I'm in the "Cover Band Wizard" and "Preset Warrior" categories. I LOVE the Roland Juno Di and DS. They're lightweight, have tons of sounds for every genre and there's no workstation BS in the way. They're also affordable enough that if something breaks you can get another on the fly. The key bed isn't the same quality as the Fantom series but the sounds are all there.
Great board. A few years ago our reviewer Jim bought an 88 key workstation. He bought a Korg Krome, but only because he was replacing a Triton and it was the easiest transition. There's no doubt that if he didn't own a Korg already he'd have gone with the Juno DS.
I'm a hard core synth player-DSI Rev 2 16-voice, Prophet 6, Novation Summit, Deepmind 12, Wavestation, JX-08 boutique, SE-02 boutique. But when I gig live with cover bands I use a 76-key Juno DS and a 61-key DS. They are light, reliable, and have more than enough sounds and "tweakability" to do the gigs.
@@majorsynthqed7374 You're right about reliability. I was packing cables up after a gig and pulled the one from the DS. It was unplugged but it snagged the corner somehow and yanked it of the top tier of an APEX stand (a good four foot drop). It hit the floor pretty hard and I was so freaked that it wouldn't work. The micro USB flash drive came loose but that's it. Been using it steadily for the last three years since then with no issues. I accidentally damaged the ribbon cable for the display on the Di to change a scratchy volume pot. Since I knew where all of my favorite patches were in the banks I was able to play it in "Stevie Wonder mode" through a few gigs with a dead screen.
I absolutely love making my own patches on synths. Rarely do I reach for presets. My first action once I have started up my gear is to initialize the patch. So far I have chosen the Hydrasynth Deluxe, Roland Juno-X, Korg OPSIX, Behringer Wasp, Model D, Neutron, UB-Xa. Arturia Drumbrute Impact, and a NI Maschine to round them out. Keeps me pretty busy.
If you're playing in a cover band, the Korg Kronos and Nautilus are unmatched. It even ships with cover song sounds and many preset packs are available online to perfectly prepare for a gig. The Roland Fantom is an alternative, but not quite as good of a fit.
