Of all synth sounds, those from Roland’s revered Juno 60 need no introduction. The release of AIR Music Technology’s Jura brings its classic 1980s synth sounds to the DAW and beyond. Hear its famous textures for yourself in our first look video…
In Summary
AIR Jura is a virtual recreation of the highly regarded Roland Juno-60 analogue polysynth adding extra features such as an extra amp envelope, tempo-syncable LFO, and variable analogue character. Setting out to bring the sound of ‘82 to the DAW, its own standalone app provides live options, or even a version that runs on selected Akai hardware for the ultimate hybrid experience.
Going Deeper
The Original Juno-60
Following a decade of 1970’s analogue monoliths, the 80’s and 90’s finally gave way to digital technology. Before that happened, there was a period where the Big Beasts such as Yamaha and Roland were looking to improve the performance of the existing analogue technology of the day. One take on this was the DCO - an analogue oscillator controlled digitally to improve tuning stability. With a need to complement their range with an affordable, portable polysynth to sit beneath the Jupiter instruments, the DCO powered Juno instruments were born. Starting with the Juno-6 (without presets memory), the product line was further developed with the Juno-60, and Juno-106 featuring some new technology of the day: MIDI.
With an eye on cost, these were single-oscillator designs, featuring a pair of filters (high-pass and low-pass) coupled to one ADSR amp envelope and a single LFO. With other more expensive instruments sporting dual oscillators, Roland developed a version of its bucket brigade chorus effect for the Juno to add depth to the its sound, becoming in itself a big part of the appeal. The instrument’s textures immediately made friends with the big names of the time, finding its way onto records from the likes of A-ha, Nik Kershaw, Eurythmics, Cyndi Lauper, and more besides.
AIR Jura In Use
Following the release of AIR Music Technology’s Jura, we decided to check out its classic analogue soundscapes for ourselves. In an all-Jura arrangement of bass, pad, arpeggios, and lead, we lean on some of its features not found on the hardware original, including variable drive, DCO and chorus noise flavours, as well as its compliment of in built effects.
AIR Jura Key Features:
Switchable between Classic / Expanded controls.
Oscillator section with pulse, saw, sub and noise waveforms.
Create classic pulse width modulation sounds using manual control, LFO or one of two envelope modulation sources.
Filter section including VCF section with cutoff, resonance, saturation and drive.
Filter modulation via invertible envelope , LFO, keyboard and velocity tracking.
High Pass Filter (HPF) filter control.
VCA section with gate / envelope modes, plus velocity tracking.
Two ADSR envelopes.
BPM syncable LFO including eight shapes including two random generators as well as Speed, delay and ramp controls, re-sync and manually triggerable via LFO trigger.
Classic Juno Chorus section - three modes with mix control.
Comprehensive Delay, Reverb and 3-band EQ section.
Analog character knob.
Detune-able unison and editable chord modes.
Modulation wheel and pitch-bend controls.
Glide controls.
Final Thoughts
To get one thing out there, I haven’t had the pleasure of using an original Juno. That said, upon opening it, its unmistakable sound instantly look me back to a time when its presence was felt both in studios, on stages, and across the airwaves. As a listener, I was there the first time around, and the Juno sound still punches through loud and clear in AIR’s brand new reincarnation.
AIR Jura’s familiar layout, coupled with a large re-sizeable GUI make it very easy to navigate. Of course there’s also the sound, which despite its single oscillator delivers a little more heft than you might expect. A generous compliment of presets also bring a whole spectrum of sounds, with some of the more head-turning effect patches sitting alongside many famous sounds too. There is a bundled standalone app, but perhaps better still is a version available that runs on Akai MPC hardware as well. That could make it the ultimate soft-polysynth for stage as well as studio.
By all accounts, those who have a direct basis for comparison with the real thing love it too, making AIR’s Jura take on Roland’s classic for the masses the one to beat.
A Word About This Article
As the Experts team considered how we could better help the community we thought that some of you are time poor and don’t have the time to read a long article or a watch a long video. In 2023 we are going to be trying out articles that have the fast takeaway right at the start and then an opportunity to go deeper if you wish. Let us know if you like this idea in the comments.