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2. Juno emulation with TAL U-NO-LX V2

1 The ability to apply envelope-based modulation to the width of the oscillator’s pulse wave was one of the coolest features found on both the Juno-6 and Juno-60. It was given a miss for the 106, but Togu Audio Line have included the function on their U-NO-LX V2. Let’s fire it up and play a few notes from the default Startup patch. 2 That’s a lovely sound right from the word go, but we’ve got a plan! Let’s begin by looking to the DCO section in the upper-left of the synth. As you can see, the sawtooth wave is activated, as is the sub oscillator. Let’s de-activate the sawtooth wave by clicking the centre yellow button and activate the pulse wave (the white button) instead. 3 Let’s take a second to reduce the level of the Sub Oscillator using the slider to the right of the waveform buttons. This will allow us to better hear the effect our next steps will have on the main oscillator wave. Making sure the PW toggle is set to Env, raise the PW slider so that the envelope generator affects the pulse width. 4 Let’s go to the envelope section (labelled as ADSR) in the middle of the interface. Now we’ll have a play with the Sustain slider to adjust the pulse width’s steady state. The Attack, Decay, and Release sliders will affect the pulse width over time. Set the Sustain to just under halfway, the Attack fully down, and the Decay and Release sliders to about half way. 5 Let’s try the sound. We can’t yet hear the effect of the Release slider, since the sound is abruptly stopped when a key is released. That’s because the VCA (amplitude) is set to Gate. Toggle the VCA switch to Env mode and try again. That’s better! Now, let’s go back up to the DCO section and blend in our Sub Osc waveform. Note that the Sub Osc is not affected by the envelope. 6 Let’s have a quick go at the filter. Set the Freq just above the half way point and the Resonance to just below that. Now nudge the Env slider in the VCF section just a bit so that the envelope affects the cutoff frequency ever so slightly. A quick audition reveals a classic 1980s sound. Add a bit of chorus for a true classic!