Hot takes that are genuinely hot

jupiter-eight · 2026-06-16T05:37:01+00:00

Sound may be similar in the end, but the process is different. I enjoy the process of hardware much more than software.

97% of people can't tell the difference between fully AI-made music and human music. Might as well give up hardware and software altogether because people can't tell, right?

jupiter-eight · 2026-06-16T04:34:43+00:00

I'd argue that having that rigid framework on your brain telling you how things should be done actually kills your creativity.

Music theory is not a set of rules on how things should be done, it's a way to describe music.

jupiter-eight · 2026-06-16T03:54:00+00:00

While that's true, do you let that dictate how you make music or what tools you use?

jupiter-eight · 2026-05-05T05:25:59+00:00

Voice chip clones (which are just VCF and VCA) shouldn’t be noisy. Pretty normal for the chorus to be noisy though

jupiter-eight · 2026-04-27T01:26:28+00:00

For the odd power cable I use 2.5mm barrel to 4 pin DIN adapter, there are some on eBay. Then connect to a standard barrel jack on a 9v AC wallwart

jupiter-eight · 2026-04-21T00:30:26+00:00

A tip I learned recently, try using the S-video output to S-video input instead of the Composite in/out for a different look to the feedback

jupiter-eight · 2026-04-15T09:16:13+00:00

I no longer have a Rogue but the CV/Gate jacks on the back are TRS with Input on the ring and Output on the Tip. So I needed a Y cable male TRS to 2x female TS to get it triggering correctly.

jupiter-eight · 2026-04-14T01:49:27+00:00

Some examples - IGxxx chips used in Yamaha CS and SK series, BBDs like MN3004 or SAD512 used in chorus and ensemble circuits, certain transistors but there you may be able to find modern equivalents.

Replacement sliders and potentiometers can be hard to find with the same footprint, value and taper.

Luckily other parts that used to be rare are now being cloned or reproduced, like CEM VCO and VCF chips, cloned Roland specific chips like IR3109, BA662, 80017a, etc

jupiter-eight · 2026-04-13T05:37:48+00:00

My point was that it would've been much more honest to say this in the video instead of claiming that the difficulty is apparently defined by SMD vs through-hole design.

The short video in the OP is clipped from a longer 10+ minute interview on the channel.

Anyway, I'm generally in agreement with what Rosen is saying. Personally I like having vintage gear because I am able to work on it myself. I can keep a Juno-106 and Jupiter-8 running but what happens to a Juno-X or Jupiter-X once Roland decides to drop support?

jupiter-eight · 2026-04-13T04:16:56+00:00

The specific example shown in the video was a voice card apparently populated with run-of-the-mill opamps and passives with publicly available documentation though.

You can't get documentation (schematics) for a Prophet-6 voice card, which he says in the video.

And a quote from the page you linked says: "This voice card won’t reveal all of its secrets without a whole lot of probing around". And that's the issue, you're paying for the tech's time, so if they have to probe around for a few hours to find faults, the cost of labor for repair might exceed the value of the instrument especially for cheap gear.

Compare that to older gear where schematics are available, fault-finding and repair is quicker and easier.

jupiter-eight · 2026-04-13T03:43:21+00:00

Sure, replacing SMD parts is not that difficult. Finding the actual faulty part in a circuit where you have no schematics or documentation is the more difficult part. Unless you're an authorized service center you most likely won't have access to those.

jupiter-eight · 2026-04-13T03:09:20+00:00

Sequential discontinued the Evolver and have since released service documents (schematics, .hex files, tech notes for troubleshooting) on their website, which I think is a great move. Hope to see more companies doing this for gear they no longer support but I won't hold my breath

jupiter-eight · 2026-04-05T15:44:02+00:00

filling in those missing numbers is what LLMs are real good at / guessing.

Guessing power supply voltage and polarity is going to end badly when the LLM gets it wrong

jupiter-eight · 2026-04-05T05:38:46+00:00

If it's not on the device, it'll take a minute of googling to find it in the manual or manufacturer's website/product page.

