The Jupiter-6 was an absolute beast of a synth, its mythical status founded on its distinctive darker flavours which permeated through some of the most alluring tracks in music history. The Prodigy's Firestarter, to name just one.
When it comes to affordable and exacting software emulations, the Mercury-6 from Cherry Audio takes the crown.
For Black Friday, this sublime soft-synth is a whopping 51% off right now over at Plugin Boutique. This eye-popping deal, however, is only in effect until Monday (December 1st), so if you want to immerse yourself in Mercury you’re going to need to move fast. Before we explain why you should, be sure to check out some of the other latest Black Friday plugin deals.
Released in 2023, we had no qualms about bestowing Cherry Audio’s expertly-crafted emulation with a full five-stars in our review. Yes, we, astoundingly, found absolutely no negatives with it whatsoever. It's rare that happens…
Built around dual-layer voicing architecture with 16 polyphonic voices per-layer, my head turned when our seasoned synth-polymath Dave Gale had nothing but glowing words to say about it.
“If you enjoy an uncluttered signal flow with a plugin that exudes nostalgia and contemporary flare, this is a beautiful synth for all seasons,” Gale said.
Intrigued - and just on the verge of starting to make my first album in a long, long time, I grabbed Mercury-6 myself, to see what all the fuss was about.
Straight away I was taken aback by its sonic fidelity and authentically classic sound. This didn't sound like no software synth. It had real grit and heft.
From sweeping leads to rumbling basses to percussive stabs and ear-bending filter sweeps, the Mercury-6 is truly eminent in every field. But in all honesty, what I’ve become most accustomed to using it for, is the breezy-speed in which Mercury-6 can serve up a plethora of arps.
Whether using its rigid MIDI tempo sync or not, you can choose from the Up/Down modes of the OG synth or even randomize its note patterns to land on something completely fresh and original. This is complemented by a dense array of effects including delay, distortion, flanger/chorus, reverb and phaser, to carve your arp to taste.
I’ve used numerous other, more expensive and expansive, soft synths in search of perfect momentum-providing arps (naming no names), but the Mercury-6 is always a safe bet.
Its 500 presets are exceptional starting points, and can be very easily nudged into entirely unique sonic frontiers via the extensive waveform-shaping and modulation controls
The biggest win for me really was just how simple and efficient the keyboard-mirroring UI is. It's essentially like having the original keyboard in front of you. While it might seem daunting to a novice, the Focus Zoom enables you to zero-in on the parameters you need to tweak, and just harness the abilities you need.
That being said, there's a whole lot more to explore than just my favourite part (the arps), so take advantage of this deal now and thank me later.
Shop more Black Friday deals
- B&H Photo: Early Bird Holiday deals
- Gear4Music: Early Black Friday deals are live
- Guitar Center: Up to 40% Black Friday sale
- Musician's Friend: Early Black Friday 50% sale
- Reverb: 80% off music gear
- Scan Computers: Pro audio savings
- Sweetwater: Black Friday deals up to 80% off
- Thomann: Up to 70% off Cyber Week sale
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