I bought my Roland Juno 60 years ago in a pawn shop for a mere $150. It was the early 90s and analog synths were so yesterday. Everyone wanted the latest Roland or Ensoniq rompler (cuz, you know, they sounded “better” and were destined to become classics). Anyway, I’ve always liked this little board. It sounds more murky and indistinct than my Jupiter 8 and certainly has far fewer sonic options. In fact, all the patches on the Juno 60 somehow sound the same. Basses, brass, strings, whatever – they all sound like variations of the core Juno 60 tone not wholly new timbers. This gives the instrument a definite sound which I consider a sizable plus. From my all-time favorite synth books, Keyfax:

The Juno’s strengths lies in classic “synth” patches like organs, strings, brass, and simple sound effects like muted bells, wind, and whole plethora of whooshy and whizzy notes…It is not so good for rich bell-like sounds, gongs, and complex patches which need cross mod, or ring mod parameters, nor for really “fat” patches that need two oscillators per voice.

Polyphonic synthesis was never made so easy, either before or after.

– Julian Colbeck from Keyfax (1985 version)

It is simple to use – refreshingly so. This zen-like ease of use and its sonic signature have placed it high on many “greatest of all time” synthesizer lists. Accolades that, in my opinion, are well deserved.

Sounds

Here’s an MP3 collage of Juno 60 sounds. No effects or eq.

• Juno 60 Sounds

Roland Juno 60 Pictures

Roland Juno 60	Roland Juno 60 – 2	Roland Juno 60 Rear
Roland Juno 60 controls	Arpeggio section	LFO and DCO
Filters	EG and Chorus	Memory
Ports	Serial Number

Specifications

• 61-Keys (no velocity or aftertouch)
• 6-voice polyphonic

Oscillators

• 1 DCO with sub oscillator offering pulse (with width modulation), sawtooth, or both pulse and sawtooth waves.
• 1 DCO Sub oscillator (square wave) with adjustable level. The sub oscillator isn’t tunable and is always 1 octave below the main oscillator.
• 1 White Noise generator with level
• 1 LFO (triangle wave only) with rate, delay, and trigger mode

Interestingly the pitch for the oscillator is located down by the keyboard controls and is labeled “Octave Transpose”.

Filters

• 1 High-pass filter with adjustable frequency. It’s 12db I’m guessing but I don’t know for sure.
• 1 Low-pass filter (24db) with adjustable frequency and resonance. Unlike my Jupiter 8 this filter will self oscillator for some nice trashy effects.

Amplifier

• 1 voltage controlled amplifier with level and gate or envelope generator control option

Envelope Generator

• 1 Four-stage ADSR EG. Very snappy and great sounding. Voltage controlled I’m guessing.

Effects / Features

• Chorus effect with four selectable settings (off, I, II, or I&II). Simply a fantastic sounding chorus that really makes the sound of the synth.
• Arpeggiator with rate, range (up to 3 octaves), and three modes (up, down, up&down)
• Key Transpose
• Hold – works as a “latch” feature for the arpeggiator and is also useful for programming

Memory

• 56 patches organized into 7 banks of 8 (to get to banks 6&7 you have to hold down the “5″ and then hit the “1″ or the “2″).
• Tape save, load, and verify.

I love the way the old Rolands organize their patches. One or two quick button pushes and you’re right where you need to be. No horrible scrolling. It’s also nice to group similar sounds into 8-patch banks. One of strings, one of basses, etc.

Of course you don’t get as many patches, but who really needs more than 50-60 patches on this older, simpler machines? Keep it simple I say.

Recommended Listening

The Juno 60 was a staple of early 80s bands but if there’s any quintessential example of its use it has to be the Eurythmics’s Sweet Dreams which is covered in the unit’s sound.

The very first synthesizer I ever purchases was a Roland Juno II. That particular unit died at a political rally mere feet from infamous DC Mayor Marion Barry. An errant cotton candy machine that was plugged into the same circuit as the board kicked in and silenced it forever. Sigh. Years later I bought the rack mounted version, the Roland MKS-50, but never ended up using it much. Today it’s sitting on EBay hoping for a good home (and high bidding price).

Here’s some sounds from my MKS-50 unit. No fx or eq.

• Roland MKS-50 sounds.mp3

Roland MKS-50 Pictures

Roland MKS-50 Screen	Roland MKS-50 Buttons	Roland MKS-50 Volume and phones
Roland MKS-50 rear ports	Roland MKS-50 Serial	PG-300 Programmer
PG-300 Programmer back

Thoughs on the Later Roland Junos

Roland’s Juno I, II, and MKS-50 line arrived in the sunset of analog synths’ golden era. Their last stab before romplers, FM, and other manners of digital synths would overrun the keyboard landscape. The sound of the later Junos is very different than the early Juno 60 sound. The newer Junos are more crisp and distinct. Their emulations of “real” instruments like pianos, cellos, and flutes more accurate. And their low end is decidedly more beefy than anything a Juno 60 (or even a Jupiter 8) could muster. The downside is that their electronic and “synthy” sounds are lackluster in comparison to earlier units. It’s my opinion that analog synths shouldn’t try and sound like pianos or cellos and should focus instead on making great electronic noises. I suppose that’s why I’m selling the unit.

