Great overview! The Alpha Juno is responsible for so many rave (hardcore/gabber) classics. I used it in almost every track in the (early) 90s, still have a JU-2 and MKS-50 and PG-300 today and love them, they are so all-round. I think Hardcore (Gabber) wouldn't exist without it. For me the Alpha Juno is a big part of my signature sound, no other synthesizer sounds like it.
so true. who would have guest back than that with the 909 they would be of such stand alone class. ? i can t imagine thwem not beeing a part of me . they live in my heart. they are alive. so fkn happy with m. had a mks 50 but she died in a fire
Great words from da Predator! Hardcore wouldnt be here without the Alpha Juno, for sure. Btw, could you explain or reveal some tricks from the Nitrogen tracks? Or is the magic the ‘sweep’ trick on the parametric eq?
@@tdc026 Nitrogen riffs are mostly that indeed, just like all the Predator tracks (Strongest Gang, Only Ones Left) but also the way stuff was mixed, overal EQ, compression and effects did a lot too, and of course the melody on its own. No secret formula, yeah maybe some Amsterdam ganja for inspiration 😉
@@TheDjpredator hehehe… always that ‘wiet’ overhere… thanks for the other ‘tricks’. The other tracks you’re mentioned are also legend, def some of the bangers from the Ruffneck label.
What the? Changed my life. Always thanks for your hard work bro. Part of me thinks you are the luckiest man alive, being able to talk about a synth for an hour to people who actually care. Doesnt happen in my house. Kudos.
You and plenty of others 😀 but when I first heard it I was dumbfounded as to what on earth it was doing on the synth and what use a sound like that could ever be! Shows what I know.
Starsky Carr i can see that. I reckon using single digit screens with a jog wheel makes you think more about what you are actually trying to achieve. I started with a 106 and a kawai k1-2 and gave the kawai the more love. The alpha is a stuck in the middle thing, i guess.
@@StarskyCarr How do you init a patch? I have a few patches that are corrupted and need to be reset, but dont want to do a patch dump.....eh dont worry about it, i just copied a working patch over the corrupted ones
The aJuno, to me, defines two particular genres: late 80's jazzfunk(it can do the wailing section brass sounds, along with the jx-8p) and synthwave of the past decade(because it's a vintage analog that remained affordable even as the market started heating up). It definitely had a place in dance tracks too, but as one of a varied collection of sounds. It was a common source for tracker music samples in the early 90's, and hoover noises aside, the gradual takeover of sampling decontextualized the instruments IMHO.
Love the Juno, the Juno 2 was my first 5 octave synth in the early 90s and i've used it for the longest time as my master keyboard cause it's so compact for a desk setting and it has really nice keys. I remember an old interview where Beltram said they sampled the Juno Hoover in a Roland sampler for Mentasm and edited there some more and used the sampler's filters
Great Demo . It was my first poly synth ! I big trick : the HPF have to be adjusted in second position (Value = 1) to be neutral . The first position adds sine wave to make big bass sounds .
It's Good and it shows how Roland were in transition to find alternatives to the DX but it's far from the best sound (one of better presets) this synth can achieve I've programmed some amazing pads and bass sounds + many more types that almost sound like it has 2 oscillators.
If you're struggling to get a decent sound out of the Alpha Juno, check out 35:25 and you'll see how to get a traditional ADSR. You're a lifesaver Starsky.... I was going to sell mine tomorrow but thought to have one more TH-cam session, then found this golden nugget!
Thanks Starsky, that’s was a great overview demoing it’s unusual features compared to the other Juno’s. Probably like many who’ll see this and own one- yes the Alpha doesn’t really get the credit it deserve for its unique “character”. The retroactiv controller certainty ads adds a lot, (just not really sure really convinced worth the premium price )- great combo if you want to get the best out of using your alpha however!
Now that the Retroaktiv programming boxes have raised the bar and set a new standard, you might be pleased to see that the price of the older DTronics programmers have come down as a response. They lack the unique advanced features of the Retroaktiv units, but can be found on Reverb (brand new) for significantly less, and with free shipping. I even submitted an offer with a modest haircut, and managed to make a deal today.
100% on board with your assessment. Only thing I'd add (or simply stress) is that the saw and pulse are not mutually exclusive options - which someone might think seeing as how the Alpha is always referred to as a single osc synth. You can basically create waveforms that are morphs of saw and pulse - with PWM available for both saw and pulse added in, you can create really complex waveforms. And then make yet more madness with those extra stages in the Env. Granted the filter is rather pedestrian, but the little Alpha ranges beyond the abilities of the earlier Junos in ways that can still appeal greatly to sound designer-types.
I have the alpha Juno-1 - was the first real synth I bought back in 1987 - and I still use it to this day. Spent countless hours programming sounds from the keyboard itself. I just might have to get that MPG-50 control surface for it.
Just stumbled upon this great video. One of your best videos to date if you ask me, so merry xmas to you and looking forward to the next ones! In our opinion this is, sonic wise, the best Juno Roland ever built. It has so much power under the hood. For example the OSC's are really a game changer especially for that time. Very reliable sounding OSCs that never go out of tune unless you want to. What's not to love about that. Great that you put that in the video with the oscilliscope and frequency analyzer. Then we have the - somehow - 3 LFO's and its strange but, beautiful and very usable envelope. Two filters - every synth should have that and a great sounding chorus. This synth really came from outer space. We are using it with a D-Tronics DT-300, which is nice and makes progamming so much easier, but this RetroAktiv puts it again into another league with the preset capability and its OLED screen
Just picked up a v1 for £400. Very happy. I'd say it has 4 string presets, 3 or 4 lead and about 4 bass presets that are perfect for the kind of thing I want to do and the wheel isn't really as awkward as I was expecting. So all in all I'm pretty chuffed that a classic like this is still so affordable.
I have a soft spot for this. It was the one I wanted in 1985 but couldn't afford. I went home with a DX27 instead. I knew nothing about synths then. Analog or FM were the same thing as far as I knew. Just looking at it really takes me back. Love it's sleekness. Synths all looked like office equipment back then. Great sound too. You'll never have a problem getting that to fit in a mix. The Deepmind 12 pretty much satisfies my desire for this sound..
@@lundsweden Not sure how the Alpha is more powerful. DM12 has 2 DCO's as opposed to 1 on the Alpha. 12 stackable and detunable voices as opposed to 6. 2 LFO's. A very flexible mod matrix with an excellent ARP and pattern sequencer. Really nice FX section. And the price for a new DM12 is comparable to a used Alpha especially if you buy a programmer for the Alpha. The Alpha is a classic sounding Juno but it's not close to a DM12.
@@_P_M_ What I meant was the Alpha has a lot of waveforms, 5 saw, 5 different square, 7 stage envelope etc. As you say the DM has its strengths too, better modulation and some great features. You can't use two DCOs at the same time, can you? I certainly have the DM12 on my want list!
@@lundsweden Yes you can use both DCO's. It depends on how close you want it to sound like a 106. It's more of a tribute to the 106 than a clone. The additional wave shapes on the Alpha are nice to have but they were an attempt to give it a more digital FM sound. That made sense to do in 1985, but I don't know why anyone today would buy an analog synth to make it sound digital.
