Cherry Audio Mercury-4 Polyphonic Synthesizer Virtual Instrument

The Cherry Audio Mercury-4 is a detailed software emulation of one of the best-sounding and quirkiest polyphonic synthesizers of the late 1970's, the Roland Jupiter-4. It’s the rarest and most sonically unique of the fabled Jupiter series, and we’ve gone to great lengths to recreate the subtle (and not-so-subtle) nuances and character of this beloved classic. Every aspect of Mercury-4 has been expertly modeled upon a vintage Jupiter-4 originally owned by Greg Hawkes of the legendary 80’s new wave band The Cars, and played on their double-platinum 1981 album Shake It Up. In Greg’s words, Mercury-4 “sounds just like my old Jupiter! It’s nice to have it back.”

The Jupiter-4 had its share of disadvantages, including limited patch storage, just four voices of polyphony, and boat-anchor weight. Cherry Audio’s Mercury-4 improves upon the original’s design by offering 16-voice polyphony, infinite patch storage, velocity sensitivity, MPE support, and much more. We’ve even paired it with a fantastic model of the classic Roland Space Echo tape delay.

Mercury-4 Features: 

• Authentically modeled oscillator with sub oscillator
• All filter characteristics modeled, including powerful low-frequency resonance
• Up to 16-voice polyphony
• Over 400 presets, programmed by industry veterans
• Exactingly replicated unique arpeggio section w/tempo sync
• Carefully modeled wide-range LFO modulation with "inverted" mod characteristics
• Drift control for increased analog 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
• User-adjustable oversampling control
• Advanced one-click UI magnification
• Comprehensive MPE support
• Full MIDI control and DAW automation for all controls

Poly In The Beginning

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 a digital memory and recall them at the touch of a button. 

The Jupiter-4 rapidly became the go-to polysynth for numerous English and European acts in the 80's including Duran Duran, Thomas Dolby, The Human League, Simple Minds, and more, and for good reason: the Jupiter-4 sounded fantastic, with a raw, raunchy tone not found in any of the other beloved Juno and Jupiter synths. Its analog oscillators have a uniquely aggressive tone quality, the built-in sub oscillator adds girth, its oddly fast and deep LFO modulation capabilities allow it to create uniquely whacked-out modular synth-like tones, and Roland's famous stereo chorus "ensemble" circuit is beautifully implemented, adding a boatload of width and dimension.

Requirements

Mercury-4 is available in AU, VST, VST3, AAX, and standalone formats.

A free 30-day demo of Mercury-4 is available. This demo will play white noise periodically, but is otherwise unlimited.

macOS Requirements: macOS 10.9 or above (including macOS 12), 64-bit required. M1 processor compatible (via Rosetta 2). Quad-core computer with 8GB of RAM recommended.  

Windows Requirements: Windows 7 or above, 64-bit required. Quad-core computer with 8GB of RAM recommended.