Vintage Synth Explorer

Roland • JUNO-6

The first in a series of amazingly affordable quality synthesizers from Roland's amazing JUNO family! The JUNO-6 is a six voice polyphonic analog synthesizer! It's a very stable synth thanks to its digitally controlled analog oscillators. The JUNO-6 sounds great, however it lacks basic necessities like MIDI control and patch memory storage.

The next generation JUNO-60 version added 56 patches of memory storage. Both of these synths sound virtually the same and are considered by many to sound better (punchier) than the popular follow up, the JUNO-106. The JUNO-6 and 60 are very rich sounding synthesizers and are great analog machines as long as you can overlook the absence of MIDI control. Of course nobody can deny that the wooden side panel look is a true sign of Vintage status! The JUNOs have been used by Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran, Enya, Sean Lennon, Sneaker Pimps, Vince Clarke of Erasure and Banco De Gaia.

From UltraMaster comes the JUNO-6, an amazing new virtual replica of the Roland JUNO-6 for use on a +200MHz i386 CPU using Linux. Read more about it!

VISITOR COMMENTS (30)

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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.

 

hello

Posted 10 days ago

VSE is weird. not sure who runs this site..MIDI and patch memory storage, necessities? what a weird thing to judge the synth by. it sounds amazing. and it's super easy to work with. not sure how much these generally sell for these days, but i just got my hands on a flawless one for 500USD.

The Ghoul

Posted 22 days ago

These boards are beyond compare, I had one years ago and sold it to upgrade to the "Latest and Greatest". I have since sold that stuff and bought another Juno 6. Nothing can emulate the sounds this board makes and who cares about presets? I have other boards for that. This baby is perfect for on the fly true live creations.

Modular Jack

Posted 37 days ago

Amazing synth. Not extremely flexible in terms of routing or modulation, but the sounds you get out of it are very rich and warm. Personally I love the chorus, it makes the sound MASSIVE. The lack of patch storage is a bit of a drag at first, but over time you learn to appreciate it as it actually makes you a better synth programmer. You'll get to the point where you can pull up any sound you want in a manner of seconds cause there is not a single menu to dive into here. Every option on the synth has its own button, switch or slider. Awesome. In terms of the lack of midi, well if you have a sampler and know how to play the keys it's really a non issue. I think this synth is an AMAZING value and gives you a pretty wide range of sounds for the low price. And it looks badass with the wood panels and all. Classic synth. Here's me playing a lead on my Juno 6 with a JX-305 for bassline and drums...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWTaqYTAV74

radiowaves

Posted 38 days ago

3 stars? Really VSE? The lack of patch memory is not a big deal for any synthead who knows how to program gear properly. For me, it only adds to its nostalgic charm. Sure its not the fattest synth (are any of the Junos?) but it has a very warm, satisfying sound that simply cant be beat. Love the JU-6!

dreamdemolitionfact

Posted 63 days ago

Whoops! You're quite right! The Juno 60 didn't have MIDI at all; I'm not quite a properly qualified nerd yet....does yours have a DCB though? This was a kind of MIDI forerunner that Roland invented at the same time as Dave Smith was coming to the same conclusions. I think I heard that the later 60s had one of these.

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