::: Roland Jupiter 6 Europa Replacement Power Switch :::

The title says it all!  So i went to turn the JP6E on the other day and i got nothing.  After freaking out and thinking i must be doing something extremely stupid for a few minutes, i decided to get out the volt meter.  To my surprize, the power switch on the JP6E was not working.  How often does that happen>?  Well, At least they are findable on the web thanks to Doug @ Synthparts!

And this synth is so well designed you don’t even need to heat up the soldering gun to do this work!

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The harness comes right off, make sure it’s unplugged!

Careful, don’t damage the metal tabs.

A plastic tool can be used to fold the edges of the switch through the back plate.

Then you can ease the switch out without forcing it or damaging the outer finish

GET OUT!

Harness reattached!

Old and new…

Old and new 2!

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Sometimes i need an easy fix so i can get back to the MUSIC!

::: IF :::

::: Roland Filter Comparisons :::

So, there’s a lot of confusion around what classic Rolands sound like other Rolands.  And on keeping with my previous post on The History of Roland I figured i would put a concise thread together.

First there is a master chart:

ROLAND FILTERS

There’s also a short cheat sheet jpeg for the big boys of Roland fame borrowed from here::

So, in my experience the Jupiter 6 and MKS 80 are very similar in sound ( i’ve used an MKS80 rev 4 ).  not particularly ‘deep’ but capable and very useful.

But the Jupiter 8 sounds DEEP.  Like DISCRETE transistor DEEP.  It’s beautiful sounding no matter how ugly a sound you make.

This is something the Juno 60 can do too in it’s own way. Tight Big Clear Fast.  But it’s oscillators aren’t as big feeling and they are DCO so they don’t drift in any real musical way.

The JX 8P / MKS 70 / JX 10 are in a separate category all together.  They are a bit grungier in sound and vibe and you sometimes have to work harder to get them to sing but it is in there.  It’s just not obvious at first or easy to squeak out.

The Juno family is split into two groups.  The Juno 6 and 60 are almost identical.  The Juno 106 / Alpha / and MKS 50 are thinner and less deep than the jupiter 6 and 8.  The Juno 106 kicks ass above the others in this class though because it has all the tactile control and good MIDI implementation ( MKS70/MKS80 have decent implementation, the Jupiter 6 has barely any and the Jupiter 8 had none! )

So, you pick your battles with old hardware i guess.  I happen to love the JP6 Europa because it’s more MIDI slick than a Juno 106 and sounds way better.  Plus you can do great interfacing with it!  For instance, you can trigger the arpeggiator from an external analog source and the Europa JP6 will transmit the arpeggios created via MIDI.  this is really fun for creating bass lines and other bouncy 80’s bits on multiple instruments rhythmically generated from an 808 for instance…

food for thought…

::: IF :::

::: Alanna Royale ‘Animal’ XBS111 Remix :::

So, this XBS remix is officially out on vinyl and download.   There’s a fun interview about it here

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and for people who want to hear the unmastered ( the master is not one of mine ) mix:

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Disco!

::: Funk beat of the day :::

Well, another day another beat…

We’ve been joking about how awesome Morris Day is lately so i made one of that ilk for fun!

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This one is the standard studio rig:

Bass: Arp 2600

Piano / Horns: Mirage ( DPX ) Sampler

Drums: Linndrum / Simmons SDSV / Oberheim DMX

Pads: Roland Jupiter 8 / Juno 60 / Oberheim Xpander

Sequenced on the Roland MSQ700…

Arpeggiations: JP8 externally driven via sequencer clock.

::: IF :::

::: The history of the Minimoog :::

Golf on the moon, LOL…

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::: IF :::