Behold – at long last a virtual Super Jupiter MKS-80 and a rev. 4 at that. I mention ‘rev. 4’ as just one part of the mythology behind this analogue rack – supposedly you could have bought a rev. 5 and feel all upset about that. I had a rev. 4 long ago and at one stage had to sell it – much later I bought another one that worked well for a while and then had to have all sorts of bits replaced due to overheating.
Legends are expensive pets.
We’ve seen enough virtual Jupiter 8 keyboards to sink the Titanic, but it’s fallen to a self declared enthusiast to software the rack. ‘An entirely personal project’ which became impersonal for some reason. His technique seems unfamiliar – where some developers have recreated the physical innards of their instrument – the filters and wires and so on, this author talks of automating a large body of repeated measurements of sounds that his hardware creates, tweaking his code to match.
Is this AI at work? Probably part of it, but then ears are the main thing. For me it is a Good Idea. Only some of the sound is intentional, and some of it is unexpected, so reproducing the unexpected sound that comes up the cables is arguably the reproduction of a particular unit.
Now you want me to tell you if this is accurate. Seeing as no two MKS-80s sound the same there’s no accurate. My first and second MKS-80 were a bit different. Even in a single unit the 8 voices vary a little. Synth-80 makes sounds that I recognise and the adjustments do what I expect.
The virtual control panel is definitely better than the original hardware, which uses early clunky and slow MIDI – example being the filter only having 100 steps. The virtual panel offers overlays that show you the signal and control flows – you can turn that off if you like but it’s actually a little helper when you’re twiddling at full speed.
And you get a hell of a lot more polyphony – 24 voices. So when you’re using Unison-2 mode (which you always will) you still get lots of notes. The effects are OK, but I’d not use them unless a saved patch demands it.
Is the MKS-80 itself an essential instrument? Well actually no. It does some things (fatty fat bass) well but the Jupiter 8 is more versatile. If you’re looking for dainty nuance this is not the place. For most people the Cherry Jupiter 8 is your best deal by far.
Would I sell my current MKS-80? I just might.