Roland Juno-106

Very simple and straight-forward.Child play.

6 Voice Polyphony.fantastic plastic action.basic fuzzy lo-fi chorus.First juno to implement midi.

Very thin sounding compared to its older bothers the juno 6 and 60. I really dont know why this synth is that popular.When it comes to sound and thickness, my Korg Polysix kicks its @$$ up and down the street.I guess its only popular because of its simple user interface and the ability to create sounds quickly.

Can you depend on it? Well, you can depend on its rare and expensive VCF chips to croak on you and leave you asking, "why did I buy this"?I use it as a on-stage midi controler because it looks cool.Other than that its just dead weight to me.If you want a Reliable Juno synth get a Juno 6 Or a 60.They are very dependable and dont have those cheap prone- to- die VCF chips that this one has.

Built in 1984. nuff said.

If it were lost or stolen they would probably bring it back when they see how worthless it is and hard to find parts for.I paid 260.00 plus shipping for mine. Man was I stupid.Like I said, Juno 6's and 60's are SAFE MONEY AND ARE VERY RELIABLE!!!!!!GO GET ONE NOW!!!!!!BEFORE THERE GONE!!

No idea which OS - but I assume those were pretty much all the same. Editing patches could not be easier. Probably the best beginner synth of all time. The sheer versatility of sounds and ease of use make it a perfect begginer instrument. AND IT IS PHAAAAAAAAATTTT!!!

Patch editor is not even an option, as MIDI implementation is very rudimentary. Note on/off pretty much is all you can do. Can't controll any of the patch parameters via MIDI, unlike modern synths. What it does - it does great.

Manual is not really needed - I only glanced in it to see how to save a patch and save sound banks. Everything else is pretty much self explanatory. From looking into manual - it wasn't bad... they just kinda didn't cover essentials until like the last quarter of the book. Oh well, typical of roland manuals for that time period. Not going to rag on them for it. If you feel that you need a manual for this synth - perhaps you should consider taking guitar lessons instead... :)

Poly is 6 notes and it's more than sufficient for what I do with it.

Keyboard action is acutally quite nice. I've had both - HS-60 and Juno 106 (both are the same synth, HS-60 has speakers and doesn't look as good as 106). HS60 felt terrific.... 106 felt somewhat different... not bad still but given a choice, I'd pick HS60 key feel over 106. But keep in mind - it's all subjective, as there's no touch sensitivity.

Now, built in effects are 2 chorus types - both ADD MASSIVENESS to the sound. One acts more like a vibrato the other more like a detune type of chorus. Can't combine both choruses (shame!!!) like you could in RS09, but can't have everything. Using FX is as easy as on/off. You cannot imagine how beautiful the chorus is in that synth. This is the same chorus chip that was used in classic roland chorus stomp pedals (can't remember the model - light blue color).

No expansion, it's not a rompler. it's a synth! NO on board sequencer or Arp... which kind of sucks... I wish it did have at least a basic arp - it would have made it soooo much better. but then I guess it wouldn't be juno 106, eh? I love what it has and what it does.

No realism here. Except real deal! I know you're not expecting some piano or string sounds, right? Organs, strings, pads, leads, basses - it's an electronic musician's dream.

You do hip hop??? This is the bass machine to rattle your subwoofers
you do trance? This is the farty basslines you've been waiting for
you do house? This is the lush bassy leadlines that you needed

It works miracles for trance/prog/house/electronica - anything that has a 4/4 beat and needs a fat and juicy bassline - this is the beast. N A S T Y!!!! My monitors are about to have a seizure. Anything that was within immediate vicinity of the monitors began to rattle and shake, things started falling to the floor and pretty soon - the monitors themselves started cutting out, as overload indicators went on.

THIS IS A HARD, HEAVY, SUPER FAT ANALOG BITCH! Not the kind of girl you bring home to ma'.

Again, no velocity - no aftertouch, just pure and mean bass machine.

