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Roland Alpha Juno
 
 
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The Roland Alpha Juno series of keyboards were analog polyphonic synthesizers with digitally controlled oscillators
Digitally-controlled oscillator

A digitally controlled oscillator or DCO is a hybrid digital/analog signal electronic oscillator. The name is an analogy with "voltage-controlled oscillator"....
 manufactured by Roland Corporation
Roland Corporation

is a Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment and software. It was founded by Ikutaro Kakehashi in Osaka on April 18, 1972, with ?33 million in capital....
 in 1985.

Two models were released: the Alpha Juno (JU-1), and the Alpha Juno 2 (JU-2), which added one octave of notes, a cartridge slot and touch-sensitivity. Alpha Juno synthesizers were notable for their reduced user interface compared to other synths of the day, with a single 'Alpha Dial' replacing many sliders and knobs.






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The Roland Alpha Juno series of keyboards were analog polyphonic synthesizers with digitally controlled oscillators
Digitally-controlled oscillator

A digitally controlled oscillator or DCO is a hybrid digital/analog signal electronic oscillator. The name is an analogy with "voltage-controlled oscillator"....
 manufactured by Roland Corporation
Roland Corporation

is a Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment and software. It was founded by Ikutaro Kakehashi in Osaka on April 18, 1972, with ?33 million in capital....
 in 1985.

Two models were released: the Alpha Juno (JU-1), and the Alpha Juno 2 (JU-2), which added one octave of notes, a cartridge slot and touch-sensitivity. Alpha Juno synthesizers were notable for their reduced user interface compared to other synths of the day, with a single 'Alpha Dial' replacing many sliders and knobs. The keyboard features MIDI in, out and 'thru', mono, stereo and headphone sockets. It also supports an external footpedal controller, and tape backup
Tape drive

A tape drive, which is also known as a streamer, is a computer hardware that reads and writes data stored on a magnetic tape data storage....
.

The MKS-50 is a rack-mount version of the Alpha Juno. It has the same synth engine and architecture, with some added features like 16 programmable chord memories, the ability to store velocity, volume, panning, de-tune, portamento and other similar parameters within each patch you create.

The Alpha Juno is notable for its combination of the stability of digitally controlled oscillators
Digitally-controlled oscillator

A digitally controlled oscillator or DCO is a hybrid digital/analog signal electronic oscillator. The name is an analogy with "voltage-controlled oscillator"....
 with the arguably more pleasant quality of analogue filters. Both Alpha Junos can create the Hoover sound
Hoover sound

Hoover sound refers to a particular synthesizer sound in electronic music, commonly used in Hard House music and other styles. Originally called the "Mentasm" or "Reese", the name that stuck was the one likening the sound to that of a vacuum cleaner....
, a notable sound used in jungle
Oldschool jungle

Oldschool jungle is the name given to a style of electronic music that incorporates influences from genres including breakbeat hardcore, techno music, rare groove and reggae/Dub music/dancehall....
 and rave music
Rave music

Rave music consists of forms of electronic dance music that are associated with the rave party....
. Artists who have used the Alpha Juno include The Prodigy
The Prodigy

The Prodigy are a British people electronic music group formed by Liam Howlett in 1990, in Braintree, Essex, England. Along with Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers and The Crystal Method, as well as other acts they are pioneers of the big beat electronic dance genre which achieved mainstream popularity in the 1990s, and are known for high-qua...
 and a great many other rave acts.

The Roland programmer PG-300 offers complete control over all MIDI editable parameters of the Alpha Juno, the Alpha Juno 2 and the MKS-50. More recently, software has been written for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of software operating systems and graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Microsoft first introduced an operating environment named Windows in November 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces ....
 and Apple computers which allows graphical
Graphical user interface

A graphical user interface is a type of user interface which allows people to human-computer interaction such as computers; hand-held devices such as MP3 Players, Portable Media Players or Gaming devices; household appliances and office equipment....
 editing of Juno patches through MIDI.

External links

  • [ftp://ftp.roland.co.uk/ProductSupport/Manuals/JUNO-1_OM.pdf Alpha Juno 1 manual]
  • [ftp://ftp.roland.co.uk/ProductSupport/Manuals/JUNO-2_OM.pdf Alpha Juno 2 manual]
  • [ftp://ftp.roland.co.uk/ProductSupport/Manuals/MKS-50_OM.pdf MKS-50 manual]