Roland Juno 1/2 User reviews -Page 1

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Average rating: 4.1 out of 5

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Daryl K. a part-time user from US writes:

I bought a Juno-1 when it first came out, had originally looked at a 106 (at the time, $589.00) and heard that Roland was coming out with something better than the sliders for programming, let's face it... all those knobs and sliders are easy to damage, sticking up like they do. So I waited and bought the Juno-1 about a week after the store got the first one in(for $629.00). LOVED IT!!!!! Like a dummy, I sold it about 10 years ago and have been kicking myself ever since. So I just bought a really clean, lightly used Juno-2 on e-bay ($300.00) and am eagerly awaiting delivery. What people say about the factory patches is true for alot of them...they mostly suck. BUT... they are a good place to start for programming your own patches, just a little tweaking and they're great... Turn up the volume and shake some dust loose from the ceiling with this one!

Rating: 4 out of 5 posted Wednesday-Mar-30-1111 at 13:02

Sean a professional user from sheffield uk writes:

hi all, i just bought a juno 1 again after becoming dissalusioned with 'VA's' dont get me wrong but the current 'VA' is worth the hype eventually if all the manufacturers carry on with the way they are going they will bring out a synth that'll kill off the analog craze once and for all. now back to my juno 1; i was both glad and surprised to find that it was a juno 1 i bought way back when they first came out, how do i know that i hear you ask, well for one it had all the sounds i programmed into it, ok they could have been copied and transfered to this synth, yes thats true, but in that case how do you explain my postcode and intials on the back which came to light in UV light ;) strange eh?. well i played with it for a while and got right back into programming it, and made some very tasty strings, leads, and efx sounds, its neither difficult nor laborious to program this without a pg300, the programmer just gives you all the things at your finger tips. i'd forgotten how warm it sounds, full marks to roland for this synth, they never did beat it in my own opinion. this was the last true juno, and to all those who compare it to the juno 106 get real this is far warmer, my friend has one i should know, the 106 is hard work even with the sliders there, ok its not as warm as the 6/60, but its not far off, get one now if you can get one cheap enough, people pay silly prices because of something called a hoover sound whatever that is, i cant say i've ever heard it. all in all a worthy 5/5, roland should release a new version of the juno, not the tripe the currently call juno.

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Tuesday-Aug-14-077 at 15:56

Neil a hobbyist user from United Kingdom writes:

Three things in my life have made me happy; Seeing Genesis live in the 70's, England wining the Rugby World Cup and the fact that i have just successfuly bid on a Juno 1. I have alot of old Korg gear and have been looking to get some Roland 'boards for some time. What is abit daunting is that there isn't a knob or slider to be seen ( quick where's my MS-20). Trying to programme it should be fun although all the reviews say its easy. I hope so. I'm into the early expermintation music of Tangerine Dream so nothing fancy is required. I would like to achieve basic sounds such as the sound of thunder, crashing waves that type or thing. There are 3 of us who now and again play in small halls and improvise away. Our biggest crowd was nearly 40 aging hippy types who loved it. 2 hours of swirling sounds. Special Effects ??.... Black curtain as a back-drop, desk lamps at each station and the centre piece an oil type projector. Pretty effective in a darkened room. We're trying to get another. So Roland Alpha Juno 1 i hope you can come up with the sound effects i desire. Watch this space for an update. Neil

Rating: 4 out of 5 posted Thursday-May-10-077 at 07:21

Global Motion a professional user from SWEDEN writes:

This juno is my favorite of the Junoseries. It sounds really unique in a nice way. It´s not really fat sounding but it can make some fat bass sounds.

So the filter can't selfoscillate? No and personally I think it is a good thing. The Roland filter sounds like s**t when you use 50% or more resonance. (excl. the @junos that don't use the same range)

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Sunday-Feb-27-055 at 07:34

Tim Gadd a hobbyist user from Australia writes:

An analog in digital clothing - mostly from the POV that it looks like a DX7 (who would dare build a synth in 1987 that had knobs all over it?), but is essentially analog nonetheless.

You'll find you can get wonderful, lush pads and organs out of the Alpha 2 (and presumably the alpha 1), but the interface will annoy you if you're heavily into tweaking. Membrane buttons are fine if you have killer presets, which the Dx7 did for its time, but at heart the Juno 2 is still an analog beast which wants to be tweaked in real time. The Alpha Dial goes some way towards rectifying this problem - it's a little easier than the DX7's interface - but ultimately you miss the sliders and knobs. A few months after getting one of these, I got a Jupiter 4, and despite the fact that the Juno is undoubtedly more sonically versatile it got pushed aside while I fiddled with the 40 odd knobs and sliders on the Jupiter.

Ok, the sounds. Excels at pads, organs, and organ/strings. I think its bass reputation is a bit over-rated. I had a Korg poly 61 way back when, and I seem to recall it would kick the Juno's butt for bass (however the Juno is characeristically Roland - that is to say lush and warm, whereas the Korg was charecteristically buzzy and dirty in a way I personally enjoyed) Acoustic instruments are largely a joke, but this is an analog beast after all. KB is nothing special, and three of the keys on my used one suffered from velocity problems. Use it for pads and organs, or for cool analog noises if you're prepared to get into the programming - which, compared with ther DX7 is a cinch. It has a really slow LFO, lots of parameters, and can really sound great if you're prepared to fiddle with it. And I mean really great. You just have to spend some time. Fiddling with it in real time is the nuisance.

The chorus is pretty nice, and I have it turned on most of the time. Pity it had no arpegiattor, but these seemed totally out of fashion by the mid to late 80's, and I could make this comment about MOST synths.

I wouldn't recommend it as a preset machine, but it's capable of some much more awesome sounds than you might suspect. If you get a controller with it (what are they - PG 300's?) I suspect it would make it a load of fun.

Rating: 4 out of 5 posted Saturday-Nov-08-033 at 02:47

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