Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Roland Juno-106 synth - unison mode
YouTube via hamsterdunce aka dave of http://umop.com/ (The Packrat, RTB and Parallax). He also did the graphics for a number of Metasonix products including their new amp. :)
"This synth dates all the way back to 1984, as does my inner adolescent as I attempt to explain the very first trick I ever learned on a synthesizer: How to enter unison, or monophonic (solo) mode. My synth sounds like crap in this mode. Maybe yours sounds better? Watch and pretend that learning is fun!"
Update via Tratt in the comments: "I recently had some time to fiddle around and have compiled a proof-of-concept firmware with unison detune spread, see http://nydell.se/projects/j106 for more info. Give it a couple of months and I'll hopefully have a more complete J106 update."
11 comments:
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"cazzio"
ReplyDelete1. Correct, that's the standard Juno-106 unison mode sonic experience. Is what it is.
ReplyDelete2. Glad he righted his wrong about thinking that Cazzios suck. The VA-10 might be my fave keyboard in the studio at the moment.
My Juno 106 does the same thing, and it sounds the same too. I don't know if I get the coronet thing but... I think the effect that you get when you put the Juno into Unison mode sounds the way it does because some oscillators are more out of tune than others. Maybe this isn't correct seeing as they are DCOs and are supposed to be stable, but that's what it sounds like to me. BTW: if you play with the chorus buttons you can get both of them to turn on at the same time too. CAZZIOs RULE!
ReplyDeleteNo Skip, the problem in unison mode is that the oscillators /are/ exactly in tune. There is no spreading or detuning of the DCOs at all. Roland just sums all six voices together, making a loud, phase-canceled mess.
ReplyDeleteI've got a rather long post on Sequence 15 that explains why this happens. Basically, electro.mike is correct; all six of the DCOs are clocked off the same master clock, and so when they all play the same note, they have a fixed phase relationship. It's only noticable in unison mode.
ReplyDeleteI've been wondering if it would be possible to reverse-engineer the firmware and add something to the unison mode to offset the DCOs a bit. I've never heard of anyone reverse-engineering the Juno-106 code, which is kind of surprising actually.
Haha... you guys and you pronounciations. At least I'm not saying RAW-land or ar-peggy-oh any more. Next time I'll be sure to say caSio not caZio.
ReplyDeleteHey, I've had a sheltered life. No lessons, no external input from anyone, ever. This YouTube thing is my first foray into a public forum musically. I learn something new, literally, every single day...
So that's interesting... I always figured my Juno had a bug & that it sounded better in unison on other units. I guess that's not the case, and why unison mode is a hidden sorta functionality on the Juno-106. I recall having a much harder time coaxing the Poly 1 & 2 buttons to depress simultaneously in my youth... I guess things have "loosened up" inside the board over the past 24 years.
Regardless, it still sounds just as poopy as when I brought it home in 1984, and it's better used playing things polyphonically, with (correctly termed) legato or not. :o)
Thanks for watching!
Dave C, I think it's your moral imperative to lead the "106 firmware hack" charge to widen up unison mode. Strange I haven't seen more (uh, any?) 106 mods out there, either - would give this ubiquitous, underappreciated beauty a slightly new lease on life.
ReplyDeleteAnd original Dave, the 106 was my first synth too from back in the day. Glad I held onto it, if not for sentimental reasons. Sure the unison mode sucks synthballs, but Daft Punk gave it a modicum of cool around the turn of the century at least.
Henrik Nydell, of Junior106 fame, actually started down the path of hacking the 106's firmware.
ReplyDeletehttp://nyd.homeip.net/projects/j106/
(see chapter Y)
But I think his real life got in the way and no updates for over a year now.
Yes, my real life got in the way, in the form of a 10 lbs newborn son. Trying to catch up on the firmware bits now, but don't expect anything too soon. The J106 has two separate processors and thus two sets of FW images, one for the envelopes, lfo and other sound related controls and one to handle MIDI, buttons, keyboard and patch storage/recall, so I am not sure yet which FW image I need to mod to get a unison detune. I've requested the FW bin-file from an MKS-7 and was hoping to do some comparisons to try to figure out hot to control the voices independently (since the MKS is sort of multi timbral)
ReplyDeleteBR Henrik
I recently had some time to fiddle around and have compiled a proof-of-concept firmware with unison detune spread, see http://nydell.se/projects/j106 for more info. Give it a couple of months and I'll hopefully have a more complete J106 update.
ReplyDeleteany news`?
ReplyDelete