Great Vid on the 3! I have a 6 and a 106 and I think they are wildly different but come from the same DNA. I think this is largely due to the manufacturing practices Roland had from 82 to 84(alot happened those 3 years like the introduction of Midi and the dx7 that forced many to make sad designs with constricted interfaces and audible stepping) The 6/60 IMO have the Roland trademark sound that we all know and love because of the ICs they were using which were also employed on the JP-4,8,6, SH-101, JX-3p, and MKS-7. The two most notable ICS were the IR-3109 filter and the IR-3R01 envelope generator (which the 106 does not have). The 6/60 has a more organic and punchy sound because of how sharp the envelope is and the topology of the filter makes it sound a little more round and carved out. I would love to find some adjectives to describe the filters on the 82 junos but none will do it justice. The filters self-oscillate in this gorgeous bubbly way and those sounds just cut through unlike anything else. The 6/60 are basically identical other than the highpass filter on the 6 is continuous while on the 60 it is not because of the patch storage capabilities which added some parameters that might have some stepping. I think that the 6 is ever so slightly better because of the direct control due to a lack of patch storage. The 106 internally is almost as different as its external appearance compared to the 82 Junos. The main difference besides the obvious introduction of midi is that the VCA, and VCF ( also IR-109) are all housed in the 80017a voice chips that allow for better digital control and they were a cost cut from the way that the earlier Roland synths were made. Another important feature to note is the 3 db boost in the highpass filter makes sound different for bass. Because of this, the sub sounds more glued together to the main osc on the 106. My recommendation is for someone to save up for either 3 of these. (only get a 60 if you are gigging live or want to be Nils Frahm/Olafur Arnalds. The 6 is a better choice out of the two in my opinion and its super easy to install midi if you have a reliable tech.) The stretch is that if you can afford to have a 6/60 and a 106 do it, its like having two sides of a golden coin.
@Nunchuckstraberry Juno 106 have the IR3109 VCF, its just potted into a module.The voice VCF-VCA is the same for all of them just HPF that differs. JX3p dont have the same IR VCA its NPn discrete and is noisier by design, the Q circuit is also very different cusing IMD to be different then the rest. JP6 VCF is a whole different design and topology then all the rest JP6 also uses CEM 3360 VCA's and is dual VCA design. They all differ in details, you have to study the schematics better.
Even if you have that kind of money I don't think you should buy two Junos, which are still very limited and incredibly similar-sounding synthesizers. _Looking at you, Charlie Puth..._
I have owned the JU-6, JU-60 and the 106 over the years, though not all at the same time, apart from the JU-6 and 106 I had together for a brief period. My favorite is the Juno-6, I prefer this to the 60, due to the floor noise being a lot less than the 60 (I am presuming due to the patch memories being added), and I do not miss the patch storage as it is such a simple synth to program and is easy to change to different sounds on the fly. The later 106 is great as well but I miss the Arpeggio as I like to sync it to vintage drum machines, sound wise I felt the 6 & 60 are almost identical, I thought the 106 has a buzzier sawtooth waveform and a more liquid sounding filter, but also the filter is not as upfront as in the 6/60, so it depends on what your needs are, all are great and give you a similar vibe. The real deal breaker is price, the 60 prices have gone off into Lala land, so it only leaves the 6 & 106 and even they are expensive now. Are the Juno 6/60/106 overrated, not at all, are they all overpriced hell yes!
Getting my Juno 6 was a dream come true. A beautiful sound, easily made tactile via one of the most well-presented interfaces we've ever seen. It is a perfect instrument, in my own opinion. Nothing but love for the Junos!
Living proof that simplicity, great usability and good engineering can produce something marvellous and timeless. Just like the MiniMoog. Great tunes Starsky!
I truly love the Roland Juno Sound! It’s a timeless sound to me. I particularly love both the Juno-60 and Juno-106. That infamous “Chorus Effect” is so very sweet and lush sounding it’s practically ear candy for me. I’m just obsessed with Roland Gear/Synthesizers in general especially, the Juno Synths! I truly love that Vintage 80’s sound with a passion! Great video!! 💯🎶😎🙏🙌
I'll probably get Rick Rolled for this opinion, but as an original Juno-60 owner (1983, I'm old) I did not at all care for the Juno-106 when it came out. I considered "upgrading" but returned it within a week of purchase. It was thin, lifeless, and not at all as exciting as the Juno-60 was... in my opinion 😁 My Juno-60 is long gone, but I have a System-8, a Deepmind 12, and Arturia VSTs desperately trying to relive those glorious days during my 20s. Thank you for the memories, Starsky Carr!🥰
Fantastic video! I'm a new owner of a pristine Juno-6, picked up yesterday and love it. Definitely the underdog, but who needs patch memory on a synth this easy to program 😂 as long as you're not gigging with it. The tone of the Juno just feels like THE sound I've always wanted from a synth. I grew up in the 80s and the Juno just feels like home to me.
those EP sounds on the 6 around 7:22 were fantastic. haven't heard the juno's as much with the filters closed like that. much more versatile than people give them credit for
Seriously one of the most illuminating and valuable videos I’ve ever seen on RUclips. I got exactly the info I wanted but also so much more in depth and enjoyable than I was expecting. You should get some kind of award for this. Thank you SO much!
I don't know how anyone can't love the Juno. Back in 1985 I was at my local studio making some post punk noises and there was a Juno 6 there, as well as a DX-7.The Juno was the obvious go-to because, inexperienced as I was with synths, I wanted to make my own sounds and I knew just how much of a nightmare the DX was. I certainly wasn't able to pull off what you did here - 12 sounds in less time than it took me to eat my dinner - but because the panel is so tactile and intuitive it was almost impossible to make it sound bad. Today we have a plethora of professional studios on this little windswept rock in the Atlantic and the owner of one of them is a huge synth nerd and recently bought a Juno 6 for his collection. I think I'm going to fight him for it.
