Juno Stage - Who is it for?

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RobJuno
Posts: 315
Joined: 17:43, 3 January 2008

Juno Stage - Who is it for?

Post by RobJuno »

Who is the Stage for? What niche does it aim towards? If you want a Juno for studio use, the Juno G is cheaper and has better facilities - sampling, dah! If you're a gigging musician, the X6 has just been the cheapest new it ever would be, before now being made unavailable in the UK. And if synths are really to difficult and scary for you, well, there's the GW8, which incredibly has twice the wave rom as the Stage AND is termed a workstation (so I doubt it is simpler to operate, but certainly has a more home-keyboard mentality about it) where the Junos come under the Synth label? Has Roland forgotten the SYNTH???

A Juno Stage 'synth' that you can play along with an mp3 player rather than a sequencer? And a GW8 'workstation' where, surprise surprise, you can play along with the same mp3 backing tracks or home-keyboard auto-accompaniment? This really is the iPod generation isn't it?!

I know thw Juno G came after the Fantom X, and so the 64MB of waves differentiated it from the X's 128MB... but two years on it looks very mean against the GW8's 256MB!!! (unless that's a typo on the spec sheet). If the Juno G could manage multisamples, perhaps things could be rectified.... is it possible in a software upgrade? Is it going to happen? Not while there are still SRXs in existence it's not!

If I were to buy a Roland synth now I'd go for the Juno G all over again. I got mine for £625 new last september! Unbeatable still now! £1,049 for a Stage? NO!

But I agree with a comment I've seen elsewhere here... wouldn't it be nice if Roland could produce essentially master keyboard synths again... fantom G quality performance synths minus the workstation bits.

...128MB minimum RAM, a good keybed with aftertouch, controls (sliders), outputs and MIDI outs, good screens, sync'able LFOs and FX (with internal clock for stand alone use), and at least 2 SRX expansion slots... ...All for the same price of a Juno Stage now! (61 key version - perhaps longer keybaord choices available?) After all, Roland's Edirol kick out admittedly cheaper and shorter controller keyboards for less than £200. So, take a Juno G, up the build quality and controller capabilities, lose the sequencer/rhythm patters/audio tracks, but not the sampler (We still gotta add DIMM RAM)...and a as an option, even if it cost the price of two SRXs... a high capacity flash RAM SRX for your own multisamples! Makes it a little bit more expandable in ways mutually beneficial to Roland and us... and sell it for £1,100 tops.

OR make the Flash RAM expansion a third slot, or an internal hard disk large enough for soft-synth/sampler programs, at a cost of, say, £300... and then Roland get in on the act of releasing their own virtual versions of their classic synths!

Afterall, the X went for £999 on its way out with 4 expansion boards! (Two normal + SRX97+98)

Oh yes! That'd be nice! Anyone else want one?

Can you tell I'm bored?
Oleq
Posts: 260
Joined: 22:55, 15 June 2006

Re: Juno Stage - Who is it for?

Post by Oleq »

Sequencer is a must, if you don't want to save all the patches in the performance and a performance itself (I don't).
With the sequencer you can save everything in one file (.svq).

Also, I use all the four analog outputs.

So, I'd like to see (and maybe get) an upgraded version of Juno-G. Not a karaoke keyboard.
tompabes
Posts: 326
Joined: 11:35, 22 October 2006

Re: Juno Stage - Who is it for?

