MPG-70 hardware programmer for Roland Super JX and MKS-70 synthesizers
Retroaktiv has announced that preorder has opened on their MPG-70 hardware programmer. The classic Roland JX and its rack-mounted twin the MKS-70, are notoriously laborious to program and so the MPG-70 is here to help with that. It’s a bit like an expanded version of the Roland PG-800 designed to do a similar job.
MPG-70
Looking a lot like a Novation or Radikal synthesizer the MPG-70 brings all of the controls to your fingertips. This includes the extra voice features added by the expanded Vecoven mods. It features 96 controls and a load of buttons all clearly laid out just like they always should have been. Why did we get rid of knobs and sliders? Why did we think tiny LCD displays were a better thing? What were we thinking?
The MPG-70 is built into a sheet metal enclosure, angled slightly when set on a tabletop. Or you can rack it up into a 7U space. It connects to the JX via a 6 pin DIN cable.
It features other cool things like a random patch generator, a scratch program generator and the ability to select whether the upper or the lower tone is being edited.
All of this sounds great although it makes you wonder how many Super JX synths are still out there and have owners who would like to breath new life into their programming. Retroaktiv say that they have to score 25 preorders into order to bring the MPG-70 into production. Preordering is from now until the 1st August, so if this is interesting to you then you need to get your money down. This unit will work with stock JX8P, Super JX, and MKS70 synths, however, some sliders will do nothing if the synth isn’t running the 4.12+ Vecoven firmware.
You can buy it assembled for $850, as a kit for $650 or a partial kit for $550.
More information
- Retroaktiv MPG-70 webpage.
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