Oh, and it does wonderful pads or noisy alien screams and all kinds of other weird sh!t that no other synth can do.

Something about this little monster that got me and I am never selling mine.

The only reason I give it a 9 is because it's just limited based on design and cost. It's everything that Jupiter 8 aint, and Jupiter 6 can't deliver. It's that perfect instrument that has its own personality and sits all by itself in the mix. Nothing else can touch it. It occupies a bandwidth and plows through the mix like a plow truck. You can hear Juno 106 in the mix... when you can't hear it - YOU CAN FEEL IT... It's that deep.

Now, here's a bad part. I would not depend on it if my gig was based purely on this synth alone. It is not as sturdy as Jupiter 6/8, it's also made with a wooden bottom and plastic top. Construction is solid but sliders, buttons, and other elements are fragile. Mine has held up for number of years but it feels fragile. The bender assembly sits loose, sliders feel flimsy and buttons feel like they'll either stop working or will pop out any time. Knobs are standard 909-quality... meaning, after some time, pots will become scratchy and flimsy.

Now, the biggest problem is not from external construction but from internal. This is the biggest issue. ALMOST EVER SINGLE JUNO 106/HS 60 EITHER HAS OR WILL HAVE A PROBLEM WITH DCO.

You got 6 voices, with DCO for each. That's 6 DCOs. Each is selling for about $60 - $80 on ebay. That's $360 - $480 for VCOs alone!!! You may have 1 to replace or you may have all 6... and you can also get lucky.

But your best bet is to test it in person. Sometimes, you have to let it sit for 15 or so minutes in order to start hearing the problem. So, play it for some time before deciding to shell out the cash - as these problems are expensive.

I also found that some Junos have a problem with the buttons, as pointed out earlier. I had one that had a problem with one of the oscilators. As far as reliability goes - Juno is only as reliable as your luck and if you had it serviced and tested.

Maybe it was just me but I had 3 Junos - every single one had some kind of problem. Good news - parts are still available but they are not cheap...

Reliability gets only 3 based on my experience

Roland actually improved recently. They will even send you a manual if you ask them nicely, though, most manuals are now available online!!! Welcome to the 21st century, Roland.

My experience with Roland support has always been good but I don't call them with stupid questions or expect them to have 100% of parts available for 25 year old synth. Sometimes you can get lucky - they may say they have something. Most likely - you won't find anything, so support is not really an issue with this synth.

I give it an 8 because I've seen better - but overal, they are good.

This will probably be one of the last synths I sell. For about the price of a software package you get a real deal semi-analog synth with beautiful sound and gorgeous package. It's an eye catcher. I would most definitely buy it again.

I love it's bassy sound or lush and crazy pads - it's definitely a box full of surprises and running it through some FX just gives it an unbelievable tonal character.

It's a great synth - buy it but try to check it out or at least get some kind of return agreement - don't buy it blindly, without asking questions and getting some guarantees... repairs will be costly.

For the price you pay - thes are fantastic. If you can find one - grab it, this is the secret weapon in many artists' toolbox. don't be without one.

I've never had the need to look up anything in the manual.

Kind of hard to grade the features.. since the lack of some of the features makes up it's unique sound :D

I want more polyphony though, but it's enough most of the time.

I give it a 10, it's instant classic sounds and more. It has it's limitations, but most of the time it's what gives this synth it's unique charactistics.

It's hard to describe since I'm not currently with the synth, but due to the limitations in it's design in the way the ADSR and filter works in actually plays a bit different than other synths do. In such a way that many things that are possible with this synth that isn't possible with synths that have a "higher" spec. In effect, it's budget construction does give it such unique features that it's essential if you want that type of sounds :D

I know it sounds cryptic.. but when you used it for a while you know what I mean :D

It's old, it still works

Well, it always worked so no opionion on support

I will never part with it.. never!

