Roland Juno 106 - still worth buying?

[elsongs]

Juno 106 owner here, chiming in...

When I was a teenager, getting into music, I reeeeeeeally wanted a synthesizer. My parents aren't rich by any means, but they're not exactly poor either. They were gonna get me a synth for Christmas and it was either gonna be the Roland Juno 106 or the Yamaha DX7. This was 1985, and the DX7 was at the top of the synth world. So, I was the only kid in my junior high school with a Yamaha DX7 (Imagine that for a teenager's self-esteem). I still have the DX7 today and still use it in my studio.

But a part of me still wanted the Juno 106. In the '90s I bought used the semi-rack version of the Juno 106, the Roland MKS-7, which was basically a Juno 106 engine in a box, albeit without the programming capabilities. I eventually sold it. 

In 2006 I was scanning eBay for a Juno-106 and I finally bought one for $320. Awesome. I finally fulfilled my teenage GAS desire. 

Then something happened when I played it for a few weeks. Some of the notes would drop out. It wasn't bad key contacts, since the dropped-out keys would change all the time. A little Internet research led me to The Big Juno 106 Voice Chip Syndrome - basically the 80017a voice chips (6 total soldered in the motherboard) were known to fail due to the resin coating lifting off some of the components. If you are able to de-solder the chips, dip them in acetone for a few days, thoroughly remove all the resin (a harder task than it seems), then re-solder them back, you'll save them from the syndrome. I did that to all my chips, but one became cracked in the process and was no good. 

Fortunately in the 2010s, a number of 3rd-party companies have engineered and manufactured clones of the 80017a chips - namely Analogue Renaissance, Rozen Sound and others. I bought an Analogue Renaissance clone and finally in 2016, 10 years after buying my Juno 106, I can finally enjoy 6-voice polyphony. 

Yeah, the 106 only has one oscillator, but it's got this charm to it...you can make sounds FAST. And, sometimes you really only want one oscillator. 

If you really do want a 106, you need to make sure it has all the resin covering removed from the 80017a chips or all of the original chips replaced by modern, more reliable clones. If it still has the original chips with the black resin covering, they will fail eventually...buying the 6 clones (and paying for installation and calibration) is an additional  investment.

 

[J.F.N.]

If I would, for some universally unbelievable reason need specifically Juno 106 timbres, I'd definitely not waste my money on one of the old horses, Roland themselves offers plenty of options, to start with, and then there's other ways to go, Deepmind for instance, you can even download all the J106 factory presets re-programmed for Deepmind.

[Thethirdapple]

4 minutes ago, J.F.N. said:

If I would, for some universally unbelievable reason need specifically Juno 106 timbres, I'd definitely not waste my money on one of the old horses, Roland themselves offers plenty of options, to start with, and then there's other ways to go, Deepmind for instance, you can even download all the J106 factory presets re-programmed for Deepmind.

 

No doubt that in the current US market the asking prices are rather steep. And can't see myself spending more than 1k for a fully serviced board in near pristine condition. The Juno's have always been a budget synth. In my esteem, one of the last "big3" synths to each have character of its own unit by unit... They were a bridge, although rickety nowadays.

 

Aside from the objective reasons to NOT get a 106, there are endless subjective reason to explore its possibilities. I am unfortunately, hook line and sinker, stuck on the JUNO line since the 80's. Going to the local music stores and sneaking as much time on the Jupiters as possible, a dream, but was never going to be possible on my "starving artist budget". (kids, alone, generally frowned upon in the "keyboard rooms" anyways)

 

The Deepmind 12 is a synth which will at some point find its way into the studio. old is new. 

 

 

PEACE

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[J.F.N.]

 

 

[YashN]

https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2023/03/10/behringer-teases-roland-juno-60-knockoff-the-neptune-80/

[RABid]

If you owned one back in the day and you are feeling nostalgic, go for it. 

If you want one because people say it is cool and you see YouTube content providers when one sitting in the background, No.

 

I second the Juno X as a modern alternative. But lots of software and small boxes out there that do the same. 

[Dave Bryce]

4 hours ago, elsongs said:

And, sometimes you really only want one oscillator.

 

No, I don’t. 😶

 

dB

[DanL]

22 hours ago, ABECK said:

Hardware units are way overpriced, IMHO.  There is no magic that you can't get from a number of other sources, VI, or hardware.  There seems to be some sort of street cred thing happening with that model in particular.  If I had $2k I wanted to spend on a poly, and it had to be vintage roland....I'd go with a JX-10 and programmer.  Or a D-50 with programmer.  

