Want to buy... Jupiter 6

[hydrogen]

hey guys... new years is here. i finally got a chance to plug in the jup6. wow... lots of stuff... what a cool synth! I absolutely love the sound but damn you guys really right about it.

Lets start with the good:

• sounds awesome with the right settings.
• Synth is in great condition cosmetically.
• Super fun to play! especially in split mode and the arpeggio.
• When you are done, you can stand the synth up sideways and do cocaine off the metal plates on the sides. (Genius design by Roland, they know the audience!)
• stays in tune

Now the bad:

• This thing is old. Doesn't exactly have the same feeling as the newer synthesizers i have in the arsonal. I'm wondering when something will fail on it.
• Envelopes! didn't realize how strange they are... if the attack is set to low its an obvious click. same with the release. and if its too fast you can hear sort of a grainy type sound as if it was digital... (especially in the lower octaves). This effect is reminiscent of the tetra which can have some of the same problems.
• The faders seem a little bit dry, they feel kind of dragging or like they were cleaned... unlike the juno106 where the faders are all smooth as butter. (maybe i need some kind of fader grease?)
• One of the keys is kind of intermittent, it worked all day yesterday though... but today it is not.
• its actually a bit difficult to program. haha... of course when compared to the juno but so much more potential for different sounds with all the detuning and LFO possibilities

I'm debating what i want to do with the synth. I really want to keep it... but i want to take it to the next level. I'm thinking of having a good friend of mine recap the unit and maybe getting the europa board installed. Also i'm not sure what to do with the unsmooth faders. What do you guys think?

[AK]

No idea but you just reminded me of something, a guy off another board some yrs back had one and he said something about the envelopes clicking with fast attack or something. I once owned a JP 8000 and that did that which was annoying on bass but, depends what sounds you're doing though, sometimes I think that can be useful but I don't have anything in hardware where the envelopes are fast enough to produce a click.

If you nudge the attack time up, do they lose impact?

What sounds do you plan on using it for? I used to drool over the MKS-80, always wanted one of them since I can remember.

[hydrogen]

No idea but you just reminded me of something, a guy off another board some yrs back had one and he said something about the envelopes clicking with fast attack or something. I once owned a JP 8000 and that did that which was annoying on bass but, depends what sounds you're doing though, sometimes I think that can be useful but I don't have anything in hardware where the envelopes are fast enough to produce a click.

If you nudge the attack time up, do they lose impact?

What sounds do you plan on using it for? I used to drool over the MKS-80, always wanted one of them since I can remember.

yup... its the exact same types of clicks as the JP8000. actually the synth reminds me very much of the jp8000. i was surprised.

bass, chords and whatever else it can show me... i have to ask/play with the synth what it can do and it will present itself.

[Casanova808]

I've never been a fan of the JP6. I think it is over-hyped because of it's big brother.

It is in this weird place where it goes for too much because people think it is an affordable JP8. They don't sound anything alike. The JP6 sounds too much like the JX series to be worth the premium price. It is absurd that you can easily get a JX10 for under $500 and people are paying $1,500 for JP6's.

If you are looking for Roland analogue poly, the JX8p and JX10 are seriously undervalued right now. Pick up a Kiwitechnics patch editor and you're golden.

[mehta]

Agreed that the JX series is nicely undervalued right now. I picked up a JX3P for $250 a couple of months ago and it sounds great. Maybe a little bit time consuming to program, but for the money it is quite a good synth. Interesting internal sequencer as well.