Tal J-8

[Dencheg]

Yes, but we buy tons more plugins too. I think we have all bought plugins for the price of a good meal to entertain us for a couple of days/weeks? and then just forgot about it.

You don’t do that with hardware.

LOL. BS. Every 'hardware dude' I know is constantly selling, buying, re-selling, and GASing over their next acquisition. Last months' 'perfect piece of kit' is next month's Craigslist ad.

It's no different, just a hell of a lot more expensive.

LOL. BS. I got System 8 and hold it while I can hold.

[bmanic]

Why is there always a problem with playing Google Drive audio files?

Anyway, after downloading it (and checking it for viruses ), it is too fast for me to notice anything unusual.

Yeah that was my bad. Should have made it much slower. Too bad I deleted the project but I did keep the sound.. sort of. I took a screenshot of it when I was playing with the demo as I didn't realize I could just save with the demo.

Anyhow, it's quite complex and probably not completely in tune (has a some cross mod there to add some spice and it tends to bring stuff out of tune). The main part is that it's beefing up the actual "pluck" part of the sound with a fast modulated LFO that modulates filter and VCA in "opposite" directions. It's a bit hard to explain but basically there is a quick "flutter" kind of thing going on in the background that severely beefs up the pluck itself. It's a bit difficult to get beefy yet "stable" plucks with a Jupiter series synth in my opinion. Those Rolands always tend to sound quite narrow.. sort of opposite to moog/oberheim, at least this has been my experience. Having said that, Jupiters always tend to sit in a mix extremely well.. this TAL VA version at least seems to share that trait.

Haven't tried the Roland Cloud nor the Arturia option yet (though I did try the previous version of their Jupiter and thoroughly disliked it).

Hm, not sure what you mean, but there is something utterly unpleasant to that pluck sound in my view. I prefer the clean type.

Yes, the Jupiter 8 has a rather different sound character compared to American analog synths.

Interesting. I thought it was really fresh approach to the pluck! I find most common plucks very boring (that typical trance, filter a bunch of saw waves with an envelope to modulate it). This one at least has tons of harmonic content.. but perhaps too much? Too sharp?

This is more of the Infected Mushroom type of hard(ish) pluck thing.

[mholloway]

Can't really fathom why some like jup 8 but dislike talmod

A huge part of it is the UI. I strongly dislike the (not particularly well rendered, janky) cables, I dislike that I have to open a pop-up menu to set modulation depth, I dislike the weird envelope sliders that never seem to give me the results I expect and do not look nor feel like proper sliders....I could go on. It's not a fun synth to program, for me personally, at all. The sound is, indeed, great, which is no surprise coming from TAL.

I'm much more 'at home' with analog synth emulations than with hybrid synths, though, so that's a big part of it too. When I look at the J-8, even with all the controls, I know exactly where I'm at and can get going. TAL-Mod....not even close (and did I mention how much I loathe those envelope sliders!!)

-M

[gentleclockdivider]

@TAL
Hardware Jupiter-8 has a Saw-Down wave in the LFO. TAL J-8 has a Saw-Up wave. Am I missing something obvious like an option to get the saw-down waveform?

Dialing in a negative modulation amount will give you a saw down

[e-crooner]

Why is there always a problem with playing Google Drive audio files?

Anyway, after downloading it (and checking it for viruses ), it is too fast for me to notice anything unusual.

Yeah that was my bad. Should have made it much slower. Too bad I deleted the project but I did keep the sound.. sort of. I took a screenshot of it when I was playing with the demo as I didn't realize I could just save with the demo.

Anyhow, it's quite complex and probably not completely in tune (has a some cross mod there to add some spice and it tends to bring stuff out of tune). The main part is that it's beefing up the actual "pluck" part of the sound with a fast modulated LFO that modulates filter and VCA in "opposite" directions. It's a bit hard to explain but basically there is a quick "flutter" kind of thing going on in the background that severely beefs up the pluck itself. It's a bit difficult to get beefy yet "stable" plucks with a Jupiter series synth in my opinion. Those Rolands always tend to sound quite narrow.. sort of opposite to moog/oberheim, at least this has been my experience. Having said that, Jupiters always tend to sit in a mix extremely well.. this TAL VA version at least seems to share that trait.

Haven't tried the Roland Cloud nor the Arturia option yet (though I did try the previous version of their Jupiter and thoroughly disliked it).

Hm, not sure what you mean, but there is something utterly unpleasant to that pluck sound in my view. I prefer the clean type.

Yes, the Jupiter 8 has a rather different sound character compared to American analog synths.

Interesting. I thought it was really fresh approach to the pluck! I find most common plucks very boring (that typical trance, filter a bunch of saw waves with an envelope to modulate it). This one at least has tons of harmonic content.. but perhaps too much? Too sharp?

