Cherry Audio - Mercury-6

Mercury-6 is Cherry Audio's emulation of the Roland Jupiter-6, the darker, more aggressive middle child of the Jupiter family, for techno, electro and synthpop producers who want a classic analogue poly with bite.

The architecture

Released in 1983, the Jupiter-6 stood apart from the Jupiter-8 with a true multimode filter offering 24dB/oct low-pass and high-pass and 12dB/oct band-pass modes, rather than a low-pass with a basic high-pass. Its oscillators could run several waveforms at once, and two LFOs plus cross modulation gave it plenty of movement. It was also one of the first synths with MIDI. Cherry Audio keeps all that, models behaviour as fine as the original's voice stealing with the sustain pedal down, and adds velocity sensitivity, an improved split mode and a layer mode for stacking two sounds.

The sound

Harmonically rich, a little dark and very good at cutting through a mix. Unison leads and basses are massive, cross-mod gets metallic and aggressive, and the band-pass and high-pass modes give it a range of thinner, edgier tones the Jupiter-8 can't reach. It's less lush than the Jupiter-8 for big pads, but for driving electronic music that's a fair trade. It was the JP-6 behind the Ghostbusters bassline, and Orbital are long-time fans. Computer Music gave Mercury-6 10 out of 10.

Features

• Detailed Jupiter-6 emulation
• Multimode filter: 24dB LP, 24dB HP, 12dB BP
• Multiple simultaneous oscillator waveforms
• Two LFOs and oscillator cross modulation
• Solo and poly unison modes
• Arpeggiator
• Velocity sensitivity, split and layer modes
• Over 500 presets
• Full MIDI control and DAW automation

System requirements

• Version: 1.0.5
• Mac: macOS 10.13 or later, native on Apple Silicon. AU, VST2, VST3, AAX and standalone (64-bit)
• Windows: Windows 7 or later, including Windows 11. VST2, VST3, AAX and standalone (64-bit)
• Quad-core CPU and 8GB RAM recommended
• Internet connection needed for activation

SOUND7 is an authorised Cherry Audio reseller. Digital delivery: licence activation code sent by email. See How to Activate Your Cherry Audio Plugins.

Demo