Sweet Roland Juno-G

OMG! That's it!
The next gear in mind to procure,
will delete Fantom XR from list !!!


I read about new Roland stuff:

New Roland Gear :

Juno G Synthesizer
MC-808 Sampling Groove Box
MV8000 ver 3.5 Production Studio
SH-201 Synthsizer
VP-550 Vocal & Ensemble Keyboard
SRX-12 Classic EPs
Boss BR-600 Digital Recorder

Who knows more rumours from the the Winter Namm 2006?
 
>> Who knows more rumours from the the Winter Namm 2006?

How about a cute little (25 keys) Triton called the Korg MicroX.
 
looks nice.
but the spec is rather at low end.
but really very portable.

I wondering will there be any people using this in Bus/MRT/foodcourt doing some light sequencing (with headphone) when he/she suddenly have some melody line across his/her mind?
hm... maybe just like some people doing works using laptop.

For me, if i suddenly have some melody line, i key in the melody to handphone...
 
Other than the outside, I see no resemblance to the original Juno-106 analog synth at all. It's engine is that of the Fantom - in fact, it is a stripped down Fantom without the sequencer in the form of Juno-106 casing. Roland's new "Juno" series are all the same concept including their Juno-D. I wonder what the last alphabet really means. And where is A,B,C and F anyway?

Roland running out of marketing ideas??? I can't imagine they will resort to this. It's an insult to Juno-106!!!

Perhaps the most interesting thing to try out (if it ever arrives in Swee Lee) is the VP-550. But I have an uneasy feeling that it uses the same engine as their VP-9000 using the variOS technology. If this is the case, then again, it is nothing new but old technology encased in new clothings. Then it will really show that Roland has no new stuffs this NAMM (at least for us keyboardists) - just new marketing gimmicks; they must have run out of ideas. Maybe we'll see Fantoms in the form of Jupiter-8 synths next - Juno-H.
 
Cheez said:
Other than the outside, I see no resemblance to the original Juno-106 analog synth at all. It's engine is that of the Fantom - in fact, it is a stripped down Fantom without the sequencer in the form of Juno-106 casing. Roland's new "Juno" series are all the same concept including their Juno-D. I wonder what the last alphabet really means. And where is A,B,C and F anyway?
Click to expand...

Actually, I like it mainly for the retro design. Not because I need another keyboard/rompler.

But it's not as stripped down as you make it, Cheez. I've already downloaded the manual and had a brief glance at it. It's 128 voice polyphonic (compared to the 62 voices Triton knockoffs that Korg is doing) and it does have a built in 16 track midi sequencer and can do audio recording (up to 4 STEREO tracks) as well.

It also allows you to upload your own samples to a DIMM chip (4MB standard, expandable to 516 MB) via a Compact Flash card or USB.

And 1 SRX expansion is catered for.

So, all in all, if it follows the original Juno philosophy of giving the biggest bang for the buck, it is indeed a very feature packed 1st keyboard for the beginner.

Blood hell, it even comes with it's own synth editor and SONAR LE to get you started.

If Roland were to release a Juno-H, mating the Juno-G with the VariOS-8 (software Jupiter8 emulation) and the VariOS-303 (software 303 emulation), I would go out and buy one. Immediately.

BTW, the Juno 106 sound is overrated. Heh, heh.
 
Cheez said:
. If this is the case, then again, it is nothing new but old technology encased in new clothings. Then it will really show that Roland has no new stuffs this NAMM (at least for us keyboardists) - just new marketing gimmicks; they must have run out of ideas. Maybe we'll see Fantoms in the form of Jupiter-8 synths next - Juno-H.
Click to expand...

Personally, I think keyboardist don't have it so bad. At least we get a big jump in technology once in a while.

Drummers, guitarists, pianist, trumpet players etc have been getting essentially the "same old wine in a new bottle" at every NAMM show.
 
if the Roland Juno-G runs on the current Fantom X engine,
looks it is targetted at gigging musician to bring it around.

the casing sure looks retro and pretty, a piece of the past
of sliders and knobs with current LCD screen
 
Yup. Saw the details and yes, the 4 audio track recording is something interesting to put into a keyboard. Somehow missed the sequencer when I first saw it (when I was in a hurry).

What I can't understand is why on earth make it look like the Juno-106? It will only appeal to us (old school musicians) and collectors of "vintage" looking synths. I don't know if the newer keyboardists will be excited about the old analog synth look. They seem more interested in the shiny silver casings of Triton. This Juno-look is an awkward marketing strategy. I wonder who they are targeting at.

