Cherry Audio Mercury-4

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 irst 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 Top of the Pops, many Vince Clarke
wannabes hankered for this tomorrow-proof
instrument. While a far more afordable version
– the Jupiter-6 – was released shortly after, what
many didn’t realise was that the Jupiter-line’s
arrival was heralded by its clunkier precursor,
the Jupiter-4.
Released in 1978, this little-loved, diminutive
four-voice, polyphonic synth wasn’t all that
visually appealing, with its surrounding wooden
enclosure and tacky push buttons not exactly
the most compelling of designs. Its lack of MIDI
and CV/Gate, not to mention its single VCO-per-
voice architecture, were all further reasons why
this initial Jupiter mission piled out at launch.
Still, there were those who found much to
relish, including The Human League’s Phil
Oakey, Thomas Dolby and The Cars’ Greg
Hawkes. In fact, it is Hawkes’ own Jupiter-4
which Cherry Audio have carefully modelled
here. The resulting product is Mercury-4, a
complete softsynth recreation of the Jupiter-4.
Now sporting a few added enhancements, we
wonder if this digital resurrection has super-
charged this maligned machine.
Fantastic four
Installation is extraordinary simple, and within
minutes we’ve got our AU instance of Mercury-4
loaded into our Logic project. The large GUI
Cherry Audio
Mercury-4 £30
The bygone, underappreciated Jupiter-4 hums with life once again,
thanks to this new, intricately modelled software adaptation
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 noise-
type 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 low-
pass filters
presents a largely similar (though signiicantly
augmented) version of the original layout of the
Jupiter–4. With each of the synthesiser’s key
control sections arranged in their respective
areas of Trigger, LFO, VCO, Noise, VCF, VCA, and
Performance Controls.
Comparing it side-by-side with an original
Jupiter-4 exterior reveals a few striking
innovations that Cherry Audio have brought to
the table, however. Most obvious is the
incorporation of a Space Echo-eseque tape echo
and reverb simulation into the plugin. Presented
in a suitably green-tinted section to the upper
right of the keyboard display, the Space Echo
sim is a sweet addition, with a light application
of genuinely spatially enhancing pretty much all
of the synth’s sounds.
So what of these sounds then? After all, it’s
certainly the unit’s distinct tonal characteristics
that spurred its cult of aicionados. In the top left
we have the preset selector, which handily
68 / COMPUTER MUSIC / January 2022
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