The presets were great! Anything from a fat organ or brass sound, to beautiful strings and chimes! I even programmed my own sounds.. including a helicopter and "tweet tweet" bird sound, synth drum, etc. I'm no great shakes on the programming side!!!

I bought this synth new in 1984, and admittedly, it has no touch sensitivity. The polophony is only 6 note, and sometimes if you hit too many notes, it will "steal" The chorus effects are pretty good, very easy to use. Portamento, pitch bend, etc, again pretty good. To judge the 106 you really have to play it and hear it. I used to tape dump in the "old days" haha... It doesn't have a sequencer (thank God) that's toooo technical for me! I never did get round to using MIDI, as I always said I was a musician and not a technician. The reverse envelope is great, you can get some really good effects with that.

Ok...! Organ and brass sounds are really "phat", rich.... strings are beautiful.... I used to be in a couple of bands, and worked with a vocalist and the old 106 was really versatile. I probably said all the stuff in the above category.

I love this synth... it's 22 years old now, and the back-up memory has gone, as have the presets.. it has it's moments, and like anything old is temperamental..! I can still manually program a deep rich "Roland" sound... I've even played it in a church, and thru the P.A it sounded phenomenal..!! It has a broken frequency slider (I still have the knob to adjust it) and a couple of cracked keys... but this synth has been thru a lot, and I wouldn't swap it for anything. Yeh, I'd use it on a gig.

Haha! What haven't I said above? Thru my misty rose coloured glasses, well.. I haven't known or owned a keyboard/synth like this, and I've had a few! I've been playing keyboards, piano and organ for 38 years now. I bought the 106 on advice cos I knew the guy in the shop I bought it from, and he recommended it. I tried it in the shop, wrote a tune there and then and fell in love with it. It's a battered old 22 year old warhorse... it does the job when it wants to... I've tried a DX7 and the sounds are too "thin", tried a Mirage (that's nice!) and SH-101.... Yamaha and Galanti double manual organs.... I think poor old Roland Juno here needs a "makeover" as I'd really like to get it back to sounding like it should. It's in semi-retirement, but I wouldn't sell it, and if it were lost or stolen, it'd be like losing a child. I played it in church and people were coming up to look at it... I think because of it's looks, and when I told them how old it was!!! It still makes a guest appearance sometimes. It's not got half the stuff of modern keyboards, and I can't afford those anyhow... 20+ years down the line, it still does the biz.

It doesn't get any easier with a slider for each parameter. If you know the basics of subtractive synthesis - you don't even need a manual. If you don't know the basics - just call up a patch and tweak a slider and LISTEN - you'll be an expert in no time. Get a universal editor to help back-up your patches - otherwise you'll be off loading via cassette - But you know what - perhaps I could offload via the cassette port to a digital recorder - burn to CD and then WHAM - digital backup!!.

6-voice, 2 Oscillator - but you can get 3 tones if you self-oscillate the filter - I actaully programmed a descent organ patch this way when I tuned the filter tone to a 5th above the tonic.

This is the FIRST of the HyBrid Digital/Analogs - the OSC is digital (a DCO believe it or not) this makes the tuning ROCK SOLID. Older synths with classic VCOs would drift out of tune.

it has an analog resonant VCF (per voice) which really warms it up.

Granted - it's only got one ADSR envelope (per voice) - but for a beginner it really eases the learning curve.

It's got a single LFO - but you know - sometimes simple is GREAT!!! - you really only need multiple LFOs and ADSRs if you're making ambient sounds or crazy unplayable sound FX. For playablilty and EASE of programing - it gets little better than this configuration.

It's got a built in Chorus (a bit noisey)

Full MIDI

No Sequencer or Arpeggiator

First off - it's analog.

But the electric piano and P-Bass sounds are pretty damn good.

It sparkles - it's warm - lush pads - deadly mono-bass when you use the UNISON function and stack all 6 voices (12 oscillators) into one note - add the portamento and it ROCKS as a solo tone.

No Sine wave sounds though - so forget the Sine Bass - but it can still Rumble.

