In the midst of looking high and low for a good arpeggiator that wouldn't require an advanced degree to use, I staggered around the internet, downloading trial versions, all the usual fare. Rog finally hooked me up, but through that whole exercise I realized how much I miss my old Roland Juno 60. The sounds were very good considering it was the 80s, and I just liked the thing. The units on the internet were $2500 because they are now "vintage". (Man, i HATE that word!)

Well, the gods have smiled on me. I don't know when it came out, and I don't care, but Roland now has a module that (and I made some calls and checked) has the exact synth engine as the Juno 60. (And here is why I think maybe I just didn't know about this.) This unit is the JU-06a. Before it was a JU-06 without the "a". I think the A means nothing more than arpeggiator, because the non-a model did not have one.

So, yada yada yada, I'll know Thursday if it is everything I hope it is. And what started this all? I want to play a repetitive 16th note part by holding down one key, and I can do that on the Juno. I know I can because the band I was in at the time did a Little Steven song called Out Of The Darkness that was on his second album, and I set the arpeggiator up to play 1 note, set the speed, hit the latch button, set the attack to a little slower than instant, and voila. (Or viola, as some say.) I can't remember a time I was so thrilled to spend $400! Those analog days were so much simpler to set up filter sweeps and such, and this thing has exactly when the keyboard had. An LFO section, DCO, VCA, HPF, VCF and envelope. As well as key transpose (GOD how that comes in handy when you come to a situation where a band lowers a key for singers) and all of it. Happy to live so close to Sweetwater. I ALMOST was going to drive there tomorrow. It's like 3 1/2 hours from here. But, Thursday it is! MIDI the little devil up to the MK3 controller and play with it. What will be interesting is that it also emulates the Juno 106 which I never owned.