From rare and sought after classics
to exciting new designs, model
expansions put world-class Roland
synthesizers in your DAW and
compatible ZEN-Core hardware.
In this video, we're going to look at the JUNO-106 Model
Expansion. The JUNO-106 , like
other model expansions, is designed
for speed and performance in modern
DAWs.
It has a clear, resizable
touch-friendly interface that's easy
to understand, even if you've never
used the original hardware.
And you'll see that you can swap
instruments and load sounds
instantly with no disruption to
your creative workflow.
Introduced in 1984 an
affordable polysynth for the masses,
the JUNO-106 has risen from humble
beginnings to become a favorite of
synth lovers everywhere.
It delivers gut-punching basses,
delicate plucked sounds, and
shimmering pads that sit perfectly
in the mix.
And its built-In chorus is the stuff
of legends With the JUNO-106
Model Expansion, the authentic
sound of this essential '80s classic
is now available for your DAW and
compatible ZEN-Core hardware.
Let's hear what it can do.
Let's start by checking out some
bass sounds.
If we open up the familiar ZENOLOGY
browser and scroll all the way to
the bottom, we'll see that just
like other Model Expansions whose
original hardware had presets,
the JUNO-106 original presets
are all here and they're all
capitalized. Let's pull up
Synth Bass 1, and we'll run a
sequence.
We can press edit to
open up all the parameters that we
have.
And we'll pull up Synth Bass 2 and
have a listen to that.
Nice. Now, let's edit this one a
little bit. Add a bit of resonance.
Edit Envelope a bit. And how about we
add in the pulse wave?
That rounds it out a bit.
But we'll add a bit of pulse with
modulation as well.
And that gives a much bigger sound,
wider sound without the need
for effects.
We'll keep this sequence running,
and let's check out some of the
newer sounds.
Soft Subber.
Whoah, way different vibe there.
Really wide chorus.
Really nice, resonant sound.
Check out, Ring My Wheel.
Now this one's taken advantage of
the MFX. Of
course, the original JUNO-106 didn't
have a ring modulator on it, but
this has got some wild effect on it
here.
Very cool.
So now let's check out some brass
and pad type sounds.
And of course, the JUNO-106 one
really well known for this kind of
thing.
Let's start again with one of the
original presets.
Number one: the brass preset.
And we'll run a sequence.
So that's right up in your face.
Really nice brass sound.
I wouldn't do much to edit that.
It takes
up a lot of space.
It's really nice and it's right
upfront.
Let's check out another one of the
old presets, Synth Pad.
We'll calm that down a bit.
Tighten it up. Maybe
add a little bit more envelope.
Really warm.
And let's go to one
of the newer patches.
Let's do a Soft Plug.
This one much
has a much tighter kind of sound.
And also it's got a lot of low end
in it. So you see that this step
high pass filter is on the first
setting.
This is really useful when you're
working on a mix to take out
any unneeded low end.
The JUNO-106 already is really
well known for sitting really
nicely in a mix.
And this just helps even more.
You'll notice that a lot of these
presets are using the JUNO-106
chorus in the MFX
section. Of course, that's one of
the big parts of the JUNO-106
characteristic. Within the ZEN-Core
and Model Expansion framework, we
have all of these effects
to choose from a ton of different
effects and a lot of the presets
take advantage of these.
So if we open up this CE-Drone,
you'll see that the MFX is using
a different chorus altogether.
It's using the CE-1 chorus.
And this has a much different sound.
Let's take a listen.
I love one knob
controls.
Now, we've got just the intensity
here.
So let's move away from chords for a
minute and we'll try a different
kind of sequence again, starting
from one of the original presets.
This time, let's do Xylophone.
And here's our sequence,
very simple sound.
Now we can open up the envelope a
little bit and
adjust our tonality with the
pulse width.
And of course, we can add chorus or
different effects if we want as
well.
Let's leave the sequence running and
we'll try some more of the new
sounds.
Let's go with Reso Sweep.
Now that sound might be a little bit
too big for this sequence.
Let's try Kolibri.
That's really nice.
You can hear a lot of pulse width
modulation going up there.
Finally, let's try
one more, Enchanted.
Now, that's a very neat-sounding
patch.
Let's try to keep this patch, but
we're gonna do a different sequence.
Now, what I love about this patch is
that the modulation delay
in the MFX section is almost
sounding just like a reverb.
Really nice and spacious.
And you'll see that the resonance is
cranked up almost all the way and
the keyboard tracking is at full.
So the resonance has a lot to do
with how this sound actually
comes through.
So if we change the frequency of the
filter,
we get a bit more wild kind of
sound.
Taking away the resonance altogether
will show us that underneath
it's a very simple
sound coming through to the filter.
But if we just reload this patch.
That filter resonance just
added such character.
Finally, let's check out one last
sound. But we're gonna stick with
this ethereal kind of vibe
that this Enchanted patch has
brought us to.
Let's look at the LFO Pad
sound and we'll run our sequence.
The lovely warm, almost
EP kind of sound.
It's got a bit of a nice attack
to it, but it's still soft.
But what we can do with that
Envelope that's doing the attack
on the VCA, we can use the
inverted envelope and send
that to the filter.
So let's open up our filter a bit.
Exposing what's underneath.
And we're gonna add the inverse
Envelope, so that attack
really kind of swells instead
of hits hard.
And what's lovely about doing this,
the inverted Envelope trick,
is that the release
ends up moving the filter more
open, adding a really lovely tail
at the end.
The JUNO-106 and other Model
Expansions are available for
ZENOLOGY and compatible ZEN-Core
hardware.
Get them today at Roland.com
.