Roland Jupiter 8

"Iconic and one of the most sought-after polysynth ever created boastin 16 VCO oscillator, elative rackmont version is considered the Mks-80 module, cutdown version is Jupiter 6 "

Overview

KEYBOARD Main Zilog Z80 CPU manages 61-note, 5 octave keyboard huge with a numeric display.Jp 8 can be played in 3 Modes: Whole (1 sound on 8 voices) Dual (2 sounds on 4 voices) or Split (1+1 sound assigned to midle keyboard).
->Roland did also many machines inspired by the iconic Jp8, including: early V.A JP-8000 (1996), later another more advanced V.A PJ-08 (2015) , Rompler Jupiter80 (2011) or ZEN core technology Jupiter-X, but also many plugins online.

TERMINAL CONNECTORS
1- memory protection tab
2- TAPE I/O (to save patch)
3- Single CV out for monosynth
4- analog clock IN for arpeggiator
5- VCF CV control IN
6- VCA CV control IN
7- Pedalswitch input for PORTAMENTO
8- Pedalswitch input for HOLD (envelope)
9- LEFT out (when in SPLIT)
10 - main out LEFT+RIGHT
11- RIGHT out (when in SPLIT)
12 - XLR outputs
13- headphones out with level switch
Note: Later version board from 12-bit to 14-bit D/A converter. includes a DCB connector (PRE MIDI for sequencer like MSQ-700 or interface like OP-8 ), it is possible of course to mod the jp8 and add standard Midi control.

Sound

SOUND the jp8 features 8 voices polyphony, each voice is composed by two VCO (with volume balance) with these shapes: triangle, sawtooth, pulse and square waves; the square wave of VCO2 is replaced by a noise generator and comes with an additional LOW FREQ switch.
The oscillators have many advanced function such as cross-modulation, pulse width modulation, OSC-SYNC and super UNISON mode to stack hyper fat 16 VCO in one big mono!

FILTER the multimode VCF based on IR3109 by International Rectifier IC (e.g Sh-101) features a classic resonant LPF with 2 or poles slope, it features a key tracking option and can be modulated of course by the LFO. The J-8 also features a non-resonant high-pass filter with individual cutoff slider.

LFO a main delay modulator offers four shapes – sine, saw, square and sample-and-hold. A switch in the VCO Modulator section allows to choose if VCO1, VCO2 (or both) are modulated by LFO. A second LFO can be triggered by the "LFO MODULATION" next to the pitch bend control for live performance , it features two switches that enable VCO and VCF modulation individual sliders to set the amount of modulation sent.

ENVELOPE 2 EGS based on IR3R01 by International Rectifier (eg. Juno60) with 4 segments: Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release. EG1 is bipolar can be used on the VCO Modulator or VCF, while EG2 is hardwired to the "volume" VCA. Another Key follow can be applied for each envelope.
Just to complete IC list, the VCA is based on a BA662 IC (e.g famous bass linertb303)

Memory and Arpeggiator

MEMORY 64 memory patches that can be savet to magnetic tape

ARPEGGIATOR classy 5 octaves arpeggiator with 4 different direction modes: up, down, up + down, and random from 1 Hz to 25 Hz.
NOTE: In Split mode, the arpeggiator is active only on first lower split side of the keyboard. Can be synched to external analog clock.