@artisans8521. I’ve got a Yamaha dx 7 and korg poly 61 from the 80s .. I’ve only had to replace a simple battery in both units. Nothing more ... Not sure modern behringer synths will last that long. I’ve heard behringer model D’s crapping out within 1-2 years.. lifeless . That’s some great quality.. I haven’t even mentioned other vintage synths I’ve had zero issues with. 🤷♂️
I think Starsky Carr actually has some more competition from Alex Ball, when it comes to owning and using vintage gear and creating classic 80s sounding tunes! Although Alex will also throw in the 70s as well! 😃
I have a 106 and just plugging the headphones in and playing it is such a nice experience, almost everything you do is magic sounding. Crazy to hear the comparison on how much juicier the 6 and 60 are.
They're each utter classics. They are still the best purchase for most band's first synths because they're highly inspiring, easy to use, and they sound exquisite. It is the MOST useable synth there is. Prophets etc. can all be great and do wonderful tricks, but for bread and butter the Juno is killer. The emulations have gotten better and will make you smile, a real Juno 6/60/106 will make you cry.
Honestly, your setup for the "Where It's At" cover completely changed the way I've been thinking about synths. TBH, I kind of came to the conclusion that I didn't really vibe with the Junos, and instead focused on electric pianos. I still think that might be the case, but I never really learned to make sounds on my own. There's a big ol' learning curve, but that's probably worth learning. Thanks!
Tech porn time: Juno106 have software generated envelopes while Juno 6 and 60 have muxed hardware generated envelopes. Juno106 have higher DAC resolution, switched 12 bits while 6 and 60 have 7bits but uses expoconverters for the control CV's. All of them have a sweep range and base point trim pots for VCF frequency, most likely the 106 is just a bit off. May i have one Juno 60 please!
Junos are fantastic. My first real synth was a Juno 60 I bought for $200. Why did I eventually sell it for $500? I don’t want to talk about it (No MIDI was one reason). At one point I had three 106’s at once, it’s a real workhorse and was great in the pre-DAW days with my MPC as sequencer. I still have an Alpha Juno. It sounds great but is a hassle to program and the digital controls make adjusting as you play very stair-steppy. You really need the PG-300 if you have an Alpha Juno. All these years later and I mostly use a Behringer Deepmind 12D for Juno sounds. It’s pretty close and doesn’t take up much studio space.
Great designs endure! Thanks for this lovely homage to a timeless set of Roland musical tools. I doubt that I'll ever own a classic antique Juno 6/60/106, but I certainly do appreciate their sounds, even if they are being mimicked/emulated/approximated by the likes of a JU-06a, System 8, or Behringer Deepmind 12.
I enjoyed all intro trax! Excellent comparison video, love the Juno's and love the system 8's take on the Juno's as well, since I don't dare to invest in an old Juno and am perfectly happy with my s8 :)
You've answered all the questions I wanted to know about the 3 models. And being a fellow System 8 owner, I can appreciate taking that one in account too!
That first cover was so accurate I didn’t even notice until I looked at the screen and saw the lyrics were different! (For whatever reason it takes me multiple listens to decode lyrics into words) Good job matching the sounds there. Nice Max Headroom footage too
Used to have a Juno 6 and 106. Now I have the system 8 and those 2 were sold off to acquire other things. ACB is nearly perfect. Perfect enough for my ears
I love the Sarsky Carr funny intros and covet the Juno 6 (maybe one fine day or will it be called Neptune 8?) but never understood the existence of the OFF button next to the chorus since you can press both 1 and 2 to have it off anyway. What's that about?
Aaarrhhh.... i'm literraly looking for how to put 4 thumbs up to this video : one for the professor Carr, one for each great singer of these groovy lovely hypnotics songs and one last for the keyboardist/ programer ( should do an EP ! )... I JUST CAN'T !!!!..... 4 is the less i feel, for this another pleasant video from one of my most favourite youtuber. One is not enough... Sir Starsky Carr: thanks for this another pleasant moment in the synths world ! have a great day ( you have definitly made mine !! ) and a nice week-end !
One thing I would like about having an Alpha Juno or the MKS-50 module would be its chord memory and voice-stacking features. If those features had been present here, it would’ve easily have sold me on trying to grab an original Juno model when they were still affordable. Even without some of the modulation busses on my JX-8p, the ability to create Oberheim-style fifths in mono mode would still be worth something. Of course, having the JX-8p and the MKS-70 kind of overrides the need for an Alpha Juno or the 50.
What an awesome, vid, do you think Yoad would convince Ty to get a Behringer DM12 ? Do you have access to a Juno X to compare at all? Also great seeing on Sonicstate with Nick, Yoad and obviously Ty. Hope to see you there again, great show.
Thanks. I was flattered to be invited especially with such company! I don’t have the X but have had the Xm and chose the S8 - mainly because the interface in the Xm needed too much menu diving for things I use a lot. The X should be easier and looks and feels much nicer as an instrument. Sonically it’s not as accurate as the S8 which are the Cloud Legendary series. Best thing to do to decide for yourself is to take out the free subscription for a month and see if it makes a difference to you.
@@StarskyCarr Yeah I am no fan of menu diving, that's why I got rid of my MC707. The S8 seems a favorite of many due to less menu diving than the X series Zen based hardware.
@@VisionsMusicGroup mine was intended as a module, so I could have an extra 8 synths per se, with only 3 assignable knobs to do anything per synth, it was just a nightmare to do anything.
one thing i didn't notice playing them (because it was never at the same time), is that moment when resonance is pushed to the max, and you drop the cutoff from top to bottom with the envelope, you can hear the vcf oscillation go way deeper in bass on the 6, than on 60 where it dies out pretty quickly before even reaching the bass range. as for the sound comparison, for all the logical reasons the 6/60 should be "better" the 106 - less noise, brighter, snappier envelopes, shimmering pwm, arpeggio etc. however, Juno 106 has kinda carved out its own niche in past 30 years - its plasticky darker sound, with the wide chorus and artificial low mid and bass boost bump is the cornerstone of many eighties and synth pop tunes and then the whole retro synthwave thing. plus the early nineties rave, dnb, house and techno. its just instant trip back in time the moment you hear it. i prefer the shimmery pwm, snappy arps and stabby chords on 6/60, and dark pads/strings and especially bass and acid bass on the 106. where its darker and compressed sound actually helps..
