TAL J-8 Virtual Instrument Review

TAL Software GmbH is a small Swiss company founded in 2000. They create high-quality, affordable instruments and effects with a user friendly interface. TAL’s commercial vintage synth emulations are known to be incredibly accurate and authentic to the real thing. If you’re unfamiliar with them, it’s because the company isn’t marketing driven, as their main focus is on the product itself.

Patrick Kunz, lead developer, is perhaps best known for his Roland Juno-60 emulation U-NO-LX, which many have said sounds better than any emulation by bigger brands, and for less than half the price. With this in mind, TAL debuts its Jupiter-8 recreation!

TAL J-8 Features

The TAL J-8 is an accurate emulation of the popular Roland 80s synthesizer and calibrated after TAL’s own Jupiter-8 hardware. All sounds are generated in realtime without the use of any samples with the same endless modulation possibilities like the hardware, and useful additional features like the calibration section that can make the filter scream.

• Authentic emulation of the 80s hardware synthesizer.
• Use the calibration section for extreme resonance and filter overdrive.
• VCO based UNISON with stereo spread option and a full stereo signal path.
• MPE support.
• More than 200 factory presets by solidtrax, emptyvessel, and others.

Unlike some competitors, TAL focuses purely on the emulation itself. This is in contrast to other virtual instruments developed around advanced features not found in the original hardware device.

While you won’t find extra versatile modulators, effects, etc., the TAL J-8 is an accurate emulation of the Roland Jupiter-8, faithfully modeled after Patrick Kunz’s own unit. It comes with two oscillators, the iconic cross-mod functionality, a VCF with a separate high-pass filter, two envelopes, VCO modulators, and more.

SEE ALSO: Output Exhale Review | Vocal VST
SEE ALSO: Soundtoys Decapitator | Grade-A Saturation
SEE ALSO: How to Get NEVE 1073 Sound in Your Home Studio

Additionally, it features a very useful calibration section. This can be used to turn up the resonance and filter overdrive into wild soundscapes. The plugin also comes with over 200 factory presets by solidtrax, emptyvessel, and others.