Jun Murakami Synth-80 is a new, authentic emulation of the Roland MKS-80 Super Jupiter Synthesizer for macOS and Windows.
We currently live in a time where many new music software companies are springing up everywhere. Many of them but not all are benefiting from the new possibilities offered by AI and released software that they otherwise couldn’t have achieved.
Today, a new developer named Jun Murakami joined the circle of newcomers, who has released the Synth-80, an emulation of the Roland MKS-80 Super Jupiter.
Emulation Of The 1984 Roland Rackformat Analog
The Roland MKS-80 Super Jupiter was an 8-voice analog polyphonic Synthesizer from 1984, essentially a rack-mounted Jupiter-8 with analog VCOs and full MIDI control. It was built between 1984 and 1987.
The new Synth-80 is a new Synthesizer plugin that is inspired or more an emulation of the Roland MKS-80 Super Jupiter (Rev.4). According to Jun Murakami, the Synth-80 uses an engine that is based on analog modeling techniques.
More precisely, the original hardware was modeled using more than 100 automated measurement programs covering every circuit and parameter of the original hardware, with DSP tuning carried out alongside a long-term analysis of an MKS-80 Rev.4 unit.
This includes replications of the delicate characteristics of the filters, the noise oscillators with subtle nuances derived from the IC chips, and more.
The developer says that it’s virtually impossible to tell the difference between the hardware and the software if you load exactly the same patch and play them side by side. Okay, that’s a bold claim that only original hardware users can confirm or refute.
Jun Murakami Synth-80
The Synth-80 offers all the original features: two VCOs, VCO mod, mixer, two filters (LPF and HPF) two ADSR envelopes…
To maintain the same very hands-on sound design workflow of the original with attached hardware editor, Jun Murakami opted not to include any extra advanced features like new modulation possibilities in the Synth-80.
More, the user interface philosphy is heavily inspired by the Synth1 developer Daichi, that offers a very straightforward way to program sounds also for beginners.
However, one section got an upgrade. The built-in FX section houses four distinct chorus FXs: Synth Chorus (Roland Juno), Studio Chorus (Dimension D), Pitch Chorus (Eventide) and Digital Chorus (the most advanced).
Alongside this, it features a reverb with different algorithms (hall, plate, and room), and a compressor based on the ZeroComp algorithm. Nice, you can use the Synth-80 effect rack as a standalone audio effects plugin.
For hardware owners, Synth-80 functions as an editor and librarian for the MKS-80, supporting patch bulk-dump transfer, a bank builder, and edit-parameter exchange.
Jun Murakami Synth-80 offers two ways to demo the plugin. Either, you download the official demo version from the website. Alternatively, he has backed a WebAssembly build browser version of the plugin on his website that is freely playable.
This is a smart option to give everyone the opportunity to test the plugin. Further, Synth-80 ships with over 150 factory presets
First Impression
After the countless virtual Jupiter-8 synthesizers, there’s now a Roland MKS-80 emulation. Did the synth world need it? Hard to say. At least it sounds very good in the demos, and it’s welcome that the developer also includes a librarian and editor for hardware users.
Jun Murakami Synth-80 is available now for an introductory price of $59 instead of $99 until July 7, 2026. It runs as a VST3, AU, and AAX plugin for macOS (native Apple Silicon + Intel) and Windows.
More information here: Jun Murakami
“voice architecture of the MKS-80 is fully analog with 8 polyphonic voices with 2 voltage controlled oscillators (VCO) per voice, using the Curtis CEM3340 VCO integrated circuit. The unit also includes one voltage controlled filter (VCF) and one voltage controlled amplifier (VCA) per voice.”
“The developer says that it’s virtually impossible to tell the difference between the hardware and the software if you load exactly the same patch and play them side by side.”
if its analog ,no unit will sound precisely the same,unless we are talking about the same unit that was modeled.
anyway ,its nice to have particular models emulated like this one.
Wasn’t the Super-Jupiter a rack version of the Jupiter-6?
no Jupiter-8
MKS80 is a version of both the JP6 and JP8.
Not really. The MKS80, especially the Rev4, is nearly a Jupiter 6 in a rack, because except the multimode filter and the 6 voice vs 8, everything else is the same than in a JP6 (osc, filter, VCA,…)
The JP8 has discrete osc that JP6/MKS80 do not have (CEM3340).
it’s a mixture of both
This VST caught my attention. The developer has already made a few plugins (apparently using JUCE + AI). He wrote some articles about his development choices and processes (I used Google Translate because he’s Japanese). These articles are interesting. I’m going to follow his work. His article about the demo/website on a technical blog https://zenn.dev/jun_murakami/articles/29119550ea15e3 and his “musical” article about the synth https://note.com/junmurakami/n/nb8ff15eeb8ac
Having an MKS 80 Rev 4, I find that this VST emulates it extremely well. It captures the color and behavior of the original.