9:00 made me laugh, great video, very helpful. Fell into a near mint Juno 60 few days ago, friend of my wife’s said he had an old keyboard sitting in a case. Wanted me to try it out, fired it up and to my amazement everything works perfectly, even the factory presets were still there. It’s mine now,paid a fair price for it.
Much love for the killer Calvin Harris cover!! The whole album was produced on a Commodore Amiga in tracker software. If someone made a sampler based entirely on the Amiga Paula sound chip I would buy it immediately
thank you sooo much for this 🙏🏻 been waiting for a comparison like this for ages since i got a pristine Juno 6 two months ago and i just think it's the most beautiful sounding synth ever made ...i'm really impressed you have all three 🙀...which did you get 1st, 2nd, 3rd and why?
I've had the 106 for years. I keep an eye out for stuff to demo, and people offer me broken things occasionally to see if there's anything I can do with it. The 6 and the 60 are recent purchases I've had to get repaired so I could demo them. I'll pass one of them on once I think I've done all I can with them, but keep the other as the sound is cool. I tend to buy and sell stuff to demo, hence my pleads for Patreon at the end of every video... I'm not the best at making money from them as I always pay to get them repaired. I need better soldering skills!
I had a Juno 60 , paid £350 for it from Future Music in Chelmsford 1997 ish. 2 weeks later my bandmate who i worked with found an excellent condition Juno 106 in a skip at the dump where we worked, he also found a Jen SX1000 and some Taisco synth i didn't see. Bastard!
That synth version of Where It's At well worth the 24 minutes. Now we're talking. Obviously that was more about emulating electric piano and organ sounds but the way Beck uses synths sounds in some of his songs is very cool.
thank you for this video, this is great. i tried to copy your paches on my juno 6 as close as i could. now i know, my juno sits somewhere between your 6 and 106. so no recalibration needed :)
Great vid, and fun songs! Your 60 seems to be lacking a chunk of bass though? I've owned all 3: Juno 6 bought new with my 'life savings' when I was 16. I had a toss-up between it and a used minimoog and the Juno won... It got stolen after a gig at school a while later I got a 106 to replace it. The patch memory was great for gigging but I hated the aesthetic and lack of arp. Sold it to a mate for cheap in the early 90s. FF to the mid 2000s and I saw a 60 for sale in the local yellow ads for £220. Went round and it belonged to a wealthy dentist and it looked brand new. Came with the manual and factory patch cassette. Still got it, it still looks brand new, and still works perfectly :) Pedant mode engage - the 60 has 7 banks of 8 patches, not 5 ;)
Haha I know I spotted that in the banks … then forgot to edit it out. I’d actually talked too long about the hidden banks for calibration etc.. so remade that section without going too far down the geek hole. It’s odd when recording stuff while thinking about the next bit, checking various bits and Bob s as you talk .. answering the doorbell, redoing stuff, forgetting what you’ve already said… then realise you’ve used the completely wrong words. The number of times I say envelope rather than filter and similar weird stuff. There’s probably a medical condition to describe it!
It’s the noise reduction I’m using … AI based and every now and then it tries to make a human voice from the synths. I catch most of it but every now and then I hear a weird synth Starsky voice making random vowel sounds… a bit (lot) freaky.
@@ghost_mall it’s honestly what it sounds like. Me as a freaky synth voice - like the primal screams of an artificial life-form desperately trying to will itself into existence.
In the early 90s I bought my Juno6 in a second hand gear shop for the today's equivalent of 70€/$. I still have it, obvioulsly. A classic trick with the JU6: use the self oscilating filter and its key tracking as an oscilator. 2 trick with a non-MIDI Juno 6: send a audio click in the input of the sync jacks of the arpegiator.
Thank you so much for that, I thoroughly enjoyed it and appreciated the detail that you went into. I love the Juno, sadly can't afford a real one. The model on the SH4d is about as close as I'll get!
Funny I was watching the SOS podcast yesterday and noticed the Junos behind you :) super demo/comparison. Only have the 106 but thats enough for my fat fingers and lack of musical talent :D
My 6 and 60 are the only synths I'd never sell. I've had all sorts over the years and many far more rare than these two, but none of them could come close to sounding as good all round. It's such a rich, lush and warm sound, but 'vanilla' enough to work in a mix or with a ton of FX.
They are all great, but I pick the 6/60 because of something this video doesn't touch on: envelope-controlled PWM. This is one of the coolest tricks for bass and moving leads, and it's absent from so many synths. All that said, I have an untouched vintage 106 with all of its original voices intact. I think the tone of the 6/60 is overall a bit fizzier and more lively, but I do mean a bit. There's a lot of shade thrown on the 106, but it holds its own against its older sisters. The 106 brings portamento, MIDI, and an undocumented bass boat that the 6/60 don't have. In exchange the older Junos have arpeggiators and the aforementioned envelope PWM, along with a slightly brighter and (at times) more lively sound. But make no mistake: they all sound great. It's true that they're simple synths, but that is so often all that's needed. The Junos simply sound nice, and their straightforward panel layout makes it easy to dial in the exact sound you need. I own synths that are much more complex, but the 106 somehow makes it into almost every track I make.
Great video. I can only afford one expensive synth, so i'll stick to my Jupiter-X for now, but a Juno 60 has been on my wishlist for some time now. Maybe one day
Thanks Starsky that was brilliant..👍..synths great, track great, but what really won me over was referencing Max Headroom😂. While I prefer look of the 60 I must have cloth ears as can’t really tell much of a difference 🤔so really enjoyed your comparison. Probably get system8 one day just for the 60 model... Ironically I used to have a stupid bias against the Juno’s ( figured how limited a single Osc poly would be)- few years a go got lucky & offered a damaged 106 cheap, fixed it up to sell...fell in love with the damn thing😊 probably my favourite analogue I’ve ever had- you just can’t make a bad sound with it.
