Why Do We Still Care About the Juno?

In 1982 the Roland Corporation released a budget polyphonic synthesizer. On paper you'd expect it to have been forgotten about within a couple of years, but the opposite is true.

In this video we explore why that happened and look at the modern successor, the Juno-X.

Thank you to Roland for sponsoring this video.

0:00 Intro
1:10 Juno-6/60
5:23 Juno-106
8:48 Juno-X
11:47 Outro Performance: Draw A Line

[NegativeReferral]

I like to think of the Juno as the anti-DX7. It is the warm, squishy, analog yin to the DX7’s bright, glassy, digital yang. There’s something very soothing about its timbre.

[fiddlestickzmuzik]

Juno 6 was my first ever synth. I bought it in 93 I think it was, paid 250 quid for in London, from a second hand place just down the street from Turnkey. I carried it home on the tube, that was a nightmare as they are very heavy but I was extremely determined. I spent every waking moment playing that synth, it taught me so much.

[TheActualJae]

I love how Roland just kind of threw out the Juno-6 and the TR-808 to “keep up with the market” even though they thought they were kinda crap… And they both become, like, massive pillars of their respective genres. Throw in the TR-909 and the 303 and…you start to think Roland is at it’s best when they just kinda go, “eh…how about this?”

[MilesAwayOfficial]

Simplicity + timeless sound = endless inspiration. I think that’s why the Juno will never die :)

[MakersMuse]

It's weird to be nostalgic for an era that I literally wasn't alive for, but there's just something about how they look and sound that sparks joy and Roland (finally?) realised that lol. I wonder how people would have reacted to that bigsky/supermassive reverb back when these were new it adds such a new, lush dimension to the sound and I'm somewhat addicted to using it.

[Pichuscute]

Love what you did with the vocals in that end song. Very impressive.

[creepingjesus]

My secondary school had an unloved Juno 6 languishing in a dusty cupboard in the music department. When a mate and I wrote a score for a show in 1990, it was right on board. We had a rented Rhodes PCM760 (iirc) as well, and although the Rhodes was technically the better machine at the time, it was a nightmare to wrangle in a dark orchestra pit, and never really inspired me the way the Juno 6 did. Granted, the Juno 6 was monstrously heavy, and often temperamental with temperature variation, but...The big strip between 'Roland' and 'Juno 6' was perfect for a strip of masking tape with settings scribbled on! Sometimes it played me, it could be capricious, it could be unpredictable, but it always made me smile. Eventually. After some panicking and quiet swearing.
For myself, I love it as the essence of synth. Just wish I'd bought one then...

[ikondance]

I wrote and produced my debut album global transmission mostly with a Juno 106 in the mid 90's. The sound the versatility and ease of use made me love it and I've still got it today :)

[gcoudert]

The Juno (60) was my first love. I fell in love with it when I saw it in the window of one of my local music shops in my native France back in 82 or 83, sitting proudly atop a Yamaha CP70. I spent many hours playing it and other polysynths too but none produced that lush, oddly satisfying chorused sound. It wasn't until August 1985 that I was finally able to purchase one for about half its 1982 retail price, a second-hand Juno-60 in pristine condition. Those were the days when every musician wanted a DX7 and analogue synths were sold via local ads at bargain prices. The Juno-60 was soon joined by a JX3P which, as great as it was with its two-oscillator engine (in my eyes at the time, it was the poorman's Jupiter), never matched the Juno's grandiose sound. I regrettably had to let the Juno go for about FF3, 500 (approx. £245-£350 depending on the time of year due to fluctuating exchange rates) when I moved to the UK in 1990. Having owned dozens of other synths since, if you asked me to rank them in order of how much I miss them, the Juno-60 would top the list. For some reason, at the time, the Juno-106 never sounded as good as the 60 to my young ears and I passed on a couple before settling for the 60. Besides, I couldn't see the point of MIDI (I know, I know...), it had no arpeggiator and portamento wasn't enough of a selling point in my opinion. Nowadays, as much as I love the Juno-106 engine in my Jupiter-X, it is no replacement for the 60 and I would love the Juno-X's Juno-60 engine to be ported over to the Jupiter. Amazing video, by the way; as always.

[ScytheDevTeam]

The rich tone and atmosphere, the nostalgic warmth...Junos rock

[Scottzilla]

The Juno-06 is my only remaining vintage synthesizer in my set up. I've had it since 1992 . I absolutely adore it and I will be buried with it.

[bzap]

That one little minute snippet comparing the X to the 106 was the best demo of the X on YouTube yet! We need a full demo of the X’s 106 and 60 engine from you. Awesome work.

[lo-firobotboy]

Even before watching, my response to the title of this video care because JUNOs are just simple, well made, beautiful sounding instruments.

[XanderEwald]

The melancholic sound of the Juno-60 touches me on a deep level, as only few instruments can.

[RyanKirk]

The Juno-X appears to be one good noise maker. The ending songs keep me coming back to your videos. Well done sir!

[gadgeroonie]

I have owned my 106 for over 30 years and I still love it. It always seems to find a new sound easily and using midi you can record all the filter and slider movements. It really was a massive implementation of midi at the time. Many modern synths do not have the same level tweakability. Its a keeper 🥰

[Md]

Wow! Alex consistently knocks it out-of-the-park with the songs he writes for these videos. And man, the feel in this one's electric. Makes me want to up my game, too.

As much as I love cerebral music that experiments with novel ideas, it's stuff like this - written from pure intuition - that speaks to the soul. And if done at a high enough level, the latter approach leads to new and interesting things in its own right - like how Alex kept the truncated breaths between phrases in the vocoded parts. I can't imagine that was planned. But the way he always seems to inject a bit of chaos into the process, and (more importantly) feel when it's both interesting and appropriate for the song - it produces magic. Love it!

[strmchild]

Much like the SH-101, the Juno-6/60/106 are simple and straightforward, and pretty much all sweet spot. You can't make them sound bad. That legendary chorus is the icing on the cake.

[XavierRadix]

I first learned how to program synths on the freebie TAL-U-NO-62 plugin.
It's just a Juno 6/60 emulation. It really was PERFECT to learn synthesis basics on.
And years later being able to play an actual Juno 6 was just mind blowing how good it sounds still to this day.
CLASSIC, I tell you, absolute CLASSIC!

[jessicaedwin]

I gigged full time/6 nighters & concerts on the road in the 70's & 80's & bought only what i proved to be the best sounding equipment that made my act and playing sound better. I loved my JUNO 60 !!! Yet, it had NO MiDi connections. So I sold it & in 1984 bought the Juno 106 as an UPgrade or so I thought. Juno 106 had no "balls" (sub-octave settings ect.)like the 60. The keys felt very different from my other boards I kicked myself every night until I finally sold it. After remaining quiet for oh so long, i feel the NEED to inform those of you who may end up wasting your hard-earned $.