Hi all

My Roland Juno D keyboard has finally died. This coincides with a desire to try and minimise the hardware I have due to lack of space and go more 'in the box', using more plugins in my recordings.

The only thing I think I'll miss is the Roland strings/pads. I'm a big fan and I'd like to try and replicate them (or something very similar) in a plugin rather than purchase another synth. I'm woefully ignorant on what alternatives (if any) are available in the marketplace.

Can anyone offer any advice please?

Many thanks

Dave

Spectrasonics Omnisphere and Arturia Jupiter 8 will get you as close to scratching this itch is possible. Buy both and don't look back.

Roland Strings sort of falls into two categories.  The type of analog synth Roland string sound for sure but there is also another very famous Roland string sound that is based on samples and this one is much harder to get.  Although I am sure you can create it with a suitable instrument based on samples.  I have Arturia Jupiter 8V and yes it is very fine indeed.  Those classic pads and analog string sounds are there to be had for sure.  I solved the other Roland string sound by picking up a second hand JV2080 which you can do these days quite easily.  It is loaded with sounds that are just real easy to search and find which may be harder to get in other ways.

While Omnisphere does include many classic Roland patches (same sound designer), it won't give you the complete collection. However, you may find that there are so many great alternatives in it that you won't miss your Juno-D.
 
AFAIK there are no Juno-D software emulations. There are, however, several Juno 106 emulations. This one's very popular, and just 60 bucks. Yeh, I know, not the same instrument. But fills a similar role.

This is the better Juno 106 emulation though:
 
http://www.tubeohm.com/TubeOhm/106-Emulation.html
 
I have got both and this is way closer in my opinion. Also the extender panel takes it into far more interesting territory than the original Juno did.  It is only 32 bit though so you have to either bridge it or as I have done got it installed on a second 32 bit machine and play it from my main 64 bit machine.

For the price of a soft synth you can pick up a used (hardware) Roland JV-1010 on Ebay.
 
If you own the full version of Kontakt (v4 or 5), check out Hideaway Studio's strings/pads libraries:
 
https://hideawaystudio.wordpress.com/2013/05/05/hideaway-studio-proudly-presents-the-string-collection/
 
(Tons of pads on this site, so don't limit yourself to the string collection).

Hollow Sun has sampled. Roland's RS-202 and VP-330 string synths.

One option is always Roland themselves. They make a SoundCanvas plugin now that is a dead on accurate emulation of the SC-8820, SC-88Pro, SC-88, and SC-55. Expensive for what it is, but you get the Roland strings to a T. Unlike early soft synth SoundCanvases that had garbage mixing/resampling, this one is great, completely faithful to the hardware near as I can tell. Called SoundCanvas VA.

Also have a look at Gforce Virtual String Machine - I use this one a lot
http://www.gforcesoftware.com/products/vsm
Nigel
 

I"ve got a JV2080 with 8 expansions in it.  Was about $200 off the internet.  Use it all the time with my XP-80.  I 2nd using some of this old hardware.