I once created a sound that imitated a flying blimp overhead (if you've ever heard one , you know what I mean) - I pumped it through my amp and my brother went running out the door to see where it was in the sky (hee hee hee hee) - sucker!

No velocity.

I am a FIRST TIME BUYER - I bought it NEW in 1985 - I have NEVER sold it - no will I EVER.

There are sounds in this thing I have NEVER been able to recreate on anything else.

Solid - no problems -

huh?

Again - I bought it when it was the latest thing - it still rocks and will forever be a part of my set-up

Couldn't be easyer hit a slide and your sound is changing (But where's the cv gate, and trigger. It would be nice to have those around that midi to trigger the old synths.)

It has this beutifull sounds not so raw like older synths but harmonic and the MIDI rocks
(It's the only reason i got a MC-303, I never youse his sound(There nothing as ugly as that.))I made a Audio input to the filters and chorus to the nooise (So the nooise is out of sirvice, the Oddysey has pink and white.)That realy is a must an easy to make.

WHAAAAAAAAAT A BEUTY no pro5 but WHAAAAAAAAAT A BEUTY OBxa but WHAAAAAAAAAT A BEUTY

I often hear story's about losing voices, but didn't happen to me yet

Do it your self

Good polyphonic synth with one of the best harmony sounds. Only those Fucking sliders

The Juno is very easy to use. It is a classic example of a synthesizer in which there is a controller available for every function. Patch editing is easy, although the manual is very basic and not that helpful for those that are new to synthesis. I particularly like the controls above the pitch bend knob and wish that Roland still did this for their current model keyboards.

Polyphony is 6 voice which is okay - the JP8000 is only 8 voice so I guess not much has changed since. The built in chorus is interesting but very noisy. The keyboard action is quite good for a non weighted keyboard. Monophonic mode assigns all 6 voices to the one note which is an interesting effect.

The sounds are great and this is why I bought it. The sawtooth wave is awesome. There is something about it that seems to set it apart from modern synths like MS2000's, Ions etc. It does not have velocity or aftertouch though.

I don't gig with it and would be a little woried about doing so. There is something about the chasis on this thing that doesn't quite feel solid... it can bend slightly when you pick it up. I had to get the VCA chip replaced also as the fifth voice would drop out. This was readily available but was quite costly. I have had no problems since.

The local Roland repairers were very good: replaced the problematic VCA chip pretty fast and knew about the issue.

I would definately buy one again. They are great value for the prices you can pick them up for. I only wish Roland still made synths which were intuitive like this one... It's a simple design but you can pull a good variety of sounds from it. And I love sliders: they give you great visual feedback on how your sound has been programmed.

One of the easiest synths ever made - a button, switch or slider for every parameter makes for effortless editing, a joy to use. I would recommend this synth to anyone, from the newbie though to the seasoned synth programmer. Because it's so easy to program, it always lands of lead synth!

6 notes polyphony, which is enough for most applications. There is one effect, a two stage chorus. It is a wonderful effect, however it is very noisy - I would highly receommend a noise gate to silence it. There were two variants, the 106S and the HS-60, which both have speakers built in. Some of these also have a sound input, but I don't think it processes the audio - just mixes it with your synth sounds and sends it to the speakers. MIDI is excellent, with all controls transmitting and receiving SYSEX data, which means a world of possibilities for those who can integrate this into their sequences, enabling them to evolve the timbre itself over time as part of the sequence. Neither the keyboard nor the synth engine is velocity sensitive, which is a bit of a bummer.

I won't try and pigeonhole its sounds into any one category, but suffice to say it has a real character, one which I love hearing in my tracks. I would probably recommend it to people making electronic music or music which incorporates elements of electronic, such as pop-rock. It is very capable of making sounds commonly found in 80's synth-pop (mainly because it is an 80's synth), mean sounding growling bass and leads, powerful piano and harp like sounds, modern squelchy blippy sounds, lush pads and strings, weirdass SCI-FI Dr. Who style sounds effects, and many more.