And yes, I agree with you that it is a good entry-level synth - maybe more than just entry-level with the Fantom engine. If the price is as good (as they claim in their website), then we may have a winner. Wonder what the MRSP is.

Also intesresting to note that Behringer is jumping on the band-wagon to get a piece of the pie of the master keyboards and (gasp) digital piano.
 
juno-g

by the look of it, I'll definitely buy it if I have extra cash.
need no consideration, so sweet and pretty !!!
and it is running the FantomX engine.

I guess the trend of silver casing has died,
since 1995 started with Korg Trinity, it's more than 10 years.

when Yamaha DX7 came out, it started the black casing trend
which lasted almost 12 years; then came the silver beast !

the new mid-range Korg X50 also has a new style casing

currently, I believe software instruments (soft synth) are the
in thing and of course more affordable if one has a powerful
computer.

Roland is smart to produce the Roland Juno-G
to capture the senior musician market. Only this group
of old school camp are willing to spend on hardware synth.

The younger generation turns to M-audio controllers and
software synths. This is the trend, software may soon dominate
computer music making and MIDI may be history ?!
 
Maybe they made a mistake in their manuals... :lol:

Bongman, you're right about the softsynths. But even though I'm old school, I'm still going for those! One problem about softsynths though - the really good ones are still very taxing on the PC's CPU. Until PC's become faster (which they will), softsynths and softsamplers will still dominate the composer/arranger market instead of live performance, although the latter is slowly catching up. Most live players are still using their keyboards/modules which give them zero startup time and zero latency. If we're to use softsynths (good ones), the most we can load on one instance for live playing is probably about 3. People are still not willing to bring a rack of PCs around although they are happy to bring a rack of modules. In sequencing in a studio, we can still bounce tracks etc - so no problem.

But the future (and where the money is) is definitely softsynths and softsamplers. The next generation of PCs will raise the stakes another notch. Softsynths/softsamplers technology is evolving and improving drastically every few months (following the development of PCs) - keyboards technology seems to somewhat plateau. I mean - they are still using the old DIMM RAM for expansion...
 
software instr.

errr... regarding the manuals,
I wonder why Roland upload them when they only just release the products?
doesn't seems a good marketing strategy.
Most live players are still using their keyboards/modules which give them zero startup time and zero latency. If we're to use softsynths (good ones), the most we can load on one instance for live playing is probably about 3. People are still not willing to bring a rack of PCs around although they are happy to bring a rack of modules. In sequencing in a studio, we can still bounce tracks etc - so no problem.
Click to expand...
Maybe as a musician, it's not a cool image to bring racks of computers, no musician wants to associate as a computer nerd - not cool ?!
Myself given a choice would bring dozens of synths and modules on stage than to bring computers.
 
lowjk said:
Anyway, the Radias as if the rack cound be easily made by ripping out the control panel and adding the revelant audio, midi and USB interfaces.
Click to expand...

Definitely! But if I'm going to vote for best keyboard design in this NAMM, the Radias will undoubtedly be one of them on the list.
 
Re: software instr.

bongman said:
Maybe as a musician, it's not a cool image to bring racks of computers, no musician wants to associate as a computer nerd - not cool ?!
Myself given a choice would bring dozens of synths and modules on stage than to bring computers.
Click to expand...

Racks of PCs may not look cool. But the new MiKO from Open Labs is definitely a very cool replacement for a PC! Since most of us already have a 88 keys keyboard, we don't need the NeKO. The touch screen, qwerty keyboard, faders and knobs on this "PC" will sure catch the attention of people around!!! Portable enough to bring around, unlike the NekO! Definitely one of the "coolest" gear in my list for this NAMM!! A true PC replacement!
 
lightweight keys with sequencer

Juno G

since they changed the rs -50 into the exact looking juno -D, i've been hopin that they change/remarket/reppackage the rs 70 in the same way cos the differ between the rs 50 and 70 mainly is the loop sequencer.
and the RS 70 is the most lightweight keys with ssequencer around!. prob is it aint 16 track, aint midi, tats why i didnt get it



now that juno G is out, with 16 track sequencer and 4 voice recording, wow..and at 6.4 kg, it prob beats the triton le/korg TR as the most lightweight workstation.

the korg TR .triton LE is 7.8 kg

cept for yamaha, seems that roland is always trying to stay ahead in terms of value for monry functions and portability.
 
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