Cherry Audio Mercury-6 vs real Roland Jupiter 6 (and more)

[@Gear4musicSynthsTech]

What do you think of the patch recreation attempts (and the sound of Mercury-6)?

[@kadiummusic]

To me it sounds like a slightly thinner JP-8. No doubt about that sound though, wonderful! 😎

[@jimharp8655]

The patch recreations aren't exact but they sound rich and alive. I suspect if you put two old Jupiter 6s next to each other you wouldn't be able to make them sound exactly alike either. Cherry Audio has been doing stellar work lately, I'll be buying this.

[@Gear4musicSynthsTech]

@@jimharp8655 Thanks Jim! From Mylar: "Agreed. It was really hard to get an absolutely dead-on match on certain sounds, but as you say I too think part of this is due to the fact that 'matching fader settings' only gets you 90% of the way there even with two JP6s side by side. Partly due to calibration (mine was recently serviced when I made that video, though I dont't know the extent to which my tech 'factory calibrated' it, it was still nearly 40 years old!) but also the fact that even just a small error on one fader like crossmod for example can put the sound in quite a different place. With more time I reckon I could get closer still. And even if not, given the plugin is currently under £50 (kinda with the 'Europa mod', ha) and a JP6 is well over £4000...well, it's a good time to be alive isn't it?!"

[@ConwayBob]

Having never seen much less touched a Jupiter 6 (other than in the clips you've included of the one you used to have), I'll be approaching my new Mercury 6 as a brand new music-making tool, as very much its own thing rather than as an emulation. I think your "patch recreation attempts" are lovely as they are, and I don't care if they sound like anything else or not. I'm also quite sure that there are infinite other possibilities to be explored. I love what Cherry Audio is doing, bringing great synthesizers to musicians at VERY reasonable prices. My Cherry synth collection just grew by one synth!

[@TeddyLeppard]

This has already become one of my favorite Cherry Audio emulations. Quite nice.

[@volt7cooltangs701]

Cherry Mercury 6 VST very good. I still own my Jupiter 6 and don’t think I’d ever sell it. There’s something just so creative in being able to play with the real knobs and sliders plus the Cherry sound being very good is only 90% close to the original. The Mercury 6 though is still a very good recreation and about 80 times cheaper than a 2nd hand Jupiter 6. Great outro track btw. Loved your original JP6 vid too.

[@MPHORROCKS]

I had a JP6 for 20 years and CA have doe a stellar job imho. I think the effects can be useful on occasion, but i'd prefer dedicated quality effects, like Eventide etc. The synth sounds great, but sometime the effects detract fro the raw power, and that's what most great synths are about. Like you, I've copied some settings I've seen on KZbin and the sound produced is remarkably similar. Just lacks a bit of hardware edge/fullness, but at $49 compared to $5000+, it's amazing!

[@MacXpert74]

I own a Jupiter 6 for more than 20 years now. This plug in sounds okay as long as you don't expect it to sound exactly like the Jupiter 6. From the couple of demoes I've seen, it basically sounds like a smoothed out or polished version of the Jupiter 6. It lacks the typical rawness of the original. Particularly the filter is much smoother sounding than the real JP-6, and doesn't go to the extremes the real JP-6 goes into. This might be something certain people prefer, but it also means it sounds more like an average analog polysynth rather than having the unique quality of the JP-6.

[@basicnoise]

I'm an owner, too and to me the overall sound is spot on. It immediately felt right. I think no Jupiter sounds exact like another. I heard that some have a higher max resonance than others. Perhaps Cherry Audio had one that didn't get that high. And perhaps this could be fixed with future updates and under the hood tweaks like u-he has with their pro-5.

[@basicnoise]

Would be awesome!

[@BarryTheElephant]

Also a J6 owner, agree.

[@XxChrisxXBedofRazors]

@@basicnoise this is definitely true. I think it’s common with various analogue synths that are vintage. I have two Polivoks synths. Each one’s LFO and filters behave differently from each other. Like one’s lfo rate can slow down a lot, while the other can go super fast. Whatever it may be with the Merc-6 / Jup-6.. still sounds great and can capture the OG at it’s best by a somewhat 75%, to my ears. I do hope they crank up the cross-mod to rip harder on an update. I’ve mapped my Jupiter-X MIDI to the Merc-6 as much as I possibly could’ve… Never have had this much fun with a analogue emu plug-in. Feels like programming an actual one and I’ve played with a JP-6 before. This is the closest yet 😎

[@bitspacemusic]

Plug-ins in general lack a certain high end zing compared to hardware. A very obvious example is Korg Opsix vs. Opsix VST and those are digital.

