Should I buy a Jupiter 80 in 2017?

Synthtron wrote:

I use the Jupiter-80 as my main controller in my studio at the moment and the Jupiter-50 is used in my live rig. One thing that was mentioned is that the Jupiter-80 has 4 parts MIDI BUT to me not being able to turn off those MIDI channels is very, very ANNOYING.
The Jupiter-80/50 I believe are best suited for live performance and I think that was Roland's intention
.

I just read that. Actually you can turn off the MIDI channels. Normally each Part has one channel 1-4 and if you deactivate one the MIDI channel is off as well. But if you go to the External Part settings and activate e.g. the first MIDI channel, then it does not matter if you have one, all or no parts activated, it will always play with that external part MIDI channel.

SoundReverend wrote:

Actually you can turn off the MIDI channels. Normally each Part has one channel 1-4 and if you deactivate one the MIDI channel is off as well. But if you go to the External Part settings and activate e.g. the first MIDI channel, then it does not matter if you have one, all or no parts activated, it will always play with that external part MIDI channel.

Interesting. Thanks, SoundReverend.

Now you should I buy a Jupiter 80 in 2018.

Yes

SoundReverend wrote:

Synthtron wrote:

I use the Jupiter-80 as my main controller in my studio at the moment and the Jupiter-50 is used in my live rig. One thing that was mentioned is that the Jupiter-80 has 4 parts MIDI BUT to me not being able to turn off those MIDI channels is very, very ANNOYING.
The Jupiter-80/50 I believe are best suited for live performance and I think that was Roland's intention
.

I just read that. Actually you can turn off the MIDI channels. Normally each Part has one channel 1-4 and if you deactivate one the MIDI channel is off as well. But if you go to the External Part settings and activate e.g. the first MIDI channel, then it does not matter if you have one, all or no parts activated, it will always play with that external part MIDI channel.

Thanks for the info.
If you deactivate a Part via the panel's Part On and Off switch that does not affect MIDI On/Off.
I will have to sort out what you are talking about here. I have to find the External Parts setting because there is no way to turn on/off MIDI Channels in the System MIDI Screen.

It is part of the registration settings, in the manual "Enabling the External Part Settings"

"... In the Registration External Part screen (p 31), set the MIDI out Setting to “EXTERNAL ”

If the MIDI Out Setting is set to INTERNAL, Parts that are turned on will transmit MIDI messages.
Choose the INTERNAL setting if you want a Part’s performance data to be recorded on a MIDI sequencer, or if you want to control the JUPITER-80 from a MIDI sequencer.
• The MIDI channel of each Part is speci ed by the system parameter “Part Channel” (p. 85)."

SoundReverend wrote:

It is part of the registration settings, in the manual "Enabling the External Part Settings"

"... In the Registration External Part screen (p 31), set the MIDI out Setting to “EXTERNAL ”

If the MIDI Out Setting is set to INTERNAL, Parts that are turned on will transmit MIDI messages.
Choose the INTERNAL setting if you want a Part’s performance data to be recorded on a MIDI sequencer, or if you want to control the JUPITER-80 from a MIDI sequencer.
• The MIDI channel of each Part is specified by the system parameter “Part Channel” (p. 85)."

OK yes, I understand that.
What I was referring to is turning off the Jupiter-80's internal synth engine's MIDI channels. If I am playing back a sequence with another completely different synthesizer on say MIDI Channel 1 and I do not want the Jupiter-80's Part Receiving MIDI on that channel but want it off. You cannot turn off the Jupiter-80's internal synth MIDI channel. You can change the MIDI channel to different MIDI channel but that is it, which stinks when you have let's say 15 MIDI channels used for other synths besides the Jupiter-80 and only want the Jupiter-80 (just one Part) to respond to one MIDI channel and have the rest of the other parts MIDI receive channels off.

Understood. I don't have this issue because I use the USB MIDI from the JP80 and so I always have to select this in my DAW if I want to play a sound. What I like about that is exactly that you can play a sound on the JP80 that even when the part is turned off so it won't play from the JP80 keyboard.

I just sold my Jupiter 80 that was in perfect condition, I hated to part with it but I really wanted the RD2000. I loved the JP80, but I just really love the RD2000! The sound is great and keys feel absolutely wonderful. For some reason I feel the sound is richer on the RD2000 even though it has the same supernatural sound engine on the synth side of the board. I think it might be the newer D/A converters and the synth engine of the Jupiter 80 is over 10 years old? I don't know what improvements that have been made since but you would think that there have been improvements over a decade of time? The thing I miss the most is the acoustic section on the JP80.