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Synth Waves: Jupiter, Xpander and 777 Return in New Forms

Roland's JUPITER-08, an Xpander recreation and the FutureRetro 777 bring classic designs back, while Beads goes open source and Justice scores GTA VI.

6 min readMusic. Culture. Creation.
Xdripia Waves Synth Waves cover: a frosted glass vintage polysynth front panel with program buttons, sliders and a small wavetable display, a glass keyboard and a glass timeline marking 1976, 1981, 1984, 1997 and 2026 on a dark blue canvas, with the headline Classics Return, In New Forms

Synth Waves is our column about synthesizers, sound design and the people who make electronic music. Each edition looks at what's new in the synth world and what it means for producers.

Last time we promised to turn from firmware to the albums and artists pushing synth music forward. The past ten days brought both, along with several classic designs returning in new forms: a 1981 polysynth shrunk to a desktop box, a 1984 modulation powerhouse rebuilt by hand, a 1997 acid machine reaching players again and the last closed Mutable Instruments module opened to everyone.

Classic designs, new forms

Roland JUPITER-08 and n/vision

On October 20, Roland announced two new Roland Boutique instruments. The JUPITER-08 marks 45 years of the JUPITER-8, first released in 1981. By default it runs the original's eight-part/two-voice architecture, and polyphony can be expanded internally to 32 voices. It adds a two-part, 64-step polyphonic sequencer, an arpeggio function and 17 effect types.

The second model, n/vision, is new: the first wavetable synth in the Boutique series, with two wavetable layers, a wave-shaper, analog-modeling filters and up to 56 voices. Both include a K-25m keyboard dock, built-in speakers and battery or USB-C power.

MusicRadar reports that the JUPITER-08 models its oscillators and filters with Roland's ABM technology, a choice Roland says made more voices possible than on the four-voice JP-08 of 2015, and lists both synths at $549.99. Roland's Japanese announcement gives a release date of November 7, 2026 in Japan.

ACME Synthworks XP60

The 1984 Oberheim Xpander is the model for the XP60, a desktop recreation from the German workshop ACME Synthworks. Synth News reports that it keeps an analog signal path and the original dual-processor design instead of an emulation, so it stays compatible with the Xplorer SysEx editor. Highlights:

  • six analog voices, each with two VCOs and a 15-mode filter built around the AS3372 chip;
  • an individual output and CV/Gate inputs for every voice;
  • prices from €2,699 to €3,149 including German VAT, depending on the display type, with a 50% deposit;
  • deliveries from November 2026, with a first batch capped at 50 instruments.

ACME states that it is not affiliated with Oberheim.

FutureRetro 777

According to FutureRetro, the original 777 of 1997 was the first 303-style bass synth to include a sequencer. The updated version adds an OLED display, MIDI Thru and 1/8" CV jacks for easier Eurorack integration. On October 18, Synthtopia shared a first hard techno jam from a player who had just received his unit. FutureRetro's shop lists pre-orders at $1,599.99, with units shipping November 1-30, subject to supply-chain delays.

Shear Electronics Relic

Relic grew out of the Relic-6 prototype first announced in 2017 and is now in its first production run. Synthtopia lists eight independent analog voice cores, each with two SEM-topology oscillators, plus four-part multitimbrality and 512 programs. The quoted lead time is 16-20 weeks.

Granular sound, open and new

Mutable Instruments Beads goes open source

Overnight on October 11-12, Émilie Gillet published the firmware and hardware design files for Beads, the granular "texture synthesizer" released in 2021 as the successor to Clouds. As Synth News and CDM point out, it was the last Mutable module whose code had stayed closed.

The code is under the MIT license and the hardware under CC BY-SA 3.0; derivative builds should not use the Mutable Instruments name. The repository README warns that the code has not been verified to build and run on the module itself. For now it is a starting point for developers and DIY builders, not an update to flash.

Oddment ODD-1

Oddment's ODD-1 combines granular synthesis, live processing and looping in three modes, SYNTH, LIVE and LOOPS. LIVE mode keeps a 60-second rolling buffer of incoming audio and turns it into a playable instrument; each of its two layers has four playheads. It costs $999 with a license for the ODD-1v plug-in, which runs the same engine in a DAW and is also sold separately for $199 ($149 in early access).

Also on our radar

  • Twisted Electrons FLEXFM: eight tracks of four-operator synthesis with sampling and an analog filter per voice, plus a joystick for morphing. Synth News lists an introductory pre-order price of €999 including VAT until November 13, with delivery estimated "before Christmas 2026".
  • Midicake UNA: a hardware MIDI composer that turns played chords into chord, melody and bass parts. The Early Bird Edition is $519, with the first 150 units due between December 2026 and January 2027 (Synthtopia).

Albums and artists

Jean-Michel Jarre: Oxygène at 50

Jarre recorded Oxygène in his Paris home studio in 1976. The 50th Anniversary Edition, due on November 20, 2026, returns to the original tapes for a new stereo remaster and presents the album in Dolby Atmos for the first time, Synthtopia reports. In Jarre's words, the aim was "preserving that character rather than changing it".

Justice score Grand Theft Auto VI

On October 15, Rockstar Games revealed that Justice composed the original score for Grand Theft Auto VI. Pitchfork reports that the French duo also released "Flower in a Hurricane" with Tame Impala, SZA and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, and that the 34-track GTA VI soundtrack arrives with the game on November 19. Synthtopia recalls that the series has long worked as a gateway to electronic music, with Tangerine Dream among the composers of the GTA V score.

What this means for producers

  • Two routes back to the classics. Compact digital models add voices and portability at a lower price, while small-batch analog recreations keep the original circuits and per-voice outputs.
  • Open code extends an instrument's life. Beads can now be studied, rebuilt and adapted long after its maker stopped production.
  • Read the pre-order terms. Deposits, estimated ship windows and supply-chain caveats appear in several of this week's announcements.
  • Synth music still reaches large audiences, from a 50-year-old album in Dolby Atmos to a game score heard by millions of players.

Coming up in Synth Waves

Granular processing and wavetables kept appearing this week, so next time we'll focus on sound design: practical ways to get more from both. Got a technique or a release we should cover? Tell us at @xdripiawaves.

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