Hi there,


Yesterday I downloaded the Jupiter 8 demo plugin from Arturia.
First off what a great idea for unlimited access to really let you evaluate if a product is for you. Having found a place for it in all my current projects I reached for my CC.

But then I had to stop and think.

Is 230 euros for a piece of kit that is 5 years old and still 32 bit really a good deal? How much am I paying for the "legendary brand" against a functional piece of software?

Well I decided; for me a re-creation of a 30 year old synth (not the original hardware) is a luxury/impulse purchase, which in my book stops at £100.

Would anybody care to direct be to a suitable alternative without the 'brand' price tag/

It would seem that the brand was got you interested in the first place, and you have already "found a place for it in all [your] current projects", so you must like the sound it produces. And the fact that the plug-in is 5 years old seems irrelevant - after all, the hardware sound you want is 30 years old.

To me, there are two issues: should an older product still cost what it cost new? And is the fact that it is 32-bit going to be a problem?

To the second question, I would say yes. Kludging from 32-bit to 64-bit is a problem, and that plug-in will be rendered obsolete in a few iterations of your computer and DAW.

Is it justified to keep charging the same price? Other industries say no - most manufactured goods and entertainment items drop in price as the product goes through its life cycle. But software not so much - although updates are usually provided free to registered users. Maybe if the plug-in was being re-written to 64-bit, and that upgrade was promised free for those with a licence for the 32-bit, then the manufacturer could justify the current price tag.

That said, people are clearly buying the plug-in (or the price would drop), and presumably someone has to be paid to use the name - the one that got you interested in the first place!

Quote I'd Rather Play:

---

Well I decided; for me a re-creation of a 30 year old synth (not the original hardware) is a luxury/impulse purchase, which in my book stops at £100.

---

£85 on eBay.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ARTURIA-JUPITER-8V-vst-soft-synth-for-cubase-abl eton-sonar-/360464100478?pt=UK_MusicalInstruments_ComputerRecording_Software_SM&hash=i tem53ed55ac7e#ht_586wt_1185

Quote I'd Rather Play:

---

Would anybody care to direct be to a suitable alternative without the 'brand' price tag/

---

It depends on what you are looking for. Do you really need a "Jupiter 8", or just a good polyphonic analogue-style synth (if not monophonic), or even something else?

Got to say,
I had a similar problem with out of date software and new OS & Mac compatibility issues.
the choice was to say goodbye to some old favs, or spend a fortune on updates.

The best cure by far, is to use samples.
OK you don't get the flexibility of the real instrument, or the immediate functionality of a plugin version.
But you do get the sound and its never out of date.

Quote I'd Rather Play:

---

Hi there,


Yesterday I downloaded the Jupiter 8 demo plugin from Arturia.
First off what a great idea for unlimited access to really let you evaluate if a product is for you. Having found a place for it in all my current projects I reached for my CC.

But then I had to stop and think.

Is 230 euros for a piece of kit that is 5 years old and still 32 bit really a good deal? How much am I paying for the "legendary brand" against a functional piece of software?

Well I decided; for me a re-creation of a 30 year old synth (not the original hardware) is a luxury/impulse purchase, which in my book stops at £100.

Would anybody care to direct be to a suitable alternative without the 'brand' price tag/

---

Arturia are a perfect example of the emperor's new clothes. They make terrible, weedy sounding synths that sound nothing like the originals they claim to be copying. That's not to say you will never get a good sound out of them, or in certain situations a basic patch can sound similar...

But look at the price of jupiters or eBay and ask yourself if the Arturia is really that highly rated... It's very difficult and CPU intensive to accurately model analogue hardware, and very few companies actually do it properly. Creamware being one, but they use quite a complicated dsp setup. The master is urs heckman, creator of diva. That actually does sound like an analogue synth. Not 100 percent perfect but damn close. A whole different league to the Arturia and native instruments crap. You do need a i5 or i7 however as it works the CPU hard.

I'm not personally an Arturia fan (though I am a JP8 fan).

If you want some Roland-ey JP8 goodness, then I'd take a look at u-he's Diva, or for a bit more money (but a lot more instrument) then Spectrasonics Omnisphere has a whole bunch of stuff, including JP8 sound sources and synth components.

Imo, Arturia have kinda polluted the modelling space by tackling popular instruments (fairly averagely imo) and thus put of other, more serious emulation developers from doing those instruments well/properly. But ah well...

I'm still waiting for that proper Casio CZ emulation though....