Great video. I had a Juno 6 back in the day and friends later had a106 and alpha2. I went to Ensoniq from there since I wanted that fat American sound. Nowadays the clearer Roland sound is something that can’t be missed on a synth palette . The alpha might be a good choice for that. You can get close to standard juno sounds but have some much more next to that’s
according to rolands own schematics repair manual the filter is not a24 dB low pass but a 12 dB low with a 12 dB band pass combo their available free to download also look at the dcos not the same as the 6 60 106 no analog wave shapers here in the alphas!
OK so I've had mine a few weeks, and I really like it. It's definitely more chimey than the 60 and I miss the arp and hold, but that chorus is like nothing else I've ever heard. Weirdly the Novation Zero controller that's been getting in the way of my studio has an alpha preset (mks550) that just works really well! Happy days.
Amazing. Thanks for this upload. Just listened whilst working, always found the ADSR part mysterious. This really helps. Gonna fire up my juno2 and have a proper watch later. Cheers man.
Starsky, the part that you said was incredibly boring to watch was actually the most interesting to me. I just got this synth two weeks ago, made a patch, and then was boggled as to why it was sliding from out, in, and then out of tune again. Yet, I couldn't find a de-tune setting. Now I know I need to look into the oscillator envelope. I have the Stereoping Controller. It runs different than your controller. I like it as it works for several of my synths but man, this video is making me want to buy the RetroAktiv controller. It'd cost me more than I paid for the synth itself yet I'm sure it's worth it especially for the patch memory and generator. Thanks for the video. Just in time for an in depth look at my newest synthesizer.
1st synth I ever brought as a teen in the mid 80s. Looking back I wish I purchased a Juno 106 However I had endless fun on the Juno 2, not bad for a beginner and it had great presets. Saved up all my pennies to buy it...lol My 2nd synth of course was the mighty D50 Then many synths followed... Thank you for your video. Fond memories!!
I used to own an Alpha Juno 2 and loved the 4 stage envelope :D. never managed to get hold of the pg300 at the time I owned it :(. If this synth was just released as pure analog with all knobs and sliders accessible on the synth then it would have been amazing!
cool demo !! have mine (mks 50/pg 300) for nearly 15 years... although it has a very weak filter and can sound a bit cold i love it for the pad,organ and bass sounds.. dig the chorus as well!
Nice work! Curious detail about the envelope: the first decay is linear and the second exponential. Curious detail about multi-stage envelopes in general: they were invented at the same time as really bad interfaces and will make you hate life.
They do drive you nuts to program, but they can also come in handy in a lot of ways. I have a Yamaha SY77, and while the visual editing only partially offsets the pain, being able to create virtual echoes and complex pitch envelopes is amazeballs.
I really like the more complex envelope. If it had speed to go with it, it'd be just about perfect. It's almost identical to the D-50 or JD-800 envelope. We've lost these interesting complex envelopes in most modern synths. I'd like to see more modern hardware synths with envelopes like these, plus invert, loop, initial hold, reverse, slope type, etc.
Great demo, I love my alpha. Need to use it more. One thing to mention, I would consider the alpha’s oscillators to be more digital than not. Other Roland 80’s DCO’s (older Junos and the JX series) had analog circuits for waveshaping, such as turning the square wave output of the counters into a sawtooth. But the alpha’s oscs run through a digital wave shaper chip. That’s how you get all those interesting waveforms and sawtooth PWM. That chip has a DAC and so it gets converted back to analog before proceeding to the VCF. I don’t remember the details of the waveshaper DAC, but I think it’s a pretty low bit rate. In any case, it’s digitally controlled and digitally shaped. I consider the synth to be early digital/analog hybrid. Not that it matters at all. It’s the sound that counts.
@@StarskyCarr there's a lot of confusion about how the AJ's sound generation chip works, AFAIK unlike the Juno 106 the details of it have never been published. The Juno 106 uses an analog waveshaper chip to generate the sawtooth and square with a ramp-generation capacitor that gets discharged when it hits a trigger, and the square is derived from that, like most all granpa analog synthesizers back to the Minimoog use. On the 106 there's a control voltage input because even locked to a master clock that scheme goes out of tune at high frequencies and needs a correction: electricdruid.net/roland-juno-dcos/ The Alpha doesn't have this so I think they ditched that arrangement and used another internal counter to make a "stairstep" sawtooth and all the other waveforms are derived from (analog-ly) dividing and chopping that up in various ways. If the raw sawtooth has enough steps it's easy to filter out the lil steppies across the audio range with a fixed low-pass filter afterwards that you can also put on the chip, then send that to the square-generator and chopper, so you can get like a 25% square and chopped sawtooth, etc...The variable duty cycle on the square is always less than 50% and not greater so they just chop it after they make a 50% from the sawtooth I think. This technique is described in books from the time like Hal Chamberlin's "Musical Applications of Microprocessors" from around 1980 and I expect they had a copy at Roland. So if that is what they're doing yeah this is a type of "DAC" if you want to get technical but I think calling it a digital synth because of that is pushing it, it's just using a counter in an analog way, talking about bitrate or bit-depth is meaningless, the waveforms aren't stored in RAM or ROM and spit out with the type of DAC used in say a Roland D-50 or something, so long as the user don't hear any steppies in the output when they play C0 it's all good. Digital synths store waveforms in ROM or RAM and the 106 and AJ don't do this, yes they use a master clock for synchronization and tuning stability and in the latter case probably a bunch of logic gates to produce the sound, so what it don't make them "digital", there are a thousand ways to make granpa-waveforms that involve no binary data or anything stored in memory. If no audio information is being converted or stored in binary anywhere there's nothing "digital" going on in the usual use of the term.
That DAC doesn't do digital-to-analog conversion it does something else. The Alpha Juno is a pure analog synth with digital pitch control and thats it. There are not bits involved in the sound creation and if there were the anti-aliasing would be the best-ever programmed at 8 bit.
Awesome video - love my Alpha Juno 2! Was my first ever synth and I still have it, although I do need to get one of those MPG-50’s at some point… CTRLR panel and the iPG-800 iPad app are great, but not the same as tactile knobs and sliders.
@@StarskyCarr 10,000 bloody miles away! I couldn't fit it in my suitcase returning Xmas 2019....a certain virus has intervened since then! patience, patience......
I loaded a downloaded patchbank in mine a few years ago that was hilarious. It had an actual perfect sound of a hoover, & I mean vacuum -cleaner, a parody on the cliche 'hoover' sound, but not musical at all but it made me laugh a lot & I really appreciated the programmers sense of humor.
This was my first synth, and I absolutely loved it! Firstly it was “affordable” (just! and cheaper than the KORG equivalent). I would have said the major limitation is that there’s only 1 oscillator. Luscious filter, even if it doesn’t self-oscillate.
@@RikMaxSpeed Poly six release was 81 , Poly 800 83, Juno 60 82 , Juno 106 84 , Alpha Juno 85. At the time when Roland was doing well with their Juno-series, . The Poly-800 was an answer to the original Juno 60, at the time which was replaced by the 106 & then alpha an updated version of the 106 with velocity and aftertouch & few other extras but without the sliders etc.
03:12 "These guys LOVE self-oscillation, don't we all?". That cracked me up for a while before I could unpause the video, and resume watching. Damn! :))))
I just snagged a Juno-1 again after having owned one in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I sold it to the Cable Chamber studio in Stoke-On-Trent, UK and shipped it across the Atlantic from Canada. That studio was responsible for a lot of big progressive house records and trance records that came out at the time. I never had a controller for mine either, but after having heard you mess about with yours I really need to get one to unlock it. I always hated the stock patches too beyond 'What The???' and a few of the pads and basses.