[@larrypoulton6401]

When this came out I downloaded the demo. I wasn't overly impressed. You changed my mind and I just bought it.

[@ryanbmd7988]

Outstanding fun to watch the comparisons and features of the Mercury6, first time to your channel and couldn’t have had more fun, great work. Thank you!

[@Harrysound]

It’s probably too much to expect it to sound the same on the same settings, especially at that price point, it seem good enough.

[@NickHowesAstro]

Former JP6 owner and this video nails it. The CA is a great sounding plug in, but it's NOT a JP6, the filters, and cross-mod sound nothing like the original.

[@drinkinslim]

It's interesting you say this. I used to own a Jupiter 6 and, while not exact, it's the only synth that gives me the Jupiter 6 vibes. The JP8 is its own thing, though "similar". :)

[@Abruzzo333]

There's at least one comparison online of the hardware next to this vst and it's pretty close. Maybe not 100% when it comes to certain sounds but it more than makes up for it with the capabilities that the hardware lacks....namely the layering feature and the 16 voices of polyphony per layer! ....Not to mention the other features not present in the hardware.

[@NickHowesAstro]

@@Abruzzo333 yuo.. close .. but no cigar .. Waiting for the acb Roland version if they ever decide to make it

[@BassFunMusic]

毎回、あなたの新しいビートが待ちきれません！😊🎵

[@electricdawn2258]

Alex at his best again. Love that sound!

[@17cupsofcoffee]

The Cherry Audio plugins have no business sounding as good as they do, considering the cost! I picked up the DCO-109 a couple of months ago and it's really impressed me. This or the Miniverse might have to be my next buy...

[@Motocicleiros]

I think you mean DCO-106.

[@NM-uv3bv]

As a long time Jupiter 6 fan I’d chime in and say this is a remarkably faithful recreation. Probably the best example of analog modelling of a Jupiter - and the ability to over sample is a huge bonus. Split layering is awesome A plug in is probably never going to be the same as the Jupiter 6 I have used but well.. I guess the mercury isn’t breaking up and going weird and hyper jumping on the cross mod and filter. Sometimes the jp6 can just warp out and go a bit cosmic. But with the layering and effects the plug in can mimic that breaking ice and those drexceyian planet crash landings.

[@DreamDeepCR]

Great demo, great sounds, thanks Mylar.

[@robdoran1156]

I was in the band Hard Corps and our whole set up was Roland, the drums, bass and sequencers were generated by six System100M banks and we had some Roland rack mounted external effects and a couple of space echoes too. I had the Jupiter 6 and the other band member had a Juno. I made some serious sounds that contributed to our limited success in the 1980s but it was always reliant on outboard such as the space echoes, flanger, coming off tape and large amounts of parametric eq. This synth was disappointing if you wanted a deep round bassy sound as it was thin, not as thin as the Juno but thin. It also sounds ‘square’ as in square wave if you compare to the richer rounder depth and warmth of a Moog. I remember hearing the Jupiter 8 and it was definitely warmer although in comparison, all Roland synths were edgier and less ‘warm’ than Moogs in my opinion.

[@Gear4musicSynthsTech]

Incredible insight, thanks Rob! You must have some stories to tell. Sounds like we should get both Moogs and Rolands? 😉

[@russ254]

“six System100M banks” - that’s like my dream x 6 right there - amazing!

[@annother3350]

Hard Corps? I remember that band! Kind of industrial? I used to play some of your tracks

[@soulwarfare]

Saw you at the sub club in Glasgow back in the day. Great gig the late night bus didn't go all the way to where I stayed. took me about 2 hours to walk home. Such a powerful sound live.

[@robdoran1156]

⁠@@russ254 0:38 Hi Russ sorry for late reply - about the same time it took us to finish a song! Originally we had three MC4 sequencers to power the System 100 and Clive and Hugh, who programmed most of the drums and sequencers would agonise for hours over slight delays in synthesised hihats or snares to create feel and lose the robotic nature of the machines. Only Kraftwerk we thought had the same obsession. No flexible quantise in those days just beat position read outs. But it worked and the sound was incredible loud! All our Roland gear was bought at trade price as we wormed our way into the London Danish importers pretending we were a big studio. It was where we first met Daniel Miller buying up some stuff for Depeche. Exciting days!

