ROLAND boutique JP-08 TEARDOWN a look inside the synthesizer MF#58 

+Roman A Thank You. I think I could learn a lot if I went back to college, in my day a chip is what you had at lunch time.

+cresshead Thank You

Very much appreciated Thank you

LMAO!!! That was awesome...

lol, no its actually essential just a bit less versatile then the original and only 4 notes of polyphony instead of 8 or 6 like the junos, same with the ju-06 and the jx-03, btw, the jx-03 is finally a full analogue control analogue synth unlike the original jx-3p which was controlled digitally (to make it cheaper and somewhat more "professional essential" like the access virus that came at 1998?

The biggest ant-synth ever made.

its actually usable, dont hate before try, true, its more difficult to find the sweetest spot but i actually rather it to have at least 6 or 8 voices then bigger faders, now they have only 4 which is quite terrible, so you cant large chord pads (in an analogue synth the oscillators switch from one note to another harmoniclly when it run out of voices, yea you can use delay but seriously thats all that rolland has to offer as a relic to its classic revolutionery synthesizers? the good thing is that it sounds almost the same as the original, approximately... i aspecially liked the jx-03, a complete analogue (analogue modeling and analogue oscillatiors) cheap version of the jx-3p that was more digital modeling what was less accurate and more difficult its to adjust its parameters for a certian\ any sound accurately lunlike in an complete analogue \ modern digital synth but was more comfortable for professional\ amature speed use when if you wanted a certain sound directly, like the Oberheim Matrix and the access virus which was actually fully analogue despite this two synths, that was the idea. - get the sound efficiently, accurately and fast

Indeed... A real mans synthesizer is big and black, with large mod wheel for stimulation.

Considering the d-05 has 8-voice they absolutely could have.

@@spookypen The D-50 was a digital synth originally. The JP08 had to use ACB (an algorithm designed by roland) to simulate an analogue process (Jupiter was analog obviously). Can I assure you this would be far more CPU dependent than simply emulating an digital synth.

@ff_____ wow, that's no fun. Good to know about this limitation of the TR-08

+Michael Smith Hi Michael. It is vert well made and the attention to detail right up to the silk screen printing is top class. (so it should be for £299) but yes it is a very well made unit. --- gripe alert > but no CC commands ?. I hope they look into updating this soon. but I'm very pleased with it and it sounds very good (coming from someone who owned the original Jupiter-8)

I agree that the lack of CC implementation is a serious oversight, but this is probably something they'll add as a "feature" later on (hopefully, with no added expense). Coming from someone who has never owned a Jupiter-8, it does sound marvelous. 10,000 pounds for a real one, these days. . .madness.

Yes I always wanted get hold of the real one again one day but the cost is simply madness. I think for the price of this "it will do nicely"

+Shinobi Stealth Thank You Shinobi.

+vinyljunkie07 yes but the system 1 only achieves 4 notes. But I do think these will be offered as a plugout in 2016

+markusfuller I think the reason why it only achieves 4 notes on the System 1 is that it runs at 96k so extra CPU power needed. Whilst the Boutiques currently run at 44.1k either way both great sounding systems albeit some slight annoyances

Of course. I was looking inside the system one last night thinking why did it only have 4 voices yet 2 FPGAs. Thankyou vinyljunkie07 you just answered my thoughts for me. sometimes the obvious is not so obvious. it is using two FPGAs for the 96K

I hope ROLAND eventually make an 8 voice version of the JP-8. theres enough room inside. or at least an update to half the 96k of the system 1 and have 48k 8 voices.

Hi The SE-02 looks and sounds interesting but at £509.00 I think its a bit overpriced with so many other things on sale at the moment. but if I manage to get my hands on one to play with I will certainly give it a go.

David Rhodes Hello David swopping the leds over - I bet that looks real nice. I keep thinking about swopping the green leds in the system-8 but not sure what colour i want.

Judging by the fact that Roland's website now shows there are 13 different models available, i'd say they must have been fairly successful. :) www.roland.com/us/promos/roland_boutique/

+ThomasGrillo Hi Thomas. Thank You, I too like the ribbon controllers though I wish they could be assigned to different parameters. I hope all is well.

