Patrick's new baby... TAL- J-8X

[SAGG]

Roland can't copyright colours, and the TAL plugin bears no resemblance to the original trade dress, so changing the colours in the plugin - as all the TAl plugins allow - is in no way a legal issue.

Yeah, you wanna take that chance instead of Patrick? Will pay the legal fees too, if anything comes up? You will not

You're crafty with them "colour change" words, but a lot of jurisprudence and sneaky lawyer ways you don't actually understand, yet you speak out of your rear compartment anyway

It was a fairly innocent "crime", yet they still gave Audiothing major shit for calling their synth "June" (and that story is still not over, AFAIK, even after the name change). But didn't give Arturia shit for calling their synth Jun-6 V. With Arturia Jupiter-8, yet they did force them to implement changes.

Truth is, we don't know how these guys operate and when they strike. They're probably checking all these companies out, looking if somebody will pay them off to bug off.

Only Patrick Kunz is in the right to decide whether he wants to take that chance. I'm only saying I wouldn't risk it. It's really not worth it.

[SAGG]

yeah good for you, sneaky tactics and being silent about that shows some aspects of his style of marketing. doesnt matter if codemeter or not, 2 steps forward one step backwards. look at the market, a product of people like you and majority who suck up these steps until it is too late.

but yeah had to post cause of my ego, in the end it doesnt help. i observe the behaviour of buyers a long time ago. nothing wonders me anymore.

oh, you're so special over there, with your pretty tinfoil hat, sitting in your mom's shadowy basement a real unicorn, eh? we should be so proud of you!

hush, quickly, hide in that secret compartment now, the aliens are coming to abduct you any minute now

[jamcat]

Arturia had a licensing deal with Roland for the Jupiter-8, originally. Just like Universal Audio had for the Space Echo, CE-1 Chorus Ensemble, and Dimension D.

After Roland decided to do their own versions finally, they pulled all of their licensing agreements and forced Arturia and Universal Audio to rebrand their formerly licensed Roland plugins.

[himalaya]

though I personally find the hardware look very bland.
rsp

The hardware looks much nicer with the PG-800 controller. Here is mine.

[wintoid]

What is this black magic? This thing sounds really good to me.

I don't understand the copy protection issue, perhaps someone could explain it properly?

[beely]

Yeah, you wanna take that chance instead of Patrick? Will pay the legal fees too, if anything comes up? You will not

I'm not sure what you are trying to argue, but I assure you, if even the default colour scheme of the plugin was various shades of grey instead of the header colours etc it has by default now, there is no more legal problem than any other choice of colour scheme. There is literally zero legal problems with choosing colour schemes for your plugin, unless you are literally intentionally infringing on a trademark.

You're crafty with them "colour change" words, but a lot of jurisprudence and sneaky lawyer ways you don't actually understand, yet you speak out of your rear compartment anyway

Thanks for letting me know what I don't understand.

It was a fairly innocent "crime", yet they still gave Audiothing major shit for calling their synth "June" (and that story is still not over, AFAIK, even after the name change). But didn't give Arturia shit for calling their synth Jun-6 V.

Er, "names" are an entirely different thing to colours. If you don't understand this, probably you shouldn't be advising people on legal matters regarding trademarks, trade dress and other such matters.

With Arturia Jupiter-8, yet they did force them to implement changes.

Yes, that was a trade dress and naming issue. The plugin looked visually exactly like, or similar enough to, the hardware, and Roland were, or had, just made their own plugin replicating the same thing, and the visual closeness and the name would cause market confusion (in the legal sense) and Roland were within their rights to legally ask Arturia to change their visual design. So Arturia discontinued that version, changed the name and made the design less realistic and more stylistic, and it was no problem.

Now of this is a factor here, where TAL's plugins don't attempt *at all* to recreate the visual design of the hardware they are emulating.

Only Patrick Kunz is in the right to decide whether he wants to take that chance. I'm only saying I wouldn't risk it. It's really not worth it.

