I ordered a full set of Voice Chips from Analogue Renaissance while they are still available. My Juno 106 is going to be a keeper as it really fits nicely into my current gear setup. I’ll let everyone know how that goes once I installed the new chips.

I noticed today though that I had one dead “E” key located in the lower first Octave. I took apart the keys section and removed a the “E” key and found the silicon rubber piece over the contact. I cleaned the upper and lower contact first with the eraser trick and then with some alcohol cleaner. I put everything back together and the “E” key still does not work. Does anybody know what else I can try? Is there any paste or substance I can put on that contact to revive it or create a new connection?

For now I can of course I can use midi, move the keys up or down and octave, or simply dance around the dead key. However, my Juno 106 would be utterly perfect if I could just fix that dead key. At least the key is way down low instead of in the middle. I notice I don’t play it that much anyway, but I sure wish I could fix it. It’s the perfectionist in me I suppose.

Thanks!

Jim

Furthermore, in test mode I CRANKED the volume and played with the VCF frequency slider and noticed that the other three voices had about 5% life still left in them. They were very hard to hear, but I could detect some sound after playing the keys. This helped me to determine that the background noise had to be “hopefully” coming from 1,5, or the 6 voice chip and that they were not completely dead yet. Thus the constant crackling noise.

So beware that even if the key sounds dead, it may not be just yet. You may need to crank the volume really high in test mode or even in regular playing mode to try and detect faint sounds when hitting the keys. Note that you’ll also have to watch your ears, but it should be rather quick to hear a synth sound of some sort.

Now I effectively have a Roland Juno 103 as people are calling it when you lose voices. However, I am planning to put in an order for the complete Voice Chip Set from Analogue Renaissance this week to both replace the 3 bad voices and have spares in case the other three fail.

For those who have pulled their dead or dying chips and still have noise, my guess is that another voice is probably “just starting” to crap out. I was worried this might happen because I would then have to really think about how to detect which of the three voice chips left were bad. That might have been difficult considering they all were sounding about the same.

I wish everyone continued success with fixing their Juno 106. I found mine for 50 bucks in Japan. It cleaned up really nicely and with some new clone chips installed, I should be back to jamming in no time. Note that for now I can just play with 3 voices. Ala Juno 103! Enjoy!

Regards, Jim

There seems to be a ton of questions and comments concerning background static, distortion, crackling, popping, etc. on the Juno 106. Currently I have a Juno 106 with 3 dead voice chips which are 1, 5, and 6. The other three work, BUT, I am still experiencing the “extra” noise that prevents me from using this in practice, live, or in recording. I can tape down the three dead voices and the Juno 106 rocks but with background static noise.

My thinking is that one of the other three “working” chips MUST be going bad. Somebody out there in Juno 106 land must have had this exact same problem and my question is whether replacing all or the dying chips solved the background static issue. My thinking is that there are three likely scenarios. (1) A perfect working chip with no background noise and only synth sound, (2) A dying chip with background noise and quirks, or (3) a dead chip with no background noise and no synth sound. Thus dead silent.

Can anyone confirm this? Thanks very much.

Jim

Did you happen to solve your problem with the background distortion or static noise? I am having the exact same issue as yourself. I’m wondering too if it’s simply a voice chip going bad versus one that is already dead. Thanks for any info.

Jim

I know my 5th voice is clearly out and i have a few 2nd gen replacements on the way… but there is background distortion even without key press?

It sounds like a old record turntable pop/crackle that is amplified when i turn up the VCA level slider and/or of course when i turn up the volume.

Just trying to find out if this is more than likely the chips or something else? Could they generate background noise when they are not working correctly or would this indicate something else.

Thanks for any help in advanced.

Tim Wiley

incidentally, to answer my question a while back. you can just remove voices and use what remains. i have one juno 105 where i removed a dead voice 6 chip. i just use it in poly 2 mode and revel in it’s 5 voice beauty. it sits next to my juno 104 which, somewhat less conveniently, has had voices 2 and 3 extracted. for that, each time i turn it on, i switch to poly 2, hold down a note and then tape down the two bottom keys – happily using voices 1, 4, 5, and 6 after that.

lastly, i busted the dead voices into pieces getting them out of there. kind of regretted it after seeing this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4lF0xSVQlg
if you’ve got the time and patience, seems you can fix the broken voices.

I am now in the market for an upgrade from the AI4 and am trying to decide between Logic and Cubase full version. The cost for the Logic will be considerable because I don’t have a Mac. That being said I will spend the money if Logic is the way to go. Reading thru peoples responses it seems that it may be.

My question, does anyone know a site to compare “stats” between the 2 programs?

Also, besides plug-ins….what other features does Logic excel on?

Hopefully someone can help me out.