This is a lot about my opinion of the Jupiter X/Xm FYI before you read my long post.
Even as I plan to get a Super 6 and even though I have a Jupiter Xm I still have this dilemma. If it was just about the sound then yeah I could get away with the VST instead of an X or Xm. It isn’t though is it? It’s about how you connect with an instrument as well right?
I was just sitting here digging into my Jupiter Xm, specifically the Jupiter X internal engine (Zen Core) and it’s pretty stunning what you can do with the partials, parts, and scenes. It was a leaning over the keyboard with my eyes squeezed tightly shut, just feeling it kind of moment! It’s an absolutely powerful engine with massive massive potential for very wide intricate deep sounds. I was keeping the whole binaural aspect of UDO Super 6 in mind, which is what brought me here.
The learning curve is very steep on the Jupiter X/Xm.
I think once you get the idea of how everything works together you start to have some pretty big ideas on how you can make it sound very alive… and huge, massive, lush… yeah. Probably along the lines of the Super 6 and definitely more.
Udo Super 6 no doubt sounds awesome in some of the demos I hear. I’m sure there would be no mistake made in getting one. The binaural stuff really adds a lot of depth and character on top of the fact that it just sounds lush, characterful, and unique. I really wish I could try one in person, dilemma would most likely be solved.
Everyone is so concerned about the Jupiter 8, Juno, SH-101, JX, XV, etc, on the Jupiter X/Xm that the new engine is barely even touched on. All of those vintage models sound really good in and of themselves for sure. They are pretty damn close to what they’re based on from what I can tell (but I don’t own any of the big originals so It’s hard to say for sure).
I’d say the SH-101 isn’t exactly like the real thing. The PW doesn’t go to completely silent on the end like the real one. It also just doesn’t have such weird sweet spots all over like the real one. Not as much spit if you know what I mean? It still sounds awesome in and of itself. The filter shook the ear wax out of my ears sweeping through the bass on high resonance. It has my favorite filter out of the bunch for sure and it’s polyphonic capable. A polyphonic SH-101 actually sounds pretty sweet.
The rest sound really close IMO. But you can read or watch about this all over the internet. I think those are close enough if you’re looking for specific classic sounds (I’m not, but I’ll still use them).
Zen Core and the glorious build of the X is what makes it special.
Zen Core has 12, 18, & 24db filter slope models of the the Jupiter 8, Moog, and Sequential P5 models. So you get the nice filters, which I think are done great across the board. Also a set of multimode filters HP, LP, BP, PKG, etc…
The PWM and Xmod sounds better in the ZEN-Core engine than it does in the vintage models too.
You also have PCM sync and xmod as well which opens up a huge range of oscillator tones with all the romper PCM stuff modulating the VA engine.
There are switches to simplify the complex envelopes to just ADSR envelopes for easier editing if you don’t need the power.
You can program your own Step LFO’s, similar to Octatrack but with more options.
The structure is what allows it to be binaural and more:
There are 4 partials (basically self contained synths) per Tone.
This means the Jupiter X can be Quadnaural? in a single tone times 4 (4 tones per scene), so 16naural (whatever you call that) capable?
Once you learn some shortcuts it’s really easy too.
You can program a sound in the Jupiter X engine on a single partial. Then copy that partial to any of the other 4 partials.
Hold Shift+Write, press the source partial, and the destination partial, done.
From there you can have both (or 3 or 4) partials selected at the same time. Any edits you do on one will happen on the other.
At any time you can select a single partial and change a parameter. If you pan them, detune them or give them slightly different modulations you have a very Binaural sound.
When you’re done editing your 4 partials and making them slightly different you can go back to the Scene and now all of the front panel controls work like “offsets” for the individual partials.
A good shortcut for getting through the 200 parameters is Shift + Up or Down. This jumps to every section you can edit. So Oscillator settings, filter, Amp Env, Filter Env, etc… So then you only have to scroll in that small section to get what you want.
You can also hold Shift and turn a knob or slider and it will take you to that edit section.
Once you learn these things and have an overview of how everything works in your head it gets really quick to edit that massively powerful engine from scratch.
Udo Super 6 seems more straight forward, sounds good, and has a smaller learning curve to making good sounds.
Jupiter X has more possibilities and I think can sound probably as good, but it’s a bigger learning curve.
I’ll probably just get a Super 6 and see if I like it enough to make me not swap my Jupiter Xm for an X. There just aren’t enough keys on the Xm. Also I just feel like they cover a ton of the same ground and I don’t need 2 massive pad/string synths. There isn’t enough room in my studio or the audio spectrum.
I’ll report back if I end up with both of them…
