The Roland Juno-106 is a

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

released by

Roland Corporation is a Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment, and software. It was founded by Ikutaro Kakehashi in Osaka on 18 April 1972. In 2005, its headquarters relocated to Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture. It has f ...

in February 1984.

Features

The Juno-106 is a

polyphonic Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, ...

synthesizer with six voices. It is an analog synthesizer but with digitally controlled oscillators and chorus effects. Whereas its predecessor, the Juno-60, has 56 patches, the Juno-106 has 128. It introduced Roland's performance lever for pitch bends and modulation, which became a standard feature of Roland instruments. It also adds

MIDI MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and ...

and was one of the first analog synthesizers to allow users to sequence parameter changes.

Impact

Artists who have used the Juno-106 include Jacob Mann, Vince Clarke,

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, Reel 2 Real, Jam & Spoon, and

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. The Juno-106 was Roland's bestselling synthesizer until the release of the Roland D-50 later in the decade. It remains one of the bestselling synthesizers. In 1985, Roland released two versions with built-in speakers: the Juno-106S and the HS60 Synth Plus. The synth's popularity continues to the present day, specially with EDM and artists such as Tame Impala,

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among many others.

Hardware re-issues and recreations

The Roland MKS-7 Super Quarter, a multi-timbral synth module with dedicated sections for each part, utilised the same 80017 filter chip as the Juno-106 for the bass section. In 2015, Roland released the JU-06 sound module, a digital recreation of the Juno-106 using Roland's digital Analog Circuit Behaviour (ACB) technology. It is battery powered, has 4-voices and 23 parameters controlled from the front panel. It cost $299 at the time of the release. in 2016, Behringer released the Deepmind-12, an analog synthesizer inspired by the Juno-106 which features 12 voices. It was priced at $999 at the time of release. In 2020, developer Momo Müller released an unofficial PC MIDI editor with the interface of June-106, called the Deepmind - Juno-106 Editor. In 2019, Roland released the JU-06A, which is a digitally based synthesizer combining the JUNO-60 and JUNO-106. It has the continuous high-pass filter of the 106, the envelope-controllable pulse-width-modulation of the 60, and the filter of both switchable from the front panel. It cost $399 at the time of the release. Roland released the Juno-X in 2022, a modern synth featuring digital emulations of the Juno-60 and Juno-106 as well as an additional Juno-X model that features a supersaw waveform, velocity sensitivity and an Alpha-Juno style pitch envelope control. The Juno X's control panel design directly references the controls of the Juno-106 while the sound engine follows on from the Jupiter-X and Jupiter-Xm modern digital synths.

Software emulations

In 2017, Roland released some software synthesizers in the cloud, including ''Cloud Juno-106''. The cloud subscription cost $240/yr at the time. In June 2020, Roland released ''Zenology'' plugins for Roland synths, which includes a Juno-106 emulator. In 2020, ''Cherry Audio'' released the ''DCO-106'' plugin, a juiced up version of the Juno-106 which was priced at $39 USD in 2020.

References

External links

Juno Series history

The Juno-106 Connection
{{Roland

Juno-106 The Roland Juno-106 is a synthesizer released by Roland Corporation in February 1984. Features The Juno-106 is a polyphonic synthesizer with six voices. It is an analog synthesizer but with digitally controlled oscillators and chorus effect ...

Analog synthesizers Polyphonic synthesizers