. Although it lacked the soon-to-be standard of MIDI control, later model Jupiter-8s did include Roland's proprietary DCB interface, and all of them sported advanced features and the ability to split the keyboard into two zones, with a separate patch active on each zone.

Keyboard is built all in metal and weights nearly 20 kg but the design makes it look slim. This was also one Roland's best analog synths, but then came these digital kings like JP-8000 and took the place.

Used:

One of the main sound sources for the single Wind It Up.. If you read Wind It Up single credits you can see that there is even a credit to this machine!

Liam's comment:

"The Jupiter 8 had been superb, but it started to break down".