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.

Marcio Sen

November 18, 2008 @ 2:12 pm

I just came up on a hs-10 for 130 bucks with a stand an a manual on eaby cats are sleeping!!...dam-funk is killin it with this keyboard look out for his album next year on stones throw!!!

Brendon

November 11, 2008 @ 11:10 pm

200 bucks flat on e-bay. absolutely worth it. very reliable, very warm. once you learn how to program it, it really sings. the alpha wheel isn't that bad. at first glance this synth looks limited but in reality it's deep.

Jeff

October 28, 2008 @ 3:00 am

I bought this synth for not even 120 dollars shipped. It's a great synth, especially with a PG-300 (I use a virtual PG-300 on my PC). It has some nice sounds and I would recommend getting one before they become hard to find and get too expensive.

John

September 12, 2008 @ 5:20 pm

The SynthPlus 10 (HS-10) does not have an amplifier or speakers. In fact, it is exactly the same as an Alpha Juno-1 (JU-1) with only trivial differences in appearance.

Mike

September 7, 2008 @ 1:11 pm

I picked one of these up around 3 years ago from eBay for under $150. What an absolute bargain! While not as warm as the earlier Junos, it definitely has a charm all of its own. It can sound quite contemporary even now (2008). If you're considering buying one, do it! Before they become more expensive.

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