I bought an MKS-50 back in 1991-1992 for $100. I always loved it. If you invert the filter envelope with a high enough resonance, you can get some nice solid bass from the synth by bringing down on that fundamental... not earth shattering... but a nice big thunk.
Back then (85/86) I had the choice of an Alpha Juno 1 or a Juno 60... I went with the 60 as the price was a little cheaper at £450 v £525 which was a decent amount of dough. Always quite fancied the Alpha Juno 2 purely because it looked pretty cool and lightweight while also having a good quality action. I've since owned JX8Ps and several JX10s... don't really miss any of them except for my 60 which is long long gone...
It's got the Roland family sound for sure, and while the MKS-50's were dirt cheap I did acquire a few. The only time I saw one of these in the local shops (used) it was beat to hell and I just couldn't justify plunking down the money for a broken keyboard. Compared to the boards I had access to at the time (DX7, Arp Omni II, Electrocomp EML 101, and ARP 2600) it was more of a "players" keyboard except perhaps for the DX7, but then again it was way more accessible than the DX7 to understand. I had it in my mind that I saw one pre-1985 but now I doubt that and it was probably a Juno-60 or 6. Of course what I really wanted was a Jupiter-8, but it would be thirty years until I had that pleasure.
@@StarskyCarr Yes, and if you go back to 1988 or so, you could probably get it cheaper! Literally nobody wanted one, for a long time. I sold mine for $4.5K when I thought the market was about the top, and boy was I wrong. Wish I still had the EML 101 tho - that was a nasty raw sounding board and nothing I've had since has come close. I do still have the Jupiter 6, which I'll probably sell when something can replace it (uh-huh...)
@@ChrisCebelenski Selling a Jupiter 4 and Sys100 for £100 each to the same guy.. the same week as 'getting rid' of a Moog Prodigy for £150 and feeling lucky .. so I could get something more useful. Looking back it was the right move at the time - I could get something with MIDI and actually use it - but it still niggles :)
@StarskyCarr The waveforms look rounded because the "0" setting on the HPF boosts the bass (just like on the Juno 106.) It's actually the "1" setting on the HPF that has a flat response, and would have given normal looking square and saw waveforms. Great video though. Love my Alpha.
@@StarskyCarr well, anything that didn't get super famous and wouldn't bring a lot of money to the table will probably not get a lot of attention from Roland. Look at the Jupiter-6, not even mentioned in Roland's recent retrospective for their 50-year anniversary ! And no chance of it being a cloud synth either... Such a shame, the Jupiter-6 and Alpha Juno are so much more interesting than the classic stuff, as you point out so brilliantly in your videos, and releasing products that nod to those particular models could get people interested in the "little brothers" living in the shadow of their predecessors...
I have a alfa juno 1 since 1985. Bought new. When I finaly had a computer I managed the lack of physical control by tweaking it with sysex thru the MIDI environment in Logic (by Emagic in these times). I would say my main complaint about it was the lack of self oscilation of the filter. Now this synth is still fully fonctional and I use it from time to time.
@@jeffreyklippel6448 Let's say if your filter can self oscilate you can make it not self oscilating, the contrary is not possible 🙂 . Anyway the AJ1 is a great little machine and I'll never sell mine.
Great review and talk, but this time little subjective at some points. I find Alpha Juno absolutely excellent, filter lacking self-resonance is actually good thing on performing polysynth. For effects and "crazy" stuff there were many cheap monosynths in 80's. Alpha dial is pure bliss for budget mid 80's synth (look at competition with only one fader or only +- buttons). Original presets are serving what performing musician was looking for in mid of 80's, many are not useful for modern music, but you can program so many nice ones (like you demostrated). Overall tone is really good and mostly holds up pretty nice in comparion to best sounding Juno (Juno-6) when I played both side by side, + there are of course more options in sounds over other Junos (as you demonstrated as well ;) ). With MPG-50 its absolute killer (or as I do it - just program it through midi/sysex from DAW). For its pricepoint, its absolute nobrainer to this day. All the best!
I think it’s subjective at points because I’ve lived with it for 30 years and have lived through each phase of its use/popularity etc I was there when it looked cool and the alpha dial was futuristic. I was there when we wanted synths to sound like pianos and trumpets, I was there when I couldn’t tweak it on the fly or make squelchy acid tones, I was there when the Hoover became popular. I was there at the dawn of VA when everything else seemed to be able to do so much more, and now I’m here when there are so many good hardware options for controlling it. But I think most users who’ve owned it over that time would agree with my assessments. These days the dial is a bit crap, the presets are awful, and it still can’t squeal 😂 but we can overlook and overcome these things to enjoy it more than ever.
Love that chord memory sound pad at 50:08 and when that "Specular Tempus" (what a name for an effect!) comes in at 50:32 it is sounding very much like it is in the "Boards of Canada-esque" territory(well it is really at the Canada border before that reverb/delay unit kicks in)!
'95 had a Poly 6 and a Juno 1. You can pull off way better filter tweaking on the Alpha dial than you can with the up down on the Poly six.... As long as you're tweaking one param, the alpha dial is basically a knob…
I have one. It could sound flat and dry but if You send in a mixer and P.A. with some reverb it resurrects to new life ( apart the fact that the sounds can be tweaked during mix sessions...)
Had 2 of them sold 1 , the other is in for repair ,i think they're good at analog bass , brass ,some funky leeds and pwm pads with chorus, some pads can sound interesting without chorus if you add sub octs & different waveforms and vary the pwm at different rates, but without 2 oscs it sounds thin without chorus , have a King Korg and i can get very similar sounds from it but not in bass as the Alpha has that distinct vcf etc, to be honest there are plug ins that can get very close so i may end up selling the Alpha really looking forward to Behringers Pro 800 as i had a Prophet 08 which was good but again for the money there are cheaper options and the Pro 800 should be able to acheive similar if not better than the 08 , and last point i've never been interested in the Weird techno sounds the Alpha can do.
Unlike the Kawai K3 the Roland Alpha Juno wastes the membrane-buttons on the right hand side for presets instead of synth-parameters. The Kawai K3 also has an alpha-dial for entering values and is very easy to program with its "one button per function" layout.
I know it’s shame the membrane buttons don’t directly access functions (like the project vs or even like the JX3P. Scrolling for everything, especially when you can easily overshoot, becomes annoying very quickly.
In my opinion having a slightly understated resonance to the filter could be a good thing. It allows the performer to communicate the same textural idea without having to walk a tightrope over a pit of shrillness. Not having to worry about accidentally blasting an out-of-scope eardrum piercer could be liberating for someone who can't help but wiggle on it. And is it my imagination, or does that filter not mute the low fundamentals as much as many resonant HPFs?
The HP filter on the aJuno has a low-end bump when at 0, that's why in the oscilloscope you could see that when you put it to 1, it looked normal. Same is on the 106
I don't think that's a bump... I think that was a normal looking sawtooth. With the bump the lower frequencies are much higher so you get more of an exponential drop off in the harmonics at the low end rather than linear.
Great video! you know so much about synths starsky, question: we make new / modern italo music (dark disco/indie dance) that involves a lot of those 'rolling arpeggio basses' if you know what i mean. What synth would be the best for this in your opinion?
