Disagree for some exceptions : Their Buchla Easel and Synclavier emulations, to me, sound pretty unique compared to their other synths.

But yeah, with the right amount of tweaking you could make their Moogs sound like their Rolands.

 

I have mixed feelings about this. Some of the presets are really cool and take me back, but the overall "edginess" and character that you can feel and hear with JP6k and Navira is missing.

Overall this release was a bit of a disappointment. Nice effort from Arturia though and I can still imagine using this to make tracks.

 

I fail to see what all the excitement is about.

The JP-8000 was a nice synth at the time and yep, it was the first to do a supersaw, but that was very quickly followed and improved (imo) by Novation and Access. Ever since then the supersaw is a stock option in hundreds of synths, both hardware and software. What is it that people think functionally differentiates it from the unison feature that you see absolutely everywhere?

Not that the JP-8000 is just about the supersaw, it's capable of a whole lot more interesting output than that, but for some reason it's endlessly referred to purely on that aspect. It is an OLD synth though and therefore much less functional than a modern instrument. If you want a JP style patch, just go build one in the multiples of capable synths like Serum, Vital, Falcon or even Arturia's own Pigments, you'll never tell the difference in the context of a track and you'll increase your options tenfold.

As for Arturia's effort at this: For me it's pretty useless without the ability to import/export JP SysEx. It could have made a nice editor for the hardware as the Misery Islands editor is almost unusable it's that buggy. I can't comment on the actual sound yet as I've not yet checked it out, but I'll grab it at some point and do an A/B against the hardware and see how it compares to the real thing.

 

I suspect that other companies either can't replicate it, or that the software version doesn't generate enough revenue.

That brings us back to Arturia, who will likely be bringing all the old hardware synths that can be monetized for the next 40 years or so. Cherry Audio will then serve the lower price segment. Arturia's competitor in hardware will likely be Behringer. I think that some developers like ASM are more likely to satisfy the needs of more musicians with the HydraSynth and represent real progress.

As Haze already mentioned, the quality of today's plugins like U-HE is usually much better than the products of the 1980s. I'd rather get a sample library from JP-8000 if you like the sound. The result is a lot of hype and little substance.

 

I’ve got a JP-8080 on my desk and doing a side by side the JUP sounds much harsher to my ears when trying to recreate stock presets. To be clear, it sounds great, and the built in modulation, effects and trance gate (!) are welcome but I love the 8080 for far more than this seems to be designed for. The JUP-8000 V seems to be targeted at tickling the nostalgia for the JP not recreating it, which may not may not be better depending on what you’re looking for. I was considering selling my JP for room when this same out but after using it I’ll hold on to my purple box a little longer.

 

A quick side-by-side with the original hardware's default "Sand Storm" patch and my matching the parameters on the JUP-8000V (using AURA's JP-80x0 editor to read from hardware). I am sure it can be pushed further with additional filters or shaping, but this, combined with being only single-layer is pretty uninspiring for me.

it does look like the arturia presets are just a zip with a text file in it listing parameters, so it's possible to write a mapping from JP-8000 sysex if one were so inclined.

First: hardware, then: plugin

 

have you not learned yet hardware rules over software?

 

I hadn't seen this one before. I thought this was restricted to just the Virus editor.

 

In this case with recreating ... a software-based synth, I was hopeful but yes; as much space as I can spare!

 

I speculate that the supersaw sounds will become so overused; it will be worse than the hardware version ever was. And that is a feat saying something on its own. Don't rush into selling it though. Just because an emulation has been released, does not mean no-one will want to buy a hardware unit. It will probably go up in value, not down. That is a common misconception.

 

Supersaw is THE MOST harmonically rich sound possible so it's already overused and been overused for decades. As it comes to genre revival I doubt there will be one just because Arturia made an emulation of JP8000. The company doesn't have that impact on music and artist in general, but more importantly JP8000 V is no breakthrough sonic wise, it's just yet another soft synth with deliberately limited functionality (so to stay "true" to hardware of previous century) there's no signature sound that can't be achieved with other soft synths and it's not going to be next Sylenth1 or Massive, let alone Serum.

 

This seems to be bits of Pigments wrapped in different garments. The supersaw oscillator in Pigments is absolutely identical to this, the envelopes, sync and the Chorus is just the chorus that is in all the Arturia V synths has nothing to do with the JP8000 chorus. It doesn't have that weird gritty build up of aliasing that you get on the JP8000 either that makes sound like it has a lot of presence in the 3-4khz range. I can't say i am disappointed as this is really just straight out of the Arturia playbook. Their digital stuff is usually decent like their DX7V because the algorithms are done outhouse by Martinic and licensed to Arturia. I would assume whoever was responsible for Pigments is behind this one though. AlyJames could probably do an eerily convincing model if there was any interest (i doubt it given his focus and muscial leanings)i don't have much stock in Szabo's spin on it as its just going to be another Synth Maker Flowstone jobby like Viper was. Viper was definitely dialled in to the ninth degree to get you parameter ranges on cookbook algos that lined up really well with a Virus TI, but it doesn't "sound" anything like one in terms as composite elements for example its practically impossible to make the Virus sound not tight even if you run it through the 8 pole phaser and chorus it just has this underlining sonic DNA to it that will make it withstand anything you wish to throw at it..depending on how you look at it that might be a bit gimmick, but either way, Viper does not do that, so i don't imagine the complete 8000 emu will have that "sonic DNA" of the JP8000 either(fizzy and unmistakably digital in an interesting sense)

 

I've tried their Blofeld, Supernova and JP editors and they are all buggy beyond belief. I'd have bought them if they actually worked but as they're so problematic I use Sneakz versions instead and wear safety goggles and a hard hat whilst doing so.

 

The discussion always ends with the conclusion that emulations are emulations that, if you're lucky, come close to the original, but will never be a 1:1 copy.

Only the DSP563xx emulator group - Osirus, OSTIrus & Vavara, etc., have any legitimacy.
They copy the original chip from hardware to software. Bravo, you're the best...!

Arturia uses clever marketing, but none of their emulations are a copy, nor do they sound like the original.
Users always hope they're getting something decent, and every time they're disappointed.
Only the price difference between hardware and software makes a purchase decision possible. You don't get what it says on the tin.

 

Night and day. Likely they could be matched better with a little tweaking but as a 1:1 they're nowhere near one another. Neither is 'better' than the other though, they're just different. Plus, with a basic string pad like that, any one of a thousand synths would serve the purpose equally.

 

One or two others I'd say. AlyJamesLab doing legit DSP emulations and in the emulation world GForce and Synapse are VERY convincing.

 

Another thing that's often overlooked, when it comes to analog equipment is that there's often a noticeable difference between two supposedly identical units due to the accumulation of slight component variations. In that sense you can choose to model one specific unit or produce an average of many units. It's the main reason why A/B of soft/hardware will likely produce different results. It's the reason "matched pairs" exist - anyone with matched pairs will know that even those can be subtly different to one another.

 

With a pretty aggressive EQ I was able to get closer, but even so, I would say this is intended to make you remember the JP-8000, not recreate it.

 

In side-by side-comparisons there will be unit variations. But invariably, many users will hear this emulation and hope to compare it with old tracks they heard where it was used. The emulation version will be missing any color someone would get from an analog desk, plus whatever outboard hardware effects might have been used.

 

That certainly looks aggressive but a little hard to tell for sure without a dB scale to reference. I'd say tonally that's pretty much corrected it though. One thing that is noticeable is very different phase between the stacks, there's some severe cancellation going on in the second one.