This video, via Earmonkey Music, captures an improvisation on the Roland Juno 106.
The Juno 106 is a vintage analog synth from 1984. It has a very basic synth architecture – 1 DCO + VCF + VCA – but sounds great and has a very immediate, hands-on interface.
Here’s what they have to say about the technical details:
I have not played my Juno 106 much lately and I figured it was time. The Polyphonic Portamento is fun. Effects are Valhalla delay and reverb. I shot this on my iPad and you can tell that the low end was moving some air in here lol
Even a monkey could make a great sound with this synth, ears or not.
haha!
Very nice. The Juno 106 is a very good synthesizer. Roland, can you make an updated copy of it?
Behringer did with their Deepmind ….and Roland with their JU-6?
Thank you for this information.
The Ju-06 is a digital (virtual analog) recreation of the analog 106, but with only 4 voices instead of 6. the DeepMind is not a 106 clone. Although the initial idea indeed was a 106 clone, it turned into a different synth eventually. It can sound similar to the Juno, but the chorus is different so that it cannot reproduce the smooth, warm Juno sound. You will always hear the difference.
There is a pedal by TC that clones the Juno Chorus for 30$, combined with the Deepmind you have more than a Juno.
It doesn’t clone the Juno Chorus and it doesn’t sound like the Juno Chorus, which many people have commented on. The marketing sure suggests that it’s a clone, but TC Electronics tech guys have stated that it’s not a clone, it’s designed for guitar levels unlike hte original, it uses different chips and it will not sound the same.
What it IS is a decent BBD chorus, with OK build quality, for pizza money.
A great deal for what it is, but have realistic expectations if you want to buy it.
“it cannot reproduce the smooth, warm Juno sound. You will always hear the difference.” < That is call voodoo talk. Can you prove this?
No problem friend 🙂
The 106 was one of the only two analog synths I ever owned. The other was a Radio Shack moog. The 106 had such great low end. That chorus was beautiful, too. Fun to tweak– didn’t feel at all like “programming”.
In many ways, the strongest argument for getting a DM12 is the 106 (well, and the mod matrix, velocity, and the FX, etc).