Roland D-10

This is a response to the less than glowing reviews of the sound capability posted earlier.

For its time, this was a very usable synth that had the flavor of the D50 in a smaller footprint and its Midi integration or 'chaining' made it easy to setup. Although it has 'reverb' on front panel, hidden behind, it also has Delay, Plate, Room and Hall, with depth and speed control for each.

A good basic synth, but with he sound engine from the D50, less the effects and additional partials...

The interface is actually quite straightforward, but there are a wealth of functions not accessible from the front panel which further enrich the sounds and expands functionality. I was lucky enough to get the undocumented SYSEX and HEX data from Roland and incorporate it into my setup. As a result, I give this a solid rating.

The onboard sounds are typically Roland stock - and although 20+ years old - you can even hear references to them in later JV modules and even in the Fantom!

!!HOWEVER!! with my work with Steinberg Synthworks I created a comprehensive collection of sound files for the D10/D110/MT32 Roland synths. (Can be applied to D50 also with synthworks)

Contains many patches that the later D synths were famous for and even some emulations of D70 and Yamaha SY77 'misty' pads. Also powerful, clean analogue voices and some good FX tones.

Available as either *.snd file format so that can be easily loaded via the Steinberg Satellite desk accessory on the Atari St or as sysex patches for all platforms.

The Atari St version also comes with other useful desk accessories for the MT32 to enable 'beneath front panel' extension of Reverb functions (full range of digital delay for example) and a 'partials' remapper to any of the 16 midi channels so you never run out of notes on the fullest of pds and exotic voices!

17 sound banks of in excess of 16 patches per bank (depending on type).

Hear some of the effects here:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gYeczZgRVsg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp6Oh5jVbII

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZhnyJxfmHg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo9f5V0lA3k

20 years on and solid as always..

Roland were very happy to discuss the expansion of the functionality with me at the time I bought it in 1988. They supplied a lot of technical data too that has resulted in it still being so usable today!

So, I have not only a useful (now classic) Synth, but also a massive (over 800) library of pro studio patches for this and the D10/D110/SC and MT32 engine. You too owe it to yourself to load up your D10 with these modern, powerful synth sounds as they will never be so painstakingly created again...

My collection comprises 17 sound banks of in excess of 16 patches per bank (depending on type) easily uploaded as in either raw sysex or in Steinberg Pro24/Cubase .snd - Mail me for info/your copies.

Let??s admit it.This might have been a usefull synth in 1988, but it has hugely been surpassed by all of its competitors.
The presets are straight-out ugly and completely unuseful,unless you don??t care about sound that much.For a coverband that plays all time favourites on a wedding party,this might be just good enough though.
Editing is horrible,and makes you wonder if somebody can put up the patience for it,as it??s all done with numeric values from 0 to 127, making it a burden to edit sounds,which unfortunately you have to do ,in order to make this synth sound a bit decent.
The manual,as most manuals from Roland,is written by aliens.

The keyboard action is indeed very good,mainly because it dates back to a time when there was no need for restraining costs on hardware,like today.
I think it does inhibit some nice features as well, but lack of transparency and usability made me refuse to go deeper into these matters. Mine came with two extra soundcards:Brass,and drums and bass. Complete rubbish,and unfortunately it started the expansion board hype by Roland,always trying to rip you off with their optional accesories.

As I use it entirely as an master keyboard to steer other gear(the above all oh so lovely DS-330), I got back on the heart of this synth just now and then,only to conclude it is a nightmare of a synthsiser.Since I use it only as a keyboard,I couldn??t care for less.

As stated before,it actually is quite a reliable synth,in that matter,that it is firmly build,and looks cool,very minimalistic.
I bought it second hand from a store, and it wasn??t in a very good condition, so I had some minimal repairs done.
I don??t use anything else than the keyboard, the octave up down button,the midi connector,and the pitch bender/modulator, which all seem to do their job.

Contacting Roland gives me the creeps.period.
For a faillure in velocity on one of the keys,I was send to a regular repair-shop,who was meant to be the official representer for Roland sercices.Laughable,but these people, drownimg in work,repairing mainly old televisions,actually did their job well.