 

(Edit - I see multiple units for sale at or above $4500 right now.  Just....no.  STOP THIS MADNESS!)

 

wow, I need to sell my JX10, I haven't powered it up in 10 years! 

[allan_evett]

19 hours ago, Dave Bryce said:

 

Yeah, but…that careful chosen outboard could be following a 2 osc per voice JX3P, or JX8P.  That’d make me happier, for sure.  🥳

For my ear/taste, the single oscillator per voice synth is a hard pass - any of ‘em, pretty much.

 

dB

Yep. My first synth was a Yamaha CS-50. Cool synth for many things,  but shortly after buying it I had the opportunity to tour with a variety/rock act.  The keyboardist for another act - which was under the same management group - had a Minimoog, which the others raved about - for it's lead and bass sounds, etc.. Then a friend of our guitarist bought a Prophet 5... By the time I left that gig it was time for two-osc's per voice.  I picked up a used OB-SX, eventually upgrading to an OB-Xa. Also had a Prophet-600 for a while. I did briefly explore the single-osc-per-voice Junos, but never purchased one. 

[J.F.N.]

My first was a used Juno 60, I was 17 years old, had saved up cash from working delivering the newspapers in the morning for a whole summer, 1989, my buddy did a similar thing but bought a DX11.

 

Spending all that time for years with one's first synth until having a proper job and then being able to save up for more gear, is of course developing one's skills and creativity based on the limitations.

 

He is phenomenonal at FM programming today, I still have not taken the time to sit down in focus with it... Obviously he knows subtractive synthesis...

 

 

 

[TomKittel]

21 hours ago, Dave Bryce said:

 

Yeah, but…that careful chosen outboard could be following a 2 osc per voice JX3P, or JX8P.  That’d make me happier, for sure.  🥳

For my ear/taste, the single oscillator per voice synth is a hard pass - any of ‘em, pretty much.

 

dB

 

with all due respect. this one osc prejudice is a misjudgement in this case. for example, the alpha juno is the favorite synthesizer of espen kraft, the 80s YT synth guru. the alpha juno sounds really fat and it has kind of a 2nd osc. I can only recommend anyone who is interested in vintage Roland synths, brass, strings, bass, lead and so on to listen to some YT videos. the misjudgment may be the reason why this synth is still so cheap. and it doesn’t have all the durability problems of other vintage Rolands. I sold my JX8P a while ago but kept the alpha juno 2. 

[J.F.N.]

3 minutes ago, TomKittel said:

 

with all due respect. this one osc prejudice is a misjudgement in this case. for example, the alpha juno is the favorite synthesizer of espen kraft, the 80s YT synth guru. the alpha juno sounds really fat and it has kind of a 2nd osc. I can only recommend anyone who is interested in vintage Roland synths, brass, strings, bass, lead and so on to listen to some YT videos. the misjudgment may be the reason why this synth is still so cheap. and it doesn’t have all the durability problems of the 60 or 106. 

 

Is this an ironic post? 🤔

[Nowarezman]

21 hours ago, TomKittel said:

Get a Alpha Juno instead and add a cheap Stereoping controller box. The Alpha Junos  are still ridiculously cheap and the sound is at least as good as the overpriced 106. 

Spend five minutes with an Alpha Juno and you probably won't care for it.

Spend five days with an Alpha Juno, digging in, and I wager your opinion will change.

 

nat

 

[TomKittel]

7 minutes ago, J.F.N. said:

 

Is this an ironic post? 🤔

 

No. 

 

 

[J.F.N.]

4 minutes ago, TomKittel said:

 

No. 

 

 

 

Lol! 🤣🤣🤣

[Thethirdapple]

Cant help myself

 

 

 

PEACE

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[JoJoB3]

4 hours ago, J.F.N. said:

 

 

 

Yeah, if you're looking for usb untethered hardware look no further than the DM12 (avoid the 6, you want the 12). Not just a 106 substitute but an extremely creative, easy to manage and haul board. Only drawback is I wish it had numerical pad for patch select.

 

Jorb however a different story. Intake his stuff with care. Unsubbed that dude after just a few months.

 

But that Roland cloud stuff...**** that. Nope.

[J.F.N.]

9 minutes ago, JoJoB3 said:

 

Yeah, if you're looking for usb untethered hardware look no further than the DM12 (avoid the 6, you want the 12). Not just a 106 substitute but an extremely creative, easy to manage and haul board. Only drawback is I wish it had numerical pad for patch select.

