top of page

Roland Juno-106


The Juno-106 was my first synthesizer. I did not really know much about synthesizers from any practical hands on experience. I knew of them from the massive amounts of songs that utilized them throughout the 80's. I was familiar with the Moog Synthesizer as early as 1980. When I started to get interested in writing music I got a small Casio keyboard when I was like 13. I would play to records or cassette recordings of The Cars (Just what I needed), Duran Duran (The Chauffeur), The Monkees (I'm a Believer), etc. The casio was just a small preset keyboard with mini keys which were about the size of a miniKorg's or JD-Xi's keys. It was just a toy and not a serious music making, performance machine by any means.

When I was in High school I took a TV communications class. In the classroom was an Ensoniq Mirage. The Ensoniq Mirage was a sampler keyboard. You would have to load disks into ints RAM to get it to make sounds. The school/city may have used it in some sound effects for video production work. I was able to create music with it by using 3/4" video tape and bouncing tracks down.

When I went to purchase a synthesizer, I originally was looking for something sample based or even a sampler. In the late 80's/early 90's analog was not really popular. Digital machines and sample playback instruments were what people wanted and the direction the manufactures went in making new instruments. I ended up going to a pawn shop to search for a synthesizer. Back then there was no eBay so the local trading post paper or pawn shops were your best bet at getting a synthesizer used. At one Pawn shop I saw the Juno-106 and was familiar with the brand Roland. I initially thought it would play sampled back material. The guy in the sound department demoed the Juno-106 but was controlling a rack rack module unbeknownst to me. I ended up purchasing it and taking it home and could not find or get it to make any sound I was familiar with. At first I was perplexed about it not making any kind of familiar sounds. The sounds it produced were very abstract and a bit dark. Very quickly though I fell in love with what the Juno-106 could do and the sounds it could produce. This was when I became very interested in synthesis and creating my own sounds. The Juno-106 was very inviting with all of its controls on the front panel. I found myself using the Juno-106 a lot for basses, stabs, ethereal sounds and some leads and still do over 25 years later.

My Juno-106 still sits in my studio. I have been very fortunate to not need much servicing on mine through the years. I believe it is an earlier production run and has not had failing voice chips that have plagued many Juno-106s from what I understand. My Juno-106 is missing its noise slider (I never bothered to replace it after I bought it) The original battery was replaced about 7 years ago. That original battery lasted for years and years! I soldered in a battery socket/holder to easily change batteries out. Some of my favorite features on the Juno-106 are it ability to do Pulse Width Modulation and route it to the LFO. I also love its bottom end and its chorus (#2 setting). The Juno-106 can create some unique big basses and it serves my music well.


Featured Posts
Check back soon
Once posts are published, you’ll see them here.
Recent Posts
Archive
Search By Tags
No tags yet.
Follow Us
  • Facebook Basic Square
  • Twitter Basic Square
  • Google+ Basic Square
bottom of page