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.
So, what you’re advocating is that I should perhaps buy a Prophet 6 instead of a Rev2.
I’m not sure I would put immediacy that high on the list of needs for musicians. Creativity isn’t necessarily the fruit of ease, and as far as “happy accidents”, they usually happen when you don’t know exactly what you’re doing. So, complexity can be a good thing.
Nice demo – I didn’t expect the outcome!
Whenever i want a Jupiter sound i use my Kurzweil K 2000. I have been able to do a pretty good Cs80 also w it
Close enough at a fraction of the price, and with greater reliability and a warranty.
There’s nothing to beat, really. Its like choosing between 2 excellent violas. Once you’ve played enough synths, you start hearing their individual characters more than comparing them to one another.
Exactly. Just because they’re both analog polysynths doesn’t make them comparable. They’re more different from each other than a guitar and a viola. Comparing them based on what they can both do misses the whole point of what they are. But that makes views.
Exactly!