Roland Juno Gi - Keyboards and Pianos

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Collection only used at home only on a few occasions as new flight case included Roland Juno Gi. Condition is Used. Dispatched with Royal Mail 2nd When Roland re-introduced their famous synth tag with the Juno D and Juno G, they moved it away from the analogue classics we all love and repositioned it firmly in the performance and workstation arena. An interesting move, and one designed to appeal to the many live performers looking for a reliable, compact workstation, packed with Roland sounds, but not willing or able to shell out on their excellent but pricey Fantom workstations. Last year the Juno D got an upgrade to become the Di and now it’s the G’s turn. And this time it’s gained more sounds, better connectivity and a much-improved audio recorder.
The underlying unit is pretty straightforward, but still features over 1300 sounds (called “live sets”) derived from the 128 MB of onboard ROM; impressive stuff. The keyboard is a typical 61-key Roland Juno design and rather usefully can run from eight AA batteries as well as the usual power pack. Further Roland features include the combined pitchbend/modwheel and their popular D Beam controller, although there’s no aftertouch. Polyphony is 128 and sounds can combine up to four tones, which are assigned to two upper layer and two lower layer slots, allowing for easy key range splits. If you’re using an external DAW sequencer you can assign the lower layer to its own MIDI sub-channel.
The Gi’s sounds can be augmented using the two multi-effects units (79 different effects) and there’s also dedicated reverb and chorus. Basic synth sound modification (three-band EQ, reverb level, filter cutoff and resonance) can be made using the sound modify section at the right hand end of the panel. However, for deeper changes you’ll have to use the main menu screen.
The Gi’s other main feature is the eight-track audio recorder. This allows you to record directly from the synth or from external sources using the back panel inputs. With one combination mic/instrument input with 48V phantom, and twin jacks for line level inputs, Roland clearly view this as more than just a notepad option (which the Juno G’s recorder was). Tracks are accessed via four fader/button combinations and each track can have eight virtual tracks (V-Tracks) allowing for easy access to multiple takes. You can even add track specific insert effects and reverb, or use the mastering toolkit to process the overall stereo output (although alas not simultaneously). You’ll find the recorder also includes an extra rhythm pattern track with dedicated fader which has its own set of patterns. You can use this simply as a guide or construct more complicated arrangements to accompany your eight-track audio. Either way, settings are saved with your eight-track song.

Unsurprisingly, the Juno Gi also includes combined audio/MIDI USB connectivity (24 bit 44.1kHz). This integrates well with the physical inputs so you can route audio to your DAW, and it’s also possible to route your DAW output to the recorder if you like, as well as monitor via the main outputs. In fact the only obvious limitation is you can only record two tracks at the same time.
There are a number of further features worth mentioning. Firstly, at the left of the top panel you’ll find the USB Memory Song Player slot. This allows you to play standard MIDI files or audio files (WAV, AIFF or mp3) saved to a USB memory stick. All files need to be at root directory level and Roland suggests you only use their USB memory (although I had no problem using a standard stick). The other memory slot included is round the back and this is for standard SD cards. The Gi uses this for recording the eight-track’s audio and for data backup, and thankfully they include a 2GB pre-formatted card so you’re ready to record straight out of the box. You can use up to 32GB cards, which would give you 24 hours of full 8-track recording, however, in practice each song is limited to 2GB. Finally the Gi can be switched into MIDI controller mode. This disables local control of the synth and turns a number of the knobs and buttons into MIDI data controls.

Category: Musical Instruments:Keyboards and Pianos:Electronic Keyboards
Location: Nottingham