[@astrophil79]

nice! that "zingy pad" is an unexpected sound!

[@neilmacmusic]

great video! your track is awesome too and has inspired me to make an all-merc6 track as well👍 to my ears i could hear a massive frenetic bass sound for your track

[@Gear4musicSynthsTech]

This is brilliant, thank you!

[@kevinsturges6957]

That sounds way better than my expensive Roland Boutique Jupiter 8.

[@RayyMusik]

JP-8 and JP-6 are quite different anyway.

[@marmite-land]

What a twist

[@marmite-land]

​​@@RayyMusiko be frank, having played both, no. They sound very similar, having the same architecture and the JP-6 having all the features of a JP-8. Just note that at higher resonance settings, that's where the magic happens in a JP-6 whereas the JP-8 stays more well-behaved

[@jammybilly]

I happen to be listening to Flash Gordon by Queen today, and this sounds very like some of the stuff on that album!

[@74goldenjet]

Wow, the hardware is 10 times better than the software. The Mercury is cheap and useful, and I will propably buy it, but omg what a difference in sound. The software lacks the complexity, the richness, the "life". Thanks for a great video :)

[@ssadams]

great video! I never liked Roland synths but this vst sounds ok to me.

[@AdamTheAd-vanc3d]

So I started watching the video and I said hey this guys sounds alot like Mylar Melodies. Oooops wakey wakey😂😂😂 like 15mins in . 🤦🏾‍♂️🤦🏾‍♂️🤦🏾‍♂️

[@fernandomiranda9736]

I really appreciate the synthesizers, but one thing that I suggest that if they could really make the sound unique so each of them sounds different unfortunately sometimes I think they sound very similar to one another. So, like universal audio plug-ins, they sit in their own frequency range say like the trident versus the API they sound like completely different. Sonic pallets and just keep them raw as possible.

[@Gear4musicSynthsTech]

Thanks! It would be fair to say many people do feel that certain synths sound quite different to each other, although as you have identified there defintiely is lots of overlap between synths, where it could be very hard to tell them apart. Perhaps the biggest difference though is in terms of design and interface, because the controls often influence the types of sound you create - just as different fixed filter bands on different EQs will lend themselves to different tonalities and applications. Equally particularities of synth filter, oscillator design can create different tonalities, but these are more obvious at extreme settings. A good test would be compare an extreme filter sweep on a Korg MS20 to that of a Moog Minimoog. Of course then a Minimoog can do a three-oscillator sound, but an MS20 couldn't do it at all, but an MS20 can do things like turn a voice into a synth with its pitch tracking circuit! There definitely are differences...and perhaps this is what convinces synth-addicts they need to have them all...? 🤪

[@74goldenjet]

Great point! I agree and I think this also applies to most of the Behringer synths. To me, they all sound like the same synth, only with different feature sets. I have a Crumar Bit 99, a Juno-6, and a Polysix. You could say that they all are quite similar and overlap but they sound very different, like different colours in a palette. Other things missing in plugins are depth and transparency. I wish plugin devs would spend more time on emulating the artefacts of worn out electronic components too, to add to the complexity of a sound.

[@emdotambient]

I've got thirteen of the Cherry Audio synths now and what I've found that makes them sound so similar is that they all use essentially the same suite of effects. And effects used in a preset are a huge part of the sound. So my general routine is to find a patch I like for the song I'm working on, turn off the effects, and add other effects plug-ins after the synth. I'll often use similar effects but by a different company. So if the preset has delay and reverb, I'll often use the same effects chain, just using plug-ins from someone else. The differences in these synths come through a lot better that way. Onboard effects are a nice addition, but I think of them mostly as a demo to show what a preset can turn into, not as an essential part of the synth's special quality.

[@emdotambient]

@@74goldenjet ... emulating artifacts of worn-out gear ... I've often thought that some plugin dev should add a randomization button that would emulate the imperfections and variances in analog components. For example, back in the old days of analog gear, almost all the resistors used in synths had a +/-5% tolerance. So, for example, a 100k ohm resistor could actually be anywhere from 95k to 105k. In modern gear, 1% tolerances are more or less standard because manufacturing has gotten better and cheaper, so there's way less variation in modern circuits. And, of course, in software, you don't have individual components, so the sound can be "ideal." So, imagine a synth plugin where every time you use a new instance of it, the "components" get randomized, or you could choose to randomize them. It would kind of be like the "drift" functions devs often add to softsynths. ... but, of course, it might end up being such a subtle difference that it's not worth it. But it's fun to speculate!

