Developers have announced that JE-8086 – software emulation of the Roland JP-8000 synthesizer – is now out of alpha testing, and is officially available as a free download.
They say that it’s “100% bit identical to the hardware and runs the original firmware”, so it should sound essentially the same as the original.
JE-8086 Video Demo:
Here’s a video demo, via Elektronick Musick:
Here’s a guide to getting this set up, via Autodafe:
Availability:
JE-8086 is available now to download for free for Linux, Mac & Windows. The catch is that it requires that you have a copy of the original ROM from the hardware synths, which is copyrighted.
https://www.roland.com/global/support/by_product/jp-8000/updates_drivers/ed5d25d9-77b3-49f9-9d0e-be7ec209aab7/
There was similar restriction on the Access Virus emulator. Virus ROM are freely accessible from the Access web site, which solves that problem. Technically one should be an owner of some Access hardware, and I do own a Virus Rack. I do not know nor care about any impediments to obtaining a Roland ROM, but there are already so many JP emulators that the problem was trivial before it was even recognized.
There is no catch, nothing new here. You gotta have the original rom for all their emulators.
Oh sure, I’d love to be sued by Roland for hacking their copyrighted ROM. With the tidal wave of choices, do I need any synth that badly? Magic 8-Ball says “Get bent, monkey boy.” They do impressive work, but this feels like buying a car with a missing wheel.
In an industry that thrives on being cool, would anyone sue a potential customer for ripping an obsolete ROM?
Roland have started to claw back some of their street cred, even they wouldn’t shoot themselves in the foot, would they?
you forget something that Nintendo is very keen to remind everyone: Japanese corpos are insane when it comes to IP stuff.
The ROM is freely available on Roland’s website for anyone to download. Just search for JP-8000 Operating System and it’s literally the first result. No hacking or shady workarounds involved.
Explain how this feels like buying something when it’s free?
Theoretically you could download the files from the official Roland page. It converts the .mid files to .bin. Theoretically. I didn’t do it and wouldn’t recommend anyone else do it.
There is indeed no catch at all.
The ROM is available out in the open and no hacking is involved.
It is an emulator that emulates the CPU which uses the ROM.
And this is just great. The sound of old VA’s get a second life with this project. Pure awesomeness!
How do you get a ROM and integrate it into your setup without an actual JP-8000? Does this software just enable virtual control of the JP-8000/8080?
If the ROM is free-floating, so be it. Its a great synth and Roland clearly isn’t hungry to re-release it as hardware. I always liked it as an interesting sort of match with a Korg Prophecy.
I do have rather excellent Arturia’s JUP-8000 but this one takes the cake for being totally 1:1 representation of the original 🙂
Btw; This instrument is one of the most requested plugin for RC for the past 3 years and yet Roland is refusing to release it… Maybe they should employ Usual Suspects to make it happen… 😉