From a programming perspective the MKS-50 does have a few interesting features. Unusual waveforms to compensate for it’s lack of cross-modulation, and a really nice envelop generator with separate time and level settings – something you hardly ever see on early analog units. And like all Juno units, the MKS-50 has that fantastic sounding Roland chorus which is noticeably quieter than earlier implementations. I’d love to find a pedal or effect box with that chorus sound so if any readers know of one let me know.

The addition of velocity sensitivity as well as aftertouch (both omitted from the Juno 1) made the playing of these instruments decidedly different as well. I find I tend to play them more like I would a piano whereas on a Juno 60 I gravitate towards synth-style playing. The MIDI implementation is great and the PG-300 programmer is a great option to have. If you get a Juno unit I highly recommend you find one of the programmers. All in all, the MKS-50 is a solid and eminently portable unit that I’d recommend for bass lines and basic synth work. It’s also a great unit to augment the often anemic plugin synths that never seem to get that wide, mid-range sparkle of real analog units (I’m looking at you Arturia). If, however, you want esoteric patch routings or classic early-80s electronic textures you might want to dig further back in the Roland line.

Technical

• Oscillators – 1 DOC per voice offering pulse and various sawtooth waves (you can blend both for various timbers). 1 Sub oscillator offering variable pulse width waves. White noise. Pulse width modulaiion. 6 voice polyphony.
• LFO – 1 triangle wave LFO with level and delay
• Filters – 1 VCF 24bd Lowpass with resonance, 1 6dB highpass
• Envelope – 1 four-stage ADSR envelope with key follow. envelop 1 with polarity control. Each stage of the EG has its own level setting as well as duration.
• VCA - Standard VCA
• Keyboard – None for MKS-50, 61 key with polyphonic after touch and velocity for Juno II, 49-key with no velocity or aftertouch for Juno I
• Effects – a great Roland Chorus
• Memory – two banks of 64 patches

Recommended Listening

The most famous sound of the later Juno seris is the “Hoover” patch which is itself a derivative of the factory preset “WhatThe?”. Wikipedia has a whole write up on the Hoover patch and names recordings that use it.

I bought this microphone on an Ebay whim. $35 dollars for something that looked this cool seemed a bargain whether it worked or not. Little did I know how useful it would be and how much its purchase would turn me on to other vintage Turner gear.

The Turner company doesn’t exist anymore, but in its heyday it crafted some of the most visually stunning art deco microphones ever made. Turners were mid-priced workhorses, not high end mics. This particular mic came in two flavors: the 33d and the 33x. Ours is a 33d, the dynamic version, and the 33x was a crystal mic (we mistakenly though ours was a crystal mic for some time). Here’s a description of the mic culled from Radio Master: Official Manual and Buying Guide for Electronic and Radio Equipment, eleventh edition, 1945, pg. 40.

33d Dynamic – Same appearance as 33x with balance line cable on low impedance units to eliminate noise pickup. 200, 500, or hi-impedance complete with 20 ft. cable set and diagrams
List Price: $25.00
50 ohm model List Price: $23.50

Turner 33d Pictures Pictures

Turner 33d 1	Turner 33d 2	Turner 33d 3
turner 33d 4	Turner badge	Radios Master Book
Turner 33d entry

Sounds

The sound of this mic is all retro and low-fi, but not so much as to be unmusical or distracting. We found it sounded great on vocals and was surprisingly effective as a room mic for the drums. On our song Sandy Strange you can hear the vocals switching between the 33d and a modern Rode K2 microphone and the contrast is quite pronounced. Architects of Fear, another song on our album, was done entirely with the 33d.

Technical

Sadly the Radio master book doesn’t provide any technical specifications and we’ve not been able to dig them up anywhere else. We have no idea what the specs of this mic are.

Recommended Listening

• The Mesmers, Sandy Strange | Buy CD | Buy on iTunes
• The Mesmers, Architects of Fear | Buy CD | Buy on iTunes

Links

• http://www.coutant.org – A fantastic and extensive site with lots of info on vintage microphones and even sound samples of many.
• http://www.k-bay106.com/mics.htm – Lots of information and documentation on this site about old mics.
• http://www.silviaclassics.com – a great site with all sorts of info on vintage mics. The site owner also does mic restoration and repair.
• http://www.angela.com – information, cables and parts.
• http://www.coolmicrophones.com - dealer of vintage mics.

