Roland Juno DS 76

[Melodymaker]

Hi to one and all, I promised an update on my final decision on my next board purchase.
As you can see by the title of this thread, I decided on the Roland DS 76. I have not yet heard a bad word for the new Juno, only good and just how versatile they are for band work. The other deciding factors were 76 keys. 61 keys would limit certain things and although 88 would be nice, it is considerably heavier and a little on the long side for my car. The final decider was the online purchase I have made
For a "nearly new one" at around half the retail price !
All I have to do now is tweak it to my liking and save settings etc ready for the gigs. At least I'll have a full array when I get going as I'll be using the Roland VR-09 for my top board and the Juno DS76 for the lower for pianos etc.
All suggestions and advice and tips from current DS users will be gratefully appreciated.
Happy Music to all !

 

[happyrat1]

You can download expansion packs for your new board here:

JUNO-DS61 / JUNO-DS88 / XPS-30 | Axial

axial.roland.com

Enjoy

Gary

 

[Melodymaker]

Hi Gary, thanks for that I'll have a browse on axial. It was very disappointing for the VR-09 though as they don't seem to have bothered at all with any aftermarket support with that one. I know it's a lot better for the Juno so let's hope we'll have some enjoyment with that.

 

[happyrat1]

Believe me, I love my DS88 and have no major complaints about it.

There's some really nice sounds in the expansion packs.

The only things are:

1) You can't mix and match sounds from different expansion packs.

2) You can't record the MIDI out of the Step Sequencer into a DAW. The sequencer does not output MIDI messages. This would be fixable by a firmware update if Roland ever decides to do one. But this is really my only disappointment with the Juno DS. Even so, there are workarounds for this.

Gary

 

[Melodymaker]

Ok Gary thanks for that info. I don't intend to do anything too technical with the 76, it's purely for band work, so as long as I can save some order of sounds in conjunction with my set lists it'll be fine. I believe it's not dissimilar to the VR-09 on that score, in fact more of the same with a longer row of memory buttons unlike the 4's into 100
On the VR. I'm looking forward to some of the sounds that can be created by layering and then of course there is the super layer. My only doubt is the quality of the keybed as it won't be anything like your 88 !
Cheers for now Colin.
PS. Board arrives on Thursday

 

[happyrat1]

I owned a DS61 before the I managed to trade it plus some cash for the 88.

If the keyboard on the 76 is anything like the 61 it is a decent, synth style set of keys with an acceptably quick action.

I haven't played around too much with the superlayers as I find simple layers of two voices to be adequate for most things.

Off the top of my head I can't remember if polyphony is 128 or 256 so be careful if you go overboard with layers as the notes pile up.

Then again I haven't noticed any dropouts while playing along with the step sequencer.

Gary

 

[Melodymaker]

Cheers Gary, I have got used to the VR-09 keybed but it leaves a little to be desired. Hopefully the 76 won't be any worse.

 

[Melodymaker]

Just a quick question Gary, Do you know if my Yamaha FC7 pedal is compatable with the DS or is it reverse polarity.
If so I have a converter.

 

[happyrat1]

It should be compatible.

Roland and Yamaha both use the opposite of the industry standard in polarity.

Gary

 

[Melodymaker]

Ok many thanks Bud

 

[anotherscott]

Hi Gary, thanks for that I'll have a browse on axial. It was very disappointing for the VR-09 though as they don't seem to have bothered at all with any aftermarket support with that one. I know it's a lot better for the Juno so let's hope we'll have some enjoyment with that.

The Juno was designed with extra memory for the purpose of holding expansions and custom samples. The VR-09 was not, there's no way to add sounds to it that aren't merely alternate settings for what's already in it. You can't add new wave data.

 

[selmerbluz]

Hey gang. . .I've had my DS76 for about 2 years now. I use Setlistmaker to call up sounds via MIDI. One thing that is not covered in the Roland manual is the ability to call up Favorites using MIDI. Anyone here using this feature? I believe that it was added at some point.

 

[anotherscott]

Favorites are pointers to Patches and Performances. You would call them up over MIDI using the MIDI Program Change associated with the underlying Patch or Performance.

 

[eliezer03]

what is the purpose of updating juno ds driver ? any idea ?

 

[anotherscott]

what is the purpose of updating juno ds driver ? any idea ?

compatibility with newer versions of your computer's OS

 

[eliezer03]

compatibility with newer versions of your computer's OS

Any idea on how to use and wat is the purpose of juno librarian ?

 

[anotherscott]

I haven't used the librarian. Typically, librarians allow you to easily rename and re-order your user sounds. They may also include editor functions, allowing you to edit your sounds more easily that you can typically do using the screen and button navigation on the keyboard itself. You could just download it and check it out for yourself. I would guess the download probably includes a manual as well.

 

[eliezer03]

hi guys, just curious. can we add sounds to juno ds besides from the axialroland website. if can, what are the website ?

 

[jgleighfield]

A minority view I know, but I disagree with nearly all of the positive comments and reviews I've seen about the Juno DS series. You could say it's what you should expect in it's price range, but having used most of the keyboards in the Juno family and still currently using a Juno G, I'd say the DS series is a very poor offspring. The two things that matter most simply don't measure up:

1) Sound Quality: I think the sounds on this are mostly terrible. They all seem to have an awful lack of depth and the same horrible mid-range honk, that can't be eliminated by either internal or external eq adjustment. I tried the DS (76) through headphones, studio monitors, a keyboard amp and a hi-fi setup and just couldn't get a decent sound out of it. I was using my Juno G as a reference, so I know it wasn't anything wrong with the gear or the settings. It was so bad I thought it might be faulty, so took it to my local music store to try out alongside a new DS. Not faulty, just crap.
2) Keyboard Feel: Spongy doesn't even begin to describe this keyboard. The keys simply don't seem to land on anything, so velocity sensitivity just feels really weird to play as there's just no way to feel what your playing. Haven't tried the 88, so don't know how this fares.

It's not forgiveable at the price, and even less so because there was no need for Roland to take a backward step from other keyboards in the Juno family (particularly the very similar Juno G in terms of functionality). But this is what has happened in terms of sounds and keyboard feel with the DS range.

 

[happyrat1]

You have to realize that the Juno DS series currently sells for about 70% more than it did when it was first released 5 years ago and the Keyboard on the 88 was light years beyond the 61 and 76 models.