Really strange. Me asking for more user-created grey colour scheme options than the default, with a feature *entirely designed for customising colour schemes* - exactly the same way he's done on the previous TAL Alpha Juno plugin (funny, Roland's lawyers haven't called saying you can't choose a particular combination of greys in that plugin either, as it's still there) causes you to get all paranoid all of a sudden.

If TAL felt they potentially had legal issues letting users customise their plugin colours, that feature wouldn't exist.

[phreaque]

REQ: JX-8P, JX-10 and MKS-70 colour themes please!
Also setting up the JX-10 presets using two instances would be nice too...

Ace plugin - sounds great!

Try this one

Screenshot 2026-03-31 18.36.17.png

[Super Piano Hater 64]

I don't understand the copy protection issue, perhaps someone could explain it properly?

TAL used to have fully offline activation. A while back, they quietly switched to online challenge-response.

Software that requires internet access for activation is not possible to set up on an airgapped studio machine. Always-online software is not possible to use on such machines, at all.

TAL gained a following among people who maintain airgapped studio setups (or just use laptops while traveling). Many of these customers were upset by the change, especially because it wasn't announced.

EDIT: This post is outdated. Patrick has clarified some points he previously did not explain well, and luckily the situation is not as dire as we thought. I'll leave the above text as-is. Read the next few pages of the thread for an explanation.

[beely]

Thanks - it's really the coloured headers that I dislike, they're a little "Fisherprice"-like (ie, "childish-looking") for my tastes. I like something a little more bland

Personally, I *love* the Roland design language from this era, especially the MKS modules... (see my artwork below)

I'll probably do it myself later when I get a chance...
.

[SAGG]

REQ: JX-8P, JX-10 and MKS-70 colour themes please!
Also setting up the JX-10 presets using two instances would be nice too...

Ace plugin - sounds great!

Try this one


Screenshot 2026-03-31 18.36.17.png

dear zvenx is still right. looks bland, just like the OG. aka "the giant dead mice with funky colors". but no LED screen this time

[SAGG]

Try this one

Screenshot 2026-03-31 18.36.17.png

zvenx is still right. looks bland, just like the OG. aka "the giant dead mice with funky colors". but no LED screen this time!

[Seafire Mk2]

Looks good. Nice to see some devs still releasing vst2

[audiojunkie]

where's jamcat? he got his BF-2 and JX-8P at last. this March it's yours, baby!

Well now, with the release of Audiority’s BF-2 emulation and TAL’s JX-8P emulation, I’m done. I don’t need any more plugins. They said it was impossible, but we have finally reached Peak Plugin.

It’s over. Everyone can go home now. Thanks.

LOL! I'm happy for you! I actually hated the JX-8P I had in hardware. Believe it or not, I gave it away. I "may" get this one in software though.......who knows. At any rate, you've waited a long time for this, so I hope it's everything you wanted.

[zvenx]

I contacted Patick about the concern about registration etc.
he has amended the FAQ:

The plug-in will ask for your license key when you open the user interface. Registration and use of the plug-ins are possible even if the TAL server is unavailable or you are offline.

From time to time the plug-ins connect to the server to verify the license and register the device, if necessary. If the server cannot be reached, nothing happens. This means you can continue using the plug-ins even in the future, whether or not the TAL server still exists.

The license can be registered on up to four different computers. You can remove registered computers at any time by logging into your account.

Hopefully this quells any concerns.
https://tal-software.com/FAQ

rsp

[zvenx]

I don't understand the copy protection issue, perhaps someone could explain it properly?

TAL used to have fully offline activation. A while back, they quietly switched to online challenge-response.

Software that requires internet access for activation is not possible to set up on an airgapped studio machine. Always-online software is not possible to use on such machines, at all.

TAL gained a following among people who maintain airgapped studio setups (or just use laptops while traveling). Many of these customers were upset by the change, especially because it wasn't announced.

check the FAQ asked now.. it isn't what it seemed.. he has explained it in more detail now.
(tl,dr; it still can be registered and used completely offline, even if or when Tal as a company is no more)
rsp