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The biggest buzz heading into Musikmesse 2011 has been about the Roland Jupiter 80 synthesizer ? a synth that doesn?t even officially exist.

That hasn?t kept the Roland Jupiter 80 rumors from running rampant, though.

Future Music says that Roland is set to release a new Jupiter keyboard at Musikmesse. They add that ?The three oscillator hardware synth follows similar trajectories of the rebranded Juno and SH series and will most likely disappoint anyone expecting a modern take on the famed JP-8 analog synth of yesteryear witnessed below.?

There?s a fairly massive thread at GearSlutz about the Jupiter 80, but it?s mostly complaints about what the rumored Roland Jupiter 80 keyboard won?t be ? a genuine analog monster synth.

Electronic music ?ber-guru Craig Anderton says that ?I saw a closed-door preview of it at NAMM while in prototype form. I can?t say anything specific until Messe, but the most important aspect of it is not what anyone?s expecting. Well, at least I wasn?t??

More details below.


Roland Jupiter 80 Specifications

Note that these are completely unofficial.

Three-oscillator virtual analog synthesizer
Metal chassis with aluminum endcaps
76 note keyboard
Large touch-screen interface
Price $3500-$4000
Synthesist Matthew Davidson has some interesting thoughts on the Roland Jupiter 80 at his Stretta blog:

To Roland, I fear the Jupiter name is simply a brand they can exploit.

What I think they?ll do is take the surface qualities of the Jupiter 8; the name, the color scheme and aluminum end cheeks and apply it to a product festooned with Roland buzzword technologies like D-beam, COSM, variphrase, trip-pad, and a touch screen. It?ll have a waveform ROM, play drum sounds and have a lovely piano patch with realistic reverb.

In short, it?ll be a V-Synth dressed up as a Jupiter-8 on Halloween.

Note: We don?t expect the Jupiter-80 to look anything like the Photoshop job above.

Here?s Roland?s official ?teaser? video:



All they have to say about it is very vague:

A dramatic transformation has begun. The spirit of a legend re-emerges. An amazing new instrument takes form. Prepare for a new musical beginning.

Roland did recently register the domain name Jupiter80.com, along with Jupiter-80.com, but the site is just a placeholder, at this time.

Here?s the domain name info:



Administrative Contact: Roland Corporation U.S. Joe Sparacio (webmaster@rolandus.com) +1.3238903700 Fax: - 5100 S. Eastern Ave Los Angeles, CA 90040 US
Technical Contact: Roland Corporation U.S. Joe Sparacio (webmaster@rolandus.com) +1.3238903700 Fax: - 5100 S. Eastern Ave Los Angeles, CA 90040 US
Registrant Contact: Roland Corporation U.S. Joe Sparacio ()
Fax: 5100 S. Eastern Ave Los Angeles, CA 90040 US
Creation date: 25 Feb 2011 00:07:02 Expiration date: 25 Feb 2012 00:07:00
It?s a week until we find out the Roland Jupiter 80 details ? so there?s plenty of time for you to weigh in with your thoughts, hopes or speculation about the new keyboard. Let us know what you think!