 

Jorb however a different story. Intake his stuff with care. Unsubbed that dude after just a few months.

 

But that Roland cloud stuff...**** that. Nope.

 

Yup, 12 it is, agreed, as the Unison modes can be quite useful, and, 12 voices are more than 6 .. 🤣

 

 

[Moonglow]

19 hours ago, Dave Bryce said:

 

…For my ear/taste, the single oscillator per voice synth is a hard pass - any of ‘em, pretty much.

Precisely why I did not like the Juno-106 nor the Polysix when they were first introduced. Compared to my Prophet-5 and OB-8 I found it substantially lacking in thickness, lushness, etc.

 

However…I had the opportunity to purchase a 106 for $400 around 1990 which I largely used for wedding receptions, along with my Korg M1 and DX7. MIDIed together, I thought that rig sounded pretty good. Over the years, I came to enjoy the 106 for what it was, a punchy little synth that was fun to program and play.

 

If I didn’t already have a 106 I would not buy one. I did get a JU-06, which I thought sounded spot-on; they really nailed the chorus. The problem was that it lacked the polyphony of the original, which severely compromised the playability of strings and pad programs. I thought the Deepmind 12 sounded good, but didn’t enjoy the patch selection mechanism nor it being only 49 keys.

 

One of these days I need to sell my 106 (last time I checked it was still working) as it has been sitting dormant in my music closet. 

 

 

 

 

[JoJoB3]

8 minutes ago, Moonglow said:

Precisely why I did not like the Juno-106 nor the Polysix when they were first introduced. Compared to my Prophet-5 and OB-8 I found it substantially lacking in thickness, lushness, etc.

 

However…I had the opportunity to purchase a 106 for $400 around 1990 which I largely used for wedding receptions, along with my Korg M1 and DX7. MIDIed together, I thought that rig sounded pretty good. Over the years, I came to enjoy the 106 for what it was, a punchy little synth that was fun to program and play.

 

If I didn’t already have a 106 I would not buy one. I did get a JU-06, which I thought sounded spot-on; they really nailed the chorus. The problem was that it lacked the polyphony of the original, which severely compromised the playability of strings and pad programs. I thought the Deepmind 12 sounded good, but didn’t enjoy the patch selection mechanism nor it being only 49 keys.

 

One of these days I need to sell my 106 (last time I checked it was still working) as it has been sitting dormant in my music closet. 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not a huge fan of the Juno chorus but lacked thickness? You sure this was a vintage, working, 106? That's not what I recall (at all).

 

Or look for a Juno Alpha, also a good find.

I'm partial to their old JD-800 and somewhat the old Juno-60.

 

Anyway, pretty sure we go around this blue ball but once. If you want to own an original/vintage I say go for it. It's a thing. You can sell for close to purchase price down the road (or more depending). 

[Shamanzarek]

Getting any 80s Juno is likely to be quite costly these days. The main reason they are so popular is that when the price of used models went way down around 30 years ago any kid could afford one. A few of these young artists have a hit record with a particular sound only this synth can produce exactly. Then every young musician wants one and the prices start going up. About fifteen years ago I found a Juno 60 on CL for $400 so because I knew with all the raves on synth forums that if nothing else I wouldn't lose money on it. I did use it with a band that played a lot of 80s music and it was much better than using a synth sample. I probably would have kept the Juno 60 but had to sell off some gear for a move and I made over two grand on the Juno. If you can find a 106 for the right price it might be worth getting but not at anywhere near $3000 or more.

 

The Junos have a nice pleasing overall sound but the synth parameters are much less flexible than found on many other synths new or vintage. The main thing I don't like about the Juno is that it is almost a certainty that you will have the Chorus all the time. These were among the first budget synths so they came up with a cheaper to produce and very accurate DCO oscillator which lacked the depth of multiple VCO oscillators found on the high-end polysynths in the early to mid-80s. Then a genius engineer came up with the idea to add an onboard chorus effect to simulate the motion of VCO oscillators. Roland sold them to naive beginners lacking any Moog experience (along with a few naive pros) for under $2000 and the rest is history. Personally I prefer a synth that sounds great with no need for a chorus effect. Unless you need a 106 as a set decoration for an 80s movie there are so many very capable new synth options today at much lower prices

[Thethirdapple]

this rabbit hole of a video was a fantastic explanation regarding some of the DCO circuitry from yesteryears

 

 

PEACE

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[YashN]

4 hours ago, TomKittel said:

is the favorite synthesizer of espen kraft, the 80s YT synth guru.