I prefer the Alpha to the 106. Sure, the 106 can do a few great sounds the Alpha can't, but I think it sounds much warmer, and can do a much wider range of sounds.
A little bit "uhm" but it has some very unique retro futuristic character that is missing from modern synths, I don't use mine very often, but when I turn it on I always get fascinated by how good it can sound with custom patches.
great overview and video , i sold mine recently, bought it from the original owner who had bought it new way back in 86/87 used it for maybe 10+ years and it sat in an attic thereafter aftertouch was also no longer working on mine, a common fault apparently, tried disconnecting/reconnecting the ribbon to see if that helped, which is easily done, but i think the ribbon just needed replacing, just a heads up, if it develops a high pitched whine noise when it's on (doesn't affect the audio but you can hear it coming from the synth) , it's coming from the transformer for the backlit LCD, you can either disconnect the backlit LCD (which i did, quick fix) and the noise is gone or replace the LCD great work as always in any case, thanks
I liked to twiddle the alpha dial live to change the resonance of a sequenced acid bass. It wasn't that much of a disadvantage unless you're a sound nerd about the finer points of a synth bass resonance in a live drug crazed situation
I have one of these, it is very beat up and the keyboard doesn't work, I play it from another keyboard. You can get a computer program that sends midi to it and can adjust all the parameters on screen with a mouse. But for some reason that isn't working for me anymore except just to change the patch. Annoying. Any tips welcomed.
There are loads of apps. I'm on a Mac and use CTRLR panels there's one called aloha Juno and another I can't remember then name of. Check out CTRLR and go onto the forums you'll find them.
None of the flaws are fatal actually. Juno was never made for tweaking parameters (that's why presets are so good) and especially for modern day youtubers who rotate the knobs for a living (me included). The synth was made for the people who can actually play the song with two hands from start to finish. None of them probably even cared about a things called LFO, PWM etc... And that analog sound with that special DCOs... wow i have never heard anything remotely close to it. It's so much better than anything Roland made in analog field nowadays.
It doesn't on the alphas, I've double and triple (and quadruple) checked this a few times as quite a few people have mentioned it. You don't get the low frequency bump on the alphas that you get on the others.
@@StarskyCarr Mmmh, the manual mentions the low end boost and my Alpha 1 (first generation) does change the shape significantly on HPF #0. I've just uploaded a small video showing the effect, check it out.
"Fatally flawed" is overstating things (although I understand the need to draw viewers in). It's merely not optimal for a certain genre of musical performance. But the nice thing about music is there are so many ways to play it...
Haha… I’m not sure there’s anything that could draw viewers into a video about the Alphas… interested parties only here I suspect 😂 Maybe i should try ‘you won’t believe what this crazy Juno 2 did next..’
OK, now I am getting a controller for the old girl. Are Retroactive in Europe? Are there import taxes to the UK or is there UK supplier? Cheers for the old school memories by the way.
haha... I'll forgive you for not concentrating for a full hour!! It takes me a few attempts to watch all the way through. Making sure there's no errors after hours of editing it torture.
Please consider making a comparison between the Alpha Juno 2 and the Tal-Pha plugin that came out recently (by Togu Audio Line). I think it would be very valuable to the community. Cheers!
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For those who don't know, there's a great programmer available for ipad that provides easy access to all parameters of the Alpha Juno.
Great overview! The Alpha Juno is responsible for so many rave (hardcore/gabber) classics. I used it in almost every track in the (early) 90s, still have a JU-2 and MKS-50 and PG-300 today and love them, they are so all-round. I think Hardcore (Gabber) wouldn't exist without it. For me the Alpha Juno is a big part of my signature sound, no other synthesizer sounds like it.
so true. who would have guest back than that with the 909 they would be of such stand alone class. ? i can t imagine thwem not beeing a part of me . they live in my heart. they are alive. so fkn happy with m. had a mks 50 but she died in a fire
Great words from da Predator! Hardcore wouldnt be here without the Alpha Juno, for sure. Btw, could you explain or reveal some tricks from the Nitrogen tracks? Or is the magic the ‘sweep’ trick on the parametric eq?
@@tdc026 Nitrogen riffs are mostly that indeed, just like all the Predator tracks (Strongest Gang, Only Ones Left) but also the way stuff was mixed, overal EQ, compression and effects did a lot too, and of course the melody on its own. No secret formula, yeah maybe some Amsterdam ganja for inspiration 😉
@@TheDjpredator hehehe… always that ‘wiet’ overhere… thanks for the other ‘tricks’. The other tracks you’re mentioned are also legend, def some of the bangers from the Ruffneck label.
Predator freaking ledend man ruffneck badass !
What the? Changed my life.
Always thanks for your hard work bro.
Part of me thinks you are the luckiest man alive, being able to talk about a synth for an hour to people who actually care. Doesnt happen in my house. Kudos.
You and plenty of others 😀 but when I first heard it I was dumbfounded as to what on earth it was doing on the synth and what use a sound like that could ever be! Shows what I know.
Starsky Carr i can see that. I reckon using single digit screens with a jog wheel makes you think more about what you are actually trying to achieve. I started with a 106 and a kawai k1-2 and gave the kawai the more love. The alpha is a stuck in the middle thing, i guess.
@@StarskyCarr How do you init a patch? I have a few patches that are corrupted and need to be reset, but dont want to do a patch dump.....eh dont worry about it, i just copied a working patch over the corrupted ones
been my main synth for 10 years... still love it
9:09 WHOA! Uexpected Rick Astley! I need to get my Alpha Juno 1 back in the rig 😹
I love pads with the alpha juno. So warm and phatt!
I have the Alpha Juno. The chorus is really underrated. If you can afford it the Retroaktiv MPG 50 is next level.
Added so much value to mine I use it as desktop with Juno off the table
I want one . I use the Virus ti 2 to make the Hoover. It can but not the same oomph
@@REFabbro good idea!
@@markchristopher2signal2
Use a bit of noise
Love my Juno 1... The envelopes can work at a speed that can only be measured using geological time!
The aJuno, to me, defines two particular genres: late 80's jazzfunk(it can do the wailing section brass sounds, along with the jx-8p) and synthwave of the past decade(because it's a vintage analog that remained affordable even as the market started heating up). It definitely had a place in dance tracks too, but as one of a varied collection of sounds. It was a common source for tracker music samples in the early 90's, and hoover noises aside, the gradual takeover of sampling decontextualized the instruments IMHO.
Love the Juno, the Juno 2 was my first 5 octave synth in the early 90s and i've used it for the longest time as my master keyboard cause it's so compact for a desk setting and it has really nice keys. I remember an old interview where Beltram said they sampled the Juno Hoover in a Roland sampler for Mentasm and edited there some more and used the sampler's filters
Brilliance changes not only filter's cut-off freq, but also makes all envelope's time parameters longer or shorter, proportionally
Great Demo . It was my first poly synth ! I big trick : the HPF have to be adjusted in second position (Value = 1) to be neutral . The first position adds sine wave to make big bass sounds .
The best sound of the presets of the Alpha Juno 2 is in my opinion "cello"...amazing timeless sound
Yeah, it is pretty good, is'nt it?
It's Good and it shows how Roland were in transition to find alternatives to the DX but it's far from the best sound (one of better presets) this synth can achieve I've programmed some amazing pads and bass sounds + many more types that almost sound like it has 2 oscillators.
