Cherry Audio has introduced Mercury-8, a new virtual instrument for Mac & Windows that’s based on the sound of the classic Roland Jupiter-8.
They say that Mercury-8‘s synth engine has been modeled to “capture the sound and behavior that made the JP-8 so legendary”. Mercury-8 also goes expands on the original’s design by offering expanded polyphony, versatile modulation options, studio-quality effects, and expressive performance capabilities.
Features:
- The “ultimate JP-8 emulation”, based on circuit and behavior modeling techniques.
- Dual-layer voicing architecture, with 16 polyphonic voices per layer. Keyboard split and stacked layer modes allow two simultaneously playable layers, with separate per-layer controls for all parameters, including synthesis, modulation, patterns, and effects
- Two oscillators per voice for each layer deliver thick, vibrant tones with classic waveforms, sync, and accurate exponential FM cross-modulation
- Triangle, ramp, sine sawtooth, noise, and square or variable pulse waveforms with pulse width modulation
- High-pass and resonant low-pass filters for each layer faithfully recreate the legendary Jupiter curves, with 12 dB and 24 dB slope options
- Two full ADSR envelopes per layer with velocity, independently assignable to filter, amp, and modulation for expressive control and dynamic sound shaping
- Tempo-syncable LFO for each layer, with retrigger option
- Analog Drift and Condition Controls to fine-tune the “age” of the synth from pristine new to unstable vintage, with adjustable VCO, VCF, VCA drift, and envelope slop
- Solo, Unison, Poly-1 and Poly-2, Multi, and single-key Chord Memory assign modes
- Multi-voice mode that adds adjustable “mini synth” trimmers to provide subtle or extreme voice variation in pitch, panning, filter, and envelopes to tones and patterns
- Repurposed “digital display” interface with clickable access to extended features such as trigger and note priority, unison voices, multi-voice modes, condition, and drift
- Over 600 original presets, along with the recreation of the 64 original JP-8 factory patches (with enhanced versions) and the eight factory setups, all accessible in a convenient preset browser. Also included are template presets that serve as ideal starting points for sound design in Mercury-8, and a MIDI controller mapping compatible with the Jupiter-X hardware synthesizer
- Comprehensive modulation matrix with four slots and simple click-to-assign functionality: 25 sources and 43 destinations with optional “Via” controls, including Mercury-8’s integrated effects
- Syncable and transposable arpeggiator for each layer with Arp, Leap, Order, and Random modes, and Swing, Chance, and Feel to add degrees of randomness to arpeggiated patterns
- Syncable and transposable 16×4 polyphonic step sequencer for each layer with Start, Stop, Auto Start, and humanize options, with accurate DAW clock and step synchronization
- Three independent customizable chains of effects, one for each layer plus a global layer, with an individual effects modulator for each layer
- 20 studio-quality effects that can be arranged, saved, and recalled within their effects chains, which are compatible and can be shared with Cherry Audio’s Trident Mk III synthesizer:
- BBD Flanger, Compressor, Digital Delay, Digital Reverb, Distortion & EQ, Dual Delay, Dual Ensemble, Dual Phaser, Envelope Filter, Flanger & Chorus, Galactic Reverb, Lo-Fi, Lushverb, Ring Modulator, Seven Band EQ, Spring Reverb, and Tape Echo. New in Mercury-8 are DCO Chorus, Panner, and Pulser.
- Persistent mini UI Effects controls for on/off, solo, bipolar modulator amount slider, and dry/wet mix for each effect. Global FX on/off, level, and stereo expand
- Utility panels to easily copy, paste, swap, and move layers, effects chains, and sequencer data between presets
- Directly import original JP-8 patch bank SysEx data (Encore Electronics format) via drag-and-drop
- Export Mercury-8 preset data to SysEx data (Encore Electronics format)
- Standalone virtual instrument and plug-in versions included
- User-adjustable oversampling control
- Complete MIDI control and DAW automation for all controls, with easy-to-use MIDI learn and mapping (Preset and Global)
- Cherry Audio’s popular Focus zoom-in feature, as well as standard UI zoom and resize via drag
- Complete documentation available directly online from the instrument or in downloadable PDF format
Mercury-8 Audio Demo:
Pricing and Availability:
Mercury-8 is available now for $69 USD.
