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Ooo, jealous of the ju-06.

Yeah, know what you mean about the d-05 “sound�, but I happen to love it, and although I already have the fm, this completely has me covered for cheesy 80s pads. Which I love.

K25 is a nice little accompaniment, but should be £45 not £90. It has no functionality over the 25 keys. Even if it had a couple of buttons for octaves, that’d be enough. Plus, the never seem to pop up cheap on eBay.

I also have a JU-06, and I got the K25 with the A-01 module (the least-throwbacky unit in the line, a usb/bluetooth/cv controller module with 8-bit monosynth and step sequencer) on some retailer's closeout for like $100 so that was worth it. Always be prowlin' the 'bay, guys.

All of the modules have octave keys, that's why the keyboard doesn't... it has a proprietary connector to only be used with Roland VAs so it doesn't matter much. The built-in speaker is handy for couch noodling along to Stranger Things or Twin Peaks but you don't really hear the goods on the best kinda patches without headphones or line out. I agree that they wouldn't be worth it at full price, I had reached that conclusion before getting the deal on one... but Roland very annoyingly limit the capabilities of these things as stand-alone units to use with ordinary usb-midi controllers (i.e. without a computer handy) and then there's the 4-note polyphony, which is almost more disappointing when you're in front of 49+

As Nick said, these things are "studio toys". You could use one live to do lead lines or something but without buying two of the same unit and linking them together you're stuck with 1-note bass hand and simplified chords all night, even if you do use a bigger keyboard. It's best suited to getting your MIDI on in a DAW and being able to manipulate the part afterwards. You could use a VST to do all this Juno/Jupiter masquerading (which is where most criticism of this series lies with Roland fans), it's just nice to have the OG-style control layouts basically. The Juno was the one I considered essential and while I did want to make my way towards the other units in the original line, it never ended up happening once I got to full grips with the JU-06. I might get the Bassline or the Vocoder one day.

Wish I's gotten the Juno. The D-05 is great, and has 16 note polyphony, so all good there. It just lacks the proper lead sound itch, and due to it's type of synthesis, you can't really tweak on the fly. It's a preset queen. An excellent one, but doesn't cut it for that tweakable lead sound.