If you're struggling to get a decent sound out of the Alpha Juno, check out 35:25 and you'll see how to get a traditional ADSR. You're a lifesaver Starsky.... I was going to sell mine tomorrow but thought to have one more TH-cam session, then found this golden nugget!
Oh, I love that Synrise sound. I used to play with that all the time when I had one of these as a teenager.
Thanks Starsky, that’s was a great overview demoing it’s unusual features compared to the other Juno’s. Probably like many who’ll see this and own one- yes the Alpha doesn’t really get the credit it deserve for its unique “character”. The retroactiv controller certainty ads adds a lot, (just not really sure really convinced worth the premium price )- great combo if you want to get the best out of using your alpha however!
Now that the Retroaktiv programming boxes have raised the bar and set a new standard, you might be pleased to see that the price of the older DTronics programmers have come down as a response. They lack the unique advanced features of the Retroaktiv units, but can be found on Reverb (brand new) for significantly less, and with free shipping. I even submitted an offer with a modest haircut, and managed to make a deal today.
100% on board with your assessment. Only thing I'd add (or simply stress) is that the saw and pulse are not mutually exclusive options - which someone might think seeing as how the Alpha is always referred to as a single osc synth. You can basically create waveforms that are morphs of saw and pulse - with PWM available for both saw and pulse added in, you can create really complex waveforms. And then make yet more madness with those extra stages in the Env. Granted the filter is rather pedestrian, but the little Alpha ranges beyond the abilities of the earlier Junos in ways that can still appeal greatly to sound designer-types.
Yeah.. I take that as read - as all the other Junos dog it, but maybe should've demo that as well :)
I have the alpha Juno-1 - was the first real synth I bought back in 1987 - and I still use it to this day. Spent countless hours programming sounds from the keyboard itself. I just might have to get that MPG-50 control surface for it.
One of my favorite tricks with the presets is to drop them down an octave using the octave button. The Pianos and Guitars respond really well to this.
i had both, love them. wish i still had them both!
I love the "adding Fools Gold" section of a couple recent videos of yours I've seen. Brillliant stuff all.
Absolutely fantastic presentation as well as History of the synths - the content is top draw Starsky - many thanks for posting:)
Just stumbled upon this great video. One of your best videos to date if you ask me, so merry xmas to you and looking forward to the next ones!
In our opinion this is, sonic wise, the best Juno Roland ever built. It has so much power under the hood. For example the OSC's are really a game changer especially for that time. Very reliable sounding OSCs that never go out of tune unless you want to. What's not to love about that. Great that you put that in the video with the oscilliscope and frequency analyzer. Then we have the - somehow - 3 LFO's and its strange but, beautiful and very usable envelope. Two filters - every synth should have that and a great sounding chorus. This synth really came from outer space.
We are using it with a D-Tronics DT-300, which is nice and makes progamming so much easier, but this RetroAktiv puts it again into another league with the preset capability and its OLED screen
Nice :)
@@StarskyCarr Thanks!
I found a HS-80 at a shop for $200. Probably the best deal I’ve ever had for a synthesizer. Especially compared to my other Junos.
Just picked up a v1 for £400. Very happy. I'd say it has 4 string presets, 3 or 4 lead and about 4 bass presets that are perfect for the kind of thing I want to do and the wheel isn't really as awkward as I was expecting. So all in all I'm pretty chuffed that a classic like this is still so affordable.
I still regret to this day selling the HS 80.it just sounded gorgeous. Good vids mate keep em coming.
The @Junos have THREE LFOS if you rthink about it. The main LFO, the PWM rate/depth and the chorus rate/switch. Pretty cool!
That Chord Mode demo is really evocative of the sound I associate with KasKade, of his late 2000s vintage
I have a soft spot for this. It was the one I wanted in 1985 but couldn't afford. I went home with a DX27 instead. I knew nothing about synths then. Analog or FM were the same thing as far as I knew. Just looking at it really takes me back. Love it's sleekness. Synths all looked like office equipment back then. Great sound too. You'll never have a problem getting that to fit in a mix. The Deepmind 12 pretty much satisfies my desire for this sound..
The Deepmind is great, closer to a Juno 106 though IMO. The Alpha is lot more powerful with a ton more options than the Deepmind or 106.
@@lundsweden Not sure how the Alpha is more powerful. DM12 has 2 DCO's as opposed to 1 on the Alpha. 12 stackable and detunable voices as opposed to 6. 2 LFO's. A very flexible mod matrix with an excellent ARP and pattern sequencer. Really nice FX section. And the price for a new DM12 is comparable to a used Alpha especially if you buy a programmer for the Alpha. The Alpha is a classic sounding Juno but it's not close to a DM12.
@@_P_M_ What I meant was the Alpha has a lot of waveforms, 5 saw, 5 different square, 7 stage envelope etc. As you say the DM has its strengths too, better modulation and some great features. You can't use two DCOs at the same time, can you? I certainly have the DM12 on my want list!
@@lundsweden Yes you can use both DCO's. It depends on how close you want it to sound like a 106. It's more of a tribute to the 106 than a clone. The additional wave shapes on the Alpha are nice to have but they were an attempt to give it a more digital FM sound. That made sense to do in 1985, but I don't know why anyone today would buy an analog synth to make it sound digital.
Great video. I had a Juno 6 back in the day and friends later had a106 and alpha2. I went to Ensoniq from there since I wanted that fat American sound. Nowadays the clearer Roland sound is something that can’t be missed on a synth palette . The alpha might be a good choice for that. You can get close to standard juno sounds but have some much more next to that’s
Circling back to this now that TAL has released TAL-Pha...and it has an actual control surface! 😎
according to rolands own schematics repair manual the filter is not a24 dB low pass but a 12 dB low with a 12 dB band pass combo their available free to download also look at the dcos not the same as the 6 60 106 no analog wave shapers here in the alphas!
OK so I've had mine a few weeks, and I really like it. It's definitely more chimey than the 60 and I miss the arp and hold, but that chorus is like nothing else I've ever heard. Weirdly the Novation Zero controller that's been getting in the way of my studio has an alpha preset (mks550) that just works really well! Happy days.
Da dah!!! Excellent.
Amazing. Thanks for this upload. Just listened whilst working, always found the ADSR part mysterious. This really helps. Gonna fire up my juno2 and have a proper watch later.
Cheers man.
I hope it makes more sense now ... it still leaves me puzzled when I go back to it after a while
Starsky, the part that you said was incredibly boring to watch was actually the most interesting to me. I just got this synth two weeks ago, made a patch, and then was boggled as to why it was sliding from out, in, and then out of tune again. Yet, I couldn't find a de-tune setting. Now I know I need to look into the oscillator envelope. I have the Stereoping Controller. It runs different than your controller. I like it as it works for several of my synths but man, this video is making me want to buy the RetroAktiv controller. It'd cost me more than I paid for the synth itself yet I'm sure it's worth it especially for the patch memory and generator. Thanks for the video. Just in time for an in depth look at my newest synthesizer.
1st synth I ever brought as a teen in the mid 80s. Looking back I wish I purchased a Juno 106
However I had endless fun on the Juno 2, not bad for a beginner and it had great presets.
Saved up all my pennies to buy it...lol
My 2nd synth of course was the mighty D50
Then many synths followed...
Thank you for your video. Fond memories!!
My second was the lowly D20 so you w well got me beaten!
