The Roland J-6 Chord Synth is part of the AIRA Compact series, a line of portable and powerful instruments designed to bring classic Roland sounds to the modern musician. You can check out our reviews of other synths in the series like the Roland Aira T-8 Review.
Quality Sound
The J-6 delivers rich, warm sounds that are instantly recognizable, taking its sonic inspiration from the iconic Roland Juno 60. It was the tone on the review videos that drew me to aquiring the synth to accompany my T-8. Its a bit limiting to only have 4 note polyphony though, so to compensate for lush pads you need to crank up the reverb.
Very Chordial
The main feature of the J-6 is to play chord progressions and arpeggios, there are vast mounts available. The problem is accessing them, as once again, like the other Airas, there is the same terrible 4 digit display. So instead of having intuative names, all are identified by numbers. So you have to constantly look the manual, or make notes as to which are your favourites.
Still the actuall results are pleasant sounding, and they can be used to spark some musical ideas. The built in reverb and delay really help them shine too.
Portability
One of the standout features of the Airas is its compact size. So you can make a small battery powered setup with other synths in the series or small synths like the Korg Volca range
Connectivity
Again like the others in the series, the J-6 offers the same connectivity options, including MIDI in/out, audio in/out, and sync in/out. This makes it easy to integrate with other devices and other Roland Airas. The MIDI implementation however is very weak. I made a jam using an external MIDI keyboard, but was not able to tweak any MIDI parameters externally. (The Roland S-1 was much better in this regard)
Conclusion
My initial excitment about this device, soon faded after trying to use it. Whilst I like the sound, I just don’t see it being very useable in my setup, so will probably end up selling it. For now I am keeping its siblings T-8 and S-1, because although they have similar limitations I still find them useable.