It's still a little early to talk about the just-announced Jupiter-50 given that it's officially unveiled at 2:30pm Frankfurt time today, but we couldn't help spotting one on the demo stage (it's yet to appear on the show floor).

First impressions? It's certainly slimmer than the bulky 80 and a quick glance at the back panel shows it's missing pro features such as the XLR outs that are on the 80. At first glance, however, you'd mistake the two as being identical, given that they share the same large six-octave-plus keyboard and famous 'rainbow of fruit flavours' button arrangements.

Size wise it's a little shallower and certainly a much thinner wedge shape. Weight? The nice stage guard wouldn't let us pick it up...

The 50 also has a smaller screen without the 80's rotaries below (there are now eight push buttons instead) and the distinctive below-the-keyboard edge buttons of the 80 - used to step through patches and performances - have now been deemed surplus to requirements

Similarly biting the dust is the 'pipe organ' button that so pleased us on the 80. Shame.

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WATCH: Roland Jupiter-50