GIVING NEW LIFE TO A CLASSIC VINTAGE ROLAND JUNO-106.

By Cami (they / them) 

CALIFORNIA, 26 AUGUST 2025

Ah, vintage analog synths.  No matter how much new territory today's synth Inventors explore as they design modern synthesizers, so many artists and musicians will always be keenly interested in the simple-yet-raw-sounding-and-fun-to-play classic analog synths of the mid-to-late 20th century.  So, today, we restore a classic Roland JUNO-106 analog polysynth and usher it from being close to the end of its story to a new beginning.

Keeping these special synthesizers in good condition can be challenging.  Over the years and decades since having fresh components installed and being painted with their iconic livery at the factory or workshop, classic vintage synthesizers like the Roland JUNO-106 could typically see any amounts of time being played in a cool and comfortable studio, beaten up through intense tours and trips, and fading underneath the slow fall of dust and time.  No matter how well they were built decades ago, classic vintage synthesizers, like all life on Earth, go through all four seasons.

In early summer 2025, The Midium® acquired a Roland JUNO-106 that was seeing its own autumn turn to winter.  Recently, it needed new voice cards, potentiometers, and a battery.  New buttons were also needed, and like so many others like it, layers of forgotten possibilities had to be cleaned away.  We saw an opportunity to help this classic polysynth transcend its latest season and live through a new spring, where it would live again to meet a musician with whom it could come back from winter like Persephone and make beautiful music again.  

There's something special––something spiritual and beautiful––about giving another chance to an entity with so much good in it, isn't there?  

The Roland JUNO-106 is a classic for many reasons: its tone, its ease-of-use, its ability to shine in roles ranging from leads and pads to drones and bass, and certainly for its legendary chorus.  The Roland JUNO-106 was designed and produced by Roland in Japan while the company's visionary founder, Ikutaro Kakehashi, was still with us.  Of course the Roland JUNO-106 continues being played by artists today, 40 years after its invention!

In this video, we show you what that restoration process––that journey from winter to spring––looked like for this particular Roland JUNO-106.  We listed it here, on TheMidium.com, for sale.

Thanks for joining us.  I hope you enjoy!