+RaveTracks Yes Roland is starting to get quite interesting again.

+halcyondaystunes Im still wondering why only ONE memory chip when theres room for two on the board ?.

+Marc Brassé Hello Marc, I agree It's an amazing sounding synth for its price. It sounds so close to the real thing but at a fraction of the cost of the real thing. and it won't steal too much space in my studio.

+Marc Brassé Have you not seen a modern laptop motherboard? Looks more like nanoscale art than something soldered together.

I guess one day a whole computer will be one chip with memory etc all within and the pins will be the connections for the outside world. no more additional components just one large chip.

Yeah, but the periferals such as the power supply will most probbly stay individual parts, The same wil apply for stuff like amplification and screens. I expect a lot more integration as well though, especially in very large run products. So a phone on one almost one chip could indeed be practical. But there will probably come a point where it will still be more economic to use more parts at least for smal(er)l series electronics and these Boutiques are exactly that. One never knows though. The way things are going we'll one day only buy the software and print the parts in 3D ourselves. What bugs me a bit on the other hand is how all new stuff nowadys needs to boot up. Even user dedicated hardware. In my time (said the grey ancient) you switched on elctronics and they would work immedialy. That's progress for you! Imagine a coffee machines that, like the average laptop, boots up a bit slower every day, There'd be riots! It'll still happen though because the NSA wants to know exactly how many cups we drink! And a few years after that they will want to "correct" the recipe! Later still: Only virtual coffee in the cloud because it will be a controlled substance only attianble from non-affeliated "terrrorist" regions! :-). Sorry if I overdo it a bit but let's be honest: These are paranoid times. :-)

+Marc Brassé Hi Marc. I love my korg kronos but it takes just over 2 minutes to start which is annoying but i put up with it because it is a good instrument. oh by the way i have confirmation now that all the boutiques have the same board inside, they even have jp-08 silk screened onto them no matter if its a ju06 or a jx-03 . its all in the program and top control panel board that makes them different.

+SoloStuff Just a bit of fun for the video :-)

+d5000ster Thank You very much.

+brickscratch Thank You. Maybe one day they will get this small before we can start getting the manufacturers to realise the average size of a human finger.

+Karl Georges Hi Karl. I too have the Arturia collection and agree that the Jupiter on it is pretty amazing. But I cannot take it apart so thats why I dont really do video's on softsynths even though I like them very much.

Hello I only teardown what I own or repair so some things are just not in my reach. I had the SP-16 for a week but was annoyed at the limited sampling time. that was its only downfall for me , pity as the rest of the unit was brilliant design.

ah I agree with you there... I was really looking forward to the live looper... The new update was such a disappointment and they released the DJS which was kind of a slap in the face to the early adopters of the SP-16. I only wish I knew the exact internal memory and ram within both the DJS and the SP-16. Thanks again for the response Markus.

+Garry Field Hi Garry. I have both, the JP08 and the JX03 are both amazingly close to their originals. the JP08 is more expensive but I could not advise you as to which is the better as they are both quite good. you should take some good headphones and try them both out before buying. dont rely on the mini inbuilt speakers. best wishes from Markus

thank you markus.i have made my mind up and i am getting the jx 03.more geared for me i feel ,and those sliders on the 08 would drive me insane!

+Steve Baines Yes I think That Chip is just a busy AD converter for all the sliders pots etc and would be programmed differently depending which control board was fitted as the main boards are all the same. It looks like a very small 40 pin connector that marries the 2 boards. (image is on the markusfuller +google page). I bet someone will figure it out some day soon. (i hope)

+markusfuller The SYSEX messages for remote control of params have already been figured out, so that would be another approach to being able to use proper controls with it (which I'd like to be able to do). Could use an Arduino/Teensy/Shrimp to either convert CC messages from a generic controller to SYSEX, or to read full-size sliders etc directly, and convert them to SYSEX.

I have an arduino mega spare on my shelf, I may look into that one day though i'm a bit of a newbie with the arduino's.

in the future no one can input proper velocity

In the future people will wear smaller versions on their wrists and use toothpicks to play them.

+markusfuller i love yr channel

ThankYou. theres more video's on the way as soon as i get time to make them I will keep on posting. Best wishes from Markus.

