Customer Reviews

Roland JUNO-Di Synthesizer Keyboard

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I purchased this keyboard from Guitar Center specifically for playing shows. I joined an 80's rock band, and for the first few practices was lugging around my monstrous, 60+ pound Yamaha Motif ES8. I saw this keyboard in GC while picking up some cables, and was immediately drawn to it. It's a really good-looking board, very clearly laid out with nice, easy to see and use buttons and knobs. After checking out some reviews online I bought it, and it was a Great buy! This was about two months ago, and I've been playing it almost every day since, for practice and shows.

The board weighs about 12 pounds, easy to lift and transport. I can carry it in one hand with no problems. It has a basic power adapter, but you can play it for ~5 hours on 8 AA batteries. The display is easy to read, and the menus are a snap to navigate. The full-sized keys themselves are not weighted, and are set with a high level of tension. The octaves are well-suited for most playing, and an octave shift can allow you to move up and down the octaves if necessary. The sounds are Excellent, now that Roland is using the Phantom sound modules, and the tone generator is 128-note polyphonic. The tone response is perfect, even when I'm layering a few effects on the current sound.

The D-beam device works as advertised, but I honestly don't use it. The one really nice thing is the external USB port. You can copy an MP3 file onto a regular USB thumb drive, and play the file right through the keyboard. Two good uses I've found for this so far; first, I can listen to a song I'm learning on the board, and I can play right along with it. The second use came from playing Madonna's Lucky Star. I literally had about a two hour notice that I was going to play this song for a show. I was able to get the various funky sounds and keyboard parts down quickly (it's really an easy song), but I didn't know how to get that fast arpeggio that starts the song. I recorded it to a USB key, plugged it in, and started the song playing that recorded arpeggio. Cheating? Yup, but I had no time to figure out how to get that sound, and sometimes you have to do what you have to do to play the show. Now I'm sure this is not the first kb that has this feature, but it's the first one I'VE played that does, and it is Really useful for hard to reproduce sounds from these 80's songs.

The only issue I've run into with this board comes back to its very light weight. While playing, the board will occasionally slide on my kb stand. It is so lightweight that there is little friction against the kb stand. Once I figure out a way to secure it better, this will quickly be resolved, but just keep it in mind.

Overall, I am VERY happy with this board. Roland really got this one right.

- Paul D.

Btw, I would Not recommend this board for starting musicians. Nothing against the Juno, but get a weighted keyboard for beginning pianists.

Great for practice and it has some good synth, organ and E Piano sounds, but the piano sounds are a little plastic.

Wow, this thing is pretty amazing for the price! I like to gig around a lot, but I wanted a smaller synth just for noodling around on at home, so I bought this bad boy a year ago! What can I say....it's been great so far! I was really impressed with the quality and sheer number of sounds this thing has! Roland once again lives up to the quality associated with their name! You really can't go wrong with this synth at this price range!

My only con was that it comes with a volume knob rather than a slider (I was used to playing a yamaha m08) but it just took a few practices to get used to! Now it's not a "con" in my opinion at all :) I can still pull off the "fade-ins" with ease!

Side note: ignore the other review (the 2-star one). He obviously got a RARE dud and for some reason didn't utilize the warranty to fix the problem(which is why warranties exist!)! This is a great machine.

The good news: This is a great, easy to use, keyboard/synth, that sounds great with even minimal power drivers. In other words: Great keyboard action, intuitive labeling of buttons, and supply your own powered speakers, but......

The bad news: But none computer software included worked with any OS. I tried 3 Windows versions: W7, Vista, and XP. The programs aren't even Plug and Play friendly... Roland, like most mid-level instrument makers, doesn't really do product-support, so do not expect much help from them. So do not buy this keyboard as a controller, just as a great fun stage synth/ rhythm section(as long as it only is 4/4) for any musician, or kid who has at least a good friend who knows a little about synths..... After some calling, I was able to get a W7 patch, and was able to install the software, but cannot get it to talk to my other software still. I got an email angry that I called it Mid-Level, rather than Professional. It is a great synth, but for Prof. Level, I would expect a totally quiet key-bed, etc. and Rhythm program-ability so I can have something beside a 4/4 meter, and full computer compatibility and Tech Support....

The worse news 3 months later. Got updated drivers finally, but talking to a real tech, forget it. The USB memory stick plug would not recognize memory sticks, and guess what? I am out of warranty now. Rewired it myself, but the software it so buggy, that the Songplayer, I'll let you know if I ever figure this one out. Gee I miss my old Kawai. So forget being able to sample anything on this keyboard, or having anything outside of a 4/4 rhythm.