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.

Danielle M

March 24, 2009 @ 3:37 am

The Alpha Junos are great synthesizers. I own an Alpha Juno 1 and love the warmth that it has. It is great for basses and leads as well as warm strings. I use the tape interface to save patch data which is a nice feature. The key action is best for leads and bass lines and they have a springy kind of release to them. The MIDI implimentation is good and responds well to a controller/ sequencer. The chord memory function is really neat .
It has a very stable DCO and VCF/VCA which give the Alpha Juno a warm and deep sound. I love this synthesizer and it is unique as well. It is similar to a Juno 60 but with a more complex ENV section. The only down side to it is that there are no sliders and using the Alpha dial can be slow process sometimes. The Alpha Juno may be small in size but is has a big sound that really warms up the mix. Its the best of both worlds, a DCO that is stable and the warmth of the VCF/VCA in one synthesizer. Love the Alpha Juno!

planetplayer

January 12, 2009 @ 3:25 am

Envelope could be assigned to pitch and filter and amp. Response is always quick. Did not mind 49 keys.
Needs external processing like compressing or limiting, distortion to make very useful. The output is weak. It would take multiple track dubs to sound like a quarter of a Jupiter 8 string sound. The sound is more Juno sounding because of system design. The sub-osc is not as strong or loud as older Junos. The hardware is top quality and wont seem to break. I don't know about the membranes, but they seem to work all the time. If you need a little keyboard filler sound on a few songs, this is great. Like FX or little strings or Band Pass sounds or LFO sounds. I sold mine back. I love it, but I had to pass. It could not fit with what I was and am doing. If you want to add simple keys it sounds great. Mixed with anything more powerful you might want to sell or closet or leave under bed or on bed. It does look nice.

planetplayer

January 12, 2009 @ 3:22 am

I had one. The sounds were too dry for anything I wanted to do. Even the D-20 can sound more analougue at times. Even when doing solos. The Alpha Juno's and MKS-50 are 12db analog. The chorus on alpha Junos are a little noisy. Quality is clean and a little warmth compared to JX-8P. Envolove could be assigned to DCO also for pitch effects like plucking and bowing. Easy to program, but may take time.
Straight forward to making your own sounds.

Intervenus

December 18, 2008 @ 6:44 am

One of the most under estimated of Rolands line! This synth is amazing. Was also used by Astral Projection. They used two of these to get their huge trance sound. It's a must own!

Marcio Sen

November 18, 2008 @ 2:14 pm

also very interesting to hook it uo with a behringer bcr2000 it makes all kinds of cool stuff and filtered noises

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