The Roland Juno-106 is a

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

released by

Roland Corporation is a Japanese multinational manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment, and software. It was founded by Ikutaro Kakehashi in Osaka on 18 April 1972. In 2005, its headquarters relocated to Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefect ...

in February 1984.

Features

The Juno-106 is a

polyphonic Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ...

synthesizer with six voices. It is an analog synthesizer but with

digitally controlled oscillator A digitally controlled oscillator or DCO is used in synthesizers, microcontrollers, and software-defined radios. The name is analogous with "voltage-controlled oscillator". DCOs were designed to overcome the tuning stability limitations of early V ...

s and chorus effects. Whereas its predecessor, the Juno-60, has 56 patches, the Juno-106 has 128. It introduced Roland's performance lever for pitch bends and modulation, which became a standard feature of Roland instruments. It also adds

MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...

and was one of the first analog synthesizers to allow users to sequence parameter changes.

Impact

Artists who have used the Juno-106 include Jacob Mann,

Vince Clarke Vincent John Martin (born 3 July 1960), known professionally as Vince Clarke, is an English synth-pop musician and songwriter. Clarke has been the main composer and musician of the band Erasure since its inception in 1985, and was previously ...

Frankie Goes to Hollywood Frankie Goes to Hollywood were an English pop band that formed in Liverpool in 1980. They comprised Holly Johnson (vocals), Paul Rutherford (backing vocals), Mark O'Toole (bass), Brian Nash (guitar) and Peter Gill (drums). Johnson and Ruther ...

Chvrches Chvrches (stylised CHVRCHΞS and pronounced "Churches") are a Scottish synth-pop band from Glasgow, formed in September 2011. The band consists of Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook, Martin Doherty and, unofficially since 2018, Jonny Scott. Mostly deriv ...

Leftfield Leftfield are a British electronic music group formed in London in 1989, a duo of Neil Barnes and Paul Daley (the latter formerly of The Rivals and A Man Called Adam). The duo was influential in the evolution of electronic music in the 1990s ...

William Orbit William Mark Wainwright (born 15 December 1956),"William Orbit." ''Contemporary Musicians''. Vol. 30. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2000. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context'' database, 7 May 2017. Available onlinvia ''Encyclopedia.com'' known ...

, Paul Frick from

Tangerine Dream Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music band founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The group has seen many personnel changes over the years, with Froese the only constant member until his death in January 2015. The best-known lineup of the grou ...

Underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

Reel 2 Real Reel 2 Real was an American hip house musical project that had seven top 10 hits on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in the 1990s. Biography The duo consisted of American DJ Erick Morillo and Trinidadian rapper Mark Quashie, also known a ...

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, and

Vangelis Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou (, ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; , ), was a Greek musician, composer, and producer of electronic, progressive, ambient, and classical orchestral music. He composed ...

. The Juno-106 was Roland's bestselling synthesizer until the release of the

Roland D-50 The Roland D-50 is a synthesizer produced by Roland and released in April of 1987. Its features include digital sample-based subtractive synthesis, on-board effects, a joystick for data manipulation, and an analog synthesis-styled layout desig ...

later in the decade. It remains one of the bestselling synthesizers. In 1985, Roland released two versions with built-in speakers: the Juno-106S and the HS60 Synth Plus. The synth's popularity continues to the present day, especially with EDM and artists such as

Tame Impala Tame Impala is the psychedelic music project of Australian singer and multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker (musician), Kevin Parker. In the recording studio, Parker writes, records, performs, and produces all of the project's music. As a touring a ...

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Calvin Harris Adam Richard Wiles (born 17 January 1984), known professionally as Calvin Harris (and sometimes under the stage name Love Regenerator), is a Scottish DJ, record producer, singer, and songwriter. His debut studio album, ''I Created Disco'' (2007 ...

, Armin van Buuren,

Mark Ronson Mark Daniel Ronson (born 4 September 1975) is a British-American DJ, record producer, and songwriter. He has won nine Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year for Amy Winehouse's album '' Back to Black'' (2006), as well as two for Record ...

, and

Caribou The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only represe ...

among many others.

Hardware re-issues and recreations

The Roland MKS-7 Super Quartet, a multi-timbral synth module with dedicated sections for each part, used the same 80017 filter chip as the Juno-106 for the bass section. In 2015, Roland released the JU-06 sound module, a digital recreation of the Juno-106 using Roland's digital Analog Circuit Behaviour (ACB) technology. It is battery powered, has 4-voices and 23 parameters controlled from the front panel. It cost $299 at the time of the release. in 2016,

Behringer Behringer is an audio equipment company founded by the Swiss engineer Uli Behringer on 25 January 1989 in Willich, Germany. Behringer produces equipment including synthesizers, mixers, audio interfaces and amplifiers. Behringer is owned b ...

released the Deepmind-12, an analog synthesizer inspired by the Juno-106 which features 12 voices. It was priced at $999 at the time of release. In 2020, developer Momo Müller released an unofficial PC MIDI editor with the interface of June-106, called the Deepmind - Juno-106 Editor. In 2019, Roland released the JU-06A, which is a digitally based synthesizer combining the JUNO-60 and JUNO-106. It has the continuous high-pass filter of the 106, the envelope-controllable pulse-width-modulation of the 60, and the filter of both switchable from the front panel. It cost $399 at the time of the release. Roland released the Juno-X in 2022, a modern synth featuring digital emulations of the Juno-60 and Juno-106 as well as an additional Juno-X model that features a supersaw waveform, velocity sensitivity and an Alpha-Juno style pitch envelope control. The Juno X's control panel design directly references the controls of the Juno-106 while the sound engine follows on from the Jupiter-X and Jupiter-Xm modern digital synths.

Software emulations

In 2017, Roland released some software synthesizers in the cloud, including ''Cloud Juno-106''. The cloud subscription cost $240/yr at the time. In June 2020, Roland released ''Zenology'' plugins for Roland synths, which includes a Juno-106 emulator. In 2020, ''Cherry Audio'' released the ''DCO-106'' plugin, a juiced up version of the Juno-106 which was priced at $39 USD in 2020.

References

External links

Juno Series history

The Juno-106 Connection
{{Roland Juno-106 Analog synthesizers Polyphonic synthesizers