Roland JU-06A, Operation Manual

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USING STEP SEQUENCER MODE
What is a step sequencer?
The step sequencer lets you input a note at each of up to 16 steps, and play back the notes as a loop.
change the number of steps between 1 and 16. Up to 16 patterns can be stored.
What’s that mean? Well, it means you can program patterns into the JU-06A and switch between them
and make songs, or sets, or whatever you want. It’s dope.
Limitations are that we still can’t pattern chain, something of an oversight which I do not understand.
Chaining patterns is when we press two or three patterns at the same time and then the sequencer will
play all of them in a row. So if you wanted to play a bassline which was 32 steps long, program the first
half into pattern 2 and the second half into pattern 3 and to play the whole thing back you would press
patterns 2 and 3 and then they would play the whole thing. 2, then 3, and then 2, and then 3 etc. But this
can’t do that. So blah.
Further, whenever the sequencer receives midi clock, it will start playing. This has disturbed many users
and every few days someone asks “How do I make it not play?” It’s not just Roland. The Moog Mother
32 does the same thing, and I disliked their software so much that I didn’t even keep it. Even with a
blank pattern in position 1, the sequencer needed to be manually stopped in order to play sound from it
remotely. This made performing with the Mother 32 cumbersome, and tedious. So I accepted that while
it sounded amazing, it was made by people who do not play live. So I bailed.
The solution to this problem on the JU-06A (and all of the roland boutique synths) is to simply erase
pattern 1. Keep it blank, and save it that way. You erase it be going into sequence mode, and pressing all
the keys until none of them are lit up. Then save. This leaves us with a blank pattern 1. And so when you
send midi clock to the synth, it won’t start playing the bassline to “Charlie Says” and scare you to death.