Post by tompabes »

The target of the stage is the gigging musician that does not use the sequencer (or already have it in another keyboard).
For example, I have never used a sequencer live in 20+ years of "career"... ;)
The Stage has 76 keys and the keyboard is much better than the Juno, the keys are large like in a piano, long and have a better touch (I just tried the Juno Stage in Tokyo ;-).
The Juno-G cannot be used as the main keyboard (or even worse as the only keyboard) by a gigging musicians: its poor keyboard does not allow it, unless you want to put a lot of mistakes in your performance, while the juno stage can. Also, if you play serious piano parts, you might really need 76 keys.
Sounds are better than the Juno-G: the wave rom is much larger. The acoustic piano is much better (the piano on the juno-g is not so good).
So the juno stage is really a good choice for musicians that need a good board that can be their main board or need a mix between a stage piano and a synthesizer because they actually need both things.
See the Nord Stage for an example of a similar product.
I think these products do have a market: I'd like to know how many people who buy workstation do use the sequencer.
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donutninja
Posts: 178
Joined: 07:43, 19 November 2007
Location: Columbus, OH USA

Re: Juno Stage - Who is it for?

Post by donutninja »

That's an easy one...the Juno Stage is for me! :-D
RobJuno
Posts: 315
Joined: 17:43, 3 January 2008

Re: Juno Stage - Who is it for?

Post by RobJuno »

Maybe this is nothing but a new habit, but in the 9 months I've had my Juno G, I've practically forgotten I have Cubase running on the PC... despite having also bought TWO 22" widescreen flat pannel monitors this years, which create a wall between my audio monitors! Now I won't say I've ever dug deep enough into all the features of Cubase, but somehow, despite the far simpler/more restricted features of the Juno G sequencer, the results have been better than anything I've created in the past. Mind you, perhaps the sound quality of the synth has a lot to do with this also.
Radek
Posts: 340
Joined: 18:08, 7 March 2006
Location: Piaseczno, Poland

Re: Juno Stage - Who is it for?

Post by Radek »

Although GW8 has 256MB of PCM ROM it has weaker effect section and its sequencer is more like an arranger keyboard than a workstation. Juno Stage would be much better if it could be used as a USB audio interface. Fantom-G can and it's a great Roland omission to not add such functionality to Juno Stage. (I know I could be GAS-ing hard for one if it'd be so)
stroumf83
Posts: 10
Joined: 21:57, 26 October 2008

Use with software sequencer

Post by stroumf83 »

Can I use all the sounds to create songs with a software sequencer (sonar, cubase) or only the general midi sounds?
(I mean in midi tracks)
luke
Posts: 21
Joined: 01:18, 31 August 2007

Quick access/favorite bank

Post by luke »

One little point I would like to make:

If roland targets the gigging musicians, why the **** did they f'k up the quick access mode (called the favorite mode on the Juno-Stage)?????

Little explanation - on the JunoG you have all the following information on ONE screen: list of banks, selected bank is highlighted, 6 icons of the patches inside a bank (other 6 appear after pressing 'shift'), name of the selected patch, graphical information about which slots are free inside the selected bank and some other, non-important stuff. You get to move around easily and instantly see contents of any bank, make any selection within 1-2 button presses (inside any bank).

What do we have on the Juno Stage? Just the name of the patch and category.. An excelent joke, one would say. There is 10 banks with 10 slots each. So Roland actually wants you to remember exactly where you stored 100 patches.

OPTION 1 (presumed that you know all the positions by heart, which nobody ever does, unless you only use like, three..):
- turn the favorite mode on, select the slot. If you want to change bank, press favorite/bank, and then select the bank by number. Takes the same time as on the JunoG, BUT you don't see what is in the other slots, and you don't see which bank is selected. Plus, if you accidentally try to recall an empty slot, each time you get an info message over the whole screen, for 1 second, which gets annoying over time.
OPTION 2: (oh yeah, there is a list!!)
- you have to put both hands off the keys to recall a simple list, where you get to see the first FOUR of the total NINE positions (6/12 on the JunoG). Wanna see more? You have to scroll down using the arrows or the wheel INSTEAD of pressing shift to view the contents of the bank instantly. You've got the patch, recall it, and voila!! Favorite mode turns off, wtf????? Do you want to recall a different sound for a different part of a song you are playing from the favorite banks? You have to do the whole procedure again.


