Best keyboard to imitate 80s synth sounds

[Alex Lloyd]

Looking ffor a keyboard to play 80s songs, I guess a retro synth keyboard like this one would be best? But can you recreate the same sounds with the newer versions of roland? Would like to be able to play a wide range of songs, Thanks

I guess I'm looking for the cheapest option too, not with too many functions as I probably wouldn't use them.

 

[happyrat1]

Pretty much any of the more recent Juno Models from Roland could handle that tune.

The latest out is the Juno DS. The DS61 sells for about $699 USD. Watch out for Black Friday Specials this week.

Or you could always hit craigslist for an older Juno G or DI

Gary

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Yes, I'm hoping there will be some Black Friday sales which are just too good to resist!

 

[Sim]

Have you looked at the new Roland Boutique modules?

They are pretty good value and there are re-creations of the Jupiter-8 (JP-08), the JX-3P (JX-03) and the Juno-106 (JU-06), which apparently all sound as good (or better) than the original synths.

 

[happyrat1]

I'd suggest looking good and HARD at the specs on Roland and Yamaha's Boutique synths before pulling the trigger though. I owned a Roland JD-Xi for a couple of years and it turned out that aside from the mini keyboard which is a pain in the ass, it was also lacking in some areas where Roland skimped on the implementation.

First of all MIDI channels were fixed on each voice and could not be changed and secondly it was impossible to edit a patch without editing the entire performance associated with that patch, including the rhythm and all of the associated voice engines.

I'm not saying these boutique synths are a bad idea, but they do skimp on some of the features of the original and may not perform up to expectations in the end.

Especially if you are planning on MIDIfying these things up in the studio (pretty much required with the mini keyboards.)

Caveat emptor...

Gary