Nice comparison! Unsolicited tip: I believe the Juno-60 has a total of 7 banks, which can be accessed by pressing holding bank 5 button and pressing bank 1 or 2. Not sure why they did it that way.
Loved my 60 when I owned it from around 1990 to 1994 but I became increasingly irked by its lack of MIDI back then, and I didn't know anything about the control options available at the time. So, I sold it... and still 30 years later it has left a hole in my life which I have recently tried to fill with a boutique JU-06 and a nice 88-key Alesis trigger/controller. The JU-06 is close enough in sound to the 60 (for me) but even though Roland has built it with decent sliders and a steel panel, I miss the size and the "heft" of the 60. I don't miss the component failures though. I have a lot of other vintage kit including Kenwood, Linn and Quad amplifiers and they are all a bit noisy these days. I'm not looking forward to recapping them. Oh yeah... the price too. Sold my 60, which was "close to mint", for £400. Yikes..!! I also sold a headless guitar which was cool to look at and sounded decent too. That's another I wish I'd held onto. My friend has a Maplin mono synth which is taking up space in his loft. I'm going to lean on him to restore it and give it a new airing.
Awesome sounds and comparison. Do you think a serviced and calibrated 106 would sound brighter? It was noticeably darker than the others, but still amazing!
No, I think that's the tone. This has been serviced - but you can't really open the filter anymore - you can tweak the cutoff so they're all the same etc. I don't think its a caps issue - they all do it... plus the 106 I have here has been placed against the Roland Cloud and Softube emulations and they were bang on.
According to the sound comparison section, the 106 is much much darker, and it feels like theres more chorus texture happening? The 6 is the brightest and edgiest for sure, and the 60 is very clean and very sharp, not sharp in pitch but in texture
I’ve always thought I prefer the 60’s sound. Need a blind test I’m not sure if I’m always expecting it to sound better to me 6 and 60 seem warmer and grittier
Nice comparison. I might be biased as I own the Ju-60, but I do really prefer the Ju-60 over the Ju-106, which lacks some of the smoothness and liveliness but also the bite of the Ju-60. The Ju-6 sound more or less identical to the 60, as expected
@@kierenmoore3236 The Juno 6 and 60 are technically identical except for the 60 having patch storage added to it. Any sound differences between a Juno 6 and 60 would be down to calibration or aging from the components. The same differences might be found between individual Ju-60s or Ju-6s. The 106 on the other hand has some different chips and a more precise digital clock which influences how the oscillators sound.
Great Vid on the 3! I have a 6 and a 106 and I think they are wildly different but come from the same DNA. I think this is largely due to the manufacturing practices Roland had from 82 to 84(alot happened those 3 years like the introduction of Midi and the dx7 that forced many to make sad designs with constricted interfaces and audible stepping) The 6/60 IMO have the Roland trademark sound that we all know and love because of the ICs they were using which were also employed on the JP-4,8,6, SH-101, JX-3p, and MKS-7. The two most notable ICS were the IR-3109 filter and the IR-3R01 envelope generator (which the 106 does not have). The 6/60 has a more organic and punchy sound because of how sharp the envelope is and the topology of the filter makes it sound a little more round and carved out. I would love to find some adjectives to describe the filters on the 82 junos but none will do it justice. The filters self-oscillate in this gorgeous bubbly way and those sounds just cut through unlike anything else. The 6/60 are basically identical other than the highpass filter on the 6 is continuous while on the 60 it is not because of the patch storage capabilities which added some parameters that might have some stepping. I think that the 6 is ever so slightly better because of the direct control due to a lack of patch storage. The 106 internally is almost as different as its external appearance compared to the 82 Junos. The main difference besides the obvious introduction of midi is that the VCA, and VCF ( also IR-109) are all housed in the 80017a voice chips that allow for better digital control and they were a cost cut from the way that the earlier Roland synths were made. Another important feature to note is the 3 db boost in the highpass filter makes sound different for bass. Because of this, the sub sounds more glued together to the main osc on the 106. My recommendation is for someone to save up for either 3 of these. (only get a 60 if you are gigging live or want to be Nils Frahm/Olafur Arnalds. The 6 is a better choice out of the two in my opinion and its super easy to install midi if you have a reliable tech.) The stretch is that if you can afford to have a 6/60 and a 106 do it, its like having two sides of a golden coin.
Cool… and pinned! 👍
Great info, thank you
@Nunchuckstraberry Juno 106 have the IR3109 VCF, its just potted into a module.The voice VCF-VCA is the same for all of them just HPF that differs. JX3p dont have the same IR VCA
its NPn discrete and is noisier by design, the Q circuit is also very different cusing IMD to be different then the rest. JP6 VCF is a whole different design and topology then all the rest
JP6 also uses CEM 3360 VCA's and is dual VCA design. They all differ in details, you have to study the schematics better.
Even if you have that kind of money I don't think you should buy two Junos, which are still very limited and incredibly similar-sounding synthesizers. _Looking at you, Charlie Puth..._
I have owned the JU-6, JU-60 and the 106 over the years, though not all at the same time, apart from the JU-6 and 106 I had together for a brief period. My favorite is the Juno-6, I prefer this to the 60, due to the floor noise being a lot less than the 60 (I am presuming due to the patch memories being added), and I do not miss the patch storage as it is such a simple synth to program and is easy to change to different sounds on the fly.
The later 106 is great as well but I miss the Arpeggio as I like to sync it to vintage drum machines, sound wise I felt the 6 & 60 are almost identical, I thought the 106 has a buzzier sawtooth waveform and a more liquid sounding filter, but also the filter is not as upfront as in the 6/60, so it depends on what your needs are, all are great and give you a similar vibe.
The real deal breaker is price, the 60 prices have gone off into Lala land, so it only leaves the 6 & 106 and even they are expensive now.
Are the Juno 6/60/106 overrated, not at all, are they all overpriced hell yes!
