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.

Sonic boy

March 21, 2012 @ 2:16 pm

My first synth together with Korg Polysix.
The Juno 6 is a simple 1 DCO synth. Great for learning. My son got one last year for 150 US. Many clever guys, sell *vintage analog* if its over 250 US go and get a SH-201, GAIA, or JX-3P. Its wasting money to pay over 250 US.

Richard

March 9, 2012 @ 9:10 am

An elegant balance between usability and function, and forever a great way into subtractive synthesis. Strings/pads, basses, soft leads and Enya harps just roll out of it without too much effort, it looks great and its still not THAT expensive. Alas, the Roland name means it IS overpriced, and getting worse. The people's classic.

Liam

February 25, 2012 @ 9:46 am

Got one off ebay for £90 2 years ago. Price was due to 2 missing slider caps and a non working midi retrofit. Quick go with a soldering iron and the built in midi worked, I don't understand these things but resoldering the midi socket seemed to work (only two wires to midi in?) Got the slider caps replaced and it works a dream now. Phenomenally warm sounding synthesizer, I particularly like the filter- the slightest nudge creates whole new soundscapes. This synth is deceptively simple. It's a workhorse in my studio, every new riff I write I think " I wonder what this sounds like on the Juno?"

Lamster

February 9, 2012 @ 6:52 pm

The Juno 6 DCO is both. its a hybrid the output sawtooth is a true analog output Smooth straight line on a scope, if it were digital it would look like a staircase. DCO is because its timed with digital electronics so that it is tuned and scaled correctly. Not sure exactly how it works but when you play a note it is reconised and there is a preprogramed divide down value from the master clock for that note. That sets the Chaging rate and the point at which it grounds and starts again. So it is Analog under digital Control. Pure DCO's tend to have more waveforms and can do pianos better

Brento

December 10, 2011 @ 12:27 am

Regarding the lack of patch memory, I liked this - I was using my Juno 6 in a kind-of space rock improv. band, and using it live meant that many of our songs sounded different every time. It encouraged me to come up with different textures each time we played: I loved it.
I eventually got hold of a manual - Roland used to provide a blank template of the patch panel so you could copy it and mark any patches you wanted to recall. I also used to sample sounds from it into an old EPS if I wanted to use them frequently.
At the moment, my Juno 6 needs to see the synth doc about a nasty cough...:)

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