Some of these Korg guys are starting to get pissed because I love the synth section on the Jupiter. I guess as a Jupiter owner I'm going to have to sharpen up my defenses.

One thing I love about the Jupiter is that it is product that is a result of the vision of Roland's founder. It is a weird product in today's market but I understand it and see the consistency in his vision. It might not be the Roland product everyone cares about, but it is the one he cares about. I think it was designed purely around what he wanted without regard to what the market demanded. It reminds me a bit of the spirit behind my Shigeru Kawai and many of the great Japanese companies founded by visionaries.

Forget that. Found it. I can prepare the file for you. Anything different for harpsichord?

Not that I can think of. Just make sure it is the sole voice playing, and that reverb, chorus, EQ, etc. are turned off when you are capturing the audio. There is a MIDI control message at the beginning that has been fairly effective at turning off global reverb. If using an external recorder, get the signal as hot as you can without clipping. If using the internal recorder the level isn't as important.

Record WAV / 44.1kHz sample rate / stereo / 16 bit or float.

Convert the WAV file to MP3 / 44.1kHz / stereo / 192kbps / CBR. (I can do the WAV => MP3 conversion if you like.)

And if you want to make one of the main piano I could compare it to the other SN pianos I've tested.

Not at home since yesterday but will get to this when I get home.

The SOS review is out today. I seem to more know about SN than the reviewer, but a few points:

1) You can edit all tones. It is just that with the SN acoustic tones, they can't be saved at what most people think of as the single "tone" level, then built into sets. You edit the acoustic sounds at the set (i.e. Kronos "combi") level and they get saved that way per set.

2) He seems a little unclear about what SuperNatural means and which tones are SN. My understanding is that all tones are SN on the Jupiter, but I will confirm that when I get back home tonight.

3) He summarizes the synth section details:

Each "tone" is made of 3 partials, each of which is it's own synth

Each partial has 8 oscillator types. 6 of those are analog types and have 3 variants each with programmable pulse width and PWM. The 7th is a Super Saw which also has prgrammable depth. The 8th allows you to choose from 380 PCMs.

Dedicated AD pitch envelope.
Ring modulator between partial 1 and 2.
Wave shaper that can act on any of the resulting sounds.
Multimode filter (low pass, high pass, band pass and peaking) with 12dB and 24dB oct. slopes.
2 LFOs, one for conventional duties and one dedicate to modulation joystick.

His closing statement:

"Of course the JP80 is not for everybody, and if you need a workstation capable of providing dozens of splits with multitimbral effects assignments, you're looking at the wrong instrument. But if you're after something that provides some top-notch piano and orchestral sounds, a remarkably powerful VA synth that can imitate the best of the real thing, and the ability to build these into complex, involving sonic structures, the Jupiter has alot going for it. Sitting somewhere between a preset stage piano/organ/synth and a fully featured workstation, it's a brave design, and - like me - potential purchasers need to take the time to overcome their preconceptions of what they think it should be, and appreciate it for what it really is."

The Jupiter is really proving to be a great instrument. It is so much fun to play and easy to use. If it had a weighted action it would be perfect, but I'm having fun with the semi-weighted and am adjusting for piano and EP.

Screen of the synth edit screen:

Wow, nice UI!

Is this all touch-screen controlled, yes?

James
x

Yes. But, when you hit an item you can also use the great Roland dial to the right. It works perfectly. The best interface I have used by far.

Dewster, I think it is time to trade in that NX. You have a piano anyway. This thing is a SuperNatural lover's dream.

I imagine they will make their next workstation around the sounds in the Jupiter. That will be one to look out for. Hopefully they learned from the Fantom G debacle.

Hello Hideki,

Do you like the Jupiter80 better than the Roland RD-700NX? Does it give that rich piano sound like the 700NX?

Thank you,
ChazG

I see 9 different SN pianos, with the one below being the first. I think the parameters you can modify are more limited than in the 700NX, but I don't have the 700.

Well the action is completely different, but taking that aside, yes, the piano sounds are just as good, if not the same in some cases. The Jupiter is much more fun and versatile than the 700NX. If you need other sounds, there really isn't a comparison, but if your needs are primarily piano and EP I would stick with the 700NX.

I wonder if they are variations on a single SN piano (AFAIK like all SN equipped DPs other than the RD-700NX) or if there are some distinctly different SN pianos in there (the NX has three)?

Any way to figure that out? They definitely each have the SN label and there are some distinct sounding ones in there like upright and honky tonk.

Given a DPBSD MP3 of each I could probably tell you. I wouldn't bother with the honky tonk, that is almost certainly just a variation. The upright is probably also just a variation. I'd concentrate on the grands.

Hideki, that is a beautiful User Interface. Congrats on that purchase. I have to say, by far, I'm most envious of the SK5.

When I owned the NX for a very brief time, I felt that the 3 main pianos were all the same, just EQ'd entirely different to provided the differences in sound. One of the reasons I didn't keep it over the RD-700GXF was because the GXF had 4 very distinct sounding SN pianos. I wonder if in fact, Roland sampled 3 different pianos or just the same piano and mic'd the piano different.

BTW, should we have started an entirely different thread dedicated to the Jupiter 80?

The phase views of the three basic pianos in the NX look very different, they sound quite different to me, and behave quite differently. What is causing these differences is much more than EQ.


Yes.

Will start a new thread and consolidate some of the info I posted thus far.

On a side note.... Cool feature on the Kronos is real time display of processor use and note stealing.