I am a nOOb to the Arturia synths, but picked up four of their 'analog' synths with the current Hybrid Madness deal they have going when I bought the Laboratory 61. If I were considering an Arturia software synth.. i would look strongly at their Hybrid Madness sale. Depending on what you buy, you can get up to four of their synths for free. I bought the Arturia Laboratory 61. That is - a 61 key controller plus four of Arturia's software synths for ~ $360.00. The smaller Laboratory package can be picked up for even less. The Laboratory has 3500 patches, with minimal editing capabilities (ADSR, Filter, Resonance,...) but if you have the full version of the packages (like I said, the current deal comes with up to four) - you pull the sounds up into the full package, and can tweak from there.

Anyway - i have no stake in Arturia, but really like the controller (it handily beats the M-Audio Keystation and Axiom Pro controllers I use. Their keyboard is just a big level up. The sounds... range from fair to very nice. Like I said - the Hybrid Madness sale gives you up to four of their software synths in addition to the 3500 patches in the keyboard.

I bought my Arturia package through Hello Music. You have to watch for what sales they have, as things change daily. The various Laboratory offerings have come and gone several times over the past few weeks... during this Arturia sale.

Jupiter 8V. Is one of the soft synths I picked up. The current version (iirc released in Mar/Apr this year) is 64 bit. It does a great job, for what I use it for. Would I buy it for retail right now? Not a chance. Retail for one synth when you can pick up several and a great keyboard for a little more? To be completely honest - I am using Logic Synths for my 80's sounds, and haven't yet found a compelling reason to dive into the JP8. I just picked up this system a week or so ago though... and haven't gone through even a small fraction of the sounds or capabilities. i have spend more time integrating it into Mainstage and Logic, and remapping much of my current sets/songs to the new keyboard.

cheers -

Quote JDoo:

---

I am a nOOb to the Arturia synths, but picked up four of their 'analog' synths with the current Hybrid Madness deal they have going when I bought the Laboratory 61. If I were considering an Arturia software synth.. i would look strongly at their Hybrid Madness sale. Depending on what you buy, you can get up to four of their synths for free.

---

Yes but listen to them, they have a very similar sound. And a pretty poor one at that. Sound on sound exposed them for using the same waveforms and filters in their different supposedly modelled synthesisers and forced them to admit it.

Honestly, use your ears, their synths are just crap.

"Crap" is a little OTT, imo.

Anything that makes noise can be useful, and the Arturia stuff do have good sounds and are useful instruments. I just personally don't like them for a whole bunch of reasons (which is not really what this thread is about so I won't go into details).

As ever, you have to just what a product costs versus it's utility to you. If it's worth it and you want it, buy it. If not, don't. It's not the biggest problem in the world..!

Quote johnny h:

---

Quote JDoo:

---

I am a nOOb to the Arturia synths, but picked up four of their 'analog' synths with the current Hybrid Madness deal they have going when I bought the Laboratory 61. If I were considering an Arturia software synth.. i would look strongly at their Hybrid Madness sale. Depending on what you buy, you can get up to four of their synths for free.

---

Yes but listen to them, they have a very similar sound. And a pretty poor one at that. Sound on sound exposed them for using the same waveforms and filters in their different supposedly modelled synthesisers and forced them to admit it.

Honestly, use your ears, their synths are just crap.

---

Yoikes. Use my ears? I do the best I can with what I have. The Arturia keyboard beats what I had been using, and the fact that there are thousands of sounds included in the package deal... (yes - some are bad) is a nice-to-have. Anyway, I agree with desmond that there are useful sounds amongst the ones which came with both the Laboratory, and the four plugins I picked up. The OP was asking about the Arturia JP 8v -- and i felt compelled to let him know that there are better Arturia deals right now.

I have to say the Arturia Minimoog is a very handy synth. It sounds good in its own right. I can't say how close it sounds to the original, but that doesn't bother me much (it sounds moogy to me, but I haven't played on a real one since the year 19XX).

The main thing is that it is obvious how to use it. I have lots of more complicated synths, but most of them are effectively preset players.

I also have to say that Arturia's copy protection is a @£!%^&* pain in the arse. I was dumb enough to upgrade my Moog Modular to v 2.6, which needs the eLicencer software and/or key. After an hour, I couldn't get it working, so downgraded back to v2.2.

Yes, I could have spent time on forums and emailing Arturia support, but the benefits of the upgrade were too slight to make this worthwhile.

--------------------
Instant gratification is actually pretty good. It's fast as well.

The original poster stated: "How much am I paying for the "legendary brand" against a functional piece of software?"

If the original Jupiter would have sounded like crap, the name would be less expensive, also less meaningful. A name in itself is worthless, just the promise of quality the name implies is a valuable thing.

If you (O/P) think the sounds are good, go for it.

I have never found two brands of (soft- or hardware) synths with the same sound. Replacing one with another will change your project.

Though it might save you a couple of pounds, decissions of the importance of the sound are up to you.

--------------------
PolycorpMedia
ProTools HD10 / 24ch Lynx Aurora / API / SSL / A-Designs / TK-Audio / SPL / Raindirk / Hearback