@@StarskyCarr i had a nordlead4. but few weeks back had to sell her cause i lost my job and it hurts
I used to own an Alpha Juno 2 and loved the 4 stage envelope :D. never managed to get hold of the pg300 at the time I owned it :(. If this synth was just released as pure analog with all knobs and sliders accessible on the synth then it would have been amazing!
Yeah, the interface is a definite -ve. ... although some people seem to think it's not an issue. For me it's a disaster haha..
cool demo !!
have mine (mks 50/pg 300) for nearly 15 years...
although it has a very weak filter and can sound a bit cold
i love it for the pad,organ and bass sounds..
dig the chorus as well!
Nice work!
Curious detail about the envelope: the first decay is linear and the second exponential.
Curious detail about multi-stage envelopes in general: they were invented at the same time as really bad interfaces and will make you hate life.
They do drive you nuts to program, but they can also come in handy in a lot of ways. I have a Yamaha SY77, and while the visual editing only partially offsets the pain, being able to create virtual echoes and complex pitch envelopes is amazeballs.
I really like the more complex envelope. If it had speed to go with it, it'd be just about perfect. It's almost identical to the D-50 or JD-800 envelope. We've lost these interesting complex envelopes in most modern synths.
I'd like to see more modern hardware synths with envelopes like these, plus invert, loop, initial hold, reverse, slope type, etc.
Great demo, I love my alpha. Need to use it more. One thing to mention, I would consider the alpha’s oscillators to be more digital than not. Other Roland 80’s DCO’s (older Junos and the JX series) had analog circuits for waveshaping, such as turning the square wave output of the counters into a sawtooth. But the alpha’s oscs run through a digital wave shaper chip. That’s how you get all those interesting waveforms and sawtooth PWM. That chip has a DAC and so it gets converted back to analog before proceeding to the VCF. I don’t remember the details of the waveshaper DAC, but I think it’s a pretty low bit rate. In any case, it’s digitally controlled and digitally shaped. I consider the synth to be early digital/analog hybrid. Not that it matters at all. It’s the sound that counts.
Cool… never knew that. That’ll explain the odd wave shapes. A bit distorted compared to everything else I’ve looked at.
That's the kind of informed comment I appreciate TH-cam and mr Carr for. It does have a poly 800 vibe. Ta
@@PorchBass I can defo confirm this upon opening the Aj 2 several times . Its very much like the korg dw series.
@@StarskyCarr there's a lot of confusion about how the AJ's sound generation chip works, AFAIK unlike the Juno 106 the details of it have never been published. The Juno 106 uses an analog waveshaper chip to generate the sawtooth and square with a ramp-generation capacitor that gets discharged when it hits a trigger, and the square is derived from that, like most all granpa analog synthesizers back to the Minimoog use. On the 106 there's a control voltage input because even locked to a master clock that scheme goes out of tune at high frequencies and needs a correction: electricdruid.net/roland-juno-dcos/
The Alpha doesn't have this so I think they ditched that arrangement and used another internal counter to make a "stairstep" sawtooth and all the other waveforms are derived from (analog-ly) dividing and chopping that up in various ways. If the raw sawtooth has enough steps it's easy to filter out the lil steppies across the audio range with a fixed low-pass filter afterwards that you can also put on the chip, then send that to the square-generator and chopper, so you can get like a 25% square and chopped sawtooth, etc...The variable duty cycle on the square is always less than 50% and not greater so they just chop it after they make a 50% from the sawtooth I think.
This technique is described in books from the time like Hal Chamberlin's "Musical Applications of Microprocessors" from around 1980 and I expect they had a copy at Roland.
So if that is what they're doing yeah this is a type of "DAC" if you want to get technical but I think calling it a digital synth because of that is pushing it, it's just using a counter in an analog way, talking about bitrate or bit-depth is meaningless, the waveforms aren't stored in RAM or ROM and spit out with the type of DAC used in say a Roland D-50 or something, so long as the user don't hear any steppies in the output when they play C0 it's all good. Digital synths store waveforms in ROM or RAM and the 106 and AJ don't do this, yes they use a master clock for synchronization and tuning stability and in the latter case probably a bunch of logic gates to produce the sound, so what it don't make them "digital", there are a thousand ways to make granpa-waveforms that involve no binary data or anything stored in memory. If no audio information is being converted or stored in binary anywhere there's nothing "digital" going on in the usual use of the term.
That DAC doesn't do digital-to-analog conversion it does something else.
The Alpha Juno is a pure analog synth with digital pitch control and thats it.
There are not bits involved in the sound creation and if there were the
anti-aliasing would be the best-ever programmed at 8 bit.
You definitely have one of the best synthesizer youtube channel, always love your reviews !!
Awesome video - love my Alpha Juno 2! Was my first ever synth and I still have it, although I do need to get one of those MPG-50’s at some point… CTRLR panel and the iPG-800 iPad app are great, but not the same as tactile knobs and sliders.
I adored my Alpha Juno! One day I'll get it out of my mum's loft.
If I can find some MIDI cables....
… where’s your mums loft 😂
@@StarskyCarr 10,000 bloody miles away! I couldn't fit it in my suitcase returning Xmas 2019....a certain virus has intervened since then!
patience, patience......
I loaded a downloaded patchbank in mine a few years ago that was hilarious. It had an actual perfect sound of a hoover, & I mean vacuum -cleaner, a parody on the cliche 'hoover' sound, but not musical at all but it made me laugh a lot & I really appreciated the programmers sense of humor.
This was my first synth, and I absolutely loved it! Firstly it was “affordable” (just! and cheaper than the KORG equivalent). I would have said the major limitation is that there’s only 1 oscillator. Luscious filter, even if it doesn’t self-oscillate.
Cheaper than Korg Poly 800 at the time?
@@georgegeorgio1751 No it was either a PolySix or more likely a Poly61 I saw demoed, it sounded better, but it was beyond my budget.
@@RikMaxSpeed Ok well the Poly 800 was really competition for the Alpha not the 61/poly six.
@@georgegeorgio1751 That’s easy to say now, at the time the Roland Alpha Juno and KORG PolySix were side by side in the shops. Never saw a Poly 800.
@@RikMaxSpeed Poly six release was 81 , Poly 800 83, Juno 60 82 , Juno 106 84 , Alpha Juno 85. At the time when Roland was doing well with their Juno-series, . The Poly-800 was an answer to the original Juno 60, at the time which was replaced by the 106 & then alpha an updated version of the 106 with velocity and aftertouch & few other extras but without the sliders etc.
dude the mojo in this synth are the cord mode the chorus speed control and the saw pulse!
I agree with most but hardly ever use chord mode.
03:12 "These guys LOVE self-oscillation, don't we all?". That cracked me up for a while before I could unpause the video, and resume watching. Damn! :))))
Haha. Nice when someone notices the little gags :)
Such a brilliant video
Such a brilliant comment :) Cheers.
Very good. And very true, too.
Haha … I’m talking from very personal experience.
I just snagged a Juno-1 again after having owned one in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I sold it to the Cable Chamber studio in Stoke-On-Trent, UK and shipped it across the Atlantic from Canada. That studio was responsible for a lot of big progressive house records and trance records that came out at the time.
I never had a controller for mine either, but after having heard you mess about with yours I really need to get one to unlock it. I always hated the stock patches too beyond 'What The???' and a few of the pads and basses.
I’ve had a live hate relationship with mine for deviates now.
@@StarskyCarr sounds like you've had the same with your mobile phone's keyboard and autocorrect too. Haha.
