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.

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Paul Brown

Posted 45 days ago

Used one of these in the eary 90s and just couldn't get to grips with it.
I agree with the main description above. This synth has some great sweeps, killer hoover bass and good sound efects but for some reason It just didn't get under my skin. Would like to have another play and give it a second try

jimmy

Posted 48 days ago

HOOOVEEERRRRRRRRRR!!!! What the...............

Joe

Posted 95 days ago

In other words, they sound just as good as the 106, but not as good as the 60.

Joe

Posted 95 days ago

In my opinion, the Alpha Junos are just smaller, cheaper Juno 106's, with more hassle.
People give the Alpha Junos so much criticism. The demos that are over the internet do not demonstrate its sound potential.

Computer Controlled

Posted 171 days ago

The @Juno-1 is a great sounding synth with the options for some rather unique sounds due to it's Sawtooth wave having the ability for various pulse widths. One being able to be modified by the PWM Depth and Rate parameters. This can result in some sounds that are only available on the Alpha Junos/MKS-50. Another feature not found on any other Juno synth is the multi-stage EG with Key Follow. I also don't feel this synth is thin sounding at all. The Sub Osc can add quite a bit of beef to the low end. It does some really good basses. Get the PG-300 for easier control over the editing. Though i find the filter steps at high resonance settings. (the filter doesn't self oscillate btw)

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