Cherry Audio Mercury-6

Cherry Audio Mercury-6

Cherry Audio Mercury-6: Mercury-6 Synthesizer. The Sleeper Has Awakened.

Electronic Delivery

PLEASE NOTE: This product is delivered via secure, electronic delivery. You will receive the full product license (with instructions) direct to your email. Enjoy a safe and fast way to get the latest version and full support direct from the manufacturer.

Description

Mercury-6 is a meticulous recreation of the Jupiter-6 analog polyphonic synthesizer, initially released in 1983. Sandwiched between the earlier Jupiter-4 and Jupiter-8 models in name only, the sophisticated Jupiter-6 has sometimes been considered a sleeper release. These days, it has persevered to become one of Roland’s most notable and coveted classic synthesizers due to its distinctive dark and complex character. If you’ve long yearned to explore the Jupiter-6, you’ll love Mercury-6! Released in 1983 as a more affordable alternative to the flagship eight-voice Jupiter-8, the six-voice Jupiter-6 nevertheless staked out an essential position in the history of analog polysynths.
Though similar in appearance and feature set, the Jupiter-6 sounded considerably different from the Jupiter-8. The Jupiter-6’s versatile filter design lent a more aggressive sound than previous Jupiters, making it a natural for cutting-edge techno and electro styles. The Jupiter-6 VCOs supported multiple simultaneous waveforms, and its two LFOs and oscillator cross mod capabilities provided extensive modulation possibilities. Its earthshaking solo and poly unison modes enabled massive lead and bass sounds, and it was one of the first synthesizers to include the then-new MIDI protocol. However, the cost-cutting in the Jupiter-6 design resulted in some disadvantages.

Overview

Audio output was mono only, and it was limited to six-voice polyphony, hampering the potential of its split keyboard feature. And its timing was ill-fated with the release of Yamaha’s revolutionary DX7 the same year. But in a testament to the Jupiter-6’s staying power over the decades, its popularity grew in genres such as big beat, house, and techno. As a result, the original hardware is still in demand today. Cherry Audio’s Mercury-6 captures all that is exceptional in this classic and boosts the extraordinary feature set and functionality for today’s DAW production and workflow. We’ve added velocity sensitivity, improved the split mode, and added a layer mode capable of stacking two different sounds simultaneously with per-layer stereo panning, detuning, and sustain.
A panel control lets users easily select and navigate between these layers and includes a utility function for exchanging settings between the lower and upper layers, or even between presets. And with polyphony extended to 16 notes, Mercury-6 won’t easily run out of voices.

Features

• Highly optimized, massive dual-layer voicing architecture with 16 polyphonic voices per layer. Keyboard split or stacked layer modes allow two simultaneously playable layers, with separate per-layer controls for all parameters, including effects
• Two VCOs per voice with combined waveform capabilities: triangle, ramp sawtooth, noise, and square or variable pulse
• Multimode filter with a 24 dB/oct lowpass, 24 dB/oct highpass, or 12 dB/oct bandpass modes
• Accurate reproduction of the original’s advanced VCO-2 to VCO-1 FM cross-modulation for searing tones
• Precisely implemented portamento and glissando modes
• Exactingly replicated arpeggio section with MIDI tempo sync, the hidden Up/Down modes of the original, and the addition of a Random mode
• Powerful solo and polyphonic unison modes for fat, stacked sounds
• Two tempo-syncable LFOs with extended retrigger functionality

Tech Specs

MAC
macOS 10.13 or above. macOS 13 Ventura supported. Native Apple M1 processor support, including Apple M1 Ultra.
Memory: 8 GB
CPU: 3.4 GHz Quad-Core or M1 CPU
Plugins: VST-2, VST-3, AU, AAX, STAND-ALONE
WINDOWS
Windows 7 or above (including Windows 11)
Memory: 8 GB
CPU: Quad-core computer
Plugins: VST-2, VST-3, AAX, STAND-ALONE

* Any references to any brands on this site/page including reference to brands and instruments, are provided for description purposes only. For example references to instrument brands are provided to describe the sound of the instrument and/or the instrument used in the sample. Plugin Max do not have (nor do they claim) any association with or endorsement by these brands. Any goodwill attached to those brands rest with the brand owner. Plugin Max or its suppliers do not accept any liability in relation to the content of the product or the accuracy of the description.