Ultramaster KR-106 is a new open-source free Roland Juno-106 Synthesizer emulation for macOS, Linux, and Windows.
We are currently living in what is probably the best era for synthesizer plugins, especially considering the abundance of free and open-source options. Anyone can start producing music these days, with a huge free toolkit at their fingertips.
It doesn’t stop. Ultramaster today released the KR-106, an open-source Roland Juno emulation for macOS, Linux, and Windows. Intriguingly, the project started back in 2000 but has now been released 26 years later.
Ultramaster KR-106
Ultramaster was founded in Brooklyn in 2000 by two developers. The company broke up when both left to work for different companies, including Google. At the time, they were working on an authentic emulation of the Roland Juno, which was never finished.
26 years later, Ultramaster finally completed the KR-106 project, and it’s far superior in quality, thanks to computers being much more powerful than they were back then.
The KR-106 is a 6-voice polyphonic Roland Juno-106 emulation for macOS, Linux, and Windows. According to Ultramaster, they developed the engine through hardware reverse engineering to make the emulation as authentic as possible.
Like the original, the KR-106 has a per-voice single three-wave DCO with PWM, a VCF, a VCA, and an ADSR envelope. Plus, it has a shared LFO, HPF, chorus, and arpeggiator. There are also mono, poly I, and poly II keyboard modes with portamento.
Two Calibration Modes
Ultramaster went very deep in their modeling and even offers two distinct calibration modes, giving you different tone variations.
The 1984 mode is based on parameter calibration from the firmware analysis and factory schematics, while the 1982 mode is modeled on the analog CV path from circuit analysis and hardware measurements
Additionally, the developers go into more detail on the website, showing which components they’ve emulated. For example, the BBD chorus is modeled on the MN3009 with Hermite interpolation.
Ultramaster ships the KR-106 Synthesizer with all 128 original patches decoded from the factory SYSEX data. They say that they didn’t tweak them by hand.
This means if something doesn’t sound right, they will fix the model, not the patch. In total, you can explore 211 patches.
First Impression
This emulation came completely out of the blue. I installed it immediately, and it sounds very good in my opinion. At the time of writing, I can’t find a sound demo, so I will add one later.
Many thanks to the developers for releasing this fascinating emulation as an open-source project. The only thing that could be improved is the UI, which looks very much like a plugin from the late 90s. However, this may be intentional to maintain the retro aspect.
Ultramaster KR-106 is available for free download now. It runs as a standalone application and VST3, AU, and LV2 plugin on macOS (native Apple Silicon + Intel), Linux, and Windows. The code is open-source under the GPLv3 license.
More information here: Ultramaster
nice!
1982 Mode is Not Juno 60 Mode?
I’m pretty sure it is — the developer doesn’t actually have a 106 but has a Juno 6.
thanks!
interesting 🤘
How does it compare do the FL Studio one? And Arturia one?
As I don’t have a real Juno-106, I don’t compare it but what I can say: it’s open-source, a free download and runs on macOS, Linux and Windows. Neither the Fl Studio nor the Arturia is free and open-source
very nice!
i have a 106 and love Linux.
Need to try. 🤘🔥