Getting my Juno 6 was a dream come true. A beautiful sound, easily made tactile via one of the most well-presented interfaces we've ever seen. It is a perfect instrument, in my own opinion. Nothing but love for the Junos!
Starsky Carr is the best synth channel on YT. Always very detailed analysis of synths and hardware.
Wow, thanks!
Living proof that simplicity, great usability and good engineering can produce something marvellous and timeless. Just like the MiniMoog. Great tunes Starsky!
I truly love the Roland Juno Sound! It’s a timeless sound to me. I particularly love both the Juno-60 and Juno-106. That infamous “Chorus Effect” is so very sweet and lush sounding it’s practically ear candy for me. I’m just obsessed with Roland Gear/Synthesizers in general especially, the Juno Synths! I truly love that Vintage 80’s sound with a passion! Great video!! 💯🎶😎🙏🙌
I *really* like the Junos... but I LOVE the Jupiter 6. :)
I'll probably get Rick Rolled for this opinion, but as an original Juno-60 owner (1983, I'm old) I did not at all care for the Juno-106 when it came out. I considered "upgrading" but returned it within a week of purchase. It was thin, lifeless, and not at all as exciting as the Juno-60 was... in my opinion 😁 My Juno-60 is long gone, but I have a System-8, a Deepmind 12, and Arturia VSTs desperately trying to relive those glorious days during my 20s. Thank you for the memories, Starsky Carr!🥰
Fantastic video! I'm a new owner of a pristine Juno-6, picked up yesterday and love it. Definitely the underdog, but who needs patch memory on a synth this easy to program 😂 as long as you're not gigging with it. The tone of the Juno just feels like THE sound I've always wanted from a synth. I grew up in the 80s and the Juno just feels like home to me.
One of those videos that I'll be getting back to for years to come 😀 👍
those EP sounds on the 6 around 7:22 were fantastic. haven't heard the juno's as much with the filters closed like that. much more versatile than people give them credit for
Reviews don’t get much better than this. 👊🏼❤️
Seriously one of the most illuminating and valuable videos I’ve ever seen on RUclips. I got exactly the info I wanted but also so much more in depth and enjoyable than I was expecting. You should get some kind of award for this. Thank you SO much!
It’s a pleasure. Thanks for the comment it’s appreciated. Lots of work goes into these so it’s nice to hear back from someone who’s enjoyed it.
I don't know how anyone can't love the Juno. Back in 1985 I was at my local studio making some post punk noises and there was a Juno 6 there, as well as a DX-7.The Juno was the obvious go-to because, inexperienced as I was with synths, I wanted to make my own sounds and I knew just how much of a nightmare the DX was. I certainly wasn't able to pull off what you did here - 12 sounds in less time than it took me to eat my dinner - but because the panel is so tactile and intuitive it was almost impossible to make it sound bad. Today we have a plethora of professional studios on this little windswept rock in the Atlantic and the owner of one of them is a huge synth nerd and recently bought a Juno 6 for his collection. I think I'm going to fight him for it.
Fight fight fight fight 🥊🥊
While the 106 was never my favorite sounding synth, it does have my all time favorite layout - it's so fun to use. Great video as always.
Espen Kraft just lost the title of "I am the 80's"...Starsky Carr is the new titleholder.
Espen craft just put a Juno in a prophet x
He’s just sold a load of his gear so I may just be temporarily ahead in those stakes until these leave!
@@artisans8521that's because vintage cars are simply more fun to drive
@artisans8521. I’ve got a Yamaha dx 7 and korg poly 61 from the 80s .. I’ve only had to replace a simple battery in both units. Nothing more ... Not sure modern behringer synths will last that long. I’ve heard behringer model D’s crapping out within 1-2 years.. lifeless . That’s some great quality.. I haven’t even mentioned other vintage synths I’ve had zero issues with. 🤷♂️
I think Starsky Carr actually has some more competition from Alex Ball, when it comes to owning and using vintage gear and creating classic 80s sounding tunes! Although Alex will also throw in the 70s as well! 😃
Bought my Juno-60 in June 1983. It still use it a lot and it still sounds gooood!!
I have a 106 and just plugging the headphones in and playing it is such a nice experience, almost everything you do is magic sounding. Crazy to hear the comparison on how much juicier the 6 and 60 are.
They're each utter classics. They are still the best purchase for most band's first synths because they're highly inspiring, easy to use, and they sound exquisite. It is the MOST useable synth there is. Prophets etc. can all be great and do wonderful tricks, but for bread and butter the Juno is killer. The emulations have gotten better and will make you smile, a real Juno 6/60/106 will make you cry.
My Prophet-5 stomps all over any Juno.
My favorite synth of all time, the 106. 60 is awesome, too. 👏🏻I’ll never tire of the Juno sound.
Juno 6 sounds angelic. Wins this shootout. 60 is very close. But the 106 sounds totally neutered.
Honestly, your setup for the "Where It's At" cover completely changed the way I've been thinking about synths. TBH, I kind of came to the conclusion that I didn't really vibe with the Junos, and instead focused on electric pianos. I still think that might be the case, but I never really learned to make sounds on my own. There's a big ol' learning curve, but that's probably worth learning.
Thanks!
Nah… it’s dead easy! (No really jt is! … but don’t tell everyone 😂)
Tech porn time: Juno106 have software generated envelopes while Juno 6 and 60 have muxed hardware generated envelopes. Juno106 have higher DAC resolution, switched 12 bits
while 6 and 60 have 7bits but uses expoconverters for the control CV's. All of them have a sweep range and base point trim pots for VCF frequency, most likely the 106 is just a bit off.
May i have one Juno 60 please!
Junos are fantastic. My first real synth was a Juno 60 I bought for $200. Why did I eventually sell it for $500? I don’t want to talk about it (No MIDI was one reason).
At one point I had three 106’s at once, it’s a real workhorse and was great in the pre-DAW days with my MPC as sequencer. I still have an Alpha Juno. It sounds great but is a hassle to program and the digital controls make adjusting as you play very stair-steppy. You really need the PG-300 if you have an Alpha Juno.