A little summary:
On the JunoG you have to press buttons 2 times to get the 5th patch from the first bank. On the JunoStage you have to press 7 buttons to get to the same patch (3 against 11 for the 10th patch; 2 against 3 for the 1st patch).


How the *** is that supposed to make the keyboard more suitable for gigging musicians? They shouldn't have touched it!!! I seriously believe that someone from Roland got paid just to change the QA in any way for the purpose of making it look different. Screw the funcionality, right? JunoG is a low cost workstation, and it is doing so much better when it comes to quick access. They could have just copied it straight from the JunoG just like they copied the effects/patch editor, OS, etc. And scrolling through patches with footswitches? Not a bad idea, but with the concept of this mode it sounds like a f*n joke. Nice work again, ROLAND, very helpful again.......... NOT! Pen, piece of paper and numeric selection are faster than this piece of... favorite mode.

Have a nice day everybody!
Diametro
Posts: 1608
Joined: 22:50, 3 June 2005
Location: WNYork

Re: Juno Stage - Who is it for?

Post by Diametro »

I'm shocked that $900 GW-8 has 256 mb wav rom ...

Really makes you wonder why Roland didn't step it up a little more with $2k-3k Fan-G's wav rom ... ???

I have to admit, although I've never played one, I secretly want a Roland arranger ... too bad this one doesn't come in a model with built-in speakers, too ...

BTW ... Can those built-in speakers actually work as monitors during a show ... ???
johnpall
Posts: 14
Joined: 17:00, 7 May 2009

prelude has since answered your ?

Post by johnpall »

Hi it has built in speakers and yes you can use them to monitor your playing but not good enough to also simultaneously monitor your singing.
podgesax
Posts: 4
Joined: 21:42, 18 August 2009

Re: Juno Stage - Who is it for?

Post by podgesax »

Some good points there... particularly about the favourites function. It seems that Roland have made something complex out of something simple.
plasmis
Posts: 46
Joined: 22:22, 13 April 2005
Location: Finland

Re: Juno Stage - Who is it for?

Post by plasmis »

So what exactly does this F* up of the favorite function mean on the Juno Stage? I am a happy FX6 user but I have been watching very closely at Juno Stage for live stuff. I want to keep my FX6 at home and use one keyboard for live gigs.

I played the JS at my local music shop (Tampere, Finland) and I think the keyboard touch is quite similar to my X6. I like to use aftertouch for leslie effect but that is secondary stuff which can be done with an expression pedal too.

I would like to hear your experiences how the JS keyboard has worked in constant use. I would greatly appreciate hearing your experiences and I thank you in advance.
synthroid
Posts: 33
Joined: 17:33, 27 September 2003
Location: Louisiana

Re: Juno Stage - Who is it for?

Post by synthroid »

Luke,

I totally understand what you mean about the Favorites mode on the Stage. Oddly, I don't miss the Live Performance mode (as on the Juno-G) as much playing as I do when I'm storing patches. It's really hard to know what they were thinking. Who can remember off the top of their head where they put all those patches without a prompt screen that shows in one window those sounds that are assigned to that bank? On the Stage you have to actually remember what was there before you write over it. I've written over (by mistake) many patches that I didn't want to remove simple because there is no quick way (like on the G) to see all 8 patches in that bank. This would be my biggest request for the next update - if possible. Give us all the patches in that bank, in one window with one button. That would be sweet and if the board concept survives, no doubt the next one will have this. What's weird is that, they already did have it with the G. What happened guys? Why would you drop this feature? Especially with so many banks and patches?
NonDairy
Posts: 2
Joined: 17:50, 25 February 2011

Re: Juno Stage - Who is it for?

Post by NonDairy »

Honestly, I've been using an Alesis QS7 for the past 14 years and the display's been dead for the last 10. Trust me, you remember where you've saved 100 patches if you have no way of knowing what patch you're selecting or even which category you're in.
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