The Design of the Roland Juno Oscillators #MusicMonday
What do Cyndi Lauper, The Eurhythmics, a-ha, Daft Punk, the Chemical Brothers, and Vangelis have in common? They all love Roland’s Juno oscillators. Everybody knows about the 303 and the 808, but here’s a breakdown of the design of the just as important Juno oscillators from Stargirl Flowers:
Roland introduced the incredible Juno-6 and nearly identical Juno-60 in 1982. The Juno was a 6-voice polyphonic synthesizer that was an incredible value considering its array of features. The Juno notably featured digitally-controlled analog oscillators. The DCO was designed to overcome the tuning instability of the usual voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) in contemporary polyphonic synthesizers. The DCOs operate with the same fundamental analog circuitry but differ in that they are controlled by a microcontroller. This imparted a unique sound to the Juno series and one that’s become a favorite of many musicians.
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