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.

minijack

October 15, 2011 @ 1:18 am

This was my first synth. While it can definitely do all of the signature Roland sounds I eventually found it too crisp and bright sounding for my tastes and moved on to a 106 which offers much more in the low end department. On the plus side it is very compact and lightweight. It can also make some complex evolving drone sounds that other previous Roland synths can't manage.

cj-303

July 31, 2011 @ 7:41 pm

The only synth to give you them commander tom style hoovers, plus more!!Wicked, wicked synth!!!! (:

johannes

June 13, 2011 @ 5:45 pm

If we are only talking sounds the Juno 1 is a highly capable analog synth.
Tremendous for leads, bass, luxuriant strings and pads, brass and the like!
My chorus was a little noisy and of course the alpha dial can be tedious.
Not nearly as stylish or hands on as a 106 or 60... But again a super solid little
player that will fit into a mix extremely well in most all genres of music.

Dovinia

May 29, 2011 @ 10:56 am

This is by far the best synth I have ever laid hands on. It does everything I could ever wish for from a single instrument including lush strings, pads and some nice SH-101 type mono synth sounds (using chord memory and portamento). Here's an all Alpha Juno-1 sound example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8nlRLT8CsI

John

May 25, 2011 @ 10:47 am

The CR2032-T12 battery is soldered to the main board.

<1312111098765>

 

Post Comment!

Your Name: (Required.)

Email Address: (Required, not published.)

Image verification: (required)

Message:

 

Posting Rules:
Please keep your comments relevant! Do not post requests for help, do not use for sales, do not post unless you have something interesting to say about this instrument, or we may delete your post.

I have read and understand the posting rules.