I bought an MKS-50 back in 1991-1992 for $100. I always loved it. If you invert the filter envelope with a high enough resonance, you can get some nice solid bass from the synth by bringing down on that fundamental... not earth shattering... but a nice big thunk.
Back then (85/86) I had the choice of an Alpha Juno 1 or a Juno 60... I went with the 60 as the price was a little cheaper at £450 v £525 which was a decent amount of dough. Always quite fancied the Alpha Juno 2 purely because it looked pretty cool and lightweight while also having a good quality action. I've since owned JX8Ps and several JX10s... don't really miss any of them except for my 60 which is long long gone...
Me too, but the Midi and aftertouch were a must. Had to move forward in the 80s
It's got the Roland family sound for sure, and while the MKS-50's were dirt cheap I did acquire a few. The only time I saw one of these in the local shops (used) it was beat to hell and I just couldn't justify plunking down the money for a broken keyboard. Compared to the boards I had access to at the time (DX7, Arp Omni II, Electrocomp EML 101, and ARP 2600) it was more of a "players" keyboard except perhaps for the DX7, but then again it was way more accessible than the DX7 to understand. I had it in my mind that I saw one pre-1985 but now I doubt that and it was probably a Juno-60 or 6. Of course what I really wanted was a Jupiter-8, but it would be thirty years until I had that pleasure.
Haha.. show off. You and your Jupiter 8. Wish I'd picked one up when they were an outrageous £3k!
@@StarskyCarr Yes, and if you go back to 1988 or so, you could probably get it cheaper! Literally nobody wanted one, for a long time. I sold mine for $4.5K when I thought the market was about the top, and boy was I wrong. Wish I still had the EML 101 tho - that was a nasty raw sounding board and nothing I've had since has come close. I do still have the Jupiter 6, which I'll probably sell when something can replace it (uh-huh...)
@@ChrisCebelenski Selling a Jupiter 4 and Sys100 for £100 each to the same guy.. the same week as 'getting rid' of a Moog Prodigy for £150 and feeling lucky .. so I could get something more useful. Looking back it was the right move at the time - I could get something with MIDI and actually use it - but it still niggles :)
This synth still sounds amazing! iPad editor somewhat helps
@StarskyCarr The waveforms look rounded because the "0" setting on the HPF boosts the bass (just like on the Juno 106.) It's actually the "1" setting on the HPF that has a flat response, and would have given normal looking square and saw waveforms. Great video though. Love my Alpha.
Criminally underrated, and by their own company too !
I'm still waiting for a Cloud version I can use on the S8
@@StarskyCarr well, anything that didn't get super famous and wouldn't bring a lot of money to the table will probably not get a lot of attention from Roland. Look at the Jupiter-6, not even mentioned in Roland's recent retrospective for their 50-year anniversary ! And no chance of it being a cloud synth either... Such a shame, the Jupiter-6 and Alpha Juno are so much more interesting than the classic stuff, as you point out so brilliantly in your videos, and releasing products that nod to those particular models could get people interested in the "little brothers" living in the shadow of their predecessors...
I have a alfa juno 1 since 1985. Bought new.
When I finaly had a computer I managed the lack of physical control by tweaking it with sysex thru the MIDI environment in Logic (by Emagic in these times).
I would say my main complaint about it was the lack of self oscilation of the filter.
Now this synth is still fully fonctional and I use it from time to time.
funny cause i love the not self oscilating filter
@@jeffreyklippel6448 Let's say if your filter can self oscilate you can make it not self oscilating, the contrary is not possible 🙂 .
Anyway the AJ1 is a great little machine and I'll never sell mine.
@@FLH3official never sell mine .i love her .she sounds a little bit more agressive than the older junos.maybe try find a mks50 to join it one day.
Great review and talk, but this time little subjective at some points. I find Alpha Juno absolutely excellent, filter lacking self-resonance is actually good thing on performing polysynth. For effects and "crazy" stuff there were many cheap monosynths in 80's. Alpha dial is pure bliss for budget mid 80's synth (look at competition with only one fader or only +- buttons). Original presets are serving what performing musician was looking for in mid of 80's, many are not useful for modern music, but you can program so many nice ones (like you demostrated). Overall tone is really good and mostly holds up pretty nice in comparion to best sounding Juno (Juno-6) when I played both side by side, + there are of course more options in sounds over other Junos (as you demonstrated as well ;) ). With MPG-50 its absolute killer (or as I do it - just program it through midi/sysex from DAW). For its pricepoint, its absolute nobrainer to this day. All the best!
I think it’s subjective at points because I’ve lived with it for 30 years and have lived through each phase of its use/popularity etc I was there when it looked cool and the alpha dial was futuristic. I was there when we wanted synths to sound like pianos and trumpets, I was there when I couldn’t tweak it on the fly or make squelchy acid tones, I was there when the Hoover became popular. I was there at the dawn of VA when everything else seemed to be able to do so much more, and now I’m here when there are so many good hardware options for controlling it. But I think most users who’ve owned it over that time would agree with my assessments. These days the dial is a bit crap, the presets are awful, and it still can’t squeal 😂 but we can overlook and overcome these things to enjoy it more than ever.
@@StarskyCarr After all, it does sound really awesome and versatile for all the genres. Have fun with it in all the decades that ll come. ;)
After all these years i finally know how the envelope works
Never Managed to use, Never Managed to use, those drums!
Never even gonna tryy!
Never gonna run a line
And Roll you!
9:04
Haha,, love it !
@@StarskyCarr i was thinking and maybe can produce some kikkin beesdrum i think. i will try later today.
Love that chord memory sound pad at 50:08 and when that "Specular Tempus" (what a name for an effect!) comes in at 50:32 it is sounding very much like it is in the "Boards of Canada-esque" territory(well it is really at the Canada border before that reverb/delay unit kicks in)!
9:09 LOL! - Rick Astley found a use. Along with many other Stock Aitken Waterman tracks.
'95 had a Poly 6 and a Juno 1. You can pull off way better filter tweaking on the Alpha dial than you can with the up down on the Poly six.... As long as you're tweaking one param, the alpha dial is basically a knob…
I have one. It could sound flat and dry but if You send in a mixer and P.A. with some reverb it resurrects to new life ( apart the fact that the sounds can be tweaked during mix sessions...)
Had 2 of them sold 1 , the other is in for repair ,i think they're good at analog bass , brass ,some funky leeds and pwm pads with chorus, some pads can sound interesting without chorus if you add sub octs & different waveforms and vary the pwm at different rates, but without 2 oscs it sounds thin without chorus , have a King Korg and i can get very similar sounds from it but not in bass as the Alpha has that distinct vcf etc, to be honest there are plug ins that can get very close so i may end up selling the Alpha really looking forward to Behringers Pro 800 as i had a Prophet 08 which was good but again for the money there are cheaper options and the Pro 800 should be able to acheive similar if not better than the 08 , and last point i've never been interested in the Weird techno sounds the Alpha can do.
Nice video! I wonder what could be the best analog for Alpha Juno 2 to get that great gabber hoover synth sound?
you know I got it right after watching this vid...so thanks! because it's really really great!
Unlike the Kawai K3 the Roland Alpha Juno wastes the membrane-buttons on the right hand side for presets instead of synth-parameters. The Kawai K3 also has an alpha-dial for entering values and is very easy to program with its "one button per function" layout.
