https://www.adamszabo.com/vstplugins/airwave

what do you say about that

 

Is it made with Synthedit like some of his earlier stuff?

 

Its probably Flowstone like Viper. If it was SynthEdit, there could be a Mac version for people to complain about SynthEdit too.

 

never heard of this guy. are the plugins any good?

 

That’s the third JP-8K to have come out this year, I think I’ll wait for the usual suspects version instead

 

Thanks @out for the good news, I'll download the demo right away and listen to what the sound is like!

 

to bad for adam that the usual suspects will release their jp clone which is a 1 on 1 , for free. Not to say airwave is bad, and almost identical, but on paper the usual will be better

 

Looks good, but yah, I'm its a no-brainer to just go with The Usual Suspects' version.

 

Maybe it has different flavour of sound than the usual suspects (pun intended). Could be cool in that way.

 

2024: Anything about JP-8080 emulation?

- *Crickets*

2025: Anything abou...

ARTURIA:
- Hold My Beer

ADAM SZABO:
- Hold My Coffee

USUAL SUSPECTS:
- Hold My Microscope

LOL

 

Last edited: Nov 20, 2025 at 8:37 PM

I had a JP8000, I have a JP8080 -- to date not a single released 'emulation/inspired by/clone/paint job/whatever' had been even remotely in the ballpark of the totality of the 8080's sonic pallet.

I say 'had' because holy shit is this close. Very close. Started the comparison video and figured..yeah yeah, supersaw stuff.. low reso plunks.. yawn, that isn't the bits everyone fails horribly at (though frankly, most do fail at that too)... but then it went into the lp pads and the high pass and reso stuff, the 'natural' distortions (the 8080 clips just by looking at it), the 'I'm going to distort in the lo freqs and hi freqs at the same time whether you want to or not' kinda sounds. I've never heard so close to an accurate approximation. It's like he's the only dev to realize that ring mod, feedback, noise, and distortion (and unwieldy frequency responses) are central to almost anything not 'that one' sound.

His lacks a teensy bit of the low mud and has a touch more sheen on the highs, but the vast majority of the little detail characteristics seem to be there. Maybe wider cracks would show with a deeper dive, but of what I've heard this is a no brainer by it now if you've ever wanted an 8080. It's the only commercial one that sounds anything like it.

 

It's kind of funny that we've had plenty of synths capable of sounding just like the jp8000 for many years now. It's not a particularly complex machine - just a cult thing that had it's niche and was fortunate to do so.

 

@adamszabo ...I told you to hurry up on this with a request some years back, it took you too long but anyway ...place it good and you will save something

 

You're right, and it is always good to have options!

The Szabo one looks really nice and sounds good too though, in the demo video.

 

Since he already owns the 8080 hardware, he could just run a proper forensic emulation analysis and post a real comparison.

Most of these ROM-based arguments are just opinions: “it uses the ROM so it has to be identical,” then “no, it doesn’t,” and nothing deeper. Nobody posts the measurements that actually matter, and a null test alone doesn’t prove much.

Developers don’t publish real data because it can expose inaccuracies, and hardware owners don’t care because they already have the original. The “trust me bro” stuff shouldn’t convince anybody, especially when plugin changelogs show how many programming mistakes may get fixed over time in any synth plugin.