The History of Behringer's Juno-60 Clone
September 21 2025
Back in 2010, Behringer released a concept image of a possible Juno-60 based synth from Behringer, but with visual cues taken from the Juno-106. It was then called the Phat-108. This was Behringer's very first foray into the possibility of creating a commercially available and affordable analog Roland Juno-60 clone.
Later, Uli Behringer decided to turn his Juno-60 clone into a reality, not just concept art. Uli talks about the synth's progress in an rare 2015 interview with Amazona.de (see interview link at the bottom of this article), stating "...we want to create someething extraordinary here". Indeed.
Under the guidance of project leads Pete Sadler and Rob Belcham, it changed from a Juno-60 clone into the popular DeepMind 12 synth — a vastly different synth both in tone and function compared to the Juno-60.
Many DeepMind 12 circuits ended up quite different from a real Juno-60, including no Juno-60 analog chorus (a defining feature of the Juno-60's classic sound) and others, and even though it retained the Juno-60-like appearance, its overall sound ended up not quite a Juno-60, but rather a unique sounding synth in it's own right. The synth has become one of the best selling synths of all time, covered in major magazines and websites.
Fast forward a few years later, and Uli decided to get back to basics and create a Juno-60 clone that would faithfully capture the breathtaking Juno-60 magical tone that captivated the '80s and beyond. Utilizing circuits including Juno-60 analog filters, the revered analog Juno-60 chorus, and other authentic circuilts, their Juno-60 clone "Neptune-80" was revealed by Behringer on March 10, 2023:
Fast forward again a couple years later; and a May 15 2025 leak shows an updated product image with authentically colored buttons and the synth name changed from Neptune-80 to a more "Juno"-like name: The JN-80:
To be continued!
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