Roland Juno-D

Giving a modern instrument the same name as a line of vintage analogues that have an assured place in the synth hall of fame invites comparisons. So is the Juno-D the rightful heir to the Juno throne or more of a young pretender?

When you give a synthesizer a name rather than a number, it suddenly gains an intangible yet undeniable aura. If I think of Jupiters, Prophets, Wavestations and Viruses, I mentally group them together as a family — and with this association, inevitably, comes a degree of expectation. As the venerable Roland Juno range of synths holds a special place in my affections, I was interested to hear of a fresh addition to the fold — the Juno-D. Could this be a 'Juno-Digital', perhaps employing analogue modelling techniques? Or are Roland engaged in what I'll kindly call a 'marketing exercise'?

Let's cut to the chase: other than its name, the Juno-D has nothing in common with either the Juno or the Alpha Juno synths. Instead it has its roots in Roland's PCM-based range. This synth sounds like an RS and looks like an RS (see review of original RS9 in SOS May 2001 issue). Thus its slimline black panel is shy and somewhat anonymous, with real-time tweaking courtesy of just five knobs to control envelope and filter settings, plus modulation and tone balance. Performance controls include Roland's combined pitch bender and modulation lever, a D-Beam and two optional pedal inputs. The 61-note keyboard feels quite positive but is let down by its lack of aftertouch. I find it sad that, at the budget end of things, it's always this particular avenue for expression that goes first. Externally, there are no further significant revelations, but you won't be surprised to find that the synth has stereo outputs, a headphone socket, a warty 9V power supply and MIDI in and Out sockets (sadly, no Thru). At just 5kg, it's easily one of the lightest keyboards I've ever carried into my studio.

Patches & Polyphony

The Juno-D is a General MIDI 2 (GM2) compliant synth, so prepare to audition oodles of sounds, ranging from orchestral and ethnic instruments to dance basses and percussion, with an ample assortment of pianos, guitars, choirs and so on. There's even a decent mellotron flute (although the mellotron strings are rather lifeless) and the organs and pianos — especially the electric pianos — are all good enough for an aspiring band on a budget. There's a lot on offer, and I swear I came across Enya at one point, fulfilling an ambition of many years. And where would we be without squelchy 303-type basses, guaranteed to have you reaching for the filter cutoff and resonance knobs? While these particular sounds aren't the Juno-D's greatest strength, with a little overdrive and some gratuitous knob wiggling, they should prove good enough for live.

In total, there are 768 Patch locations (128 user-programmable), plus 22 Rhythm sets and 40 Performance memories. Of the preset patches, 384 are described as "Juno-D original" and 256 conform to the GM2 spec. With its maximum of 64 notes, Roland can't be accused of starving the Juno-D of polyphony. It wasn't so long ago that this figure was considered ground-breaking and it's an important factor in extracting the maximum mileage from this slender keyboard.

The simple rear panel, which includes stereo outs, headphone socket, external PSU input and MIDI In and Out.

Each Patch consists of one or two 'Tones' — essentially Rolandspeak for complete PCM instrument samples — and if two are used they can be layered or split into separate keyboard zones. Editing of either Tone (or both simultaneously) is directly with the knobs (although several additional options are available at the push of the 'Param' button). Thus, turning knobs alters envelope attack, decay and release (the sustain level is fixed), varies filter cutoff and resonance, or sets the depth (and speed) of pitch or filter modulation. Other than add effects, there's not a great deal else you can do, so it's fortunate that 640 Tones are provided (in 32Mb of memory) as starting points.

Once you've made some edits, the Write button is on hand to store your creation in any of the 128 (initially empty) Patch locations. The Juno-D arranges its sounds into categories, 38 in all, grouped logically together beneath 10 top-level Category buttons. So, for a piano sound, select 'Piano' and then you can choose from a range of acoustic or electric pianos. Select 'Guitar' and you'll be presented with a selection of acoustic, electric or distorted guitars. It couldn't really be much simpler.