 

You mean, the Synthfluencer who thinks all analogues today are "way too expensive because they're mostly digital inside" (while claiming he is doing this to inform people of all things) and who thinks he "is the 80's" when the 80's didn't do wimpy music like his? One of the guys with videos filled with hyperbole about vintage synths but that he sells soon after?

 

This said, a single oscillator sound does have its place, but a synth with that architecture has limitations that the 2-osc or 3-osc or more synth architecture doesn't have. Turn off the 2nd Osc in a 2-osc synth and you get the same range of sounds. However, the single-osc synth architecture normally cannot reach the range of timbres of 2-oscs.

[Moonglow]

3 hours ago, JoJoB3 said:

I'm not a huge fan of the Juno chorus but lacked thickness? You sure this was a vintage, working, 106? That's not what I recall (at all).

Yes, the aforementioned vintage 106 in my closet.  

 

The Juno chorus certainly thickens the 106, but next to my Prophet-5 and OB-8 it sounded comparatively thinner, which I attribute to lacking a second oscillator.

 

 

 

 

 

[The Real MC]

The 106 isn't for everyone.

It's a budget starter synth, the "gateway drug" for novices.

Take away the chorus effect (which sounds pretty good), and one DCO isn't very versatile.  Progressing to dual VCOs with hard sync, voice modulation and/or cross modulation does open up a world of sonic palettes.  That's the domain of Prophet-5 and Memorymoog, which is where I cut my teeth.

 

One interesting single oscillator polysynth is the Rhodes Chroma.  Sure you can use the traditional 2xVCO->VCF->VCA architecture (halves the polyphony from 16 to 8), but most of the other Chroma architectures use a single oscillator for audio source, with varying routings of VCF/VCA and/or voice modulation with the spare VCO.  And those architectures can be versatile.  One little known Chroma single oscillator trick is to enable both ramp and pulse waveforms and apply PWM which makes it sound like the phasing effect of slightly detuned dual VCOs.  The trick only works with both waveforms at certain levels, thus it doesn't work on most polysynths.  Oberheim duplicated that trick in the OB-8 and the OB-X8.

[CEB]

One oscillator is not enough. The must have board is the Juno 2012. 
 

 

[The Real MC]

7 hours ago, Dave Bryce said:

12 hours ago, elsongs said:

sometimes you really only want one oscillator. 

No, I don’t. 😶

 

dB

 

I beg to differ.  The ProSoloist is single oscillator and several of its presets are very effective.  I have dialed up saxophone patches on my Voyager that are single oscillator, using ProSoloist tricks like PWM for the attack transient and multiple filters for shaping the timbre.  Some of the best brass patches I built on my OB-X8 are single oscillator going through a notch VCF.

[YashN]

53 minutes ago, CEB said:

One oscillator is not enough. The must have board is the Juno 2012.

 

This is the Way! 😜

 

BTW, for those lusting after an original Juno or any old vintage synths, always factor in maintenance costs and/or Technician Intervention costs. If it has been untouched inside in the first place, you will definitely at least need to recap the PSU.

 

Inflated price + all these additional costs when you can probably cover both the sounds and the features in a more recent package may not be worth it.

 

[Dave Bryce]

6 hours ago, TomKittel said:

 

with all due respect. this one osc prejudice is a misjudgement in this case.

 

In no way am I criticizing anyone else for enjoying one osc per voice synths, brother Tom.  I’m just not one of them.

 

I cut my teeth on my MiniMoog.  Took me a while to not expect 3 oscs per voice on other synths!

 

dB

[TomKittel]

2 hours ago, Moonglow said:

Yes, the aforementioned vintage 106 in my closet.  

 

The Juno chorus certainly thickens the 106, but next to my Prophet-5 and OB-8 it sounded comparatively thinner, which I attribute to lacking a second oscillator.

 

 

 

 

 

 

31 minutes ago, Dave Bryce said:

 

In no way am I criticizing anyone else for enjoying one osc per voice synths, brother Tom.  I’m just not one of them.

 

I cut my teeth on my MiniMoog.  Took me a while to not expect 3 oscs per voice on other synths!

 

dB

 

we should not compare apples and peaches. an alpha juno is no mini-moog (although i have pretty authentic “moog leads” programmed on mine), it's no prophet or oberheim either. but it has a unique Roland sound that i couldn't reproduce with my prophet 6, my rev2 or my matrix 1000. it's just a totally underrated, fat sounding analog synthesizer. not wimpy at all. and you can still find it for the price of a vst or you can buy 10 of them for the ridiculous price of a juno 106 which the OP had asked for.