Analogue Renaissance has created a series of Gravitational Slingshots – upgrades/mods for classic Roland synthesizers.
The first is a new VCF/VCA chip that’s designed to replace the stock chip on a Roland Juno-106 (or any synth that uses them). AR says that it gives the Juno-106 a ‘much bigger sound’.
This video, via gstormelectro, takes a look at the process of replacing the chips, and then demonstrates the results.
Video Summary:
Today I got a special package from Syntaur, the USA distributor of Analogue Renaissance products. It’s a set of six 80017A-GS VCF/VCA replacement upgrade chips for the Roland Juno-106 synthesizer.
What’s involved to install them? How do they sound? I’ll demonstrate – but you be the judge!
With all their expertise for the Juno 106 specifically Analogue Renaissance should release a PCB kit (or completed product) for a clone that uses their voice, filter and VCA chips. Design the PCB so that the instrument has two (or three!) VCOs per voice, and is multitimbral with separate outputs, and they’d have a real winner.
As someone who spent decades doing logic chip development – it’s great to see someone tackling the analog hybrid space for synth refit and repair. Nice job AR!