Juno-106 And Renoise

Hi fella’s…

I “found” a Juno-106 in my room yesterday and was excited as hell! I connected everything and started playing with it for a while. It all went fine, untill I wanted to automate parameters of the synth via the midi-automate device. I didn’t know which CC numbers I had use, so I started pressing and moving all buttons/faders to find out the CC numbers I was looking for (With other synths, when you twist the knobs/move the faders the effect parameter gets recorded to the effect column). The Juno didn’t send a single signal when I press one of the buttons, or move one of the faders. HOWEVER, the pitch bend knob does send a midi signal to Renoise.

Hmmm, it’s a little harder to explain then I thought :) Basicly… I enabled all checkboxes in the midi settings, including the necessary “Record and play program changes”. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong… maybe this old beast is just too old for such “advanced” midi functions?

If anyone out there knows the answer, I’d be glad to hear :)

Cheers!

juno 106 is a beauty, i use to have one until i got into the bending stuff in 97.

all those little faders and buttons are analog. meaning they are not connected to the digital midi circuits, whatsoever. the only stuff i believe you can do with the midi was load patches/sysex from tape(take a long time) and control with keys and mod wheel.

like you stated, renoise will only be able to sequence notes and possibly control the mod wheel parameter, but i think mod wheel may only send out.

unless of course you found someone who could completely retrofit it.
which is very plausible.

The Juno can’t send MIDI CC’s, it can send and recieve SysEx so you should be able to control the synth with Renoise…
There must be a list of the specific CC numbers that the Juno uses for its parameter changes somewhere (although I can’t find it) .
If not, you have to sacrifice your saturday night to find all corresponding CC’s. ;)

Damn! I wish I could find something like that in my room :panic:

thats really a nice find.

Alright, thanks! I guess I’ll have to look up some sort of list with the necessary midi CC commands :)

Will keep you informed!

For reference, you can download the official manual from roland site. :)

http://www.roland.co.uk/support.asp

So how can I use Sysex in Renoise?

EDIT: Ah, I found a nice topic here. It looks kinda hard to pull off though… but I’ll bet it’s worth it :)

YAY I got it working, it wasn’t that hard after all :D

Can you tell us a bit more? How did you do it?

I just plugged in a Juno 106 to test if it could receive Midi CC:s, but I can’t get it to work. I’m especially after the ADSR section and the VCF Frequency and Envelope. Any suggestions?

Edit: I’ve installed Bome’s Midi Translator, and I have this Juno SysEx chart: http://www.hinzen.de/midi/juno-106/howto-02.html – guess I’ll try a bit more…

Well, I just used the tutorial in this topic. When you follow each step closely it can’t go wrong!

The problem with the Juno is that it can’t receive or send midi cc commands, it uses Sysex instead. With this tutorial you can “translate” the cc commands coming from Renoise’s midi cc device to Sysex commands :)

Good luck!

Btw, check this link out. You can find everything about the Juno-106 here… :)

http://www.hinzen.de/midi/juno-106/

You can also use Midi Quest XL to control the Juno as a vsti. It’s a bit expensive though…
Whit this program you create a separate standalone vsti plugin called Juno-106.
The vsti plugin will translate/send/receive sysex as vst automation parameters.
Also, all settings will be saved within the vst host (renoise).
The only limitation/bug is that you need to have the vsti editor open to be able to automate things in renoise.
Also for some synths there can be a problem that you need to disable and re-enable the automation device in renoise if you close the vsti editor. If not, the vsti editor will not open until you do so.
If you can live with that, then this program simply rocks for anyone using external hardware.

That’s an excellent program, though a bit expensive :( I wish Renoise could implement some sort of Sysex compatibility…

Thanks for the tip Pysj! I’ll buy this product, it’s worth it, but I probably need to get an additional WORKING USB MIDI interface for it (the SysEx seems to require a duplex mode, i.e. both in and out-cabels). Since I already have an Evolution 249C MIDI keyboard installed, with the Juno just receiving midi-IN-data via Evolution’s MIDI Thru port, I guess it will screw up my system (it did last time I tried to install an additional MIDI-driver for an USB M-Audio MIDI interface).

Can one have two different USB midi interfaces (with different drivers) installed on the same WinXP computer?

Yes you can.

But be aware that all these midi interfaces together with programs like Midi Quest can be like open a can of worms.
Different combinations can cause problems. I’ve had problems making Midi Quest work probably on some systems. And it is really difficult to pinpoint where the problem is. You just have to try and see! But most ppl make this thing work in the end…

btw, just another tip, you can also use midi-yoke and midiox together to make any midi interface true “multi-client” (means that the midi interface can be opened in several applications at once). Midi Quest requires multi-client drivers. There are not that many companies that make multi client drivers.
Midi-yoke are multi-client virtual drivers. With Midiox you can route your hardware midi into midi-yoke.

Update:

Today I grabbed an Edirol UM-1ex USB MIDI interface from the music store and installed it. There were no clear conflicts between the Edirol and the Evolution USB drivers, they both show up in the host softwares. In MidiQuest, the Juno showed up graphically and I could send out notes TO the hardware AND get notes FROM the hardware (evidence reported via the Midi monitor window). But for some reason MidiQuest refuses to transmit PATCHES from and to the hardware. The AutoSense scans all 16 ports and reports it can’t find any “Comm Ch”. (Yes, I’ve enabled the SysEX stuff on the hardware synth itself.)

Now I’ve tried everything in my power and given up on this. It’s a mystery it won’t work. Oh well, I’ll return the Edirol interface tomorrow and get a refund, and I won’t buy the MidiQuest software either. But at least I tried. It just wasn’t my lucky day. :(

Did you try this in the standalone Midi Quest? Or a vsti of the Juno?
You must make sure Midi Quest is using the correct midi interface (and that can in some cases be a problem!).
Try set up everything again in the Standalone application. In the Midi in/out settings in MidiQuest you can also enable to ‘show post mappings’. There you can change how MidiQuest should detect and map the midi ports (default everything is set to CP = current port).
I know this thing is not always straight forward…

Yep, I tested it all… Basically, the only driver running was the Edirol on all options. Anyway, thanks for your help!