After naming a Patch of your own, you assign it to a category so that it appears in the list of your choice. Usefully, the Juno-D remembers the last sound you selected in each category. To select only your original sound creations, use Shift and the right arrow key to jump through the categories one at a time. The User Patches are found after the final one, 'Bass'. Should you need it, an Audition button is provided to play an appropriate riff for each patch you select. There's also a dedicated 'Demo' button, just to be sure you can impress your friends within seconds of switching on.

Not everything is so simplistic, though. Tucked away in the System menu is the slightly exotic 'scale selection', featuring well-tempered, pure major, pure minor (both C-scale) and Arabic. Unusually, each note in the scale is user-tweakable in 1/100th semitone steps. The Transpose function offers a little extra, too: if you use Shift and Transpose, transposition is in semitones, which is ideal for playing in difficult or unfamiliar keys.

Performances

Up to 16 Patches can be played simultaneously in a multitimbral Performance — of which there are 40 in total, 32 of them preset. Having just eight user Performances is definitely on the stingy side, since these offer a means of creating far more extravagant layers than is possible in a single Patch. I guess I've never really understood why you would need more than one preset Performance (just to guarantee accurate playback of General MIDI files).

You can edit Patches from within a Performance, although you should remember that if you edit a Patch referenced by a different Performance, the changes will affect that one too. Usefully, you can create a unique effects setup for the entire Performance or hijack the effects settings already used by any of the 16 Parts of it. Each Part has its own send level for reverb and delay, plus an on/off status for the multi-effects processor. When you're in Performance mode, Parts can be quickly selected using the 10 Category buttons. Just activate 'Part Select'. Parts 11-16 are selected using shift and the appropriate button.

There are 22 Rhythm Sets (drum kits to you and me), with two of those being user-editable. Editing is restricted to altering each drum's tuning, plus its level and pan, chorus and reverb send. You can't change the PCM samples allocated to each note, so you do need to select a factory kit that's as close to your requirements as possible. Filter settings affect the whole kit, offering you a cool opportunity to sweep the entire rhythm section with the cutoff knob.

A feature I particularly like — and one that's missing from many modern multitimbral synths — is Voice Reserve, invaluable when you're gigging with just one keyboard, where perhaps your sequencer is playing several parts and you're playing others manually. Voice Reserve is a tool to prevent note stealing for key parts, so you won't inadvertently play a large chord and silence the bass or drums! Even with 64 notes of polyphony, this can happen (I speak from personal experience), so Roland are to be applauded for including it.

Effects

For an instrument in this price range, the Juno-D's effects are impressive, offering three effects processors: reverb, chorus and multi-effects. Of these, there are eight reverbs (also including some delays) and eight chorus types (including flangers and short delays). Add to this no fewer than 47 multi-effect types — some of which are dual effects (for example, an overdrive and chorus in series) — and you have a comprehensive range of treatments at your fingertips. When you program dual-Tone Patches, you can select whether each Tone is to be processed by the multi-effect processor, and you can set individual send levels for reverb and chorus.

Within the multi-effects are pitch shifters, equalisers, rotary speaker simulations, phasers and distortion, as well as less commonly-encountered effects such as Slicer and Feedback Ripper (the latter being a kind of gated delay). In fact, the delays are particularly good, especially the quirky ones such as 'Tumbling Delay' with its fast initial repeat followed by a standard delay, and 'Time Control Delay', which is designed for real-time control, changing from one delay time to another with accompanying, rather off-the-wall, pitch shifts.

Conclusion

Over 20 years ago I got my first 'proper' polysynth. It just happened to be a Juno — a Juno 6 — and it still evokes fond memories today. The Juno-D doesn't have such a distinctive personality and it's hard to imagine that it will gain a comparable historical significance. But set aside the name (as Roland should have done) and what you're left with is a solid all-rounder whose synthesis is about as uncomplicated as anything you'll encounter. This makes it ideal for beginners or those in need of a no-nonsense array of solid bread-and-butter sounds that involves them in the minimum of head-scratching and manual-searching.

For young bands or club entertainers, the Juno-D is a pretty good bet. A light and portable workhorse, it has generous polyphony, a first-rate effects implementation, a versatile arpeggiator and a D-Beam to pose with. It should certainly earn its keep amongst gigging musicians on a budget.