Ok let’s squeeze in another Friday freebie: Syntronik Instruments now offers their J-60 plugin for free for two weeks (regular value $49). This little beauty gives you the sound of the Roland Juno-60, the classic synth from the mid 80s used by Enya, Billy Idol, The Cure, Eurythmics, Men at Work and maaaaany many more.

The Juno-60 uses the same Roland IR3109 filter chip as the Jupiter-8 with its 4-pole resonating low pass filter and non-sweepable high pass filter. The Juno-60 uses DCOs – digitally controlled oscillators – for better tuning stability than the Jupiter’s VCOs, or voltage controlled oscillators.

The Juno-60 only has one oscillator per voice vs. two on the Roland Jupiter-8. Because of this, oscillator detuning is not possible on the Juno-60, but Roland added a beautiful sounding analog chorus effect to compensate for this. The result is an instrument with its own character and style that is treasured in synthesizer history.

Make sure you snag it while it’s free over at audioplugin.deals ($0 right now)

Here’s Roland GO:MIXER PRO-X, a very portable phone and tablet-friendly mixer that works with both Android and iOS that looks pretty sweet if you’re a musician on the go, wanting to live stream from the bus or a mountain top (or just want to take your podcast interviews on the go). The mixer has 7 inputs as well as a loop-back feature if you want to play along to audio playing on your phone.

With its versatile input selection, you can plug in a guitar or bass, XLR microphone, mono/stereo instrument, and two line-level devices to mix and capture performances on the spot. […] The headphones jack even supports a second mic feed, allowing you to bring in another voice with a headset mic or smartphone earbuds.

Read more at Roland.com

Yay, not long until 808 The Movie premiers now! On December 9th you’ll be able to watch the documentary about the iconic drum machine Roland TR-808 exclusively on Apple Music.

The TR-808 was produced between 1980 and 1983 and there were only about 12,000 units made. While it only cost $1,195 upon its release (which was way lower than say, a Linn LM-1 which would set you back about $5,000) it’ll cost you a whole lot more than that to get a hold of a second-hand one today.

The documentary goes into depth on the distinct and characteristic drum sounds we’ve all come to know and what the 808 meant for different genres of music and what it meant for artists like Pharrell Williams, Goldie, Jimmy Jam, Damon Albarn, Phil Collins, Beastie Boys and many, many more.

(Oh if you’re not the nostalgic type and don’t want to spend a fortune on an original TR-808, Roland released a new incarnation of it which will set you back way less, the Aira TR-8)

Watch the 808 The Movie trailer here: