Hopefully buying a Roland Juno-Gi tomorrow, put me off it if you can

SexyGreyFox

SexyGreyFox

SexyGreyFox

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I'm in the market for a new keyboard because I want to introduce it into my second band especially for the Deep Purple, Rainbow & Uriah Heep songs.
I originally was going to have the cheaper Juno-Di and then noticed this earlier.
The advantage is that it has a clearer display and you can put the sounds through a COSM engine eg Hammond Organ through a distorted amp + rotary speaker = true Jon Lord heaven.
The other thing it has got is a full 8 track Digital recorder where you can plug a guitar in and you get all the COSM effects that come with Rolands guitar pedals and the guitar can be recorded in real time to the inbuilt memory card.
You can also plug a microphone in and record through COSM effects.
OK, 8 tracks is not a lot but these can be transferred via USB into a proper Windows sequencer that comes with it.

So, for the price of £750, do you know of anything better?

A couple of videos -



junogi.jpg
 
arty said:
You could also pay a keyboard player to gig with you guys instead ;)
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We have a bloke who keeps asking to join us and he is amazing but only around 6 songs of our set need a keyboard which are Deep Purple's Highway Star, Burn & Mistreated to name 3 and I can do a decent interpretation of the hammond parts.
So it's basically get on stage, play 6 in a row, put keyboard to side and carry on with the Sabbath, Zeppelin & Maiden which will be ruined with keyboards.
I have a Korg Trinity but it doesn't sound right and isn't stage friendly for quick switching for sounds.
 
robfosters said:
Well?

Did you get it?
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:( Not yet but in a minute I'm going up to the Academy Of Sound with my headphnones to make sure it is what I want.
Mrs Dimple (who lets me have everything I want) has also put her foot down and said I can't have it until I've repaired something else but I will be having it or something similar.

Snograt said:
How good are synthesised Hammond sounds these days? I love me a bit of Jon Lord, Alan Price, Matthew Fisher and other grey haired Hammond luminaries. I've just not heard anything that adequately emulates that wonderful Hammond/Leslie sound.
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Even my Korg Trinity does a decent emulation and when I took it to rehearsal my guitarist who lives & breathes Deep Purple & Rainbow had an orgasm but if you watch Jon Lord he is continually changing the sound by pushing drawbars in & out which is very hard to do on a synth.
Basically I could leave the editing page on and use a slider to go through different 'drawbars'.
The thing is that 99% of the audience would be convinced and you'd get one smart Alec at the back (me) saying 'That Hammond is pretend'.
 
I've spent 2 hours at the shop with the Juno Gi and the sounds knocked me out to be honest.
I was about to buy when I noticed a £50 price jump and my heart sank but one of the guys said they would hold it to the £749 on the website.
I then got cold feet and decided to do more research and basically I've sat here for at least 4 hours going over everything for both Gi and the cheaper Di.
Now one thing I noticed was that the cheaper Di comes with editor/librarian software and the Gi doesn't (and never will).
I followed a thread where one bloke is really upset about this but the question is: If I'm happy with the onboard sounds do I need this software?
So soundwise the Di is very editable but the Gi isn't (except for the main parameters).
Other than that the Gi has way more sounds, a really nice 4 sound layering plus it comes with a proper 10 track digital recorder (drums on 2 tracks) and you can plug guitars/bass and microphones in which go through a Boss GT engine :eek: so no need for my Line 6 Toneport anymore.
A copy of Cakewalk Sonar LE comes bundled with it because the onboard recorder will link with a proper DAW.

It's such a hard decision because (unless I win the Lottery) this will be my last ever keyboard purchase - honest.
 
I've bought it :D

Anyway, here's a very quick test I did on the digital recorder using a bog standard 4/4 beat, rock organ, slap bass and running a Gibson Les Paul sound through the built in GT10 guitar effects - Quick recorder test

On the Gi there is a PREVIEW button so I've done a quick recording of some of the presets.
Some of those distorted organs sound great mixed in with heavy guitars - Sound Previews
 
arty said:
Some of those sounds aren't bad :) I find the distortion rather digital and some of the patches a bit 'thin' but y'know, for £750 I wouldn't complain.
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I know what you mean but I've just made a backing track to learn the solo for for Deep Purple's Highway Star, made my way through the Organ presets and the one that fitted perfectly was one of the really horrible distorted sounds plus I wave my hand over the D Beam and on comes this amazing Leslie emulation.

I can now box my Line 6 KB37 Toneport up because the Juno has the processor from a GT10 guitar effects and I can find any sound I want.
I plugged my bass guitar in and within seconds got the killer bass sound I had always wanted and saved it to one of the User Presets.

I'm glad I had the Gi with the Digital Recorder because even though it would be capable of excellent recordings it is more suited to being a sketchpad.
It also came Sonar 8.5 LE and when you press the MIDI Controller button it becomes a DAW Controller so the knobs & sliders change parameters on Sonar.

It just gets better and better every time I turn it on.
 
Snograt said:
Whip us up a quick demo of Child in Time, DM - don't forget the vocals ;)
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Ooooh, bass player has put the dampers on that one ages ago :(
We've only just talked him into Dazed & Confused by Zeppelin.
He really hates keyboards with a passion but we're hoping that he'll agree that the likes of Burn, Mistreated, Highway Star, Eyes Of The World, Easy Livin and Kashmir will all be enhanced by them (which we know they will).
 
Unexpected phone call this morning from Academy Of Sound.

"Dave, we have your brand new keyboard in so you can swop the demo model and change it for this one" :)
I'd forgotten I'd had the demo one in the shop but they remembered.
Also spent a good 30 minutes with the keyboard guy who showed me some of the hidden functions of it.
 
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