Electronic Sound July 2015 (Regular Edition) | Page 43

READERS' SYNTHS Dragging them out of skips, running cackling with them under our arms from second-hand shops or cheering loudly when our daft mate decides he’s finally selling up. Sound familiar? It’s a clear case of synth love. Send a picture of your pride and joy to [email protected] with Readers’ Synths as the subject line and tell us your tale ROLAND JUPITER 4 Owner: Rod Devonshire Where: Berkshire, UK Year Purchased: 1986 Amount Paid: £200 “I have a long history with the JP4. When I was growing up in the 1980s it was used on so many of the influential albums that inspired me to start making electronic music: The Human League’s ‘Dare’, Simple Minds’ ‘New Gold Dream’, Gary Numan’s ‘Telekon’ and Japan’s ‘Gentlemen Take Polaroids’. It seemed natural that it would be my first polysynth. “By 1986, Roland had stopped manufacturing the JP4, but luckily I found one advertised in Melody Maker. The seller was a guy from Slough, who I distinctly remember sported a fine mullet, as was the fashion among many musicians in those days. This was the era of the DX7 and early digital synths, analogue was out of fashion so I managed to pick up the JP4 for the relatively bargainous price of £200. It soon became a firm favourite, excelling at warm pads, thick lead sounds, ethereal tones and wacky FX. I could happily spend hours noodling away and never get bored. The other really cool thing about the Jupiter 4 is the space-age font proclaiming that the instrument is “Compuphonic”. “After owning it for about four years, I sold it to a mate for the absurdly low price of £50. I’m not really sure why. Thankfully, he quickly got bored of it and sold it back to me for the same price. The story doesn’t end there, however. In 1994, I was a student and strapped for cash so I reluctantly sold the JP4 again. A buyer from Swindon called up, a chap by the name of Jack Dangers. I would love to know whether Jack still owns that synth.* “Fast forward to 2012, and I found myself perusing an online article about Todd Terje’s studio. I noticed he had a JP4 among his synth arsenal, which made me insanely envious. So I rectified that situation by finding a seller in Brighton with one for sale with a MIDI upgrade, for £1,400 – an eye-watering price compared to what I originally paid in 1986.” * We checked with Mr Dangers and he does indeed still own Rod’s JP4