15 thoughts on “Roland JU-06A vs JUNO-60”

1. I have a ju-06 and I like it, but that 4 note polyphony really sucks…

2. 4 note polyphony is a Deal Breaker – Call it a JU-04A. It’s frustrating they would disable the potential of this unit. Disappointing to say the least.

   1. Just a chance for you to exercise your “disappointment muscle”, as we say to the kids!

      If it’s not for you, great, and move on. Perhaps some day someone will make the absolute perfect best synth ever for you.

      I wonder why people feel the need to post everything that makes them feel like they’re not getting what they want? Some kind of bizarre consumer-ized version of democracy? “I buy things and I have a voice, therefor I should get to talk about what I don’t like about the things I have available to buy?” It makes no sense.

      This is a great sounding little instrument and I’ll bet many folks will make enjoyable music with it.

      Make music, play live, have fun and be kind.

      1. True – I own the original 106 and use all those 6 notes when I play :). And I own the JU-06. Just not the same for performance.

   2. Did you post the same angry comments about the original boutiques? Here’s the reality of the Boutique lineup:

      This unit is built on the same ESC2 chip (and main board) as the previous designs. The only thing Roland has to redesign is the front panel board and the firmware.

      That means they cannot step beyond 4 voices without a major redesign, which would be prohibitively expensive if they only have one or two more of these little devices in the pipeline.

      Companies have to do platform development to amortize R&D costs – you see the same development techniques in cars, phones and computers. Heck, Behringer is doing it with their little monophonic clone boxes – they share the same microcontroller, USB/MIDI and much of the same firmware, along with the same assortment of Curtis chips.

      Roland’s little $400 polysynths sound remarkably like the originals. They’re compact, well built and allow us to revisit the 1980s without spending thousand to worry about dying capacitors and leaky batteries. What’s with all the irrational hate on forums?

      1. My comments are not angry or irrational hate zaphod. They are my professional opinion. I’m disappointed with Roland’s decision to limit the potential of their products when emulating the originals. I own all the boutiques and the original 106. I would gladly pay more $$ for a full featured boutique. No where have I criticized the sound of the boutiques, their build quality or value for the price point. They all sound amazing. Too bad you cant’ use six notes like the originals. Very simple.

      2. I completely understand the strategy from Rolands point of view. But can you tell me why they don’t provide this Juno 60 model just to existing JU-06 owners, if it runs on the same hardware ? And the JU-06 were marketed as ‘limited editions’, so a former buyer this re-release with not much added seems like a joke to me. It puts Roland in the same category like those turkish carpet sellers for me.

      3. AFAIK the JU-06 had an initial price of $299, now some times later the new version JU-06a is $399.

3. That sub-oscillator sounds horribly wrong. If it is a bug in the JU-06A and not due to settings I really hope Roland makes a firmware update that corrects it. If not for the wobbly sub-oscillator it would be a magnificent replacement for my Juno 60 live!

   1. It seems to almost be on purpose. When the mode is switched it goes away. It’s not like it’s a subtle difference.

4. If only it has 6 voices then it would be close-to perfect. Or you could daisy-chain two.

5. Does anybody know if the 106, 60 mode will come to the Roland Cloud version (if not already)?

6. only 4 voices MASSIVE FAIL !

7. I will pass on this and wait 5 years for the JU-06B version with also Juno 6 emulation and controls for the delay crampend somewere on the panel.

8. those complaining about only 4 voices, the solution is simple: buy 2 units and daisychain them to get 8 (!) note polyphony.