This soundbank is inspired by the Jupiter 8 factory library. Its aim is to recreate "as close as possible " on Xils-Lab Oxium synthesizer all the presets of this library.
New July 2013 : For people who dont already own Oxium : If you purchase I.B Jupiter, you will receive together with the soundbank an exclusive Coupon Code giving you a 10€ discount on Xils-Lab shop if you purchase Oxium
The base of this work was as follows :
- I made the presets on Oxium trying to match the closest as possible the 60+ original JP8 audio clips that everyone can find on Synthmania.
As a consequence, I made 60+ A/B audio clips, where you can directly compare the Jupiter 8 and Oxium
I played - the best I could- the same music parts, so that the comparison could be the most possibly easy, and neutral.
All Oxium presets were tuned by ear, however, I observed some general guidelines found in the Synthmania site preset book
There are some structural differences between the JP8 and Oxium. Certain presets could not be recreated in a proper way.
Wich ones are close to the Jupiter 8, if any, and wich ones are far from the original sound, I'll let everyone decide. On certain clips the differences are much more than obvious.
I nevertheless decided from the start to release ALL the A/B clips, and not "only the better ones", in a total naked truth and transparency spirit.
Some people will find this bank useless. For them. I respect by advance this opinion. No wub wub here, and you can multiply that as many neo musical genres as you want. Brass, Strings, Classic leads, Organs and Rhodes, special Fx are all there : This soundbank represents the essence of what was a sound library of this era : Synthesizers were also there to replicate different instruments of the orchestra, with their special touch. Its in this spirit that they were also used by countless legendary, or obscure, keyboardists in all the nuggets that represent the songs and soundtracks of this era. This is culture.
I spent a lot of time to do this bank. Really. And I learned a lot. For those who will question "how can a Sound Designer still possibly learn something about what could appear as basic patches after all these years", I have a very simple answer : I still learn everyday after all these years. Finetuning some patches to get as close as possible of something existing is very rewarding. When I changed some parameters of 1 or 2%, the result could change drastically for the audio clip. A difference of a few milliseconds in this or that envelope had sometimes some serious consequences as well. We're talking precise surgery here. Then, these are not basic patches : The programming in that area was already very advanced, clever, and inspired. The Synthmania clips perfectly demonstrate this imho.
Analog and VA. I like, and use, both. There are numerous threads about this, and a lot less threads where people can base their conclusions on real audio elements. Amongst the threads that offer audio, very few are based on A/B comparisons. My opinion is that proper A/B comparisons should include the different instruments playing the same musical parts. In the rare threads when it is the case, the audio similarities, as well as differences, can be heard more easily, whatever the media used. It's in this spirit that I wanted to present this soundbank. Is Oxium a good VA synthesizer ? Does it have the required qualities for that, I'll let everybody answer by themselves to this question : You now have all the elements I could possibly offer so that anyone can forge his own conclusions.
And finally, I'd like to thank the following persons : Without their help, informations, dedicated work, and knowledge, nothing would have been possible.
Mr Ingo Weidner, it's in one on his posts that I found the links to the invaluable gold mine that represent the original Jupiter 8 audio clips. And Peter from the OPX project, whose attempts to recreate some of these clips also grabbed my attention ( And I know he must have sweated to recreate all these clips )
Mr CoolCoolJ, who owns a real Jupiter 8, and is a GS forum member, who was the first to take my attention by saying that Oxium could sound very similar to his JP8. I was quite surprised, because Oxium is a free design unit. Without his posts, I might have never thought of doing such a project.
And finally, Paolo at Synthmania who posted all the original Jupiter 8 clips, demoed every preset with style and attitude. Remember "The name of the rose" movie ? There are books, but thanks to the internet, there are also guardians of the audio temples. The job he did is fantastic, and is preserving for us the memories of a time that is not so far away, the golden age of the analog monsters, the age of the JP8. This is culture too.
LtZ
(btw it's been done since the 80s whenever a new synth came out to see if it could do the same sounds as its predecessor ..)