+markusfuller i smashed that subscribe button

+Roland Gerard I agree 100%

+Marc Abernathy Marc your Jupiter 12 must sound incredible, I'm truly amazed at my single 4 voice unit. but 12 WOW. they do sound amazing for their size.

+Alan Kyle Hello Alan, Yes It does seem that a lot of manufacturing now is based on (should last 2 years) and things are almost 100% there but not quite as we can always make a slightly better version next year when the sales fall off and sell all over again. the car boot sales are full of Old electronic junk but when i say old i mean about a year or two old. Apple is a classic case of this every year a new phone making the last years phone worth about 25% of its original value then the updates slow things down so you need the latest thing just to keep with the times. theres PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE in just about everything we buy.

Your absolutely right.. it takes away the value of your investment though and makes you think twice next time about that next purchase, which i am unfortunately at right now. I like these new ACB reinventions but i feel they could easily release a bigger better version which i may be more interested in. Having said that.. i love new synths and i need to not let my enthusiasm rule my head ;-)

+Cooperman666ROFL Hello, Yes I have tried the 83% sized keys on the Korg and I agree They are very playable. I think they got it just right.

+ranzeeee hang on...it's a jupiter 8, and it's not an 8 voice????

+i go bananas It's only 4 voices - stupid hey? ;)

+ranzeeee The empty RAM place is for a second plugout synth model. This is basically a System 1 board without plugout memory.

+Michael Bauers I guess roland may (i hope) do an update to allow CC commands.

+StickAroundBennett If I could get my hands on the MX-1 then yes I would like to tear that down. (message to ROLAND . please loan me one for a couple of days - I won't break it ) pretty please .

Have they done this?

I found a source in the US. But unfortunately they are out of stock. syntaur.com/Items.php?Item=7407 So question is where can I source: Slide potentiometer, 50KB with amber LED, 10mm travel.

+fkthewhat I think if there was an 8 voice version of this in a 5 octave keyboard then Roland may sell many of them. I would certainly put my name down for one. though it would need the arpeggiator and keyboard split putting back into the game.

Hello. the led sort of rubs along a contact strip within the slider and thats how it is powered. as you say it is intermittent when you press or move the slider then it sounds like either there is dirt along that powered track or as you have tried cleaning it then the contact could just possibly be worn out enough that it barely touches the track. as for repairing it well that could be quite fiddly as its such a tiny potentiometer you may have to remove it off the board and disassemble it so you can get to inspect the insides to figure out whats wrong or it would be simpler to replace it if you can get hold of a new one.

Hello The sliders on the JU-06 are longer than the ones on the JP-08. the JP-08 sliders have about 10mm travel where the JU-06 are about double that though I have not measured them.

+Scott Rogers You can get the whole Arturia v4 collecton for that money. Just add a MIDI keyboard with some knobs like Arturias own and you are good to go.

+mCKENIC Hi. Im about 99.9% sure that Roland will sell a system 1 (plug-out) download that will have the boutiques sounds. though the limitations would be the physical controllers on the System 1 & 1m could not really give the instant hands on usability to all the controllers required for the different boutiques. The electronics of the system-1 could certainly handle everything as the processor etc is the same chip. maybe 2016 will be the year these are released in system 1 format. I also think there will be an 8 voice version on the way instead of the 4 we currently have as that seems the next logical step for Roland.

+outaspaceman I have just watched Nick's sonic-lab review thanks to your message "Excellent" always great unbiased reviews from Nick Batt.

+markusfuller he stops at the surface Markus.😉. You and him would make a great double act.👍😂😂😂😂😂

Yes I would not turn down making a video with Nick Batt. I think he is very talented and more importantly very honest.

👍

Thinking about doing a mod with a new case just to get some decently sized potentiometers.

I think the difficulty depends mainly on how skilled one is in using the various tools needed, because from an electronic viewpoint, i can't see anything that would prevent doing such a mod. As for 'is it worth it' i can only say, that depends entirely on the individual.

