It comes down to this...

[Skyhigh4Him]

Juno-Gi or the Juno-Stage!

Yes, this is pretty much yet another boring thread of...well...yet again...someone that needs help. Haha, whatever the case...everyone seems pretty friendly on here!

Its like this: I've played piano for 10 years classically, and now I'm getting into to the band scene. Aside from the Gi's ability to make home recordings and the Stage' 76 keys, what are the differences between the two? I'm mainly looking to use it for live performance and quite a lot of synths will be used. Which is easier to create new sounds and such on? What can the stage do that the Gi can't, and vise versa?

Thanks so much in advance guys!

Garret

(whats an alternative to the Juno series whether Roland or another company? Around the $1000 price range)

 

[goz211]

Hi Garret. Welcome to the forum.

I'm a Juno Stage owner and gig regularly with it - often as the only keyboard.

76 keys, great feel (IMO). Lots of good sounds. It's been discontinued. You should be able to get one discounted.

It doesn't get a lot of love on the forums. You may get a second hand bargain as anyone who does a web search will find people complaining about it.

Lots of alternatives at the price you're talking about. Casio PX3 with a little Alesis Micron or a Korg Micro-X mounted above it? Can you get that for $1000 where you are?

Is $1000 your keyboard budget or your total gigging budget? You will need to think about a stand, sustain pedal, volume pedal (?), carrying case or bag, leads. Maybe a keyboard combo too if you're not playing through the PA and monitoring with headphones.

 

[Skyhigh4Him]

The $1000 is what I'd like to stay close to for the synth...I've already got a nice stand/case/pedal and such. What do you mean by leads? How weighted are the keys...are they any different from the Gi? I want to play a lot of synths aswell as piano and pizz. strings.

If I wanted to go ahead and create new sounds/synths on the stage (sorry not sure how to explain since I don't know much)... how do I do that? Or how do I add sounds?

 

[goz211]

Keys on the Stage feel really good to me. I found it easy to adapt. They're not fully weighted like a piano but I can play my piano repertoire on it. The fact they the keys aren't fully weighted make them much better for synth/organ stuff (IMO).

Sounds - loads in it and it's easy to tweak presets from the knobs on the right.

It's a gigging two-handed players keyboard. Easy to dial up sounds and splits. Very light, sounds good.

Leads - I just meant quarter inch jack to jack.

There's an XLR in for a mic which has its own volume pot and reverb on/off.

New sounds - easy to tweak and save existing ones, complex to create ones from scratch.

It will take 2 SRX cards - I don't think it needs them. Keyboard Mag said it became a different keyboard with the SRX-11 piano and either SRX-12 Electric Piano or SRX-7 Ultimate Keys. I'm not convinced you need any of them.

 

[Skyhigh4Him]

Sweet! I'll let ya know how I end up! You were very helpful!

 

[Musicman222]

Personally...I would go with the expansion cards. Those are the 3 I like. The SRX-11 is a must. The stage has a good piano...the sounds in it are good. But I'm picky when it comes to pianos. If ur playing piano with a group or band...not big deal. If ur just playing piano by itself...then U need to hear more. The 88 note sampled on in it (stock) is good...but the SRX-11 takes it up a notch.

 

[goz211]

Personally...I would go with the expansion cards. Those are the 3 I like. The SRX-11 is a must. The stage has a good piano...the sounds in it are good. But I'm picky when it comes to pianos. If ur playing piano with a group or band...not big deal. If ur just playing piano by itself...then U need to hear more. The 88 note sampled on in it (stock) is good...but the SRX-11 takes it up a notch.

Hello Musicman. Very interested to get the opinions of another Juno Stage user. I haven't had the SRX-11 in my Juno Stage but I have played it mounted in an XV5050. It's a lot of money and at the time I didn't think it sounded better than the one in the Juno.

I phoned the Roland people here in the UK and the tech I spoke to said that as far as he knew, the Juno piano was based on the one from the SRX11. (He also thought they'd used stuff from the SRX-7).

Have you the card in your Juno and when you AB it - do you really notice a big difference?

I understand that what comes out of the SRX cards is affected by what it's mounted in.