Liam Howlett’s synths and gear in studio and live.
Manufactured: 1981-1984
Type: Analog synthesizer
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.
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!
"The Jupiter 8 had been superb, but it started to break down".
Future Music - 1st February 1993 Prodigious talent
Sound On Sound - 1st October 1996 Liam Howlett • The Prodigy & Firestarter
Power On - 1st January 1999 Catching Up With The Prodigy
Future Music - 1st December 2000 DIY Prodigy
Sound On Sound - 1st October 2004 Liam Howlett: Recording Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned
Korg magazine - 29th November 2004 Never Outgunned: Liam Howlett
Keyboard Magazine - 1st February 2005 Trim the Fat
Sound On Sound - 1st October 2010 Jon Burton: Mixing & Recording The Prodigy Live
MusicTech magazine - 18th May 2015 Landmark Productions: The Prodigy – The Fat of the Land
MusicTech magazine - 30th July 2019 Prodigy engineer/co-producer Neil Mclellan remembers the Jilted Generation sessions