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The Juno-60 was the first analog (fine, not _pure_ analog) synth I ever bought - a mere year ago. Before that time, I was obsessed with the pristine brightness afforded by digital synths, and knew not of the intrinsic morphological nature of analog-style synths. It was advertised for a relatively cheap price (AUD$250) so I decided to check it out.
Upon first playing it, stumbling through a couple of presets, my heart sank. Was this a joke? AUD$250 for what sounded like a Casiotone having its teeth flossed? How possibly could those strange sliders rescue this synth's credibility if the presets sounded like *that*? I reached for the resonance slider, and boosted it up. Hmm, interesting. Then I turned down the filter slider to near-bottom.
Before I knew it, I was floating in a sub-ethereal universe inhabited by billions of lurching demons, eating and drinking at a banquet of gut wrenching sound. Whoah, the filter REALLY f***ked up that wannabe "organ"! I instantly realised the synth's potential, parted with my cash, tipped my hat, and ran back home with it (it is quite heavy, by the way!).
I was disappointed to find that it was not velocity sensitive, and the 6-note polyphony was inhibiting. However, as time went by, I was continually impressed with the dark, ultra-phat, and/or lusciously sweeping sounds it could crank out. Everything sounded warm, smooth, and rich. The texture of the Juno-60's sounds versus my other digital synths' sounds was like comparing the trunk of a Grand oak with a "Get Well Soon" card.
You can easily spend hours just tweaking a note on "Hold" (useful button!) and let the ever-morphing sound wash over you - its ability to generate indescribable sounds is what I love most about it. It is useful for creating engorged pads (thin and wispy, fat and embracing, or anything inbetween), and I will be hung by a horse's hair before I am unable to get a decent bass sound out of it; its "warbly" basses are particularly excellent.
On the down side, it lacks MIDI ports. This is nothing a few hundred dollars cannot fix, but it would be a nice part of the package. The 6-note polyphony still bugs me, as you cannot play sequences of mellow pad chords with more than 3 notes in each chord, or you have one or more notes cutting out which ruins it. In addition, some people may find the physical design tacky, or quirky at the least.
Overall, though, it is an irreplaceable gem. Just make sure you dig deeply into its synthesis controls. Buy one, steal one, sell your underage relatives to questionable bureaucrats to get one - you need it.
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