Acme Synthworks shared this sneak preview of what they’re calling “the world’s first fully 8-voice Roland JP8 clone.”
While they say the prototype design is 95% finished, they say that they “don’t have the resources to turn this into a product right now.”
If this develops into a product, it sounds like the intent is to make it as a boutique, full-size clone, vs a mass-produced, budget copy.
Features:
- Eight discrete voices.
- Original voice architecture.
- 14 Bit Interface Board.
- The circuit follows the original Jupiter-8 design.
All functions of the original instrument are supported. - The envelopes are implemented in analog form using different ICs, while preserving the original behavior.
- The filter section uses IR3109 and BA662.
Details are still to come at the Acme Synthworks site.
There is gonna be a lot of choices for hardware clones! You got Roland System-8, upcoming Behringer JT-16, ISE-NIN by Black Corporation, UDO Audio Supers can do the sound too, and now this new clone.
Also give the TAL-J-8 emulation a try. It’s one of the best out there!
Acoustica Audio TH-8 is the same as the hardware, and there’s nothing else ITB right now that can compete with this software, it sounds incredible IMO.
I hope Roland do with the Jupiter 8 what they did with their drum machines with the TR-1000.
With the price tag to match?
Well if we are talking equivalence then a brand new Roland made Jupiter 8 would be about €5-6000 ?
Expect Behringer to jump on a Jupiter 8 bandwagon soon with the price tag that no-one else will be able to compete with… 😉
Behringer showed a sneak preview of the JT-16 at the NAMM Show in 2025:
https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2025/01/24/behringer-jt-16-copies-the-classic-roland-jupiter-8-but-with-double-the-polyphony/
They haven’t shared any word on when it will be available.
I am surprised you didn’t mention the recent release if Audiokit’s superb J8.
Yes this!! Just got this on my iPad last week and although I’ve never used an original Jupiter-8, this thing sounds pretty good to my ears.
Also check out Cherry Audio’s Mercury-8.
after TR-1000 release i expect a new Roland analogue poly this year. but it will be 2k
Prob next year
And probably 4k
as long as it is not a product, it is not the world‘s first JP8 clone. it might be.
That’s not how those word work.
I’m amused at the seeming excess of clone-ettes and software revamps. Its just further evidence that a synthesizer IS a singular instrument. The revisiting of the classics says so. You take on a couple of the main keepers like this and then start adding more exotic synths & effects boxes. That’s the deal. NO ONE plays only “the” synthesizer! 😛