All these years later and I mostly use a Behringer Deepmind 12D for Juno sounds. It’s pretty close and doesn’t take up much studio space.
Amazing video Starsky! thank you for the demo and laughs
love hearing these synths side by side
Great designs endure! Thanks for this lovely homage to a timeless set of Roland musical tools. I doubt that I'll ever own a classic antique Juno 6/60/106, but I certainly do appreciate their sounds, even if they are being mimicked/emulated/approximated by the likes of a JU-06a, System 8, or Behringer Deepmind 12.
I enjoyed all intro trax! Excellent comparison video, love the Juno's and love the system 8's take on the Juno's as well, since I don't dare to invest in an old Juno and am perfectly happy with my s8 :)
Starsky! The sound/patch creation rundown was one of the best things I’ve ever seen. Thank you!
Thanks.. I might do some more of that.
You've answered all the questions I wanted to know about the 3 models. And being a fellow System 8 owner, I can appreciate taking that one in account too!
Wonderful! Thank you for this nice, little journey.
You keep pulling me back in. Fantastic!
Hello again!
That first cover was so accurate I didn’t even notice until I looked at the screen and saw the lyrics were different! (For whatever reason it takes me multiple listens to decode lyrics into words) Good job matching the sounds there. Nice Max Headroom footage too
Used to have a Juno 6 and 106. Now I have the system 8 and those 2 were sold off to acquire other things. ACB is nearly perfect. Perfect enough for my ears
Fantastic Songdemos! I always knew I'm your favorite.
🫶
I love the Sarsky Carr funny intros and covet the Juno 6 (maybe one fine day or will it be called Neptune 8?) but never understood the existence of the OFF button next to the chorus since you can press both 1 and 2 to have it off anyway. What's that about?
maybe during live performance it's more efficient to just use the off button plus it saves wear and tear on the two chorus buttons
Aaarrhhh.... i'm literraly looking for how to put 4 thumbs up to this video : one for the professor Carr, one for each great singer of these groovy lovely hypnotics songs and one last for the keyboardist/ programer ( should do an EP ! )... I JUST CAN'T !!!!..... 4 is the less i feel, for this another pleasant video from one of my most favourite youtuber. One is not enough...
Sir Starsky Carr: thanks for this another pleasant moment in the synths world ! have a great day ( you have definitly made mine !! ) and a nice week-end !
My word… 4 thumbs up for the comment as well 😀😀😀👍👍👍👍
I'll certainly never sell my 60! Great vid as always :)
haha love the lost in a dream reverb near the end there
Pushing it to the max (headroom). very funny. You were entertaining on SonicTalk BTW. Kudos ;)
Thanks.. I was a bit apprehensive as it’s not something g I’m used to doing, but Nick is such a pro everything ran very smoothly.
Uncanny resemblance to Max Headroom in the intro jam, Starsky. Plus some great little ditties and riffs throughout as usual.
It's funny how just one push of the chorus gives it that 80s sound at 4:52. That button could be labeled 80s
One thing I would like about having an Alpha Juno or the MKS-50 module would be its chord memory and voice-stacking features. If those features had been present here, it would’ve easily have sold me on trying to grab an original Juno model when they were still affordable. Even without some of the modulation busses on my JX-8p, the ability to create Oberheim-style fifths in mono mode would still be worth something.
Of course, having the JX-8p and the MKS-70 kind of overrides the need for an Alpha Juno or the 50.
What an awesome, vid, do you think Yoad would convince Ty to get a Behringer DM12 ?
Do you have access to a Juno X to compare at all?
Also great seeing on Sonicstate with Nick, Yoad and obviously Ty.
Hope to see you there again, great show.
Thanks. I was flattered to be invited especially with such company!
I don’t have the X but have had the Xm and chose the S8 - mainly because the interface in the Xm needed too much menu diving for things I use a lot. The X should be easier and looks and feels much nicer as an instrument. Sonically it’s not as accurate as the S8 which are the Cloud Legendary series. Best thing to do to decide for yourself is to take out the free subscription for a month and see if it makes a difference to you.
@@StarskyCarr Yeah I am no fan of menu diving, that's why I got rid of my MC707.
The S8 seems a favorite of many due to less menu diving than the X series Zen based hardware.
@@DankePlace omg I have an MC-707 screaming it's way to my doorstep now 😁 It didn't appear too divey in the video manuals I watched. Rut ro.
@@VisionsMusicGroup mine was intended as a module, so I could have an extra 8 synths per se, with only 3 assignable knobs to do anything per synth, it was just a nightmare to do anything.
This is where it's at. Thank you!
What a fun video - Great work Starsky!
Kenton box is great for my 60. Perfect combo
one thing i didn't notice playing them (because it was never at the same time), is that moment when resonance is
pushed to the max, and you drop the cutoff from top to bottom with the envelope, you can hear the vcf oscillation
go way deeper in bass on the 6, than on 60 where it dies out pretty quickly before even reaching the bass range.
as for the sound comparison, for all the logical reasons the 6/60 should be "better" the 106 - less noise, brighter,
snappier envelopes, shimmering pwm, arpeggio etc.
however, Juno 106 has kinda carved out its own niche in past 30 years - its plasticky darker sound, with the wide
chorus and artificial low mid and bass boost bump is the cornerstone of many eighties and synth pop tunes and
then the whole retro synthwave thing. plus the early nineties rave, dnb, house and techno. its just instant trip
back in time the moment you hear it.
i prefer the shimmery pwm, snappy arps and stabby chords on 6/60, and dark pads/strings and especially bass
and acid bass on the 106. where its darker and compressed sound actually helps..
9:00 made me laugh, great video, very helpful. Fell into a near mint Juno 60 few days ago, friend of my wife’s said he had an old keyboard sitting in a case. Wanted me to try it out, fired it up and to my amazement everything works perfectly, even the factory presets were still there. It’s mine now,paid a fair price for it.
