The Roland Jupiter 6 was release in 1983 at a list price of $3,000, measuring 42" wide, 4 ¾" high, and 17" deep. It tips the scales at 35 lbs. The Jupiter 6 ("J6") is a 6 voice synth with a splitable keyboard, memory for 48 tones and 32 patches (two tones set up in a split combination). Each voice consists of two voltage controlled oscillators, a multi mode filter, two ADSR envelopes, and LFO. The unit has a second LFO which is shared by all six voices. Oddly enough while the unit can do splits it does not have a dual mode (due to the way the voices are split up). There are two separate synthesizer boards found in side the board a two voice unit and a four voice unit which are under separate control and allows for the splits.

Keyboard

The keyboard is a 61 key non velocity sensitive keyboard that a has a very slight feel of resistance. The keyboard is splitable between two separate tones and the split point is programmable on most units except for the early versions. You can assign four voices to the upper half and two will therefore be assigned to the lower half or vice versa. Of course you can use the whole mode which assigns one tone to all six voices. If you play more than six keys, only six will sound and new notes will not make a sound until held keys are released

There are five voice assignment modes which are stored as part of the patch’s parameters. Solo, Unison, Solo Unison, Poly 1, and Poly 2. Solo is a single trigger monophonic synth that uses one synth voice. Solo Unison is a single trigger monophonic synth that uses all six synth voices at once. Unison will utilize all the oscillators available by dividing them up between the number of notes played at the same time. For example if you play one note - all twelve oscillators will be assigned to the note, six oscillators will be assigned to two notes, etc. Poly 1 is the standard two oscillator per voice mode and poly 2 is almost identical except poly 2 releases the note to zero when a new note is triggered.

Patch and Tone Memory

There are 48 memory slots for tones and 32 memory slots for patches. There is no LED but the lights on the buttons selected identify what patch or tone is selected. A cassette interface is provided to allow for storage of patches and tones on to tape. It is one the quickest interfaces I have ever used storing the entire memory contents of the JP-6 in less than 20 seconds. You can save individual banks or all of then together. There is a verify option to ensure that the recording was successful. There cassette interface uses ¼" cables which is a lot better than the 1/8 (mini jacks). I highly recommend that you record the data as a sound file on your computer and then you can play the file back to the JP6 via the computer. This is much more reliable way then with audio cassettes. System Exclusive is not supported so there is no way to dump or retrieve data via midi.

Left Hand Controls

For pitch bending there is the Roland style joystick that moves only right and left and it is spring loaded. I prefer the pitch wheel to the joystick but it is easy enough to get use to. There are three separate switches that turn on and off the routing of the stick to VCO 1, VCO 2 and the VCF. A slider determines the amount the sticks range up to +/- 12 steps and a ‘wide’button will increase the range to +/- three octaves. Having the wide range is excellent for getting some really good effects. A second slider determines the sticks affect on the VCF. When it split mode you can select which tone(s) (upper, lower, or both) the pitch wheel will affect.

A second LFO is included as part of the left hand controls. It only makes a sine wave and its depth is to shallow in my opinion. Four separate sliders determine the rate depth to the VCOs, VCF, the rate at which LFO depth goes from zero to the amount set by the first two sliders, and LFO speed. A rather large on/off button is used to turn the LFO on and off.

A glide and glissando (stepped guide) mode is offered and a rotary pot determines the speed of the glide or glissando. When it split mode you can select which tone(s) (upper, lower, or both ) glide/glissando will affect.

The Voice

This is where in my opinion this synth really stands out. The voice architecture is fantastic and offers a lot of options not found on other polyphonic synths.

Voltage Controlled Oscillators

Each voice has two audio oscillators, the first produces triangle, sawtooth, and variable pulse/square wave. VCO 2 produces triangle, positive sawtooth, pulse, and noise. And the oscillator can produces these waveforms simultaneously with the exception of VCO 1 where both the pulse and square can’t be produced at the same time. To turn more than one waveform you must hit each waveforms button on the applicable oscillator at the same time which sometimes is easy but other times its more difficult than it should be. Osc 1 tuning is controlled by a rotary pot which has areas mapped out for five octaves (32’,16’,8’,4’,2’). Osc 2 has a similar pot but it will go into a low frequency mode and a high frequency mode. Additionally there is a fine tuning pot for the Osc 2.

The oscillators may be modulated by either or both the LFO and ENV 1. The are two sliders to determine the amount of modulation for each of these sources and two on/off switches to route the modulation to VCO 1 and/or VCO2.

There is a slider to control the pulse width of both oscillators. It is a shame that there are not separate sliders one for each oscillator. Since under this scheme you can’t have two separate pulse widths set up. Pulse with may be controlled by the LFO or envelope (not both) and a separate slider determines the amount of the modulation.

Cross modulation is available and the amount of modulation may be controlled manually with a slider and by Envelope 1. The amount of modulation applied by ENV 1 is controlled by another slider.

The oscillators may be synched to one another and you can sync VCO 1 to 2 or VCO 2 to 1.