If you pan two instances of a mega-patch left and right, you could probably split the sky. Half the buyers will want to be splitters, half will nab it out of nostalgia. Either way, its a smart recreation. Cherry Audio gave it a lot of added muscle.
Nope.
The Acustica one sounds way better to me.
Not to me. This synth sounds exactly like the Jupiter 8. The sound has the lower end frequency sound richness and the middle and high tone frequencies that are enriched in the sound. I am amazed at the sound quality of the soft synth recreation of the JP8. I have the Roland cloud and the Arturia JP8, this to me has all the richness and sound quality I love. This is now my favorite JP8 emulation.
This sounds much closer to a Jupiter 8 though.
I prefer the Roland one myself
I guess it’s cool if you don’t have the space for more synths. I mean it sounds EXACTLY the same
I prefer this one to the Roland myself.
OMG, not yet another JP-8…
I have Roland JP-8 and Arturia JUP-8 V and can’t see any need for Mercury-8…
BTW; Why is Cherry Audio unable to release something original instead…?
They have released original instruments, but I suspect they don’t sell as well as the copies of classic synths. We’re brand driven consumers.
Here’s your super-duper biased answer: I’m the former lead designer at Cherry; I did almost every product up until the middle of this year.
As pointed out, original instruments don’t sell nearly as well as a emulations of existing ones. When we did Harmonia, I was extremely proud of it – it’s super easy to make killer sounds on it and there’s nothing else on the market like it. It sold… ok, and nobody seems to talk about it much (or Cherry’s other original instruments, Dreamsynth and Sines, which are also very cool). As a developer in a VERY crowded market, it’s tough to decide what instruments to do, because original ones are a tough sell, as are obscure vintage ones (though Cherry has had some surprise successes). People REALLY like the big, known instruments, which is why every company does a Prophet, Jupiter, Mini, etc.
Thanks for the insights. As a soft synth user, I suspect part of the reason original soft since don’t sell well is the difficulty in coming up with tone generation algorithms that are both novel and transparent. By novel, I mean algorithms that generate tones not available through other products, and by transparent I mean that the products’ user interface is intuitive and inviting. It’s a high wire act coming up with something that sounds original and can be programmed without having to climb a high learning curve. Part of the learning curve issue is having to familiarize one’s self with a new user interface. Speaking for myself, Dreamsynth and Sines have very busy user interfaces that make them somewhat visually difficult to get one’s head around in the process of designing sounds. Harmonia does not suffer from this quite as much, but because it’s method of generating tones is more novel, it does require climbing a steeper learning curve to get the most out of it. I’m inclined to think the software recreations of classic synths is more profitable since their tone generation methods are simpler, and the user interfaces are more familiar to synth users, many of whom would rather get on with making music than having to climb a learning curve. The market is also suffering from a glut of soft synths, making it really hard to stand out from the crowd. I would like to wrap up, however, by expressing my appreciation for all of your hard efforts in bringing Cherry audio soft synths to the world. The products you helped create have brought me a good deal of joy and pleasure, and I hope for bigger and better things for you as you move on in your career.
Super interesting, thank you! Wish we’d would hear more directly from people who work on the projects.
I love Cherry Audio JP8 more than the Roland cloud which I also own. I also own the Arturia JP8V but this new version by CA is now my favorite.
Knock off
Knock it off
Knock it off cherry
It’s about time they produced a Roland System 700 knockoff. Now that would be a first… I don’t know of any developer that’s released a software version of that beast.
Is it for free
A synth like this 5 years ago would probably be $250- 300+
$69.00 is an unbelievable price for this great synth version.
$69.00 is squat.
Synthtopia where is the heading “Ripoff vst synth”? or is that just reserved for Behringer?
Chris – Thanks for your feedback.
Synthtopia does not use subjective terms like ‘ripoff’ in categorizing synths from Behringer or others. We stick to objective terminology, including ‘virtual instruments’, ‘software synths’, ‘clone’, ‘knockoff’, ‘reissue’, etc.
A few readers take offense at our use of the term ‘knockoff’ with some Behringer synths, but copying other company’s products and making cheaper versions is Behringer’s stated business model.