It’s a secret love letter Starsk ! Now, on 1 osc and a noisy chorus : IT WAS ACCEPTABLE AT THE TIME 😂
Your Max Headroom does Calvin Harris bit was so joyful. Had me grinning like a lunatic.
😀🙏🫶
Much love for the killer Calvin Harris cover!! The whole album was produced on a Commodore Amiga in tracker software. If someone made a sampler based entirely on the Amiga Paula sound chip I would buy it immediately
Fantastic video! I’m in the market for a 106 and this was very informative (and fun) 🙌
thank you sooo much for this 🙏🏻 been waiting for a comparison like this for ages since i got a pristine Juno 6 two months ago and i just think it's the most beautiful sounding synth ever made ...i'm really impressed you have all three 🙀...which did you get 1st, 2nd, 3rd and why?
I've had the 106 for years. I keep an eye out for stuff to demo, and people offer me broken things occasionally to see if there's anything I can do with it. The 6 and the 60 are recent purchases I've had to get repaired so I could demo them. I'll pass one of them on once I think I've done all I can with them, but keep the other as the sound is cool. I tend to buy and sell stuff to demo, hence my pleads for Patreon at the end of every video... I'm not the best at making money from them as I always pay to get them repaired. I need better soldering skills!
@@StarskyCarr very interesting background to this wonderful collection, thanks! Are you keeping the 60 or the 6? (my guess is the 60).
The 6 and 60 definitely have a sparklier sound than the 106. But the 106 sounds good for those darker pads and such. :)
106 has a real sweet spot in that mid range 😆
Great work! Its brighten my day
Nice1 Starsks!❤
Thanks man, great video again!
The best Starsky Carr video ever!!!
-Future commenter in 2029.
Very intersting, thanks a lot for your work !
I have a 106, but ive got fond memories of using a mates 60 so iim always hankering after a 6/60
Nice video! Thank you so much for your enjoyable content.
what the hell, with sub and square on the J-6 its way more beasty then the 106 ! i never knew of this
I had a Juno 60 , paid £350 for it from Future Music in Chelmsford 1997 ish. 2 weeks later my bandmate who i worked with found an excellent condition Juno 106 in a skip at the dump where we worked, he also found a Jen SX1000 and some Taisco synth i didn't see. Bastard!
I miss my Juno. Imma get me a Deepmind 12D now ....
That synth version of Where It's At well worth the 24 minutes. Now we're talking. Obviously that was more about emulating electric piano and organ sounds but the way Beck uses synths sounds in some of his songs is very cool.
thank you for this video, this is great. i tried to copy your paches on my juno 6 as close as i could. now i know, my juno sits somewhere between your 6 and 106. so no recalibration needed :)
Haha that must be a relief!
Great vid, and fun songs! Your 60 seems to be lacking a chunk of bass though?
I've owned all 3: Juno 6 bought new with my 'life savings' when I was 16. I had a toss-up between it and a used minimoog and the Juno won... It got stolen after a gig at school a while later I got a 106 to replace it. The patch memory was great for gigging but I hated the aesthetic and lack of arp. Sold it to a mate for cheap in the early 90s. FF to the mid 2000s and I saw a 60 for sale in the local yellow ads for £220. Went round and it belonged to a wealthy dentist and it looked brand new. Came with the manual and factory patch cassette. Still got it, it still looks brand new, and still works perfectly :)
Pedant mode engage - the 60 has 7 banks of 8 patches, not 5 ;)
Haha I know I spotted that in the banks … then forgot to edit it out. I’d actually talked too long about the hidden banks for calibration etc.. so remade that section without going too far down the geek hole. It’s odd when recording stuff while thinking about the next bit, checking various bits and Bob s as you talk .. answering the doorbell, redoing stuff, forgetting what you’ve already said… then realise you’ve used the completely wrong words. The number of times I say envelope rather than filter and similar weird stuff. There’s probably a medical condition to describe it!
@@StarskyCarr Just glad you're making these vids dude. It's the aspie twat in me - can't help meself :)
Keep 'em coming - Pro 800 soon I hope?
helpful as you like - cheers Matt
That short pulse of vocal harmonics at 8:35
It’s the noise reduction I’m using … AI based and every now and then it tries to make a human voice from the synths. I catch most of it but every now and then I hear a weird synth Starsky voice making random vowel sounds… a bit (lot) freaky.
@@ghost_mall it’s honestly what it sounds like. Me as a freaky synth voice - like the primal screams of an artificial life-form desperately trying to will itself into existence.
@@StarskyCarr Now I want that effect in a box or plugin with full control over all possible artifacts : - )
@@Goettel far too scary… but I have thought about doing something with it. Me as a synth!
@StarskyCarr If you turned yourself into a synth, I bet you would get a lot of new subs!
In the early 90s I bought my Juno6 in a second hand gear shop for the today's equivalent of 70€/$.
I still have it, obvioulsly.
A classic trick with the JU6: use the self oscilating filter and its key tracking as an oscilator.
2 trick with a non-MIDI Juno 6: send a audio click in the input of the sync jacks of the arpegiator.
Thank you so much for that, I thoroughly enjoyed it and appreciated the detail that you went into. I love the Juno, sadly can't afford a real one. The model on the SH4d is about as close as I'll get!
It’s pretty good to get the flow. Sounds good as well.
Funny I was watching the SOS podcast yesterday and noticed the Junos behind you :) super demo/comparison. Only have the 106 but thats enough for my fat fingers and lack of musical talent :D
My 6 and 60 are the only synths I'd never sell. I've had all sorts over the years and many far more rare than these two, but none of them could come close to sounding as good all round. It's such a rich, lush and warm sound, but 'vanilla' enough to work in a mix or with a ton of FX.
They are all great, but I pick the 6/60 because of something this video doesn't touch on: envelope-controlled PWM. This is one of the coolest tricks for bass and moving leads, and it's absent from so many synths.
All that said, I have an untouched vintage 106 with all of its original voices intact. I think the tone of the 6/60 is overall a bit fizzier and more lively, but I do mean a bit. There's a lot of shade thrown on the 106, but it holds its own against its older sisters. The 106 brings portamento, MIDI, and an undocumented bass boat that the 6/60 don't have. In exchange the older Junos have arpeggiators and the aforementioned envelope PWM, along with a slightly brighter and (at times) more lively sound.