This is not a synth that??s worth buying,if you??re looking for some vintage stuff.It can be usefull as a practice keyboard,or,as in my case,a master keyboard.It has never entered the list of "got to have this", and it never will.Nor is it a collector??s item.The only D series for that matter would be the D 50.It is though,built with quality materials,and therefore does its job.But if you??re looking for a usable 2nd hand synth,I??d definately search for something else.

not that good at all - this kind of old Roland way of changing presets - I used to have Yamaha PSr series keyboards in the past with this fantastic wheel by means of which you could easily change presets in miliseconds - jumping from 1st to 601st. Here it is much more difficult. Not to mention programming - real nightmare. Sounds scattered all around - I lack cathegories, banks - or whaterver you call it.

polyphony is not a problem here, effects are very difficult to use - forget using them in real time - while playing. Keyboard action is plastic fantastic - but what to expect - it is low budget synth.

Worst of all I have heards. I bought it becasue I read opinions of other users here. That was a mistake. What I looked for was portable, small keyboard with some organ sounds mainly. When you read opinions here people say all possible superlatives about organ presets at D10 - this is all rubish - do not believe it. Organ sounds are cheap and sound funny - compared to regular PSR 530 keyboard they are very poor.
Not to mention pianos - I lack words to say how terrible these are. And even electric pianos - they all suck. Some leads form the 80s are right - but these are easy to make. So this must not be an excuse for Roland - people from ROland you blew this machine.

good and heavy always ready for action - nicely assembled - after so many years lookls cool.

na

almost a junk - but cool looking and well built. Useless as a keyboard on gigs.

never used it

d 10 has basic sounds it can get boring easy so not for the extroverts ha ha you know who you are you people persons ha ha

This synth is very easy to use...Once you get to know it. I got the manual, but i have learned to know it without the manual.
But i have to say in the long run, the Yamaha DX7 is more easy to program, and has a better program system. But i've read that it's so hard to program the DX7, i don't think so...So maybe it is easier to program the D10.
The preset sounds are great. EXEPT FOR STRINGS AND ORCHESTRAS, they suck!!!
But pads, leads, brass, bass, synth, organs, pianos and other stuff is just awsome!
It also has this Van Halen-Jump brass sound in it, haha.
For 80's music, it's awsome!

The keyboard action is great, the MIDI works fine and the effects give a very nice sound to it. But i can't seem to find out how to get the delay away from the drums...Exept to plug it into my DX7. Hmmmm.
I think it has expansion cards for more memory and new sounds.

This synth reacts very good to velocity.
The instruments are ace, exept for strings!! But you could always get a cheap sound card to get good strings.
I found it works best for 80's rock and 80's synth pop, and basicly just about anything 80's, haha.

I would use this synth no matter what gig it was....But if it was at a football stadium with 60.000 peoples...I would use my DX7 as a backup. But i doubt it would be nessescary. Instead i would use my DX7 as the piano synth for those ballads.

I got this synth with two broken keys, so i ordered to spare keys from Roland. And there several WEEKS to late!!!
Im beginning to doubt wether they will come or not at all.
But in the meantime, 'ive borrowed another D10. Wich im basing this review on.

If this synth was stolen, i would buy it again ASAP! I've ben playing all my life since i was alittle kiddo. but im not a synth man. Im better at guitar, and guitar is what i love to play. But piano is pretty cool to, you know, just to have in the studio when you need to play it.
I choose to get this synth only becouse it was from the 80's. I ONLY buy equippment from the 80's...exept for computers though.
It's been very helpfull to record my music. Even though i don't really use it on ballads, i use my DX7 for that. But for rock songs, the D10 is THE synth for me to use.

I kind of rew up with my d-10. Gigged it loads with an old korg DW and an M1. Liked the realism of the sounds but I guess that depends on what pa you used. Patch editing for me was always hit and miss so I tried it and then went back to presets. The manual was ok but couldn't help me understand editing. Basic editing was fine until I started changing waves etc. But simply as a keyboard, it's so easy.

The polyphony is fine and adequate. I bought an expansion card - did anybody else. These must be rare now - I never used mine. The dum machine is brilliant and I've always liked it. Wouldn't use it live but for home use its adequate.

I think the realism of the d10 is pretty good. Piano isn't realistic but which were in those days. Organ sounds good even today as do some strings and there's some juno synth patch that you can double and play around a little bit with and you've got Van Halen jump and i founds the sound for 1984. Always liked it for this. Also got a techno type sound that Sash(?) would love!!

Yes. Have gigged with it no probs. But hey, its getting old now so just like a 10 year old M1 or whatever, it might be an idea to play it safe!!

Cannot comment.