My only real complaint about the oscillator section is there is no way to turn them off. There is single pot mixer than adjust the balances between the two ( so you can have one of the oscillators set to zero but not both). Therefore there is no way to hear the filter alone when its self oscillating. Otherwise from that the osc’s and the modulation routings available offer a lot of sonic possibilities.

Multimode Filter

The filter can operate in three different modes: Low pass (24db), high pass (24 db), and band pass (12 db). This alone offers a ton of possibilities that are usually reserved for the modulars. But what make it even better is that resonance operates on all three of the modes (and most synthesizers that have a high pass filter don’t offer resonance) and the filter will self oscillate. ( now if we could turn off those VCOs). There is the standard cut off ( 5Hz - 30 kHz) slider and cut off may be modulated by envelope 1 or 2. The amount of the envelope modulation is controlled by a slider. Another slider controls amount of modulation from the LFO and a final slider controls key cutoff (0-120%) from the keyboard (keyboard tracking).

Envelopes

Two standard ADSR envelopes are provided and ENV 1 can be inverted. Each envelope has a slider to determine the rate it will track the keyboard. (specs: attack time max. 18 seconds, decay time max. 20 seconds, release time max. 20 seconds, key follow 0 - 120 %)

VCA

The VCA may be modulated by both ENV 2 and the LFO and two separate sliders are provided to determine the amount of modulation from each source. The ENV 2 modulations works as a volume control for the voice.

LFO

LFO 1 will produce triangle, negative sawtooth, square, or random waveforms. Unlike the audio oscillators, the LFO only produces one waveform at a time. Two sliders are provided to set the rate of the waveform and the delay.

Arpegiator

The arpegiator works in the following directions up, down, and up/down. When in the up down mode the lowest and highest note is not repeated. Additionally in up/down mode you can instruct the machine to start either with up or down. Random mode which is offered on the Jupiter 8 was for some reason not included in the J6. The range of arpeggation may be selected from one, two, three or four octaves. A pot determines the speed and a blinking light flashes to indicated the speed it is set to. The arpegiator may be latched and pressing new keys will enter the new keys to arpegiate and remove the previous notes arpegiating. What is even nicer is that in split mode you can set up two different arpeggios with different ranges and directions. There speed however will be identical. Arpeggio parameters are included as part of a patch with the exception of the latching. The arepgiator will not sync to midi clock however it can be synched to trigger pulse of >+5V @ about 18 ms through a ¼ inch cable. This can be generated from a TR909, TR707, TR606 among other items as well.

Other

A pot is supplied for adjusting the balance between the upper and lower tones when it is in a split mode. Its worth mentioning that each tone has a volume parameter which is saved as part of the tone. However having the knob allows for quick adjustment with out adjusting tone parameters.

There is a mater tune pot which will allow you to tune the JP6 sharp or flat. There is an auto-tune button which takes about a second and has consistently worked for me. While the unit does drift out of tune - it is pretty rare for a VCO synth. The oscillators seem really stable for VCOs, they kind of lack that obesity of sound due to the drift. When the unit does go out of tune - one hit of the auto tune button gets the unit right back in tune.

MIDI

This was Roland’s first board with MIDI and the midi implementation is very basic. Note on/off, auto tune command, and patch selection. No velocity, no system exclusive. The unit powers up in omni mode but it will respond to poly mode on/omni off command via midi and the unit responds to channel 1 ( in split in will respond to channels 1 and 2). Version 6.0 of the operating system (the latest version) allows you to choose what channel the JP6 will transmit and receive on. Versions below will only respond and transmit on channel 1. Only patches may be changed via midi not individual tones.

Rear Panel

Both a XLR and ¼ output is provided along with an ¼ headphone jack. A 3 level output switch is provided to determine the level of the ¼ output. There are five ¼ inputs which allow for external control. An input for arpeggio clock in (see arpeggitor), a patch shift input, sustain pedal input, and separate control inputs for the VCA and VCF. A midi in and out port is provided but there is no thru. The power chord is detachable.

Conclusion

My initial conclusion on the sound was somewhat disappointing. It can sound rather thin for a 2 VCO synth however that is not say it can’t sound fat and you won’t confuse it for a DCO synth. When I compare it my OB-Xa the OB-Xa clearly wins in lushness. However this lushness and obesity can fill up a mix way to easily. The Jupiter fits very nicely into a mix and it still sounds great ( its clearly a warm sounding synth). But after a few hours with the JP6 I learned that its real strength is the magnitude of sounds it can make primarily due to the multimode filter, multi-waveform oscillators, invertible envelope 1, and cross modulation/sync abilities. I would rather own the JP6 than the MKS-80 due to the increased sound possibilities offered by the JP6, the arpegiator and the sliders are crucial as well (unless you have the MPG-80). So after just a few hours with the synth, I changed my mind, I was incredibly impressed with its sound and sonic possibilities.

Genesis' Apocalypse in 9/8 performed on the J6 (and a dely unit)

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