History
The Juno-106 was the third in the Juno series of digital/analog synthesizers. Its predecessors, the Roland Juno-6 and Roland Juno-60, were somewhat different in appearance than their later sibling, but shared most of the internal components and features in common with the exception of a tradeoff between a simple up/down arpeggiator on the earlier models and a portamento feature on the Juno-106. The Juno-106 also featured MIDI for inter-instrument communication rather than the proprietary Roland Digital Control Bus (DCB) found on earlier models. In addition to the standard Juno-106, Roland produced a synthesizer called the HS-60. This synth was simply a Juno-106 with integrated speakers and a slightly redesigned enclosure, aimed specifically at consumers rather than professional users.
The Juno-106 is a unique synthesizer in a large part because it came at a time period when digital synthesizer components were just being introduced, MIDI being the most important, yet it featured the best of the analogue and digital worlds. The Juno-106 was one of the last synthesizers to feature all of its controls as buttons and sliders on the faceplate which made it easy to use, but unlike older analogue synthesizers the Juno-106 came standard with full MIDI control of many of its parameters. The Juno-106 also featured DCOs with an analog signal path including VCFs. This allowed for perfectly tuned pitch with the warmth of analogue waveshaping and filters, along with the drive provided by the VCA. It is because of this balance of analogue and digital that there really is no other synth quite like the Juno-106 and it is still a staple in most studios today.
Read more about this topic: Roland Juno-106
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