Vintage Synth Explorer Forums

Hello everyone!
I have a question for anyone experienced with the Juno 106. I am a novice with synthesizers and I am looking to try and emulate a certain sound that one of my favorite musicians, Nils Frahm is fond of with his Juno.
I will link a few video links to show an example of the sound and I am just wondering if anyone could possibly help me figure out how on earth to get that deep gorgeous sound (ie what presets and levels you think he has)
It is just amazing, the man is a musical wonder, and I would love to figure out how to emulate that sound while learnign how to manipulate the synth to do what id like.

Enjoy and I hope you can assist!

https://soundcloud.com/erasedtapes/nils-frahm-for

If one has the time, his friend Olafur Arnalds seems to work some strange magic with his Juno 106 as well in the video linked, I wish i could figure this out on my own:

At the start he's using long attack filter envelopes and sawtooth waves. If it is a Juno106, the chorus is probably engaged too. Sounds alot like the Vangelis sound of the 70s.

He's great. "For" is really cool.

There's loads of reverb. In the first clip probably spring verb.

Generally, he seems to like slow attack, no decay and full sustain; very little filter envelope and low filter frequency. Should be no problem with a Juno. What you play is quite important here as well

Seems to be a Juno 60 on stage in the last video.

The buzziness definately comes from a large reverb.

An intriguing musician - thanks for the pointers.

Here's how I believe he has made the Juno106 sound heard on Soundcloud . I'm not at my Juno106 (but it is an instrument I know well), so I might have to amend these setting once I get back to it in the next few days,


LFO: None
Portamento: ON: Very Fast (Set to around 1)
Poly Mode: 2


Oscillators:
DCO: Square wave, 16", Pulse Width set to about 2-3 (i.e., duty cycle somewhere around 50%). If this does not do it, activate the Sawtooth too )to get a blend).
No Sub Oscialltor or Noise


Filters:
HPF: 0
VCF Freq: 3 or 4
Resonance: 7 ish
Env Switch: Positive
Env (depth): 3
Kybd (meaning keyboard tracking of cutoff): 6


VCA:
Set to GATE, level _5

ENV:
A:0
D:0.5 -> 1
S: 5- 10
R: 0

Chorus: OFF

External DDL and REVERB.



The basis of this quite static sound include:

- Square wave based
- Very fast Portamento heard only occasionally (achieved by choosing Poly2 Mode)
- Very sharp attack and decay of the filter - hence play around with the following functions that are inter related for this sound: Cutoff, Resonance, Env (amount), Keyb (tracking) and ENVELOPE SUSTAIN Level. Since the Juno 106 only has one Envelope generator shared by the Filter and Amplifier, and since only the filter is being affected by this very sharp (yet quite muted) envelope, then I assume the VCA is set to GATE (ie, the VCA level remains constant as long as the note is held).


The Juno106 is fantastic for these sounds because it has DCOs (giving pristine stability yet still analogue in origin) and fed into a VCF to give all that analogue filter character. Hence, the manipulation of the features I mentioned above give a myriad of stunning sounds. Using full resonance, and no keyboard tracking for example, you can create stunning bell like sounds; or add just a touch of Envelope depth and slow attach, add a little noise and chorus and reverb, and you get huge choral type sounds. Few other synths match the Juno106 in this capacity, and pure analogue instruments cannot match this character (believe me I've tried). Similarly, VA's can either because their filters are digital.

Overall, the Juno106 and indeed many of the Roland mid-80s synths with DCOs and VCFs offer this exquisite and unique sound that is actually not very far from the mighty PPG 2.2 / 2.3 which, albeit offered far greater sophistication, nevertheless offered similar digital oscillators fed into analogue filters - a magical combination in my opinion.

Get yourself a Juno106 and learn to 'play the control panel' - there's nothing like it. It is clear, simple, uncluttered, stunningly powerful and great fun. Before long you'll be playing the filter resonance with its slider as if it were an oscillator.


I'll try to verify the setting above in the next week when I get home and to my Juno106 (I'm traveling at the moment), and I'll correct whatever I can; but suspect the settings mentioned above are not a millions miles away).

Kevin.