Roland Jupiter-4

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Jupiter-4 by Roland
Synthesis type:		Analog subtractive
Polyphony:		4 voices
Oscillators:		1 VCO + 1 sub-oscillator per voice
Multitimbral:		None
VCF:		1 resonant lowpass, 1 highpass
VCA:		2 ADSR
LFO:		1 triangle/square/sawtooth/reverse sawtooth
Velocity sensitive:		No
Aftertouch:		No
External control:		None
Memory:		10 presets/8 user patches
Onboard effects:		chorus
Produced:		1978 - 1981
Original price:		Approx. US$2000

The Roland Jupiter-4, released in 1978, was not only the first of Roland's Jupiter series of synthesizers, but it was also Roland's first self-contained polyphonic synthesizer. The Jupiter-4 was the lowest-priced polyphonic synthesizer during its time (around US$2,000), but it was never as popular as other polyphonic synths such as the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 and the Oberheim OB-X. The Jupiter-4 remained in production until 1981, when it was replaced by the more famous Jupiter-8.

The Jupiter-4 had 4 voices of polyphony with a single oscillator per voice (in addition to a simple sub-oscillator, which only emitted a square wave that was shifted an octave down from the main oscillator). The Jupiter-4's most famous feature is its arpeggiator, which has been used by many Jupiter-4 users to great effect. The arpeggiator has a choice of 4 patterns; up, down, up/down, and a random mode. The arpeggiator can be prominently heard in Duran Duran's 1982 hit single "Rio." The Jupiter-4 also featured a chorus effect and 10 preset sounds, which many claim do not sound at all like the instruments they represent. The Jupiter-4 also featured 8 memory locations for user-created patches.

Despite not being incredibly popular, it did manage to find its way into the hands of some musicians, most of which were associated with the New Wave and synthpop music scenes.

[edit] Promars

In 1979, Roland released a monophonic version of the Jupiter-4 called the Promars. The Promars did not have the arpeggiator and the chorus effect, but introduced a second oscillator. It had the memory and preset selection buttons above the keyboard, which were less clumsy to use than those on the Jupiter-4. It also had 37 keys, making slightly smaller than the Jupiter-4.

The Promars was used by Depeche Mode (around early-mid 1982), Vangelis (early/mid 1980s), The Enid, Jethro Tull, Landscape and Spandau Ballet (synth lead on 'To Cut a Long Story Short').