Roland Juno-X

[kritikon]

Sequential must be running out of numbers. Are they up to a Pro11 yet?

[Uncle E]

Yes indeed, just ask sequential...........

OB-6 and Prophet-6 are innovative

[Uncle E]

Or Moog...

Moog One isn’t all that innovative and it’s amazing how little innovation was needed to make one of the greatest synths ever. There’s innovation on the digital side but, aside from the Eventide reverb, I wish they’d just left that off.

[Uncle E]

Sequential must be running out of numbers. Are they up to a Pro11 yet?

Pro One
REV2
Pro 3
Mopho X4
Prophet 5
OB-/Prophet-6
Prophet 08
Prophet X
Prophet 12
Prophet 600

Skipped 11!

[kritikon]

Holy shit, they're up to 600 already! They'll be going up in thousands soon...light speed before we know it.

[kritikon]

I might give in and buy a Sequential when they get to the Pro Infinity.

[Uncle E]

Prophet 2000

And here I just saw it in an Espen Kraft video yesterday. Shame on me!

[kritikon]

I was just (as you do) wasting a couple of hours surfing the interwebz and had a look at the Jupiter X and Xm. Weirdly, I get the Jupiter X. It offers a shitload of stuff, the latest OS has 12,18 and 24 dB filters. Full sync, cross mod & ring mod (though I doubt the sync sounds all that good, being digital). It now has 4 osc instead of the straight Jupiter 2 osc. And you can delay those oscillators by dots, triplets etc - meaning it can do real fancy stuff similar to a Monopoly such as cycling through oscillators making a varying arp - that's before you even apply an arp to it! It even has some decent models like the SH101 instead of all crappy Junos. So many of the extras make it a hugely powerful synth. TBH I never really lusted after a Jupiter8 (though I loved the 6) but Jupiter X I can appreciate. All of the VA digital stuff but with the power it offers - makes sense with a proper powerhouse based on something like a Jupiter. It almost seems like it's worth the money. But Juno X doesn't make any of that sense to me. Throwing power at what is basically a highly limited and underpowered synth to start with. It's like JupiterX is a silky Aston Martin with a Bugatti Veyron engine thrown in - i.e. a proper comfy posh car that goes like stink. Whereas JunoX is a Fiat Bambino with a Bugatti Veyron engine in it - i.e. a crappy car with a Bugatti Veyron engine thrown in so that it falls apart and skids off the road the moment you floor the pedal, but priced like an Aston Martin.

I might even have a serious think about the Jupiter Xm. The base modelling is not a style of synth I particularly want, but it's pleasant, and it does so much more - it will do a lot of what I like. Juno X is just an expensive toy. Didn't think I'd ever actually want a digital Roland synth...who knew?

[Uncle E]

Roland romplers are killer. JD-800/-990 are classics for good reason. Even JV’s and XV’s can do amazing things. Now mix those with VA and LA, all with an incredible interface, and that’s what’s appealing to me (at least in concept).

[kritikon]

Yeah - the Jupiter X has some XV or JV stuff in there - can't remember which. TBH those things passed me by completely - I have no idea what they're capable of. Those days Roland started zigging exactly at the time I started zagging. Though I did have access to a JD800 - that was capable of some nice stuff with a good interface. I think I got put off by those horrible Roland 80/90s digital modules that had really metallic filters and seemed to be made for karaoke. Funky sitars and plucky pianos just didn't garner my interest when the likes of EMU were churning out "world" units full of esoteric ethnic instruments and various companies were making powerful samplers.

Strangely - even their i-arp or whatever they call it - looks a little like a karaoke type accompaniment thing but it actually works and produces some great arps and background drums. I probably won't end up buying it when companies like Korg etc are still producing full blown analogues with screaming filters...but you never know. Roland seem to throw out the odd diamond amongst all the dross. Jupiter X could be a future classic of some sort whereas JunoX is the populist shite that sells more but is in a whole world of crappiness.

[lfm]

Have a look at Jupiter Xm as Tim Shoebridge put it


Jupiter X is just full size keys and more knob per function like separate envelopes and stuff.

JunoX does not at all offer separate envelope faders. But as Shoebridge points out these units are made more to pick and layer what is there to choose from.

Will what you make sound original enough or a copy of what you heard before?

[kritikon]

Hmmmm...that's an awful lot of menu diving - and not simple. The big brother appeals more - but for me at least I don't want a massive keyboard and the extra expense, but I do want the extra knob control rather than menus. Most likely I'm going to stick to analogues. As a main poly synth that covers an awful lot of bases - it does the job well. I don't want another one of those though. I can see why this might sell though - well, the X, not the Xm.

[Uncle E]

If money were no object, I’d hands down get a Jupiter-X. But money is an object and the idea of getting a cheap and perfectly sized System 1 to use as a controller for the plugins is thus more appealing to me. The System 1’s faders seem to be a better size than the Jupiter-Xm’s, as well.

[kritikon]

Do they have the fancy light show like the 8? That green one that seems to be a studio ornament rather than synth...

[Uncle E]

I’m gonna get mini Tron Light Cycles and race them around the faceplate