Roland Juno-60

Description

The Roland Juno 60 was released in 1982 as the follow up to the Juno 6 and added the new feature of patch memory. It was among the first analog synthesizers to use DCOs to keep the instrument in tune. The 56 patch memory was also expansive for its time, and although the Juno 60 lacks MIDI capabilities, it comes with one of the coolest looking keyboards ever to play on - a 61-key keybed with wood grain panels on either side.

The Juno 60 is even more sought after than its successor Juno 106 for its richer sound. Many famous string and bass patches come from the Juno series, and the ensemble/chorus effect is famously pleasant sounding as well. One DCO per voice generates square or triangle waves along with a square-shaped sub-oscillator and white noise. A single ADSR envelope generator comes next and can modulate the filter or VCA. The steep 24 dB lowpass filter has variable resonance while the highpass filter does not. The filter section also includes key tracking and modulation from a single triangle shaped LFO.

An arpeggiator and chorus section round out the main features of the Juno 60. With the chorus section it is possible to select either one of three modes with increasing rates of LFO; modes 1 and 2 have their own button, and mode 3 is achieved by selecting both simultaneously (a feature that was dropped from the Juno 106). The third mode is not a combination of the first two, but rather a third totally separate chorus with much faster LFO on the effect.

The Juno 60 has achieved cult-like status and is one of the most sought after classic analog polysynths of all time. As a result, units in good shape will run a few thousand dollars.

Technical Specifications

Roland Juno-60