Roland Jupiter-6

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Roland Jupiter-6
Jupiter-6 by Roland
Synthesis type: Analog subtractive
Polyphony: 6 voices
Oscillators: 2 VCOs
Multitimbral: 2
VCF: 1 resonant multi-mode (lowpass/bandpass/hipass) filter
VCA: 2 ADSR
LFO: 1 sine/triangle/sawtooth/sh
Velocity sensitive: No
Aftertouch: No
External control: MIDI
Memory: 48 tones/32 patches
Onboard effects: None
Produced: 1983 - 1985

The Roland Jupiter-6 (JP-6) is a synthesizer manufactured by the Roland Corporation introduced in 1983 as a cheaper complement to the Roland Jupiter-8. The Jupiter-6 is widely-known as a polyphonic analog synthesizer workhorse, producing a wide variety of sounds. It has 12 analog oscillators (2 per voice), and was one of the first synthesizers on the market to utilize MIDI, a brand new technology at the time of its introduction. The Jupiter-6 is bitimbral, allowing its 6 voices to be split into two sounds - one for 4 voices, and one for the remaining 2 voices (either split 4/2, or 2/4 mode), or monotimbral for a single sound across all 6 voices (whole mode). The Jupiter-6 is notable for creating ambient drones, pads, leads synthesizer lines, and techy blips and buzzes. Users of the Jupiter-6 have always hailed its reliability and easy, but sophisticated programmability.

'Synthcom Systems' offer Europa, a firmware replacement which adds a number of modern enhancements to the instrument's MIDI implementation, user interface and arpeggiator.