The kawaii look of the mini Rolands in the Boutique series has returned. There’s one vintage remake — the JUPITER-08, this time with full polyphony and then some (up to 32 voices). And there’s something new: the n/vision wavetable synth.
I’m just getting a look at these, but it’s great to see a return of the Boutique series. These now cost US$549.99 each, with the usual ominous “at the time of publishing” disclaimer. (Unstable US President, weak Yen, US tariffs, war in the Gulf, shipping logistics chaos, high oil prices — you know the drill.)
Jupiter Shrinking
The higher price now includes the K-25 keyboard dock in the purchase price. And it looks like you get a new, beefier architecture in return for that price bump. So I’m going to hold y’all to this: remember when everyone complained that the JUNO-06 had only four voices? (Fair point — the “six” is, like, in the actual name!) Well, the JUPITER-08 celebrates that synth’s 45th birthday with the ability to run up to 32 voices. All the specs look great:
- Run 8-part/2-voice architecture as on the original, or up to a full 32 voices
- 2-part, 64-step polyphonic sequencer with arpeggio functions
- 17 effects including chorus and MFX
- Dedicated delay
- Reverb with five types, shimmer mode
- Battery or USB-C operation
- Built-in speakers
- K-25 keyboard dock included
That adds up to a worthy tiny synth. And while the Compact AIRA series was great, their look you could charitably describe as utilitarian, plus a bit too small for much live tweaking (see pic for comparison). The latest Boutiques look adorable. I’m listing specs, but you’re not buying them for the specs.
I’m sure some reddit thread will claim to have hacked the firmware and replaced it with the flight control system of a Boeing 737, but this looks nicely done.
And one more thing…
n/vision
n/vision is a new synth, Roland says — “newly developed for the Roland Boutique series.” You have two wavetable layers, multiple modulation sources (position, layer balance, pitch, shaping), and more. So it looks like the appeal there is a hardware box with a ton of possibilities for animating your wavetables — step LFO, envelope modulation, oscillator modulation, motion recording, all in a two-layer wavetable instrument with fading between the two layers.
At first blush, you might mistake this as the digital-focused counterpart to the rest of the Boutique line, but it’s more like a new wavetable synth with a bunch of Boutique analog modeling onboard — a hybrid synth with analog modeling. That makes it more of a competitor to the recent Waldorf Protein — but in a new, alternate timeline where Roland had their own Microwave. So there’s an analog-modeled filter, multiple filter models “inspired by classic synths”, and a waveshaper.
Tom at Synth Anatomy notes that n/vision derives from the n/zyme Model Expansion for the Fantom. See, I should have been paying more attention to the Fantom updates. But now this get its own dedicated synth and control layout.
These adjust what Roland terms “Shape Modulation” — but it is a waveshaper:
W.S LFO knob
WAVE SHAPER knob
W.S ENV knob
And there are multiple waveshapes available. From the manual:
Filter types aren’t really made clearer by the manual, but you get 12 and 24 dB variants of lowpass, bandpass, and highpass, plus — lowpass “R”? Lowpass “N”? Lowpass “S”? (That’s literally all the manual gives you, as spelled out on the LEDs.)
Suffice to say, this thing has a lot of extras tucked away. It’s probably the deepest Boutique we’ve seen yet, in pure specs. I have tiny, delicate hands, made soft and nimble by 22 years of blogging, so I’m intrigued.
What is certain is, you get the same sequencer architecture and effects sections. Depending on load, the n/vision can even get up to 56 simultaneous voices.
Effects (both units)
Chorus: 3
Delay: 4
Overdrive
FUZZ
Drive
Bit crusher
LOFI Comp
Phaser: 2
Filter
Pitch Shifter: 2
But the surprise here is that the n/vision is one of the best new synths Roland has made recently — truly like a vintage synth from an alternate timeline. That to me was a smart move, both in communicating the identity of the instrument and making it, well, not bland and corporate-looking!
Roland Boutique n/vision wavetable synth
Available to preorder at Sweetwater:
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And Thomann (shows 2-5 days shipping):
About the keyboard dock: this is the same K-25M dock we’ve seen since the Boutique’s introduction, with only the finish changed. And it is… well, let’s generously say “not universally loved.” Ahem. (Looks cute, I’ll give it that — far from a joy to play, even by mini-key standards.) I do wonder if we’ll see these later unbundled from the keyboard dock at a lower price, but this is what we get at launch.
But these have all the cuteness of the earlier Boutiques, with what looks like a bunch nicer set of controls and a serious architecture underneath. (The only thing missing: trigger out, like on the TR-06, so hang onto that Boutique if you’ve got one!)
It’s Roland, so someone will complain about it. But it’s Roland Boutique, so it will sell like hotcakes anyway.