Nov 28, 2025 | Vulture Culture
Vulture Culture's show this week features a deep dive into Mercury-8, including a showdown with other emulations by Roland, TAL, Arturia, and Acustica, and even the hardware Juno-6 filter.
We’re shooting out EVERY Jupiter-8 plugin—Roland, Arturia, TAL, Acustica—against Cherry Audio’s Mercury-8…and I’m even throwing in a vintage Roland Juno-6 (IR3109 filter) for a hardware reality check.
Do we really need another Jupiter-8 plugin? With heavy hitters already out there, I’m putting Cherry Audio Mercury-8 under the microscope and head-to-head with the rest of the JP-8 crowd: Roland’s Jupiter-8, Arturia Jup-8 V, TAL-J-8, and Acustica THING-8. For extra spice, we’ll compare them to a real Roland Juno-6—which shares the IR3109 filter topology and much of that early-’80s Roland DNA (Juno = DCOs, Jupiter-8 = VCOs).
We’ll start with a fast preset taste test (600+ sounds in Mercury-8, including JP-8 factory and “Factory Plus”), then dig into what makes Mercury-8 different: dual-layer architecture (up to 16 voices per layer for splits/stacks), true virtual-analog oscillators/filters (not sample-based), analog drift/condition controls for believable wear, and Multi-Voice spread for width, motion, and bite.
I’ll build patches from scratch and push the modulation matrix (four slots, click-to-assign) into musical territory—filter-FM-ish growls, evolving pads, sync leads, and tight arps—then try to match those patches across every JP-8 plugin to see who really nails the tone and feel. What I’m judging (no fluff):
• Tone & feel: oscillator weight, filter drive/resonance, envelope snap
• “Jupiter” behaviors: cross-mod/sync vibe, stereo image, stacked layers
• Playability: velocity/aftertouch response, macro logic, CPU hit, reliability
• Workflow: browser speed, click-to-assign mod routing, factory bank quality
• Value vs the field: does Mercury-8 beat, match, or lose to Roland/Arturia/TAL/Acustica?
• Reality check: how close any plugin gets to a Juno-6 running that IR3109 in the analog domainDisclosure & test method: Raw tone rounds are level-matched; no external FX unless noted on-screen. I’ll call out any master bus glue.
No sponsorship—opinions are mine.