 |
This synth was used on the song Oscilloscope (oscilloscope sounds) |
I used one of these for years back in the day. It was owned by a friend in ‘the band’. I was sad the day it left the studio and swore I’d buy one for myself. Years went by and I bought a few others along the way. I ended up passing over the Juno 6 several times because of the lack of MIDI. Instead I bought a Juno 106 and an AKAI AX-60.
A Juno 6 landed on Craigslist for a fair price and the owner said it was in great shape. I don’t know why it caught my eye this time. It might have something to do with being in the studio recently and restoring old tracks which used the Juno 6. I decided to at least go have a look at it.
As it turns out, it wasn’t in such great shape. The pitch bend wheel was broken and a few sliders and buttons needed attention. The seller told me he’d throw in a newish QuikLok 3 tier keyboard stand and a few nice 20′ cables. Deal! Of course the problem was my car wasn’t near his place so I had to lug the Juno and the stand across Chinatown.
They call me “Long Arms” now.
I got it home and most of the problems were repaired in a few minutes. The sliders just needed to be blown out. One of the buttons needed a solder point fixed. Pretty simple stuff. At the moment the only thing I need to work on is finding a replacement pitch bend (which works, but the plastic lever is broken) and something is wonky with the manual LFO button. It isn’t triggering. I’m sure that is something simple as well.
Other then that, it is in pretty nice shape. The paint is good all over except for a small amount near the pitch bend. The keys are all in great shape and the buttons hardly look their age. They’ve maintained their colour over the years. A pretty nice find really. And it sounds GREAT!
I’m going to find a MIDI retro kit for it now. I’d like to try and figure out a way to get it in there without having to drill a hole in the case for the MIDI port/s. I’m not a big fan of damaging something in such good shape.
Juno 6 on the bench
The guts look to be in good shape. It actually wasn't very dusty in there.
Busted!
X-ray Specs
Polyphony – 6 voices
Oscillators – DCO: pulse, saw, and square
LFO – rate and delay
Filter – non-resonant high pass and resonant low pass
VCA – level, ADSR and gate
Keyboard – 61 note keyboard (no velocity or aftertouch)
Control – Filter Control In, Ext Clock In
Date Produced – 1982
Acquired: 2010
What differences do you see between the 106 and the 6 in terms of sound. I had a 106 a while back and sold it, but I’ve always been curious about the juno 6…
the 6 seems to have a rounder sound. I don’t like to use the term “warm” because everyone uses that for analouge gear – but it is warmer sounding. The sweeps are smoother on the 6. The chorus effect is very nice (wish I had just the Juno 6 chorus in a box). It is a touch noisy, but it is easily hid in the mix.