Comments about the juno106

Spaceheater184 · Post by **Spaceheater184** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 6:42 am

Wow, lots of good responses. Yeah, I've been asking around about that unison thing. It was really bugging me for a bit. I don't use the unison at all...it just sounds weird and kinda useless to me. I had been wondering about the ax60...is there a way you can detune the ax60's voices and get a stacked unison?

memo · Post by **memo** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 1:55 pm

Spaceheater184 wrote:I had been wondering about the ax60...is there a way you can detune the ax60's voices and get a stacked unison?

The AX-60 is a VCO synth, so it's not prone to the nasty phasing problems of DCO unison. I think it might have a small amount of detuning built-in to its unison button (at least it sounds like it does). But you can't turn up the detune.

Synthaholic · Post by **Synthaholic** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 9:52 pm

I was playing with one of the 106es I got on eBay the other night, including the infamous unison mode. I discovered if you use portamento (even a small amount, but more than 0) in unison mode, you'll get a much fatter sound. It's as if the voices glide at slightly different rates, so they end up more detuned/out of phase, and much fatter sounding.

Here's another neat effect you can get on the 106. Start in poly mode, and play 6 different notes, preferably in different octaves. Then switch to unison, turn on portamento, and set the portamento dial up high (to get a slow glide). Strike a note and hold it, and the 6 voices will individually glide from their original pitches and "merge" into the note you're playing.

I know people say the 6 or 60 are fatter or warmer sounding, but I would find the lack of portamento more of a limitation. Sure, the 106 lacks the arpeggiator, but with MIDI that's a non-issue.

Post by **Solderman** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 10:40 pm

Regarding Junos and unison, I'll instead go for an Alpha Juno playing three octaves in chord mode every time. Half its presets just make me grin like an idiot for no apparent reason. Mad inspiration? Perhaps.
The 106's I have played sounded nice and seemed versatile enough if that's any endorsement. Whether one will inspire you or not requires some time with the instrument.

ramos · Post by **ramos** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 11:25 pm

I would get a Juno-6 or 60 instead.

Midi kits are pretty cheap if you need it.

veer chasm · Post by **veer chasm** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 11:27 pm

I love the way you can layer the 106 in with other instrument without taking up a lot of bandwith. The AX60 is a very different beast, tonally it's a bit edgier. The Unison mode is far more useable then the 106's, to my ears.

Neonlights84 · Post by **Neonlights84** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 8:48 pm

Bitexion wrote:Oh the Juno is completely lovely, the entire synth is one massive sweet spot. I've found it quite impossible to make BAD sounds on it. And I've done my share of programming But the unison mode is a waste without any way of detuning the voices.

Sure, on something like the Prophet-5, you don't need a unison detune function because the 5 voices are never EXACTLY the same pitch so it will sound wide, fat and awesome. Not the case here. Lovely synth otherwise, with an amazing range of sounds. I'm guessing the Unison mode was just something they threw in there as an afterthought because other synths have it.

My 106 never had either a battery failure nor any faulty voices. I guess I was lucky with my specimen. It now belongs to the great Norwegian band Monomen anyways. Ran out of space in my small apartment eventually.

I just purchased this synth from the thread starter...and man now i get why everyone makes such a big deal about the juno 6/60/106...I can honestly say that i have no desire for a jupiter 6/8 anymore...and I know it can't do as much and its DCO vs VCO and so on. But i refuse to pay that kind of money when the 106 can fill that niche quite easily. They don't make them like this anymore.

OriginalJambo · Post by **OriginalJambo** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 1:00 am

Neonlights84 wrote:They don't make them like this anymore.

What, with dodgy voice chips?

Only kiddin'.

Sealed · Post by **Sealed** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 3:13 am

JUGEL wrote:I prefer my AX60 to both.. It's like a little dumbed down 1 OSC Jupiter 6.

A very interesting metaphor.

xpander wrote:but i love the alpha Juno 2: dark pads + velocity sensitivity = win. biggest gripe is its limited sonic palette.

Ditto. I like my compact Alpha-1. Though limited, every sound is useful when created with Alpha.

OT: Does anyone know why the name 106?
JUNO-6 = 6 Voice, JUNO-60 = extended version .... very understandable.
Why not, for example, JUNO-606?

elsongs · Post by **elsongs** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 3:56 am

Tip: If you ever harvest a Juno 106 for its 80017A chips, leave one good chip installed and try to rig the Unison switch that it defaults to ON. Voila - A Monophonic Juno with no weird unison phasing!

Synthaholic · Post by **Synthaholic** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 4:05 am

elsongs wrote:Tip: If you ever harvest a Juno 106 for its 80017A chips, leave one good chip installed and try to rig the Unison switch that it defaults to ON. Voila - A Monophonic Juno with no weird unison phasing!

I bet a creative hacker could reverse-engineer the 106's firmware and burn a new EPROM with unison detune added.

OriginalJambo · Post by **OriginalJambo** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 5:43 am

Sealed wrote:OT: Does anyone know why the name 106?
JUNO-6 = 6 Voice, JUNO-60 = extended version .... very understandable.
Why not, for example, JUNO-606?

The SH-101 is a bit like a more up-to-date, redesigned SH-1 so calling the more modern, redesigned Juno-6 a 106 kinda makes sense to me.