Cherry Audio Mercury-4 £30

The bygone, underappreciated Jupiter-4 hums with life once again, thanks to this new, intricately modelled software adaptation

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PRESET BROWSER Load, save and create sound presets

TRIGGER Control the timing of the arpeggiator and filter sample and hold

ARPEGGIO Activate the arpeggiator and switch the animation-type here

LFO SECTION Control all low frequency oscillator parameters, including Waveform and Rate

MASTER TUNE CONTROLS Modify the overall volume, pitch and tuning drift

VCA SECTION Controls the VCA, essentially an automated Volume knob

VCO SECTION Set the VCO parameters including pitch range, and frequency modulation

PERFORMANCE CONTROLS Modify the pitch bend wheel, portamento and master transposition

NOISE SECTION A simple switch that activates a white noisetype effect

TAPE ECHO An in-built reproduction of a Roland Space Echo-type tape echo

VCF SECTION Affect the sliders that control the high and lowpass filters

Roland’s Jupiter series is often held aloft as one of the most important synthesiser lines of all time. There’s good reason for that, of course, with 1981’s state-of-the-art Jupiter-8 igniting the potential of keyboard analogue synths as slick and cool sound-crafters to many for the first time. Its kinetic stew of sounds informed the development of synth pop, new wave and bombastic rock, continuing to be used all the way into the dance music decades. With a veritable who’s who of artists pulling futuristic sounds from within its tantalisingly colourful veneer on