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.

Jonah

January 4, 2010 @ 12:07 pm

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

December 29, 2009 @ 10:09 pm

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.

Martin

December 11, 2009 @ 3:54 pm

Just bought a HS-10 from ebay, patiently awaiting it's arrival! I'm guessing the presets on this, will be different from the Alpha Juno?

matt

November 29, 2009 @ 5:45 am

not thin , i had the juno 60 and also various other rolands and analogues - 101 etc and i have to say the alpha juno has a sound all of its own , very unique on some level , the chord memory function is very cool for non synth players and creates instant ' rave ' and ' detroit techno vibes.I find the sound richa nd warm , yes its not a jupiter 8 but does it have to be ? we need variation and this synth sits nicely between the later d50 / j800 tone and the older juno sound , its a very rich sounding synth and a classic in its own right.

Paul Brown

September 24, 2009 @ 10:26 am

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

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