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

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TAL-J-8X

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beely wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2026 4:59 pm
jamcat wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2026 4:57 pm But in default, they still behave like the DCOs?
Sure.

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jamcat wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2026 4:57 pm One of the primary characteristics of the JX-8P's sound is its pitch stability.
Yep, and one of the benefits of the software is that you can, if you wish, get some more VCO like behaviour or ageing if you go too far etc.
So this page does the global calibration I was hoping for, so you in fact can get TAL-J-8X to match a particular unit, rather than having to edit each preset and alter the factory presets?
THIS MUSIC HAS BEEN MIXED TO BE PLAYED LOUD SO TURN IT UP

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jamcat wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2026 5:06 pm So this page does the global calibration I was hoping for, so you in fact can get TAL-J-8X to match a particular unit, rather than having to edit each preset and alter the factory presets?
Turn "Lock" on and your settings persist and won't be changed by switching presets.

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strangeflange wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2026 3:31 pm ...I don't think it's reasonable to ask Patrick to chase someone's JX-8P peculiarities. There could be a hundred guys out there, all telling him their JX-8P sounds a little bit different.
This comment right here:

"What i'm hearing is something exact but in some examples the hardware has a more defined or tighter envelope, and on percussive sounds in particular there is a bit more transient with the hardware."

Is in response to TALs comparison with their own JX-8P:



And was confirmed by my own independent observation (I haven't watched TAL's video) on an 8P that is the same revision as TAL's. Granted, both could still be different, but J8X is not entirely matching TAL's own JX-8P, supposedly - again I have not watched the video yet but what that dude said is what I observed on my own 8P.

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I am now going to ignore the befuddled one.. Already answered them previously..

So I am not sure the Voice Tuning does what jamcat is asking for.
What the VT does, is make sure each voice doesn't behave exactly alike, like they would indeed on a vco.

What may be more useful is what J-8 has.

The calibration section on the front panel.. and maybe that is something Patrick can add, though I guess it would need a way to lock it whilst changing patches.. (not sure the j8 does that)

rsp
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hurricaneaudiolab wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2026 5:16 pm "What i'm hearing is something exact but in some examples the hardware has a more defined or tighter envelope, and on percussive sounds in particular there is a bit more transient with the hardware."
So are you able to rectify this using the global voice calibration page?
THIS MUSIC HAS BEEN MIXED TO BE PLAYED LOUD SO TURN IT UP

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zvenx wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2026 5:19 pm So I am not sure the Voice Tuning does what jamcat is asking for.
What the VT does, is make sure each voice doesn't behave exactly alike, like they would indeed on a vco.

What may be more useful is what J-8 has.

The calibration section on the front panel.. and maybe that is something Patrick can add, though I guess it would need a way to lock it whilst changing patches.. (not sure the j8 does that)
It only makes each voice not behave exactly alike if you choose *different* settings for the voices.

If you want the attacks to be globally faster (or whatever), then I would have thought that turning up the attack knob to taste for all the voices would achieve that, surely? Yes, it's six knobs, rather than one, but you'd set this once as your startup preset (with lock on) and you'd never need to touch it again...

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My personal feeling on the accuracy of the J-8X modeling is that it’s close enough to the real thing that the string pad presets sound the same as the JX-8P to me, which is something I have tried to do unsuccessfully many times with various Juno and Jupiter models.
THIS MUSIC HAS BEEN MIXED TO BE PLAYED LOUD SO TURN IT UP

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hurricaneaudiolab wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2026 5:16 pm ...
And was confirmed by my own independent observation (I haven't watched TAL's video) on an 8P that is the same revision as TAL's. Granted, both could still be different, but J8X is not entirely matching TAL's own JX-8P, supposedly - again I have not watched the video yet but what that dude said is what I observed on my own 8P.
Everybody 'hears' differently and I dont' have by any stretch golden ears..
I was fortunate enough to see the video weeks before it was made public and this was my initial comments to Patrick:
Re: Youtube..
1. there is an audio glitch at 30 seconds..
2. at 1:05, to my ears the hardware has less click than the software…(the same click I mentioned with deeep bass before)
3. 1:22 comparison, the software seems to have more ‘meat’ on it than the hardware (I prefer the software, but they aren’t as exact as the other comparisons so far to me). seems to happen to a next three comparisons too.. in all cases I prefer the software… but it is a minute difference. A difference you would normally have between two hardware synths of the same model… btw, I also notice this in comparisons I have heard between the j-8 and the hardware jupiter 8… yours seems to have a little more ‘beef’/‘meat’ and in almost all cases I preferred the j-8 to the hardware jupiter 8.
4. Audio glitch at 2:10 similar to the audio glitch at 30 seconds..(1)
5. The 2:12 comparison is the first one when I hear the biggest difference, especially in the first note played..
6. 2:45 audio glitch like 1 and 4.
5. would have been nice to hear some chords and arps… (the hardware has an arp too right?) but otherwise wow.. wow, wow.. great job Patrick.
(I really am starting to like it as much as the jupiter 8, and as I said at the start, I didn’t much like the hardware back in the day).
rsp
rsp
sound sculptist