Err no. I'd probably move on and try this Juno-D or sommething different. Do like the D-10. Good down to earth synth. I may have wished for a sequencer on it. The drum machine is amazing and I'm suprised a lot of competitors don't have similar. The only thing I don't like about mine is that the keys have started squeaking badly but having been gigged in three bands (+studio) and used endlessly in the bedroom(!) I've had my moneys worth.

Logic Pro5
VERY easy to use.
Presets are fine.
Did'nt experiment too much once i mucked up one of the Bass Guitar sounds . .Damn!
The manual is 1st class, anyone who chucked it out is a fool.

Too many 'nerdy" questions here.
Just switch the thing on, and play.

For its time the sounds are great, lets not forget, it is a "Synth"
Not a bloody Steinway.
And 20 years on, it can still be a useful tool to create your own material.

It has never let me down.
Could you use any instrument, without back? Hmmm me thinks NOT!

Never had to deal.
Nope!

Having read some "Negative" comments from other owners, i think that the "tone" of their input, suggests that they think they are too good to even breathe the same air as the rest of us.
The sounds on this Synth are great, who are these bods that think that they can judge this product with the attitued that they know best! . . .they need to get out more.
To sum up, this synth does what it was designed to do, no more,no less ADIOS.

As far as you have understood what's the "timbre" and "tone", things will be easier. Editing very "push button".

Bought in 1988, 8 note polyphony (4 oscilators). Nice reverb sound but lacks chorus (any Eff Proc with chorus is cheap now).
Has drum machine, very basic, but can be useful sometimes - even to copy its patterns to any other equipment. Light keyboard. Never let me down and has been serviced recently (keys and pots). Nice friend. No GM/GS compatibility - not useful for midifiles.

LA synthesis was nice in 1988 but PCM waves don't go through TVF (Time Variant Filter). Ok then use Synth waves - square/Sawth -.
Presets were nice, multipurpose, but when edited you can have very good results. A chorus is needed for some colour in the sound.
I always pick presets and edit them.

Neve let me down. Payed 130? in 1989 for M256 but never needed it.
It looks as new (I protect my investments).

Have dealt with Roland Oficcial Technician/Service. No problem, not expensive.

Nice friend, and if it were stolen/damaged, I'd buy a D-110 (have to many keyboards). Have it for 18 years.

This was the original version, bought in 1988, pre D20 (Chris Williams, you haven't done your homework). It was my first ever performance synth, so can't rate it against anything. The sounds were quite lush, plenty bass & at the time in the sub #1000 bracket the keyboard was peerless. There were two manuals supplied, both reasonably clear & concise. I was comfortable with all aspects of operation within a matter of a week.

32 voice polyphony, though realistically this was 10 keys, less if you used the drum machine. Reverb & delays built in, with limited capacity but enough to soften everything.
All aspects of MIDI were supported except for volume send (it received it though). This was frustrating, because I had a hardware sequencer, & could not force this to happen.
No onboard sequencer for notes, as the D-20 came out later, but there was a sequencer for the drum machine.

Most of the sounds were reasonably realistic below C5. Fine for most types of music, though I noticed during recording there was a bit too much noise overhead. The keyboard wasn't weighted, which suited me fine. Velocity sensitive, but no aftertouch (that was still a new feature on the best keyboards at the time)

The only thing that ever went wrong was the control panel keys became sticky over time. No other problems I can remember.

Never spoke to them. I regret ever having sold the unit, it was a fine writing & performance tool. I'd buy another if I came across one for the right price (ie what I had in cash in my pocket).

Like I said, at the time it was peerless. The ability to have 8 different channels, plus drums, made it possible to completely program a band for backing, and the relative ease of use made it fairly painless. Expensive at the time, though, and it was overtaken in the technology stakes fairly quickly. I didn't regret the purchase, ever. Why anyone would want to just give one away is beyond me - unless of course you have a brace of better instruments & don't mind throwing away money.

Basic operation of the Roland D-10 in 'preset-mode' is a very simple affair. Instead of having to type in a three digit MIDI number, you've got two rows of eight buttons - one for the bank, the other for the individual program within that bank. There are two main banks of 64 sounds, each main bank then subdivided into a further eight banks with eight programs in each.
A drum programmer is also provided and comes with about 32 ROM patterns, and then space for 32 of your own custom designed patterns. I have yet to program my own loops to use in the drum programmer but it looks like a pattern is one bar long, and you can chain together different patterns to achieve the effect of drum fills, build ups and break downs. This is quite a nice feature as it allows you to jam to a drum track without all the hassle of cheesy auto-bass-chord stuff you'd find on a home keyboard. The preset drum loops are also mainly eight beats and 16 beats so you'll sound like a rock act rather than dance or cheesy home organ (there are a couple of Bossanovas and Sambas though!)
Edit mode is a bit more tricky. I've only had this keyboard a week and not really had much of a chance to start building my own programs with it yet. I can say that it's less obvious than the Yamaha DX7 because the panel controls do not say what their edit functions are. I have found out that there are two types of editing: one to edit the patch, and the other to edit the tone. I assume that to create custom programs from scratch - it's something to do with tone editing. Patch editing involves higher level functions such as the transpose, split points, layering and the sounds you want to split or layer.

