Alpha Juno ?

[gstoelen]

I love the sound of early 90's techno/hardcore tracks, and I was wondering whether the main synth riffs in the following tracks could come from the infamous Alpha Juno :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWgCQK4PDN8 (the first minute and throughout)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QMYhC5qKek (the first 15s and throughout)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fexw21TKM0g (at 1:15 and throughout)
I recently started to mess around with old hardware synth equipment and I'd like to add a synth to my arsenal, capable of above sounds (and filter action)... thanks for any feedback!

[kritikon]

Highly likely. I used to do stuff similar to that, pretty well because I had an AJ. There weren't too many synths around at that time that could do that. Most of those sound like only very slightly altered presets based on the classic hoover (What The?) preset. I distinctly remember the first time I ever played that preset on my Alpha, and it really was a WTF moment. Everyone I knew was the same...all stunned when they heard it. There's a good choice of Alpha-likes nowadays in both hw and sw. TBH that brought back some nostalgia...might have to fire up the AJ again (in storage as the keyboard died - probably fixable but not worth it IMO, but it should still work over midi).

[kritikon]

Addit: f**king awful things to program. I don't miss that awful button/alpha wheel way of programming. Probably that's why I never spent any effort or money getting it fixed. There was a distorted kick preset that was quite iconic too - was probably the AJ that inspired the trend for distorted kicks. Considering its filter was not self-oscillating, it could make some pretty aggressive squelches and that kick really showed it off. Actually I far preferred the AJ for filtery stuff than the 106...which was and is really quite crappy despite its reputation. AJ was quite powerful and unique but ultimately flawed. I don't regret buying one, but wouldn't again. I've seen at least 2 plugins that emulate AJs very well...Def go for sw than an original hw IMO...unless you wanna buy a cheap broken one at half price from NZ?

[Bombadil]

Had an Alpha Juno 1 for a while. It was fun.

[cryophonik]

I don't think I've touched an Alpha Juno since probably the early 90s, but yeah, some of those examples certainly sound like they were done with one (or, at least by synth patches designed to capture a similar sound). I don't have golden ears or a golden memory for identifying patches from a synth from 30 years ago, so take that for what it's worth. What I do remember, though, totally agrees with krikiton - that thing was a PITA to program, especially compared to the various Junos I owned prior to that.

[Watchful]

What I do remember, though, totally agrees with krikiton - that thing was a PITA to program, especially compared to the various Junos I owned prior to that.

Yep. It was caught in that strange in-between land of the popularity of the DX7 ("we need membrane buttons instead of knobs!") and the hatred of the DX7 ("there are too many membrane buttons...we need to simplify!").

Menu diving is never fun, especially on a display screen that was the size of a pocket calculator.

[gstoelen]

unless you wanna buy a cheap broken one at half price from NZ?

Afraid not But thanks for the offer hehe... I actually picked up an MKS-50 some time ago, which is supposed to be the rack version of the Alpha Juno.. I just haven't really explored it yet. Might need an external programmer though..

[gstoelen]

I actually had a chat yesterday with one of the 2 guys that produced "Frequency Test" and "Overdub" - the second and third link in my original post. He said they used : a Korg Wavestation (on which they programmed their own sounds), a 909 (obviously), a DBX compressor, a Yamaha SPX 900 and "eq + filters on our mixing desk which we keep secret" ...
The Wavestation is quite surprising to me though.. The first track was produced by one of those 2 guys and according to the one I spoke with yesterday, he also used the Wavestation on that track

[kritikon]

Wavestation was capable of some weird stuff, though not obviously geared towards techno type sounds. I had a Wavestation alongside Junos, 303, OSCar etc and it complemented them well. Great pads that worked against the fat analogue sounds.

You mentioned Eqs on desks...it's not a trade secret or anything, but you can actually use the mid-parametric Eq on desks to make great hoover sounds and filter sweeps. You just set the Eq to really big boost and then sweep the frequency to give the filter effect. We used to do that on the Wavestation and of all things...an M1. M1s were very digital with no filter to speak of, but make a pad then sweep the desk Eq and you could make it sound almost analogue. You can even make a 106 sound fat by doing that.

Creative uses of gear overcoming limitations.

[tehlord]

The first two synths I had were an Alpha Juno, then DX7. After that a D50. As a teenager.

I did not learn to program synths until I was in my 30s.

Let that be a lesson.