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beely wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2026 5:25 pm ...
It only makes each voice not behave exactly alike if you choose *different* settings for the voices.

...
Yes I know that, that is what I meant.. I thought that was obvious enough not to have to say it..
but what that does is make each voice behave a bit differently.

What I believe the J-8 calibration does is change the behaviour of the entire synth.
rsp
sound sculptist

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jamcat wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2026 5:06 pm
beely wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2026 4:59 pm
jamcat wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2026 4:57 pm But in default, they still behave like the DCOs?
Sure.

Image
jamcat wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2026 4:57 pm One of the primary characteristics of the JX-8P's sound is its pitch stability.
Yep, and one of the benefits of the software is that you can, if you wish, get some more VCO like behaviour or ageing if you go too far etc.
So this page does the global calibration I was hoping for, so you in fact can get TAL-J-8X to match a particular unit, rather than having to edit each preset and alter the factory presets?
Very cool stuff! :)
Vendor‑Dependent Copy Protection: Customers lose. Pirates win.:mad:
(Also: I'm Accused of lying about Linux—it boots, runs my pro audio workflow, stays stable, updates--though yearly dismissed as “niche”. Yet I'm the deluded one.)
:roll:

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jamcat wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2026 5:21 pm So are you able to rectify this using the global voice calibration page?
Not sure - I have made no attempts but will play around later.

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zvenx wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2026 5:32 pm but what that does is make each voice behave a bit differently.
Ok, I'm not familiar with what it does under the hood (the manual is not explicit in that regard). I guess you're saying that each of those knobs is essentially a randomisation amount for that parameter for that voice - so if you set, say +6 for Attack on each voice, it means each voice will be randomly changed within that +6 range?

(Instead of just making a fixed offset of 6 for that parameter, in which case all voices set to 6 would be adjusted the same amount?)
Last edited by beely on Wed Apr 08, 2026 5:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Looking at the comments in TAL's video, I noticed this from andivax, which jives with what so far a couple of us have been hearing, with a response from Patrick:

andivax: "Please notice that J8X little bit lacks that punch attack..."

and TAL said: "This is an emulation of an analog synth. Attack and release clicks depend on the DCO phase which is running free and happen randomly. It is not possible to make any conclusion from this short audio examples. Every attack and release is different. I'm not saying that we have a 100% accurate emulation here. Just wanted to mention. It makes no sense to over analyze this short audio examples."

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hurricaneaudiolab wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2026 5:35 pm
jamcat wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2026 5:21 pm So are you able to rectify this using the global voice calibration page?
Not sure - I have made no attempts but will play around later.
I would be very interested to know if you could get the unaltered presets sounding the same in TAL-J-8X as they do on your JX-8P and PG-8X just by tweaking the voice calibration settings.
THIS MUSIC HAS BEEN MIXED TO BE PLAYED LOUD SO TURN IT UP

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beely wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2026 5:42 pm
zvenx wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2026 5:32 pm but what that does is make each voice behave a bit differently.
Ok, I'm not familiar with what it does under the hood (the manual is not explicit in that regard). I guess you're saying that each of those knobs is essentially a randomisation amount for that parameter for that voice - so if you set, say +6 for Attack on each voice, it means each voice will be randomly changed within that +6 range?

(Instead of just making a fixed offset of 6 for that parameter, in which case all voices set to 6 would be adjusted the same amount?)

Hmmm now I am not sure what I am saying giving your question. :-)
I know if you set two voices differently they will behave differently (sound designers use it all the time to create panning effects)..
but I am not sure if as you say it offsets it by 6 or randomizes within the 6 range...but for sure if you set one at 6 and one at 7, they should behave differently.
rsp

edit: actually reading the j-8 manual (vt use to be call sc)
it seems that it doesn't randomize it in a range, but makes each oscillator behave slightly different, so maybe a fixed amount.
rsp
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