New Roland synths : Jupiter X / Boutique JU06a / Fantom

yeah I get that. and Roland missed the boat there… for decades! I’m just saying I don’t see what Behringer is doing as innovative, per se. really they’re no different than what cloners having been doing for many years now. it’s just that they’re big enough to have resources to make these things cheap. I suppose that’s innovation in a way… but no more than Roland doing this stuff via software. in my opinion anyway.


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I received my Jupiter-Xm today from a large German online retailer. My first impression is that it’s very solidly built. It feels a lot more like a serious piece of gear than the TRs/MCs. I also like the design a lot, compared to System-8. I haven’t had much time with it so far and I have no experience with the synths it tries to mimic. But I can already say that having that kind of polyphony at your disposal definitely sounds huge. I have only flicked through some of the presets so far and fiddled with the different filter models. I haven’t noticed any stepping or anything that would give away this is not an analog synth. But then, the presets use FX which would maybe make such things more difficult to spot.

Should I decide to keep it, it will make quite a few other things in my studio redundant: I’m looking at selling my Micromonsta, Doubledrummer and Minilogue (non XD), SH01a, and a few other things.

What put me off slightly is that I will definitely have to use the manual, even for basic tasks, but maybe it was the same way back when I first got my Elektrons.

So far, so good. I’ll report back when I know more. Oh, and BTW: the owner’s manual available online is nowhere near Elektron quality.

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What? Where? That is fast!

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Big T.

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How’s the jupiter emulation ? Is it true that it has analog filters on the board?

I couldn‘t tell just how authentic the emulation is and quite frankly, I don‘t care whether it‘s 92% or 97% percent accurate. For my purposes that‘s probably pretty much irrelevant. It‘s not a Jupiter-8, hence there are probably scenarios in which a trained ear will be able to tell them apart.

To answer your question: everything is DSP based, there is no analog filter.

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Curious. Can you get some detuned sounds out of the JU06A? The PWM and LFO seem to indicate you can. But the 1 OSC seems to tell me, you can’t. Curious

The new Fantom is the one with analog filters.

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Anyone tried sequencing their JU06a with an Elektron device yet? :slight_smile: Thinking it might sound pretty good sequenced with the Digitone’s chord modes!

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It’s 1 osc, how does PWM give you detune? The chorus might be considered a sort of detune but that’s a stretch.
You can get out-of-tune sounding with a slow LFO to the osc, esp fun playing with the LFO delay.
You could use chord mode, but no, there’s no detune.

On my SH-01A, if you assign the LFO to the PWM, turning the LFO up creates a nice detuned effect.

I imagine it’d be the same with any synth that can assign an LFO to the PWM. But some synths are different, or they sound different.

Thanks BTW!

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That’s pulse width modulation, not detuning. You can get that out of the JU-06A too, yes.

Depending on the synth, PWM on a single oscillator can give you the same kind of beating sounds as two slightly detuned oscs.

Technically, you might not be detuning anything, but I fully agree with @djadonis206 that If it sounds the same, it makes sense to refer to how it sounds the same way.

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I’m sorry but no, it’s a completely different thing.

It’s all good, no need to debate it. Thanks!

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I’ve been eyeballing an Alpha Juno 1. Anybody been able to compare the new Roland JU-06a with the Roland Alpha Juno sound quality-wise? Considering they’re in the same price range, might be better off with an older Alpha Juno. I know Roland ACB tech is pretty solid, but the Alpha does have an actual Analog Filter and more polyphony plus keys. No sequencer of course and much larger footprint. Im really just wondering about the sound quality comparison. Thanks

Great synth; it has a somewhat deeper engine than the earlier Junos. It can do mostly the same things as them as well, but it won’t exactly duplicate them. Here’s a good review.

Cool things are the additional waveshapes (PWM on the saw!), multi-stage envelope, and the variable (and less noisy) chorus.

They’re also much more reliable. The only thing that fails are the backlight (EL foil, easy to replace, and the aftertouch sensor on the Alpha Juno 2.

If you can get a reasonably priced Alpha Juno, I’d recommend going for it.

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I picked up an Xm because it was 15% off at the only store within reach, which is the best I’ll ever do given the cost of shipping to my location and because money grows on trees. Yeah, the mini-keys are a big sacrifice, particularly because I still have to leave my 61-key controller set up, but I’m happy to get a reasonable Roland sound into my rig, and the compactness w/speakers might be useful conveniences for me. If not for the I-Arp, though, I certainly wouldn’t have bothered. The microphone interface is also a big plus for me because I normally use a Roland VT-4 with my Soma Pipe, so I’m hoping this Xm supplies a collection of features that keeps me from getting bored with it. Even with the discount, selling it off would be a big “experience cost” for me: I always provide free shipping on eBay, or else people won’t bid due to my distant location.

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