In his latest video, synthesist Starsky Carr pits a vintage legend against a modern contender in an 8-voice analog polysynth matchup.
“I set out to score the Frap Tools Magnolia against the Roland Jupiter-8 across price, features, reliability, repairability and — the hard part — sound,” Carr explains. “It wasn’t close on most of those – and then the sound test threw me a curveball I wasn’t expecting.”
Topics covered:
0:00 – Two 8-voice analogue polys, 45 years apart
1:08 – Sound test begins: matching a big warm pad
2:56 – Filters, envelopes & adding pitch LFO
4:13 – PWM comparison
6:11 – Fat square bass & an acid bass
8:20 – FM face-off
11:30 – Wave folding (Jupiter-8 can’t do this at all)
11:46 – High-pass filter tricks — the MS-20 move
12:29 – Pick Your Winner
14:31 – Final thoughts
Does the Magnolia holds its own against the Jupiter 8? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Yes. Modern flagship synths are extremely capable. That said, some of them are simply too feature rich. The added complexity and routing options makes them harder to program, which can get in the way of immediacy and happy accidents.
Nice demo – I didn’t expect the outcome!