Roland JUNO-Gi Synthesizer  

I think this is an excellent keyboard that is worth every Penny. As far as what Horace said above about it not having MIDI Mapping, IT DOES, on page 133 of the Owners Manual, channels 1-16. I have heard a little better Pianos before, but there are numerous settings that can be adjusted in each of the Live sets that makes the Pianos a whole lot better, but that is after a little tweaking of the voices. I suggest looking at Youtube for videos for Roland Juno Gi to see what this Bad-Boy can really do, I'm convinced, after just watching the videos on youtube. I WILL be getting one soon.

The following are just my opinons, with regard to the Roland Juno-GI synthesizer. It is not my intention to prove one brand better than another. I use several brands of instruments in my work and do not generally consider myself an advocate of any one brand. I hope this review aids a fellow musician in making an informed decision. I  was actually in the market for a workstation (i.e. Fantom or Motif), but property tax increase and son's tuition caught me off-guard. In response, I had to buy what something to bridge the gap until the financial window of opportunity opened again. I researched the board via mfg demos on youtube and a couple forums as well as a couple colleagues' opinions. I lucked out and found someone in a bind and got one new one at a discount. However, the only part for which I am now thankful resides in the fact that I did not pay full retail. The following are the pro's and con's: Pros: 1. magnificant pads, organs, and percussion. Every organ in the Live Sets is very convincing. 2. Great Amp-Sims, effects, useful stock arpegiators, and very good analog emulations. 3. Very rugged construction (sturdy knobs and pots). 4. Some of the Live Sets have velocity sensative accents something like Yamaha's XA effects which are adjustable(guitars particularly; frets and harmonics). 5. Audio recorder capable of recording and applying effects to action on an outboard guitar or bass. 6. Intuitive GUI compared to previous offerings. 7. Wide range of real-time control. Cons: 1. Most of the acoustic patches such as strings, basses, and pianos are unconvincing compared to those available in other models. 2. The keyboard, though they are synth-style unweighted keys, is noisy, lack feeling, and are too small, believe it or not. The keys on this board are about 7/8, give or take, the size of comparable synth/piano keys. 3.No onboard 16-track midi song playback (knew it did not have a midi sequencer, but most synthesizers are designed to playback with DAWs through a 1-to-1 midi channel mapping. This one has not those facilities. In a nutshell, only 4 parts can be assigned to Cakewalk or Cubase with some configuration. I know there are work-arounds for it, but it's by no means a convenient solution for use with computer-based DAWs. 4. Basically (for my individual purposes)it is a pad/percussion/organ sound module that is taking up a keyboard spot on my bench. I can clearly see this board's value for live performances, applicable to a wide spectrum of genres, with emphasis on those hinted with progressive/alternatative rock and trance elements, which is superb for so suited a user. However, I have IN NO WAY found it to live up to one-stop plug-and-play music production powerhouse the infomercials might lead one to believe. The only reason I will likely not trade it off is for the live sets of note I've listed, though I still hate having to make room for it when space is generally limited. In closing, as primarily a studio musician (taking into full consideration the attributes of this derivative unit), I will likely forego the purchase of the Fantom and look more in the direction of the Motif. Thank you for indulging me this opportunity.

This keyboard is an absolute steal! It has an awe-inspiring amount of sounds and even more ways to change them. Couple that with the ability to record and have a USB port and a SD expansion slot is pretty cool. A song player is nice to have, but you need to have a Roland USB stick to use. I tried using another type and it didn't work. The keyboard noticed it there but didn't do anything for it. The keyboard's sound is pretty great as well. Get an external speaker for it and you could easily use it live. Problem is, it doesn't come with the cables to do so, but oh well, right? It also has the capabilities to be used as a MIDI controller, which was my selling point. Nothings ever perfect however. I did see it came with some sort of software, 2 discs to be exact. One was the driver for the keyboard and the other was Cakewalk's production plus program with Sonar 8.5 LE. I appreciated receiving free software but I absolutely HATE this. I found it to be too much of a pain to use, and I do have experience with others like Reason and Pro Tools and I didn't give up right away. I looked for tutorials and just experimented with it for a while but decided it wasn't worth it. I won't dock this keyboard for that, Roland has made a fun product with few faults. Looking for a universal synth? I suggest this one.