In his latest video, synthesist Alex Ball takes a look at the Roland Jupiter-6, a keyboard he describes as “The Dystopia Synth”.

“A Jupiter-6 stopped by for a few days, so I thought I’d complete the trinity, having done videos on the Jupiter-4 and Jupiter-8 last year,” notes Ball. “This synth has a reputation for having a ‘cold’ sound, and it’s always been the more dystopian Jupiter ,in my mind. I wanted to explore whether there are any reasons for that and whether they’re legitimate, imagined or a bit of both.”

Topics covered:

0:00 Intro Jam
0:57 The Jupiter-6
1:27 Demo 1: Two-By-Four
2:02 VCO & Filter Chips
3:00 Demo 2: Pole-Dark
3:34 Modulation
4:39 Demo 3: LV-426
5:13 Demo 4: Gamaclang
5:28 Cost Cutting
6:34 Demo 5: Thumper
6:52 Demo 6: Cassette Memory
7:10 Presupposition?
7:34 Summary
9:12 Outro Jam

Does the Jupiter-6 deserve the ‘dystopian’ moniker? Check out the video and share your thoughts on it in the comments!