As soon as I saw what's inside, I thought of modding... difficulty wise: I'd have to check how sliders are attached to the case in bigger synths in order to do the same. Let's say for now that they are attached from the bottom side of the front panel (and I am talking about the new case that we are getting for this). Then, I would take out the panel board from JP-08, remove (desolder) all the original sliders from it, and then use jump wires to attach all my new big sliders to it (sliders are on the bottom side of the front panel of the new case). Then just find a way to fix those twp boards inside the big case, the main board with all the connections at the back side, and the panel board somewhere near. I'd see about the pitch control board. There is even a keyboard connector on the main board, for the keyboard. Or if needed, do that over MIDI. You would also need a On/Off switch, which is not mandatory, but is an easy fix. You can also do the LCD display with jump wires, similar to the sliders.

never mind. I looked closer :P

+Elsif Hi Elsif its bot the microsoft band its the sony SWR30 . I would have preferred the Microsoft band. this Sony is very limited in what it can do but as its ELpaper display it lasts about 3 to 5 days between charging and is always readable. but I still want the microsoft one ?.

Templar K Hi I have only played with the tr09 for a short while in the music shop and its hard to tell the difference but the guy in the shop says its the same sound used in the tr-08.

+Terry marsden Hi Terry, I played with the JU-06 and JX-03 they both sound very nice indeed. maybe one day i will have them but for now I could only get the JP-08 and that was a stroke of luck as someone had it on order early on and passed the option to me. I was a bit late ordering from the first batch.

Well i had luck from gak i bought the ju-06 on friday and its on its way to me for tuesday.

Brilliant. I think you will like it. I have been playing with mine all day long and it sounds great for such a tiny little synth.

Well i opened mine (ju-06) and the main board is a jp-08 .

Than You Terry for letting us all know. I thought it may all be the same. So what do you think of the sound it produces ?.

+Jakob Haq Thank You Jakob. I was surprised. PS I love your Video's

+markusfuller aw thanks Markus, means a lot to me. I love your videos to, you're awesome! :D

+markusfuller A Nick Batt and Marcus Fuller cross over video of some sort... That would be great!

Oh if only. Nick is really interesting and I'd love to have a chat with him about synth technology.

+Kieron Edwards Hi Kieron. I had the Jupiter 80 & Integra-7 well before i started making these videos about whats inside them. I never did open up the J-80 so I cannot say what is inside them. one day another may come along and I will open it up.

+Jp Sp Im sure looking in the circuitry you could remove the sliders and re-build it with much larger sliders though i did not look at what the values were on the pots. sorry it has been re-assembled now and wired into my setup. the sliders remind me of a car graphic equalizer i had many years ago even that had the leds on the sliders and were about the same 10mm travel.

+Paul Kerry Thank You :-)

Apologies, meant to say Markus! Im starting to wonder if there is some voodoo magic wirelessly connecting the boards, as the connection does not seem obvious!

hi Adrian stop the video at 8:13 as i have put a picture of the plug bottom left of the video. best wishes from markus.

+markusfuller thanks a lot, its a very tidy plug. Not sure how i missed it while watching!

I think it is a 40 pin connector and it snaps into place quite positively plus the board is also screwed into place with 5 screws so there is no danger of it becoming loose over time.

+Michael Otton I think they will be offered as plugouts in 2016 though it may be a bit awkward to implement the control surface for all the parameters. still not impossible as the main ESC2 processor etc is already there.

Yes

I think the whole thing would simply not work, the main boards are the same and both have JP-08 printed on them but the programming is different.

Hello. yes it would be possible to take off the sliders and run wires to a new set of larger sliders. it would be a bit messy inside but it is certainly possible. or you could just use a midi controller if roland has implemented the midi cc control.

Enrique Apanco Hmm im not sure about that one to be honest.

+slider2732 Hi, I think the socket for the keyboard will only accept 25 keys maximum ( just short certain pins in certain orders depending on which keys you press) I think you would be better off using a MIDI keyboard and chain several of these together as I doubt you could get a combination of more than 25 keys to work through the keyboard in socket.

markusfuller I see and thanks for the reply. Forgot if the pitch bend is on the official 25 key keyboard, but it would be a neat trick to emulate pitch bend in software, to give the extra notes for a 5 octave real keyboard. Anyhow, thanks for another insightful video :)

Hello. There is NO pitchbend on the 25 key keyboard.