It is quite solid but I would hesitate to cart it around a lot - it would be more suited to studio use. There is one problem with these though - they often get a dead VCO/VCF chip in them. To test for this, play each note on the keyboard one after the other in quick succesion on a patch with a quick attack and long release (like a piano), and listen to see if any of the keys you press don't make a sound. If so, this can be fixed, but will cost money. Synthrepair in the UK has access to a new run of these chips, but they are a one off run and will run out eventually.

Never needed it, but there is plenty of support online. I am ecstatic that I can still buy brand new DCO/VCF chips for these (as I have needed them).

If this were lost or stolen, I would buy another. In fact I did buy another, without the first even being lost or stolen - I own two of the suckers! These are my main synths, and my others are my MS2000B and my TX7 (a DX7 with no keyboard). I also have a fully loaded Akai S5000 sampler, quite a lot of other boxes that do all sorts of things, and a Mac G3 to control it all. This synth was the first piece of equipment I bought for what is now a comprehensive home studio, and is almost always where new tracks start.

Bought this thing back in 90. Had only the M1 at the time, and both of those synths were the easiest to use. Yamaha products probably the worst, even to this day.

Didnt have upgradables, but programming your sounds was easily the high point of the 106. It was so easy and home-brew voices sounded a lot better than the factory pre-loaded stuff. Plus, with todays PC capabilities, you can MIDI sounds and sequence.

It was a budget synth, so you get what you pay for, BUT you could program almost anything you heard synth wise. Some sounds a bit shallow, but it was great for its time.

Very dependable studio wise. I wouldnt drag this to a gig, being that a slight vibration in the OSC's will change a sound, but great for techno/dance basses and pads.

Basically, the web is your tech support, so I give that a 10. Wow, its so easy to find what you need tech wise and even patch wise for various boards. I recently purchased a Triton Extreme and I downloaded over 40 banks of sounds for free. Thats over 5000 sounds, so you get the picture.

I give it an 8 for the time frame it was popular. Nowadays, you can get the vinage sounds from various new boards on the market. Its about time Korg, Yamaha, and even Roland started implimenting vintage data in the new boards. People have only been asking for it for abou 15 years now. Sad to say that Im selling my Juno, being that the Moss board on the Extreme has vintage capabilities as well as giving me warm pads, great piano and strings as well as a sax or trumpet. The Juno-106 had its day, but time to move on.

Everything's right there in front of you, no menus and submenus to click through, so with a basic knowledge of synth programming concepts you can dig in and start playing with the sliders to see what happens. Great fun, great way to learn about synths.

When I bought my JUNO-106 back in the early 80's, I was impressed just to be able to save patches to memory. Before that I played on an ancient ARP of some sort where I had to change sliders and knobs between songs. The chorus may have been noisy, but it was OK for live settings. The features seem pretty lame by 21st-Century standards, but were cool at the time for a budget synth.

No samples of any sort, nothing very realistic, but it was fine for the kind of sounds you needed to cover stuff like Loverboy or Van Halen's "Jump". I used it for Hammond-like organ sounds, but it was pretty cheesy. But what I loved the most was the chorused synth strings sound; it was lush and it sounded great on slow dances in our live mix. There are lots more realistic strings patches out there now, but I've never found one with that room-filling warmth.

Never had any serious tech problems -- seemed pretty durable.

I sent it back to the factory once because I thought the modulation wasn't working. Turned out it worked fine -- I just didn't understand how the manual said it worked. The factory guys seemed supportive enough, but the user's manual was not the greatest. Japanese-to-English translation wasn't their strong suit.

I sold my JUNO-106 over 10 years ago because that sound wasn't really what I needed, but I've got fond memories of using it on gigs in the early/mid-80's. It was a budget synth, but I was on a budget so it worked out great for me. I wish I could find a midi module that could duplicate the synth strings patch.