Goldbaby FatJuno-6 review

The Roland Juno-6 is a 6-voice polyphonic synth and was the first in the Juno series of synthesizers released in 1982. It has digital oscillators with analog filters and it soon become a legend for its warm, full sound and lush analog chorus. Having owned one of these in the past along with the Juno 60 it was clear that this was an ambitious project from the start, due to the general nature of the synthesizers make-up in regards to the different oscillators, types of chorus and the ability to mix these to taste.
However the actual Goldbaby FatJuno 6 sample pack comes with several types of multi-sampled instruments allowing you to get a broad pick of the abilities that this classic synth can throw at you.

What do you get?
For the price of a mere $49 USD, you get both an EXS24 and Kontakt 3 multi-sampled instrument. The EXS-24 version contains 140 patches in all, dispersed through 5 main folders/instruments (Mono, Poly, Layered, Raw, SingleCycle Osc), giving you a total of 1630 well recorded 24 bit WAV samples. The Kontakt version offers an additional Arp instruments folder.

Made the Goldbaby way
Most of the instruments are multi-sampled, but there is the single cycle oscillator patches which are not, much to my relief. This means you can really get to play around with those different oscillators on their own. These being of course Pulse, Saw, and Square wave oscillators – although these are not labeled within the patches correctly and there appears to be a Triangle single cycle Oscillator sample which does not exist on a Juno 6!

Goldbaby states that “every sound has passed through the UBK Fatso to give you that super sweet analog tone!”, which I really like. The Fatso has the same tone-sweetening characteristics and harmonic thickening, tape-like saturation, and independent ‘warmth’ control to soften high frequencies but the one used for this sample pack has the ‘UBK mod’ done by Kush Audio.
For a bit of variation some of the samples were recorded with extra processing as well as the Fatso. The Mutronics Mutator was used in places to give some of the samples that stereo analog ‘swish’ that this tool is famous for!

Goldbaby also states that the majority of the Goldbaby FatJuno 6 sounds were captured with the chorus on. This proved to be problematic when creating sustain loops, but well worth the effort! Some of the sustain loops aren’t as perfect as I would like because of this, but the payoff is that the developer was able to capture the wide, warm, wonderful chorus sound and utilise this within the pack. Again I am glad to see he has done this, however the Juno 6 offers 2 different types of Chorus with the ability to have them both on together for super chorus!
This is the problem with sample packs like this – the inability to merge the various elements of the original products in the way you could as if you was sat in front of the synth. A little more sub oscillator here, a little more resonance and so on. However the 140 patches do utilise so many variations of the synths abilities that it is fair to say that they have most bases covered here.

When testing this in the EXS24, the various patches all come taylor made with additional settings on the soft sampler itself, taking advantage of more ability to add LFO, additional filtering and modulation to suit. Remember though – these effects are being added to the samples and do not interact with the signal path the same way as they do on the actual synth. But still – it all works well for me and I am in no way disappointed. I really like driving the filter on the EXS24 to dirty up the samples up some more, and when I played these out through a guitar cab I was very impressed with the depth and texture present in the samples.

Conclusion
It’s fair to say that with this Goldbaby FatJuno 6, the developer has supplied enough patches to give you a good feel of what is possible with these samples and a generous feel of what the original synth could deliver. The combination of the original modulation within the samples along with the functions from the EXS24, makes for a very dynamic palette of sounds to call on. A lot of patches use the Mod Wheel to control the filter or velocity straight out of the box, which means as a performance tool they are very user friendly. The overall sound is of a high standard and I think this pack could be used widely, from screaming leads to monstrous sub-bass and all the modulation you can imagine in between.
Goldbaby says “Be warned that using this product may make you want to buy a real Juno-6 and UBK Fatso!” and again, if you are like me and that lust for analog sound is there, then this is too true. I was looking on eBay within minutes to see how much they both go for!

Price: $49 USD/38 Euro (approx.)

…from screaming leads to monstrous sub-bass and all the modulation you can imagine in between

Product page

PROS

• Warm, rich and accurate samples
• Cheap!
• Huge variety of different sounds within the pack

LOVE-IT OR HATE-IT

• With this library you can cheat your friends telling them you got a perfectly working Juno-6 off Ebay. Just be ready when they’ll ask to see your beautiful new toy!

CONS

• Not able to mix the different oscillators to taste like on the original
• Cannot choose the different types of Chorus to taste