This is more of the Infected Mushroom type of hard(ish) pluck thing.

I rarely use arps, but I just remembered this little arp audio of an arp I made in Sylenth1 last year or so. Not that I ever used it...
I like bright, crisp arp sounds, like on Madonna's Lucky Star for instance.

https://app.box.com/s/a8qb7q7awwb6gru5qf1zcyedxh7kynyw

[e-crooner]

Can't really fathom why some like jup 8 but dislike talmod

A huge part of it is the UI. I strongly dislike the (not particularly well rendered, janky) cables, I dislike that I have to open a pop-up menu to set modulation depth, I dislike the weird envelope sliders that never seem to give me the results I expect and do not look nor feel like proper sliders....I could go on. It's not a fun synth to program, for me personally, at all. The sound is, indeed, great, which is no surprise coming from TAL.

I'm much more 'at home' with analog synth emulations than with hybrid synths, though, so that's a big part of it too. When I look at the J-8, even with all the controls, I know exactly where I'm at and can get going. TAL-Mod....not even close (and did I mention how much I loathe those envelope sliders!!)

-M

The J-8 GUI is pretty crowded in my view. Probably because Tal changed the layout of the hardware panel to make it fit into that boxy plugin window.

[gentleclockdivider]

Can't really fathom why some like jup 8 but dislike talmod

A huge part of it is the UI. I strongly dislike the (not particularly well rendered, janky) cables, I dislike that I have to open a pop-up menu to set modulation depth, I dislike the weird envelope sliders that never seem to give me the results I expect and do not look nor feel like proper sliders....I could go on. It's not a fun synth to program, for me personally, at all. The sound is, indeed, great, which is no surprise coming from TAL.

I'm much more 'at home' with analog synth emulations than with hybrid synths, though, so that's a big part of it too. When I look at the J-8, even with all the controls, I know exactly where I'm at and can get going. TAL-Mod....not even close (and did I mention how much I loathe those envelope sliders!!)

-M

If you mean the sliders , press ctrl to fine tune .
The envelope knobs can be used to tailor the shape , they go from exponential --> linear--> logaritmic
Having the option to define the shape of the three stages is pretty nice

[Amram]

System-8 Jupiter 8 PD Jupiter-8 Glide (Factory)

https://soundcloud.com/ggam-c/a?in=ggam ... /jupiter-8


Tal J-8  PD Jupiter-8 Glide (Factory)

https://soundcloud.com/ggam-c/b?in=ggam ... /jupiter-8


 

[e-crooner]

System-8 Jupiter 8 PD Jupiter-8 Glide (Factory)

https://soundcloud.com/ggam-c/a?in=ggam ... /jupiter-8


Tal J-8  PD Jupiter-8 Glide (Factory)

https://soundcloud.com/ggam-c/b?in=ggam ... /jupiter-8


 

The first one sounds better to me, the voices seem to begin one after another.

[chk071]

I don't know what patch that is (a Jupiter-8 factory patch remade in those synths?), but, yeah, no. 1 sounds much better to me.

[Teksonik]

Never let people know which one is the hardware synth. Let them guess. Otherwise cognitive bias kicks in.

[Erisian]

I'm looking forward to trying this. Tal make top notch stuff and I've always liked the Jupiter 8 synth so this should be a great combination.

[Stefken]

I sold my SH -101 as it kept going out of tune and I had nobody nearby to repair it. Bought a TAL 101 and pocketed the several hundred bucks difference. Such is life.

The software route is still relatively new but it might turn out the lifecycle of a software synth is maybe like 5 years or so. Without putting an exact number on it: certainly (a lot) shorter than hardware.

You always have the option to "freeze" your computer setup in time.. thus it then behaves just like any other hardware. It lasts as long as it works.

That is not really the argument I want to make.
Rather that software gets absolete/outdated pretty fast ( it is also a fast moving business) and is disposed of quickly.

The same is true for business software. Stuff me make now is often thrown in the bin after some years and completely remade from scratch. Some might survive 10 years if they are lucky and it also depends on your code base. Some have become so big you can’t afford it but these are the exceptions.

But e.g. an sizeable drupal 7 site of 4 years will be completely redone from scratch. Whoop, everything in the bin after a few years.
You don’t do that with a 30 year old Jupiter 8

[EvilDragon]

They are free running oscillators, which do not reset with note on, and their instabilities have been modeled.
Of course in the digital world you can tune them to have the same pitch and instabilities.

rsp

Well my last audio example posted clearly shows that they are not exactly thoroughly freerunning... That audio showcases exactly what's not possible on an analog synth. J-8 should not be able to do that if it is being called an emulation...

Again I love TAL stuff, but this is beyond weird.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

How long has Diva been out? How much new hardware was bought and subsequently died and been binned since then? Just providing some counterpoint.