I know it’s shame the membrane buttons don’t directly access functions (like the project vs or even like the JX3P. Scrolling for everything, especially when you can easily overshoot, becomes annoying very quickly.
Ah... finally,i m,gonna understand that pg controller with the addssrdsr. Thx
Probably a common trick, but I programmed the chord memory as all different octaves of the same note....to get a massive unison-like heft.
In my opinion having a slightly understated resonance to the filter could be a good thing. It allows the performer to communicate the same textural idea without having to walk a tightrope over a pit of shrillness. Not having to worry about accidentally blasting an out-of-scope eardrum piercer could be liberating for someone who can't help but wiggle on it.
And is it my imagination, or does that filter not mute the low fundamentals as much as many resonant HPFs?
I love this walkthroughs, can you do one for the JX-8P (despite it being much less interesting)
Tnx for the quality content!
I'm trying to get hold of one :)
@@StarskyCarr I'd give you mine but I live in 🇮🇹 and it has 2 broken faders and a noisy chorus chip 😆 (plus I don't have the PG-800)
@@StarskyCarr I have one that I have put a kiwi8P mod in you could use but you would have to come to Qld Australia to revieiw it
Mine's going to have to come out of the loft now isn't :-) Top video thank you
I've always thought the 'hoover' is a seriously ugly sound. Great walkthrough, though. Learning a few things I never picked up on my a-Juno 1.
That MPG-50 controller is sexy af!
It’s completely opened up the synth for me. I’ve now got the PG2K from Retroaktiv for the JX3P
The HP filter on the aJuno has a low-end bump when at 0, that's why in the oscilloscope you could see that when you put it to 1, it looked normal. Same is on the 106
I don't think that's a bump... I think that was a normal looking sawtooth. With the bump the lower frequencies are much higher so you get more of an exponential drop off in the harmonics at the low end rather than linear.
@@StarskyCarr It's a low shelf boost, you can try it with white noise, it becomes more obvious. Just FYI :)
Great video! you know so much about synths starsky, question: we make new / modern italo music (dark disco/indie dance) that involves a lot of those 'rolling arpeggio basses' if you know what i mean. What synth would be the best for this in your opinion?
I prefer the Alpha to the 106. Sure, the 106 can do a few great sounds the Alpha can't, but I think it sounds much warmer, and can do a much wider range of sounds.
That sinrise patch reminds me of the oberheim sound
That was very lovely and helpful. Thanks. I'm considering an ios controller for one of these at some point.
Don’t think about it just get one. It opens the synth up so much.
A little bit "uhm" but it has some very unique retro futuristic character that is missing from modern synths, I don't use mine very often, but when I turn it on I always get fascinated by how good it can sound with custom patches.
great overview and video , i sold mine recently, bought it from the original owner who had bought it new way back in 86/87 used it for maybe 10+ years and it sat in an attic thereafter
aftertouch was also no longer working on mine, a common fault apparently, tried disconnecting/reconnecting the ribbon to see if that helped, which is easily done, but i think the ribbon just needed replacing,
just a heads up, if it develops a high pitched whine noise when it's on (doesn't affect the audio but you can hear it coming from the synth) , it's coming from the transformer for the backlit LCD, you can either disconnect the backlit LCD (which i did, quick fix) and the noise is gone or replace the LCD
great work as always in any case, thanks
Certainly made me reappraise this - I played with one at the time but was distracted by the JP and Sixtrack the shop also had on demo.
y
Can you run the MPG-50 while also running the Juno 2 through the midi in your DAW? Thanks
Yes. The MIDI just runs through the MPG. I wondered the same before I got it. But it’s not an issue in the slightest.
@@StarskyCarr Thanks!!
Hi - is there a way to have an iPad with the programmer app and the sequencer to sequence J2 connected at the same time? thanks!
I think you can use the ‘thru’ input on the irig midi for iPad. I use patch base !juno 2 editor, but haven’t done the arp thing. Best of luck man
Roland needs to make a Boutique of the Junos.
I liked to twiddle the alpha dial live to change the resonance of a sequenced acid bass. It wasn't that much of a disadvantage unless you're a sound nerd about the finer points of a synth bass resonance in a live drug crazed situation
- plugged my alpha juno 1 in for the first time in years today, into a zoom ms-70, controlled by a keystep 37, it's a bit rubbish really -
Haha… it is with the original interface. I had no love for mine for years.
I have one of these, it is very beat up and the keyboard doesn't work, I play it from another keyboard. You can get a computer program that sends midi to it and can adjust all the parameters on screen with a mouse. But for some reason that isn't working for me anymore except just to change the patch. Annoying. Any tips welcomed.
P.s. my favourite sound is 63 flute
There are loads of apps. I'm on a Mac and use CTRLR panels there's one called aloha Juno and another I can't remember then name of. Check out CTRLR and go onto the forums you'll find them.
@@StarskyCarr thanks very much, I'll check those out
None of the flaws are fatal actually. Juno was never made for tweaking parameters (that's why presets are so good) and especially for modern day youtubers who rotate the knobs for a living (me included). The synth was made for the people who can actually play the song with two hands from start to finish. None of them probably even cared about a things called LFO, PWM etc...
And that analog sound with that special DCOs... wow i have never heard anything remotely close to it. It's so much better than anything Roland made in analog field nowadays.
9:06 the famous Toms that were used on Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley
Really... I'm quit amazed they were used anywhere ;) Thanks for the info.... I'll bore everyone I know with that lovely little fact!
Hi guys the juno 2 is best with aftertouch working it's half the sounds, I used to play in bands with this and a kawai k3m fantastic sounds
Nice! I have both and they’re still (somehow) affordable
You need to switch the HPF to #1, if you want to see the true shape of the oscs. HPF #0 is adding a bass boost, like on all analog Junos.
It doesn't on the alphas, I've double and triple (and quadruple) checked this a few times as quite a few people have mentioned it. You don't get the low frequency bump on the alphas that you get on the others.
@@StarskyCarr Mmmh, the manual mentions the low end boost and my Alpha 1 (first generation) does change the shape significantly on HPF #0. I've just uploaded a small video showing the effect, check it out.
When they said 'user-friendly' I guess they meant compared to the DX7.
Haha
"Fatally flawed" is overstating things (although I understand the need to draw viewers in).
It's merely not optimal for a certain genre of musical performance. But the nice thing about music is there are so many ways to play it...
Haha… I’m not sure there’s anything that could draw viewers into a video about the Alphas… interested parties only here I suspect 😂 Maybe i should try ‘you won’t believe what this crazy Juno 2 did next..’
@@StarskyCarr You might like the corner on my lounge.
Hammond C3, with a Juno Alpha 2 on top
House existed in 1987 too.
OK, now I am getting a controller for the old girl. Are Retroactive in Europe? Are there import taxes to the UK or is there UK supplier?
Cheers for the old school memories by the way.
i use a software controller for free.
Also thought I'd mention that you can dump the sysex to a cheap, used, Berhinger BCR2000 control surface and bob's your uncle.
I mention the BCR in this somewhere :)
@@StarskyCarr I shoulda watched twice!
haha... I'll forgive you for not concentrating for a full hour!! It takes me a few attempts to watch all the way through. Making sure there's no errors after hours of editing it torture.
Please consider making a comparison between the Alpha Juno 2 and the Tal-Pha plugin that came out recently (by Togu Audio Line). I think it would be very valuable to the community. Cheers!
It’s done… will release on Friday 😀