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Average rating:
4.7 out of 5
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While the Juno and JX lines were developed by different teams at Roland, I wouldn't say these two synth lines are totally different technology, the JX borrowed a lot of the technology from both the Junos and Jupiters, and packaged them into a more digital-style interface (just as with the Alpha Junos). The presets on the JX-10 tried too hard to imitate DX7-style piano and percussive stuff in an attempt to compete with it, so it doesn't sound as impressive from the get go. But tweak away, and you will find the familiar thick Roland analog sound in there. The chorus is a Roland legacy going all the way back to the Jupiter 4. Turn most of the JX-10's advanced features off, go down to 1 osc, and it will sound just like a Juno 106. The JX-10 did not originally come packaged with a PG-800 programmer, it only came with an M-16C cartridge so you could use the sequencer. The higher-memory M-64C for full storage of patches and tones you had to buy separately as well as the PG-800. So it's perfectly reasonable for eBayers to sell them separately. Anyway, what can I say, this is a great and powerful synth with the programmer - it's THE budget Elka Synthex, OB8, Memorymoog, Prophet 5, or Jupiter 8!
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Just to clear up something in these recent posts - the JX is totally unrelated to the Juno series! The JX-10 is basically two JX-8P's strapped together. These are true 2-osc synths while the Juno line is sinlge osc with a sub osc per voice. Totally different technology, totally different sounds. These two lines overlapped for most of their respective lifetimes. The JX line was considered the pro line while the Juno's were more budget oriented. Fortunately today both lines are hugely popular and supported by the masses, although often in different musical genres. Hope this helps!
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I just bought one for Christmas. This thing was VERY cheap and it sounds awesome. Having previously owned a SCI T8, Juno 60, Jupiter 6, Korg Polysix, Korg Mono/Poly, and Minimoog, this thing is awesome. The oscillators don't have that cheap Juno sound with the over driven chorus. They sound very organic and very expensive. Even though they are DCO's, I would put them up against many VCO synths for punch and smoothness (sans Oberheim). This is one beautiful synth and why they go for so cheap baffles me. You could not give me four Junos for this thing. The build quality is excellent and I expect it to last a long time. It also stays in tune: fancy that.
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The Jx10 was used by serious users not record producing djs. People like George Michael, Stevie Wonder and Tony Banks. It's a myth that the 106's midi spec is complete. It isn't. It's just good for its time. Most JXs come with the programmerand cards. It's just that many sellers think they can get a much higher overall price by selling the stuff separately. The JX is basically 4 106 synths strapped together with loads more features. It can do all of the 106 stuff plus tons more. The keyboard and quality feel is way higher on the JX. Hell, why are we comparing? The JX was a professional unit at the high end of the market as some guys have said. The 106 was for home use.
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Three main reasons why Juno-106 is more sought-after than the far superior JX-10:
(1) First and foremost, Juno-106 was used by William Orbit for Madonna's Ray of Light album. He mentioned it in almost every interview about the recording of that album, and celeb endorsements like this make a huge difference.
(2) The JX-10 lost some momentum after the SOS article that proclaimed a poor MIDI spec, causing rumors to fly and prices to drop. This is only partly true: the JX-10 cannot receive sysex parameter controls, thus will not support a computer based editor. Those problems were ironed out on the rackmount MKS-70. In all other ways, its MIDI spec is farily robust, especially the features that make it a great controller keyboard.
(3) No hands-on knobs/sliders (sans the PG-800 programmer, that is). This was not such an important issue at the time of the JX-10's release; nowadays it's a very big issue for prospective second-hand buyers (trance, techno, etc.). A JX-10 with a PG-800 combined will sell for slightly more than a Juno-106. Often the PG-800 will sell for as much as the JX-10 itself, or more. Another aspect of the Juno-106 in this vein that makes it more desirable is that the sliders will transmit sysex data, making it possible to control softsynths and other hardware synths.
In a nutshell, if sheer analog 'balls' (in the form of lush pads and complex modulation possibilities) is what you want, the JX-10 will serve you well. It can do sounds the Juno-106 just can't touch. If hands-on slider nonsense is important to you, a JX-10 with PG-800 will still be more powerful than a Juno-106, unless the MIDI sysex stuff is needed. The JX-10 is indeed one of the very best analog synths ever made, and for the money, *THE* best value on the market right now. They are not quite as hard to find as they once were; many can now be found on eBay, average selling point around $250. I agree, they will one day again be highly sought after and prices will eventually go up. (As soon as music styles start changing again, and analog pads are more important than resonance noise and filter sweeps.)
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