[@fernandomiranda9736]

@@emdotambient yes exactly I always turn off the built-in affects in softsynths always!

[@maydaygoingdown5602]

Is it possible to set up modulation routing destinations on it, or do you have to constantly move the sliders?

[@Gear4musicSynthsTech]

Oh yes - a number of the sliders are modulation routings. You turn them up to apply modulation and then you have a more animated sound. Because it's a plugin of course, you can also modulate the sliders with automation, or virtual LFOs and such in Ableton Live and Bitwig. But it has two envelopes and two LFOs built in!

[@maydaygoingdown5602]

@@Gear4musicSynthsTech That's good my freind, I was wondering for example if it is possible to modulate things like cut off with an LFO etc.

[@Gear4musicSynthsTech]

@@maydaygoingdown5602 Yes absolutely - there's a little slider in the VCF section marked 'LFO' which lets you do just that. You can also apply LFO2 (the one in the bottom right hand corner) to VCF by turning up the dial marked VCF and pushing the button, so two LFOs could affect the filter at once.

[@bitspacemusic]

@@Gear4musicSynthsTech Your other bottom right hand corner.

[@TheSunIsMad]

after watching these comparisons I will say they don't sound exactly the same, but they do sound good

[@lesliemakin]

You sold your 6 ?? There’s one in Signal Sounds maybe ask them nicely to sell u it 😂 Great video

[@garyhendrie4001]

That first patch has vangelis written all over it.

[@kadiummusic]

Owned a Jupiter 8, such a pity Roland went backwards analogue wise and also sold out to digital. Imagine if they'd built on the JP8 and what they would have produced. Shame.

[@jimharp8655]

Roland would have gone bankrupt if they had tried it. I'm old enough to remember the DX-7 craze and people giving away Mini-moogs, Arp 2600s and more to get at those glistening digital tones that seemed so cutting edge at the time but sound so pedestrian now.

[@kadiummusic]

​@@jimharp8655 You're right. I sold my Jupiter 8 for £600 in a secondhand shop! Little did we know, I bought a DX7 and a JX-8p and within 6 months I grew bored with them, they seemed so cold in every way. I have to say though the Polybrute and the Hydrasynth are really starting to call to me!

[@jsmacks11]

There was a time where digital ruled from like the late 80s to early 90s. If they stayed analog, there would be no d50, jd800, jv, jp8000. But yes they should consider going back but it is probably too expensive and they can probably keep emulating digitally and get the bulk of the analog sound. Digital modeling is only going to get better.

[@Motocicleiros]

Cherry Audio made a great job there. Unfortunately I realized that I really don't like the Jupiter 6 sound. It's harsh and rough and IMO it lacks the silkiness of other Roland contemporary synths. There are a few interesting things there though (specially in the ARP section) but I think that the price is to much for only a couple presets. I have their Mercury 4 that is whole different thing and I love it.

[@marmite-land]

It's rough and gritty when you want it to be. A synthesizer only does what you tell it to do, and in this case as it's one of the most powerful and complex analogue synth people naturally want to fiddle around with the more weird end of the sonic capabilites of the JP-6 because the bread and butter stuff is already well known and too basic. Don't be mistaken, it can whip cream just as good as a Jupiter-8, and the filter's sound and quality is unmatched, i haven't heard anything like it, it is truly magical (at least my unit, you know how sound quality can vary from one unit to another)

[@KozmykJ]

0:47 "Because it wasn't mate" ??? Strange Edit or what ? Do tell us the reason you sold it on ...

[@russ254]

“it wasn’t a jupiter 8” xxoo

[@ScottWozniak]

"Because it wasn't an 8."

[@Gear4musicSynthsTech]

That's right! The "6" wasn't an "8". But the 8 isn't a 6 either!

[@Ciopekwah]

Really mediocre imho, sounds similiar on surface level but completely lacks characteristics that make analog sound attractive.

[@skythemusic]

I wish it were close but it isn’t. I think softsynths need extra help. Digital is still just lacking the magic, though the cost and convenience makes it the new reality.

[@Orangebritches]

Sometimes I just click to hear that voice.