Mercury-4

Introduction

Originally released in 1978, the Roland Jupiter-4 synthesizer was one of the earliest instruments to combine voice-assign polyphony with digital patch storage – that is, the ability to store and recall sounds to digital memory and recall them at the touch of a button. These days, voice-assign polyphony and digital patch storage are taken for granted, but this was a HUGE deal in the late 70s when options for polyphonic synthesis were mostly limited to crude string synthesizers based upon 60s organ technology, and patch recall was generally limited to how fast you could twirl knobs and flick switches!

Features

• Authentically modelled oscillator with sub-oscillator
• All filter characteristics modelled, including powerful low-frequency resonance
• Up to 16-voice polyphony
• Over 300 presets, programmed by industry veterans
• Exactingly replicated unique arpeggio section w/tempo sync
• Carefully modelled wide-range LFO modulation with “inverted” mod characteristics
• Drift control for increased analogue realism
• Precisely replicated stereo ensemble effect
• Warm and organic tape echo with multiple reverb modes
• Tempo-syncable LFO
• Detunable unison mode
• Single-key chord memory mode
• Highly optimized coding for high performance with ultra-low CPU load
• Advanced one-click UI magnification
• Comprehensive MPE support
• Full MIDI control and DAW automation for all controls
• Mercury-4 is available in AU, VST, VST3, AAX, and standalone formats

System Requirements

Mac

• 10.13 or above
• 3.4 GHz Quad-Core or M1 CPU with 8GB of RAM recommended
• Native Apple M1 processor support, including Apple M1 Ultra
• macOS 13 Ventura supported

Windows

• Windows 7 or above (including Windows 11), 64-bit required
• 3.4 GHz Quad-Core CPU with 8GB of RAM recommended

About The Company

Cherry Audio’s Mercury-4 is a software instrument that recreates the iconic Roland Jupiter-4 synthesizer. In its day, the Jupiter-4 was overshadowed by larger, more complex (and far more expensive) instruments from American synth manufacturers, and on paper, its specs weren’t as impressive. It had just four voices of polyphony, a meagre eight user patch locations, no edit mode for stored patches, and the lack of oscillator autotune meant a cold breeze could send it careening out of tune.