Jupiter 80 - Seriously thinking about buying one

A Jupiter-80 recently sold for 1599.00 on ebay as a manufacturers repack.

So far I have only seen the Jupiter-80 drop to $2499 (US) at retail. $1000 off is not bad but could it be better?

I think it is decent. The Jupiter-80 is built well, just wish it had more controls and sliders on the panel. The touch screen is OK. It is not as responsive as I had gotten spoiled by using my iPad's touch screen (which by the way the P-Editor app for iPad is good for editing the basic tone level).

I use the Jupiter-80 in my studio and take a Jupiter-50 out because I wanted to travel as light as possible.

Can't really advise what you should do. You have some nice gear. If the price is right I guess jump on it but I believe it will not be on the market much longer. Would be great to see a new Jupiter come out that is more in line with its original namesake as far as controls and things go.

Thanks for your advice Synthtron! I went into my local dealer this afternoon, and played the Jupiter 50 they had on display. After explaining my interest in the Jupiter 80, the store offered to take back the Integra 7 I purchased in July for a small restocking fee. This will cut my investment in a Jupiter 80 to more than half. I have some time to think about it, but it seems like it could be a good option for me. The downside to returning the Integra 7 is that I would lose all the XV-5080 sounds and SRX expansion modules. However, by acquiring the Jupiter 80 I would gain a better interface for live playing, improved sound editing, and double the polyphony. What do you think? Should I trade in the Integra 7 for the Jupiter 80?

drumster wrote:

Thanks for your advice Synthtron! I went into my local dealer this afternoon, and played the Jupiter 50 they had on display. After explaining my interest in the Jupiter 80, the store offered to take back the Integra 7 I purchased in July for a small restocking fee. This will cut my investment in a Jupiter 80 to more than half. I have some time to think about it, but it seems like it could be a good option for me. The downside to returning the Integra 7 is that I would lose all the XV-5080 sounds and SRX expansion modules. However, by acquiring the Jupiter 80 I would gain a better interface for live playing, improved sound editing, and double the polyphony. What do you think? Should I trade in the Integra 7 for the Jupiter 80?

I think the Integra-7 would be great to have in the studio because it offers access to a huge sound library. I do not have and Integra but I have a Fantom X and an older JV-1080 with four SR-JV80 cards installed.The Jupiter-80 is not going to give you the large library of sounds that the Integra offers. The Jupiter-80's acoustic supernatural sounds are great but somewhat limiting in my opinion. For instance on the SRX expansion card sounds of the Integra give you many more variations of sounds of acoustic instruments. On the Jupiter-80 you do not have a large library of supernatural acoustic sounds. Also there are like only 363 raw PCM waveforms most are not regular sampled acoustic instruments. I find the Jupiters great for creating synthesized textures (though I wish they had OSC Sync) and the Jupiters are useful for playing live with their quick access to creating splits and layers. Also if you are into drums the Integra has more Drum sounds. the Jupiter has several kits but not no where near what the Integra offers.
The Integra's basic Supernatural synth engine is the exact same as the Jupiter's, offering the same modeled filters so you can get Jupiter sounding synth tones. I do not think on the Integra splits and layers are as easy to set-up as the Jupiters offer.
I like to use the Jupiters for live performances. I have been leaving my Jupiter-80 in the studio and using a Jupiter-50 lately because of it being lighter BUT I do miss the extra Live set you get with the Jupiter-80 that is not present on the Jupiter-50 and the Jupiter-50 can hit a polyphony ceiling much easier if you are layering many tones because it has half the polyphony of the Jupiter-80.

As far as what you should go for, I guess it depends on what you want a synth to do. The Jupiter is powerful mainly for its layering of tones and splits but its raw PCMs are limited to about 360 or so and the acoustic supernatural tones are not going to give you many variations and their are not even many drum kits.

The Jupiter-80 is a solid piece though and the keys have a great feel in my opinion. At first, I was not really happy with the initial release of the Jupiter-80 back in 2011. I wanted a slider laden beast. With the addition of Version two and the improvements It brought, I finally warmed up to it. Now I can say that I would love to add another one myself and now that the prices have dropped by about $1050.00 it gets more tempting.

The Integra-7 has many more sounds. If you are looking for a specific sound (e.g. for a cover or for a composition) you will almost certainly find it there. Not so much in the Jupiter-80. But the Jupiter has plenty of sound possibilities and lots of effects. The acoustic tones it has are very good and very dynamic, and you can get far in perfecting how to articulate them accurately. But most of all, the Jupiter-80 is really playable. I always reach for it first when I just want to jam or try out some melodies. It is so easy to split, layer and mix sounds. Pure joy.

Thanks everyone for their insights! I've spent the last few days playing through hundreds of patches in the Integra 7. My conclusion is that although it's sounds are vast, it's really more of a studio tool than a live tool. The fact that the Integra has so many sounds is both it's greatest strength and greatness weakness. It takes a considerable amount of time just to audition all the Electric Pianos, let alone the whole library.

If anything, this test has confirmed how much I like the new Supernatural acoustic and synth sounds. The legacy, PCM sounds from the XV-5080 and SRX expansions are good, but there weren't many instances where I'd choose them over the Supernatural ones. I think I will probably trade in the Integra to get the Jupiter, and if I want some legacy Roland sounds down the road, I'll pick up a used Integra or XV-5080.