Roland Juno-60

Robert L's Analog Synths

Roland Juno-60

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Robert L's Analog Synths

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Roland Juno-60 is an excellent sounding and easy to use analog synthesizer, one of the most wanted vintage keyboards today. Immediately after it was produced in 1982, it became a standard in several music genres, from then emerging techno-pop, to disco, funk, and others. Its popularity went on a rise again after the era of house and dance music in the 90s, to finally reach the status of the legendary keyboard in these days.

It has great, warm, lush, analog sounds, just like you would expect from an old analog synth. Behind the famous sound character of Juno 60 is the excellent Roland LPF VCF filter implemented in the IR309 chip (the same chip found in Jupiter 8). Ad to this the irreplaceable Roland analog stereo chorus, and you understand why Juno 60 is born with the very best analog foundations. The VCF resonance is very "brassy", fresh and strong enough to get into the self-resonance. HPF is also there, which comes so useful in calming down the rebellious basses.

The layout of functions and knobs is simple, so that it is easy to fully concentrate on the sound synthesis. Roland used the DCOs (Digitally Controlled Oscillators) for the first time in Juno 6 synthesizer, the starter of the Juno sereis. Juno 6 was sound-wise the same synth, but without the programming capabilities, while on Juno 60 you will find the storage for 56 programs.

One DCO per voice is used, with the addition of the so-called sub oscillator obtained by simple frequency division, which plays one octave lower. DCOs are introduced due to the simpler implementation and complete stability, as opposed to the classic VCOs (Voltage Controlled Oscillators).
But judging by the sound, even an experienced ear could be deceived to say that these must be the warmth and noble character of the VCOs that's found in the Juno 60's sounds.

The wooden side panels, a nice metal cover with heavy black finish, solid knobs and fine keyboard, all together make Juno 60

appear extremely attractive. The same high quality built extends to its interior with excellent PCBs, parts, wiring, batteries lasting for over 25 years(!), good slider pots, and switches that can be opened and cleaned. Well, these days they just don't make them anymore...

The only thing missing from the present standpoint is MIDI. Well, that's what Roland put in Juno 106, the younger brother, a legend of its own. However, Juno 60 had the DCB port, a proprietary Roland digital communication interface introduced prior the MIDI standard. Luckily MIDI to DCB converters are available on the market (Kenton).

With the marvelous Juno 60 you'll get everything you have expected from a good analog synthesizer, and much more. Like a constant surprise of how good a plain and simple program patch can sound! And how easily you will create new sounds and altered them to your precise needs with ease.

And all this for more than affordable price, for only a fraction of the modern professional keyboards (and some people morn how expensive the old synths are!?!). This has to do with the fact that Juno 60 cannot be considered a big rarity! Its huge success led to a high volume production, and huge number of items sold worldwide. However, 25 years after, how many of them are still in good condition? How many of these in good condition are for sale? Not many, you know that, and you can be sure that the price of such a classic synth can only rise.

As a concluding thought --- can it be that such a top quality synthesizer, giving the ultimate sound and functionality, is still quite affordable? Juno 60 proves it is possible, thanks to Roland. You can make a comparison tests of Juno 60 side by side to the most expensive analog synthesizers available, and find out that they won't beat that huge, rich, and warm sounds of this analog standard. So if you don't have the 1000 EUR plus budget, stick to the proven quality of Juno-60.

Juno 60 versus Juno 106. It's no wonder that after a huge success of Juno 60, Roland advertised its younger brother 106 as "the Juno 60 with MIDI".

To be precise, this is not true. The analog envelope generators were replaced by the digital ones, a common thing of migrating hardware functions to more cost-productive software. Also, two more thins were added, that were noted to be missing on Juno 60: portamento and unison mode. In fact, the unison mode could be reached on Juno 60 but if it is powered up in the service mode. And on the other side, the extremely useful arpeggio was omitted!? The line of reasoning was probably that with MIDI the arpeggiator would not be needed any more. Now we now know that this is not true, because arpeggiator is a great intuitive tool to make wonderful, old-style accompaniments in seconds. Hardly any software based simulation can cope with the simple button controlled function that we had on the old synths like Juno 60.

Putting the slight afore mentioned differences aside, is there any difference regarding the sound of the two brothers? There is, and it's hard to believe that the designers in Roland didn't hear it. OK, perhaps they just didn't manage to correct their colleagues in the marketing department.

As you can guess, the reason is primarily the change of the envelope generation, and, much lesser, if at all, a slightly different embodiment of the same filter chip, now in unity with the VCA function.

As a result, the Juno 106 turned out to be a bit more rough and "robust", if that's a meaningful attribute for a sound, while Juno 60 is slightly warmer, softer and richer. Also, chorus seems to work slightly smoother on the older brother, and perhaps a bit stronger on the newcomer! Of course, these two synths really are brothers, and we are talking about relatively subtle differences. The basic texture of their sounds is similar, but, ... , still, the difference clearly audible.

Having said all that, the usual dilemma arises: which one to buy? The solution, at least for the serious collectors, is simple -- both! Yes, we have to have both of them. For all the other, normal people, let their reason decide. If some other, not-so-reasonable and sentimental argument, like the beautiful, old fashioned style, wooden side panels, do not urge you to go for the older one.