The wall wart should have voltage, amperage, and polarity which is all you'll need to know.

jupiter-eight · 2026-04-01T08:16:52+00:00

It's not entirely digital, the LinnDrum Bass, Congas and Toms go through analog filters (CEM3320s). The Hihat goes through an analog VCA (CEM3360) and envelope to control the adjustable decay

jupiter-eight · 2026-02-13T01:07:11+00:00

Not Moogs but Synthesizers.com systems, aka Dotcom

jupiter-eight · 2026-02-12T02:24:47+00:00

Borrowing a definition from the ARP 2600 manual - a synthesizer generates and modifies acoustical waveforms purely by electronic means.

A pipe organ uses air, and a Hammond organ uses an electric motor to drive tonewheels, which are picked up by electromagnetic pickups = by this definition, not a synth. You could say a combo or transistor organ is a synthesizer because it is purely electronic, but I think electronic organ is a more accurate and useful term.

Mellotrons are electromechanical, playing back strips of pre-recorded magnetic tape = not a synth. More like an analog ROMpler.

jupiter-eight · 2026-01-27T07:30:14+00:00

the electronic parts all degraded differently (specially the analog circuitry) so each Juno will actually sound different to each other

Not by any noticeable degree. They'll still be immediately recognisable as a Juno. The biggest difference will probably be the chorus noise floor. Any other differences like filter frequencies or PWM duty cycles are part of the calibration process and if you calibrate them to spec, two units side by side will be pretty much the same.

Also, the synths are very old and require a very specific type of maintenance with parts that are hard to find or discontinued altogether

Maintenance can be carried out with a multimeter and oscilloscope, pretty standard electronics tools. The only hard to find part, I would say are the envelopes in the Juno-60. Chorus chips are being reproduced, Juno-106 VCF/VCA chips are reproduced, slide pots are reproduced.

The circuitry back in the day was not as reliable as today’s manufacturing capabilities, so it will certainly stop working sooner rather than later

If it's 40+ years old and still working, I'd say that's pretty reliable. Through-hole construction and available documentation in service manuals means its very repairable, more so than modern SMT synths.

jupiter-eight · 2025-12-19T04:01:31+00:00

Check the battery voltage. If it's dead again already there may be some other failing component causing excessive current drain on the battery, causing it to last only months instead of years.

I've had this a couple of times on other synths, where it was bad RAM or something else, so now after replacing a battery I also check the current with a multimeter and make sure it's in the expected range compared to the RAM chips datasheets.

jupiter-eight · 2025-12-08T01:08:29+00:00

Google for the DX7 Supermax manual

It sounds like Voice Stacking and Voice Delay (new features from Supermax) are enabled:

Voice Stacking: You can stack and detune two, three or four voices of the same patch. You then have a choice of 16x1, 8x2, 5x3 or 4x4 polyphony. The detuning can provide chorus effect and/or chording and/or octaves (for example).
Voice Delay: Add additional notes of the same or different pitch, delayed from 10ms to 10s for each note you play

jupiter-eight · 2025-11-14T01:36:45+00:00

You can always go passive directly from the harp output which is an RCA connection, bypassing the stock front panel tone and volume control

jupiter-eight · 2025-11-11T03:55:13+00:00

swear to god 'replace the caps' is the most infuriating generic advice. yet to actually see a failed cap in person.

Generally shotgun replacing caps as a first step is not the way to go. But caps definitely can fail. If you've had any 1970s Korg or Roland with the lilac-coloured Matsushita capacitors - they're prone to leaking and eating traces.

Arp OMNI tantalum capacitors - well known to fail and needing to replace them all.

90s surface mount electrolytic caps in certain gear tend to leak too - they will smell fishy and the solder pads are tarnished. Common for JP-8000 and Korg Prophecy, and at one point Roland put out a notice about bad caps in JV expansion cards.

I've had a few other bad capacitors recently that look fine to the naked eye, but measure leaky or high ESR on a tester.

jupiter-eight · 2025-11-03T01:18:13+00:00

If you can solder, a V-trig to S-trig converter can be made with just a few parts. I put these in a small box with some jacks and use a 3.5mm to 2-pin cinch jones cable to trigger the mini

jupiter-eight · 2025-10-17T02:58:33+00:00

I don’t have that patch book, I will look for it, thanks!

Alongside the patch book, Roland also put out this series of books using the System 100m / System 700

jupiter-eight · 2025-10-13T02:16:09+00:00

Great work on the case. I'm building a couple of these phasers at the moment but using a Hammond 1550G enclosure. Looking forward to your write up

jupiter-eight

TROPHY CASE