Roland Juno-106

This is an article culled from archive material, circa 1997.

The Juno is the first synthesiser I ever spent serious time with, and is the only instrument I have ever come across whose character and temperament is unmistakably female. The '106 has a six-voice twin-oscillator (DCO, main + sub-oscillator) analogue voice architecture with lowpass resonant filtering (VCF) and a single ADSR envelope per voice. There's an onboard chorus with two settings (referred to as "Rich" and "Harmonic" as I recall). Every parameter has a front-panel slider or button, making editing a complete breeze. Sadly, the instrument is not velocity or aftertouch sensitive, either via the local keyboard or MIDI. The MIDI implementation is spartan but usable; in particular, single-parameter changes can generate system exclusive which can be replayed from a sequencer.

There is no direct rackmount equivalent to the Juno, although the Roland MKS-7 comes close. It will in fact interpret Juno-106 system exclusive … wrongly.

The voice architecture is almost impossibly naïve, and yet the Juno-106 is capable of some truly amazing sounds, including a very respectable (six-voice!) electric piano and some beautiful delicate bells and pads. Although Roland attempted to give birth to a "new" Juno with the Alpha Juno machines, and later the slider-laden JD-800, the Juno-106 is still the most charming. And the most feminine.