But make no mistake: they all sound great. It's true that they're simple synths, but that is so often all that's needed. The Junos simply sound nice, and their straightforward panel layout makes it easy to dial in the exact sound you need. I own synths that are much more complex, but the 106 somehow makes it into almost every track I make.
What a beautiful lush sounds. Seems like 106 sounds more mellow compared to 6 and 60.
Definitely. And I haven’t appreciated how much until this.
I don’t hear a better quality in the 106 .
@@ChromosomeSyndicate not better quality just more mellow - ie not as many highs
Great video. I can only afford one expensive synth, so i'll stick to my Jupiter-X for now, but a Juno 60 has been on my wishlist for some time now. Maybe one day
Starsky Headroom
Thanks Starsky that was brilliant..👍..synths great, track great, but what really won me over was referencing Max Headroom😂. While I prefer look of the 60 I must have cloth ears as can’t really tell much of a difference 🤔so really enjoyed your comparison. Probably get system8 one day just for the 60 model... Ironically I used to have a stupid bias against the Juno’s ( figured how limited a single Osc poly would be)- few years a go got lucky & offered a damaged 106 cheap, fixed it up to sell...fell in love with the damn thing😊 probably my favourite analogue I’ve ever had- you just can’t make a bad sound with it.
It’s one huge sweet spot
Nice comparison! Unsolicited tip: I believe the Juno-60 has a total of 7 banks, which can be accessed by pressing holding bank 5 button and pressing bank 1 or 2. Not sure why they did it that way.
your quite right.
The best synth riff in the world was made on a 106-Born Slippy/Underworld
It's a Waldorf Microwave.
Class, I'm a new fan of yours
I briefly owned a 60 and a 106 at the same time, and I'll be honest, I preferred the 106.
Hey there ! All this sound are preset factory patch ?
I think it's rather fabulous they're still around today,
Those synths made a little go a very long way.
Loved my 60 when I owned it from around 1990 to 1994 but I became increasingly irked by its lack of MIDI back then, and I didn't know anything about the control options available at the time. So, I sold it... and still 30 years later it has left a hole in my life which I have recently tried to fill with a boutique JU-06 and a nice 88-key Alesis trigger/controller. The JU-06 is close enough in sound to the 60 (for me) but even though Roland has built it with decent sliders and a steel panel, I miss the size and the "heft" of the 60. I don't miss the component failures though. I have a lot of other vintage kit including Kenwood, Linn and Quad amplifiers and they are all a bit noisy these days. I'm not looking forward to recapping them.
Oh yeah... the price too. Sold my 60, which was "close to mint", for £400. Yikes..!!
I also sold a headless guitar which was cool to look at and sounded decent too. That's another I wish I'd held onto.
My friend has a Maplin mono synth which is taking up space in his loft. I'm going to lean on him to restore it and give it a new airing.
Awesome sounds and comparison. Do you think a serviced and calibrated 106 would sound brighter? It was noticeably darker than the others, but still amazing!
No, I think that's the tone. This has been serviced - but you can't really open the filter anymore - you can tweak the cutoff so they're all the same etc. I don't think its a caps issue - they all do it... plus the 106 I have here has been placed against the Roland Cloud and Softube emulations and they were bang on.
@@StarskyCarrthank you for your thoughts! This is the kind of detail an up-and-coming synth nerd like myself can really appreciate lol
According to the sound comparison section, the 106 is much much darker, and it feels like theres more chorus texture happening? The 6 is the brightest and edgiest for sure, and the 60 is very clean and very sharp, not sharp in pitch but in texture
Didn’t know Michael Owen played keys?😂
Enjoyed that mate cheers
I hope you’re referring to young Michael Owen and my ball skills!
@@StarskyCarr 🤣🤣
Haha great! You make a good Max Headroom! Best not do a TV takeover though!
Changes in square waves between voices - you take into account VCA bias?
Calibrated it the night before. Everything was as close as possible to the service manual.
I’ve always thought I prefer the 60’s sound. Need a blind test I’m not sure if I’m always expecting it to sound better to me 6 and 60 seem warmer and grittier
There does seem to be something special about the 60.
*6
For me, they all are close enough to be interchangeable. If I were actually looking for one, I’d go for the 60.
Do the OMD lads ever nip round to test new stuff in your studio?
Haha… no but I’ve worked with Andy in the past briefly.
i got a 106 love the sound
Where can I buy the opening track?
The 6 & 60 sound identical but there's something a little different about the 106? The chorus doesn't seem a good?
106 is definitely not as bright as the others.
1:40 Alex Ball is going to love this
He writes his own! 😂
Nice comparison. I might be biased as I own the Ju-60, but I do really prefer the Ju-60 over the Ju-106, which lacks some of the smoothness and liveliness but also the bite of the Ju-60. The Ju-6 sound more or less identical to the 60, as expected
I think the 6 has the edge in sound; the 60, in features, obviously.
@@kierenmoore3236 The Juno 6 and 60 are technically identical except for the 60 having patch storage added to it. Any sound differences between a Juno 6 and 60 would be down to calibration or aging from the components. The same differences might be found between individual Ju-60s or Ju-6s. The 106 on the other hand has some different chips and a more precise digital clock which influences how the oscillators sound.
@@MacXpert74 Well, you’re wrong (re 6 vs 60) … Do your homework! 😊
@@kierenmoore3236 Well feel free to enlighten me with what difference between them gives the 6 the ‘edge in sound’ as you claim.
106 is my fav synth ever... (aside from the jupiter 8)
Juno 6/60/106 is like Fender Startocaster!:)
Why do you prefer Softube Model84 to Roland's Juno vst?
It’s more like the original in that it doesnt have FX. .. more of a purer take on it. There’s nothing in it sonically really.
1:53 Simón Lebon in a new band 👏👍🏻😊
juno-6