Sample-based Synthesizer
Reviews : Keyboard
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?
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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
the May 2001 issue of Sound On Sound or at www.soundonsound.com/sos/may01/articles/rolandrs9.asp).
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.
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.
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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.
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Beam Me Up
D-Beam controllers add a welcome extra dimension to
performance, and the Juno-D's has three selectable functions: Solo
Synth, Active Express and Assignable. The first of these, Solo Synth, is
curious in that it works in combination with keys held on the keyboard.
An example should make things clearer. Activate Solo Synth and play
some keys — a simple C-Major triad, perhaps; you'll hear nothing. Now
move your hand vertically over the D-Beam and the held notes are
triggered at the speed of your hand movements. The notes are transposed
in octaves within the working range of the beam and I initially found
this rather difficult to control. Fortunately, the beam can be adjusted
to give a narrower range, although the sensitivity is global for all
Patches.
With practice, I was able to achieve a wide variety
of effects, such as eerie theremin, elaborate harp strums and piano
arpeggios so fast I could never play them manually. I occasionally
generated a note inconsistent with the chord I was holding, but found if
I moved my hand with reasonable precision, the D-Beam coped fine.
Next, I tried the Active Express setting,
transforming the D-Beam into a volume control (or a balance control, if
two Tones are used). The main problem with this mode became immediately
obvious: as soon as I removed my hand from the beam, the volume dropped
to zero. Fortunately, another global option is available to reverse the
beam's polarity. When you make this change, moving your hand downwards
makes the sound quieter, while taking it away restores the maximum
level. I didn't actually find Active Express to be of great value, so I
turned quickly to the Assignable button, which allows the D-Beam to
control a wide array of parameters, such as duplicating the front-panel
knob functionality or sending pitch-bend or aftertouch. You can also
control effect sends and some of the parameters of the multi-effects. My
only complaint is that the beam affects the entire range of whatever is
chosen. So, for example, if you assign it to control filter cutoff and
then take your hand away, the cutoff setting plummets to zero — as I've
just explained in relation to Active Express mode. Again, reversing the
beam's effect is a partial solution, but I then found I could freeze the
D-Beam's level at any point by pushing the Assign button with the heel
of my hand while setting the level with my fingers. It's fiddly, but it
works.
The D-Beam is a feature that rewards the time you
spend with it, although I get the feeling that if just a little more
thought had gone into its implementation it would be a killer feature
rather than simply a fun diversion.
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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.
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.
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