Hi Ken. I am not 100% sure as it was so long ago but I think I must have read it on one of the roland websites or some other website that was talking about them when these were originally introduced. I cannot remember. by the way I am enjoying your patches/sounds that you made for the ASM Hydrasynth, Its becoming one of my favorite synths.

I just read one of my own comments from 5 years ago and it says its a DSP chip. I dont know where i got that info from either - oldtimers is creeping up on me LOL

@@markusfuller ok, yeah I just wasn’t sure I know in the old days they used some fixed array chips . But as far as I’m aware the aira line BMC etc chips haven’t been proven to be fpga but a lot of us had assumed it

@@markusfuller ah you are too kind , I enjoy all your videos! Cue love fest lol 😂

+Andrew Scott Hi Andrew, Sorry I do not have a FA-08 to take apart. I only have the items I bought myself or a few repairs for friends. I wish I could get my hands on more gear but who in the right mind would give me their gear to take apart. I wish ROLAND KORG YAMAHA etc would just loan me some things from time to time.

+fabiovsroque Hmm I wish I had a crystal ball but if I could place a bet then I think I would gamble that they will release a plug-out maybe next year. It makes business sense as theres money for them to be made by doing that.

Indeed you can and that's the fun bit. Use a finger pinch instead of a wrist waggle.

I am not sure I lnow what you mean by tear the connection between the ribbons. do you mean as in disconnecting the ribbons from the rest of the circuit? and using the synth without ribbon control ?. If so I do not know as I have never tried it out so I don’t know what will happen.

@@markusfuller yes, exactly. I Tried it and it worked. The ribbon controller of my boutique weren’t working proper. Thank you!

+James Porch Hi James, now I have the jp-08 and have heard some of the things it can do I think I will hold onto it and hope Roland will sort out the CC commands issue. Yes I owned the real thing indeed. I wish I had kept it now.

Hello to use the JP-08 as close to the jupiter 8 you need to chain two of these JP-08s together. so some people are saying it should have been named the JP-04 really and not the JP-08.

Thanks!!

the filter on the ju06 is very different.

They both sound different...

+OrangeJackson True but your master keyboard is generating the midi notes to play with its own arpeggiator. the original jupiter-8 had the arpeggiator built in.

which MiDI controller do you have that has an arpeggiator?

I've used the Casio PX5s which was great but too big and am now using the Autura Keystep which is very good.

There's a setting where you can turn on midi in velocity

+Rob Fielding Hi Rob, Im having several problems trying to send simple midi commands for controlling certain parts but I have got to the point where it is back in its box and about to make an appearance on gumtree. theres enough processing power inside to make this product so much more responsive to many other midi commands.

+markusfuller i kind of feel this way about it too. it his a midi in/out, yet i can't do a local off to implement my own midi filtering -- like working around the keyboard being so tiny. it has an amazingly weak answer to aftertouch messages from midi in, and doesn't even do basic midi in velocity unless it's plugged into their cheesy keyboard.

yes because of your message reminding me of this I am about to take a few pictures and place them on gumtree today. it sounds amazing but it is also very limiting at the same time.

Hello I am only guessing as i do not own one now, I think the ribbon connectors are connected to the board with a cable that can be unplugged.

@@markusfuller thanks, im going to check it out if thats possible.

Im just hoping Roland has something newer and bigger in the pipeline, they are suppose to be revealing something new in the synthworld this month. but I guess this could be made on a bigger footprint with proper faders etc. though im not sure what it would cost to do it. be a nice project though.

Make room for a a Boss Re-20 and a Boss CE-2 on the controls. It would be a vey nice synth. Cost of two jp's and and the other stuff? Too much :-( Would be a nice synth anyhow..

+djdcode Hi. I mainly chose this mixer for its size. I use to have the Behringer X32 but that was way too big on my desk, I mainly use the QU16 just as a mixer and audio interface for the computer and have not tried the built in effects racks etc (yet) but the pre-amp quality seems very good - no real latency issues that I can find. just an all round perfect device for what i need in a small setup like mine. I do like the fact that I can use it as a standalone multitrack recorder without being connected to a computer.

YAVAMAYstudio Hi If I get my hands on one I will ceratainly open it up, as far as I have heard it is analog.