The Usual Suspects JE-8086: 2 Trance Legends for the Price of … None?
Free Roland JP-8000 and JP-8080 Emulator in the Works
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The Usual Suspects—known for their superb emulations of synths such as the Access Virus TI and Nord Lead 2X—have taken on the Roland JP-8000 and JP-8080! JE-8086 emulates both synths at the chip level, bringing the two virtual-analog legends to your computer for free!
The Usual Suspects JE-8086: DSP-Level Emulation of the Roland JP-8000 and JP-8080
The Usual Suspects made a name for themselves with extremely authentic emulations of the Access Virus / Virus TI (OSIRUS / OSTIRUS), Nord Lead 2X (Nodal Red 2X), Waldorf Microwave XT (Xenia), and microQ (Vavra). What these synths have in common is that they’re all based on the Motorola DSP56300 DSP chip. Unlike most software synths, which try to emulate the sound of the originals using algorithms, The Usual Suspect went a step further by re-engineering the DSP chip itself, creating virtual clones that are extremely close to the original hardware and virtually indistinguishable from the originals. Another benefit is that they tend to be much lighter on the CPU than other software synths.
After a slew of Motorola-based synths, The Usual Suspects have now turned their attention to the Roland JP-8000 and JP-8080, two of the biggest virtual-analog legends of the late ‘90s. Unlike the others, however, the JP-8000 and JP-8080 don’t use the DSP56300, relying on Toshiba TC170C140 chips instead. Once again, the developers started by re-engineering the original hardware at the chip level. They also created a beautiful GUI that’ll take you straight back to the Trance era. And it sounds awesome:
The new JE-8086 emulator is now in alpha testing. However, if you donate £20 or more, you can already try it out for yourself; join the developers’ Discord to find out more. JE-8086 is set to be released soon, although the exact date has yet to be determined. According to The Usual Suspects, the final version will be open-source and available free of charge. And judging by the demo video, the sound will once again be right on the mark.
The small but significant catch: as with the DSP56300 synths, JE-8086 only includes the hardware emulation and GUI, but not the firmware. For legal reasons, all of The Usual Suspects’ emulations require that you obtain the original firmware for the synths yourself at your own risk. Unfortunately, the developers cannot assist with this for obvious reasons, and neither can we …
The Usual Suspects JE-8086 runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux in VST, VST3, AU, CLAP, and LV2 formats. All original presets will be included. The Usual Suspects says that JP-8086 can also import and export presets from and to the original hardware synths. Fascinating stuff, and great news for all fans of the famous SuperSaw!
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