Will I appreciate a Juno-60?

I have the opportunity to snag a mint in the box (as in, virtually unplayed) Juno-60 for $400. Will this be a pointless addition to my kit, or something special and cool that I'll really enjoy?

I'll take it if you choose to pass on it. I'm still shopping for something that brings that "Roland Sound" and will look good with my Prophet on a stage.

Today's software really has it beat but hardware is forever as long as it's maintained.

i love my 60, but then i only own a few synths. i would say if you don't already own a vintage roland of some kind it would be good. you could always sell it at a profit if you didn't like it. mint 60's go for twice that on ebay.

Juno 60 bass drones = MAX WIN.

$400 mint,it's a no brainer..if you dont like it you can always sell it for a profit.

I love mine,especially through a Mooger LP filter.

How big of a deal is it to midi one?

i just paid 500 for a good condition 6, not 60,

so i say if you like the sound dooooo it

The MD-8 MIDI DCB prices vary.The real kicker is the cable,the prices vary on that too.$100-$200 for both...depending on the day,bidders..so forth.

I use a pulse to the ARP in,it syncs right up.

Here are a few alternatives.

http://www.kentonuk.com/digital_interfaces_converters/midi_digital_converters/prodcb-14.html

http://www.engineersatwork.nl/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/548

I enjoyed their no-nonsense caveat at the bottom of the page.

I was considering a 60 earlier this year and if I were to have bought one would have bought one of these as well. Seems a more elegant solution than the MD-8.

Massively overrated by some people on this forum for whatever reason (IMO). I had a bit of nostalgia for it, but when I actually used one again for a few weeks I was reminded that it's entirely unremarkable. Not only is it extremely limited tone wise but, if you ignore the chorus, you can pretty much NAIL (not come close, I mean NAIL) the majority of its sounds with competent programming on many modern alternatives. No denying it looks kinda cool though

But it's all about the chorus. It actually made me want to track down a Roland chorus unit again.. it adds a nice dimension to the sound. The filter's nice too, but it'd really need to be modulated externally to get something interesting out of it.

Massively overrated by some people on this forum for whatever reason (IMO). I had a bit of nostalgia for it, but when I actually used one again for a few weeks I was reminded that it's entirely unremarkable. Not only is it extremely limited tone wise but, if you ignore the chorus, you can pretty much NAIL (not come close, I mean NAIL) the majority of its sounds with competent programming on many modern alternatives. No denying it looks kinda cool though But it's all about the chorus. It actually made me want to track down a Roland chorus unit again.. it adds a nice dimension to the sound. The filter's nice too, but it'd really need to be modulated externally to get something interesting out of it.

Thanks, you just convinced me to stick with Alpha.

a friend has the juno 60 and 106 and she's selling the 106, go figure.

she likes the "sound" of the 60 over the 106 as the chorus section is different from the alpha/106 junos.

personally it doesn't sound different enough to me to justify keeping the 60 over a midi'd 106 but it's her gear and she can do what she wants with it so hey.

if you want the sound of the 60 get the supernova II. it has midi and a built in minimoog and prophet 5 and oberheim obxa and elka synthex etc... it will emulate all these perfectly and then some.

here's a couple of youtube vids to show what it does..

and no they aren't my videos, but pay attention to the "apologies to annie and dave" section @ 6:27 in the second vid that's a juno 60 emulation.

for the $400 though mint in box i'd buy it in a heartbeat, turn around and sell it on evilbay. you probably can get $800-900 for it mint in original box. the 106 mint in box has gotten $750 and $800 recently.

Is there any opportunity to do any cool CV stuff between the Juno-60 and my Voyager? I have to admit, I know nearly nothing about CV.

I've never owned a Juno-60. And I only know that sliver of Allerian that he reveals on this forum. And yet, I feel compelled to offer my ill-informed opinion.

Let someone else have it.

I'm sure it's a loverly board, but Allerian deserves something a bit more....special.

i found an md-8 on ebay for $125 with cable about a year ago.

the midi thru doesn't work like it should, but no big deal.

definitely worth it over the 106 IMHO.

it's an incredibly simple board, simple to use, and simple sounding. but these are good things in my book.

From what I've heard of Allerian's stuff, I agree with IB: Too pedestrian. Sock the money away towards something with more flexibility, like modular stuff maybe.

So it's settled...get a modular.

I am so tired of that old 'weak' 80's Roland sound - I'll pass!

just go and get it cause its a real bargain for sure...

For $400 I would say don't pass it. I have both a 60 and 106. The 60 sounds more electric and dense, something magical. It has some problems and I will definitely get a fully working one. To me, it is a classic. You can always find modern gear easily.

Just take it without thinking! I love mine so much. As of your question regarding the DCB converter. This is what you need. Turns your Juno 60 into Juno 65. I say Juno 65, cause it expands it in a big way, almost like a new synth (with five additional things):

-- additional LFO

-- velocity for VCF (!!)

-- additional waveforms for LFO

-- arpeggiator sync

-- MIDI

Advice of the day: ignore those posts that start with "Juno 60 can be emulated...". That's just not true, and comes from people who know nothing about the actual gear. Juno 60 has a hardware envelope, which makes it fast as a bullet. It is unbeatable for fast sequencing "machine gun" basslines. Actually it shares exactly the same IR3R01 envelopes, BA662 VCAs and IR3109 VCF chips with Jupiter 8.

And now some G.A.S.:

• My love started when i heard this song first time (long ago) - starting at 00:50 you should spot the Juno 60 dark pad.

• And the classic Juno 60 pad in this song - best of the best dark pads ever. Starts at: 00:52, Solo pad at: 02:00

I haven't found very good emulations of the Juno 60 or 106, personally, in software. People have mentioned, for instance, Reaktor's Junatik being like a Juno. I was puzzled at how people thought this was similar. Junatik sounds to me more like a lightweight VA. The chorused sounds especially don't get emulated very well in most places, and the Juno resonance screams nicer than most software does.

It really depends on what you want. I had a Juno 106. The Juno 106 makes two or three very nice sounds. If I had unlimited room, I'd love a Juno. I don't have unlimited room, so those two or three very nice sounds aren't worth the huge hunk of keyboard space a Juno takes up.

What took you so long to get here, Don?

Oh, hardware? It must be better then So, I must've imagined that I could get these sorts of results out of Reaktors Juno 6 emulation without even trying very hard?

RealJuno60VsReaktor.mp3

What you hear is Juno on the left hand, Reaktor on the right hand, repeating directly after each other. I just ran through some sounds quickly, trying to show that they even scale across the keyboard decently and aren't just matching up at a certain point. This isn't even in a mix context where, of course, you'd notice differences even less.

The irony is that the Reaktor Juno 6 emulation doesn't even have good features. It doesn't include thing like proper individual voice detune adjustment where you could get things even closer. This isn't a random sampling either btw. I was just noticing how close they got so often that I bothered to take some examples. But then again, don't you take the same attitude towards the SQ80 despite examples like this existing of the SQ80L VST?

The only thing about the Juno that can't really be emulated well is the chorus, and perhaps the filter if you applied enough external modulation to bring out its character (since it ain't going to be doing a whole lot inside a standard Juno 60)