Of all the things I own it’s easy to gaze upon my Jupiter 8 and say “THAT is my favorite”. Not only is it an engaging musical instrument, but it’s a fantastic looking piece of gear — inspirational just to look at.

The Jupiter 8 is a child of the golden age of synthesizers (late 70s thru early 80s) and follows the most common configuration for that era’s subtractive synthesizers. It was produced between 1981 to 1984 and only about 2000 were ever made. Its statistics are repeated on a hundred Web sites and I’ve listed them below.

Roland Jupiter 8 Pictures

tape output	Roland Jupiter 8 Front	Jupiter 8 closeup 1
Jupiter 8 closeup 2	Pitchbend and Modulation	Jupiter 8 Display
Jupiter 8 Arpeggiator	Patch Preset	J8 Tuning
Jupiter 8 Oscillators	Jupiter 8 VCF	Jupiter 8 Envelopes
Jupiter 8 Rear	Heat Sink	audio output
ext control

What often isn’t mentioned is why the Jupiter 8 is such a gem. There are plenty of similar unit. The Voyetra 8, Prophet 5, Crumar Bit One, Chroma Polaris, various Oberheiem units and even Roland’s own MKS-80 Super Jupiter. I’ve tried every single one of those units and while they all have their charm, none of them have clicked with me personally like the J8. I attribute this to two main issues: ergonomics and sound.

Ergonomics

In his 1985 book Keyfax Julian Colbeck summed up the J8’s appearance thusly:

“The control panel is bristling with features. Eye-catching without being gaudy, professional without being dull. Few instruments have perfected such a balance”

A year earlier in a Keyboard Magazine interview Nick Rhode of Duran Duran fame, a huge J8 aficionado who still uses one on tour, gushed this:

“The Jupiter-8 is the best designed synthesizer I’ve ever seen. it’s so streamlined, and everything is in the right place.”

Layout and usability are factors that are hard to quantify and intrinsically subjective, but I’ve never heard of anyone disliking the J8’s. For myself, it’s a huge part of the appeal. The unit is enticing and invites experimentation. When I sit down at it I can’t help grabbing knobs and pulling sliders. It’s complex but easily understood, nuanced but accessible. It’s a unit that can readily be “played” as an electronic instrument AND a keyboard. Nothing else I own comes close in this regard.

Sounds

Again, sound is an extremely subjective attribute. I’m very partial to the J8’s so let me try and pin down why.

The J8 does not have the sonic heft and grit of a Moog or Oberheim. Nor does it possess the sound sculpting possibilities of a synth with great a modulation matrix like the APR 2600. What it does offer are warm, rich sounds that are a bit thinner than many classic polysynths, and thus tend to sit much better in mix with other instruments. If you listen to Van Halen’s classic “Jump” it’s easy to hear just how overpowering some polysynths could be. Layer something against that? Good luck. The Jupiter 8 can sound pretty big, but more often its a refined sound that invites other instruments in instead of crowding them out. It also possess that incredible mid-range “sparkle” or warmth that I only find in synths from that era. It’s a difficult attribute to describe but definitely identifiable.

Here’s an mp3 collage of some of my favorite patches. No effects or eq.

• Jupiter 8 Sounds

Technical

• Oscillators – 2 VCO’s per voice offering triangle, sawtooth, pulse (with modulation), and square waves (plus noise on OSC 2). 8 voice polyphony (depending on mode)
• LFO – 1 per voice offering sine, triangle, ramp, and random waves
• Filter – 1 lowpass (switchable between 24 dB/oct and 12 dB/oct) with resonance, 1 6dB highpass
• Envelopes – 2 four-stage envelopes with key follow. envelop 1 with polarity control.
• VCA – Standard VCA with routing to envelop 2
• Keyboard – 61 note keyboard offering Dual and Split modes, voice assign mode, hold, portamento, and several modulation settings
• Arpeggiator – 4 modes (up, down, up & down, random) over 1-4 octaves with hold option. Stays in bottom of keyboard in split mode.
• Memory – 64 patches (individual tones) and 8 patch presets (two tones organized into a layer or split)
• Control – Some models offer DCB Roland. Arpeggiator sync-able to external clock with an option of 8th notes, triplets, or sixteenth notes. Midi retrofit available.

Recommended Listening

• Queen of the Cathode Ray by the Mesmers – Buy Album | iTunes
• Rio by Duran Duran – Amazon | iTunes
• The Golden Age of Wireless by Thomas Dolby – Amazon | iTunes

Links

• http://www.sonicstate.com/synth/roland_jp8.cfm
• http://www.synthmuseum.com/roland/roljup801.html
• http://www.vintagesynth.com/index2.html
• http://www.harmony-central.com/Synth/Data/Roland/Jupiter_8-01.html
• Roland has also made the Jupiter 8’s manual available online as a PDF: http://www.rolandus.com/support/product_manual.asp