The Jupiter-8, or JP-8, is an eight-voice polyphonic analog subtractive synthesizer introduced by Roland Corporation in early 1981.

[2] Although it lacked the soon-to-be standard of MIDI control, later production series of the Jupiter-8 did include Roland's proprietary DCB interface.

Features include adjustable polyphonic portamento and a hold function for infinite sustain of notes and arpeggios.

A versatile arpeggiator can be synchronized with external equipment by using the proprietary Roland DCB interface, clock input via CV jacks on the rear panel.

[6] The VCF was based on the custom Roland IR3109 IC (also used in the filter circuits of the Jupiter-6, later Jupiter-4 and Promars units, MKS-80 rev 4, Juno-6/Juno-60/Juno-106, SH-101, MC-202, JX-3P and packaged in the 80017a chip used in the Juno-106 and MKS-30, among others).

There are claims that early models had unstable tuning, mainly due to DAC board resolution.

The soldered-in battery typically lasts ten years or more, ranking these boards among the lowest-maintenance of their generation.

The wide range of sounds that the Jupiter-8 can produce, the efficient front panel layout (each synthesizer sound parameter adjustment had its own dedicated controller), and its sturdy construction, make the Jupiter-8 a venerable and desirable instrument even 35 years after it was first produced.

Units in good condition still fetch significantly more at auction than most new synthesizers, suggesting that the Jupiter-8 will continue to be heard for years to come.

Additionally, the Jupiter-6 features a true multimode resonant filter, built-in MIDI, unison detune function and the ability to activate multiple waveforms on a single oscillator.

The Roland MKS-80 Super Jupiter is a MIDI-controlled, rack-mountable sound module with a similar voice architecture to the Jupiter-8.

Emulations of the original Jupiter-8 sounds were later released as a software instrument for both keyboards on Roland Axial as part of the Synth Legends series.

An evolution of the JP-08, closer to the original Jupiter-8 with 8 voices, was released in 2017 as plug-out synthesizer bundled as standard with the SYSTEM-8.