In 'Whole' or, more familiarly what is often termed 'Single' mode these days, you've got 32 notes of polyphony to play with. This is quite a lot, and pretty good for a keyboard that was released in 1988. However, the synth is up to eight-parts multi-timbral so this could cut it right down to only being able to play four notes at once. Many sounds in performance mode layer at least two sounds together so you can play upto 16 notes at the same time.
The keyboard itself is of the light plastic type, rather than the semi-weighted keyboards like the Yamaha DX7 or the Korg 01w. However, I can't imagine these key mechanisms ever suffering from the 'sticky key' problem that some keyboards have, no matter how much gunk gets in between them.
The D-10 accepts RAM cards inserted at the rear panel which expands the total number of programs available at any one time.
The synth has full MIDI implementation over eight simultaneous MIDI channels with velocity sensitivity but not aftertouch. The lower row of program select buttons on the front panel act as MIDI status LEDs so you can see which channels are active. The lights react quickly so even if a fast passage is playing the lights will flicker rather than just stay on. There is no onboard sequencer on the D-10.

Hmmm... some of the presets are questionable. The Roland D series uses LA (Linear Arithmetic) synthesis that combines digital sampling with traditional analogue synthesis. For some of the sounds this works quite well, like synth bells and chimes, but for others such as *some* of the piano sounds, the combination of analogue and digital does not gel together well and you get the impression of hearing two distinct sounds as a composite rather than one coherent sound. The chorusing sound evident in acoustic instruments which the Yamaha DX7 could emulate so well is also more difficult on the D-10 so while your attack might be more realistic, the decay side of the envelope is much more static in the absence of the complex feedback loops and timbral changes that the DX7 handled with ease.
What the D-10 is pretty good at is analogue strings and pads, none other than prog A11. The analogue waveforms you get are Pulse and Saw - both used for creating string sounds on a traditional analogue synthesizer. The lead sounds and atmosphering bell sounds are also rather nice, and I quite like the vox sounds too. Also, the rock organ sounds are absolutely amazing! Bass sounds aren't so brilliant on the D-10 - the Yamaha DX7 has a much tighter bottom end. Although in the factory presets there are probably only a handful of sounds that are really good, this suggests that the tone generator is capable of a whole new array of good sounds that can only be accessed by learning the programming interface.
What makes the D-10 sound more modern than the Yamaha DX7, and what is definitely cool about the D-10 is its built in effects processor which helps to add gloss and animation to the sounds which is so essential in studio recordings. This synth features five different reverbs and three different types of delay - the variations basically being related to the time (reverb one is short while reverb 5 can be very long).

This is well made. The whole body is metal. The base and underneath of the keys is steel, and the front and rear panels are black brushed aluminium. It's only half the weight of a DX7 at eight kilos but it still feels pretty sturdy. My only dislike is being able to hear the sound of the springs in the keys echoing around the unit, and I was never a fan of trailing power leads...

Never dealt with Roland so I can't comment on this aspect.

This keyboard was an absolute bargain for the price I paid for it. Not only was it cheap but because the previous owner had owned it since new and never gigged it, it was still in near mint condition with only a few very minor dings in the finish.
If it were lost or stolen I'm not sure at this stage whether I'd get a replacement. I haven't become as attached to this keyboard as quickly as I did with the DX7, but I do think that the on-board drum programmer is a huge plus for jamming and creating ideas to later record in a more serious manner.

Other stuff:
Yamaha DX7
Korg 01/wFD
MicroKORG
Yamaha DJX
Casio CT-101
Evolution MK-125
Yamaha PSS-470
Oberheim MC1000
Technics EX-50
Ibanez GSR200
Yamaha PAC112
J&D 5-String Bass
Fostex VF08
Behringer MX2004A
Boss PW2
Boss RV5
Boss DD3
Boss CH1