Vintage Synth Explorer

Roland • Alpha Juno 1

Roland Alpha Juno-1

The Alpha Juno is a great sounding Juno type synth! Not quite as warm in sound as the previous Juno's but still a nice addition to any techno synth rig. Sliders and buttons were replaced by membrane buttons and the Alpha Dial which is used to edit and browse through the extensive selection of parameters: DCO digitally controlled oscillators, LFO, bend, ENV, pulse, waveforms, noise, PW/PWM, high pass filter, VCF filter with freq/env/res/LFO/kybd, VCA envelope, chorus, and more. The PG-300 synthesizer programmer gives you traditional slider control of each parameter for much easier and faster editing.

Other nice touches include better MIDI implementation than previous Roland synths, 64 presets and 64 user patches, a nice LCD display, an LFO capable of a very slow rate for some cool sweeping effects, and a great bass sound (especially nice for acid basslines) and noise effects! It also has chord memory which is perfect for rave & techno, portamento and keyboard transposing. The Alpha Juno 1 was soon replaced by the Alpha Juno 2 which added a few MIDI & keyboard enhancements. The MKS-50 is an upgraded rackmount version of the Alpha Juno. The Alpha Juno is used by Mundo Muzique, Vince Clarke, Matt Megaton Haines, Paul Hardcastle, Massive Attack, Bomb the Bass, The Prodigy, Youth, Joey Beltram and Human Resource.

Roland HS-10

The HS-10 Synth Plus 10 is an Alpha Juno for the casual home user, with a slightly less appealing cosmetic appearance, and the HS-80 was a similar repackaging of the Alpha Juno 2.

VISITOR COMMENTS (23)

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jaume torres

Posted 45 days ago

I had one of this little toys, -alfa juno 1- and sold it!. Warm and soft sound, one of this factory presets- juno strings- was my prefer strings sound for a several years. Biggest sound in a little keyboard!

Johny Maegabass

Posted 48 days ago

@Jonah - the cutoff (VCF FREQ) can be adjusted in 127 steps as all the other parameters. Press [Parameter Select] and scroll the alpha dial 14 pages clockwise to get there.

Martin

Posted 65 days ago

Well, got my HS-10. I love the thing. It's become my little bass machine, I love the tones this thing produces, its quite punchy and surprisingly warm. I cant see why anyone would want this synth to replace another one, but it makes a very nice addition to any synth setup.

I was lucky picking mine up for just shy of £200 including shipping, and its in perfect condition. Which is probably a fair price considering the condtion. I wouldn't pay more than that for one though, but yet I see Alpha Juno badged ones selling in excess of £300. :O

If you can get one for the right price, well worth the investment, because it truely is a phat warm fun little machine... but if you're looking for something more versatile, £300 can get you an MS2000, or other virtual analog machine.

Jonah

Posted 71 days ago

I just bought one of these, an Alpha Juno 1. It's quite different compared to the other synthesizers I have, which are mostly VA.

The Juno 1 is very, very small. Being spoiled with modern synths like the JP-8000, I was disappointed at first with the imprecise and rather tedious programming but once you get used to it, you can edit everything pretty quickly. The keyboard can only be transposed one octave down which is a bit too little, in my opinion. Also, cutoff can only be edited in four steps.

All in all, brilliant sounding, the Alpha 1. But if you're looking to replace your MS2000 or JD-800, look elsewhere.

Brad Rasmussen

Posted 76 days ago

I bought the HS-10 off ebay for $150, (everything works well aside from the pitch bed wheel and a cracked key) even without it produces great sounds and fun to play. Its a very sweet synth for the price, and produces some very warm, and fat sounds.The editing isnt as bad as other reviews ive read, and came to me very easily. I'd recommend either version to anyone.

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