Roland D-5

Well, this certainly isn't a synthesizer for beginners, wannabes, or today's generation of players who are used to "analog" algorithm synths with plenty of built-in effects and retro-knobs for tweaking. This baby came out in 1989, and is part of the famous Roland D-50 family of "Linear Arithmetic" synths. (D-10, D-20, D-100, etc.) These synths are known for having a boring, drab interface. As stated by other reviewers, you must have either the manual or a PC patch editor for this baby. Otherwise, you might as well pretend you're in 1983 trying to program a Yamaha DX-7. Yes, it is THAT complicated.

Believe it or not, there are plenty of great sounds to be had from this unit, you just have to spend lots of time programming them. Some of the presets are worthy of going "on tape"...because, they're phuqin' phat! Particularly, "Fat Lead", and "Funk Bass" (which sounds like The Bee Gees "Jive Talkin'"). It's 32 note theoretical polyphony, and many patches use all of that power. The few effects, "Chase" and "Harmony", and an apreggiator are pretty kick-ass. Especially for 1989. While this baby is digital (part of the first generation of wavetable synthesizers), some of the sounds are decidedly "analog". Has "pre-Genreal MIDI" MIDI...no sequencer. Action is okay, no touch sensistivity. If anybody has some old Roland cards for this, please contact me...can't seem to find any on Ebay!

The Strings, Pads, and Basses are very good. The Pianos sound very dated at this point (1989), but if you're Mike Post and your trying to write that "Doogie Howser" theme music, the electric piano patches on here will satisfy! Like I said before, no aftertouch...couple of effects, (arpeggiator being most important) and if you're trying to revive that late 80's pop sound (even some hair bands used this synth), this is a must have!

One of the most reliable keyboards I have ever laid my hands on. It's been droped, kicked, drop-kicked, two keys broken off in a fit of musical rage. Roland made, and still does make some high quality instruments. Never played a gig with it yet (I'm a guitar player primarily) but when I do this baby will be able to withstand even the sharpest of glass, and the most repulsive drunk and hecklers.

Gee, maybe as a goof or a hoax, I should call Roland US tech support and ask them about this synth...just for shits and grins. I'll tell them I'm Emperor Hirohito from beyond the grave.

If this were lost or stolen, I WOULD by another...I got a great fuckin' deal in the first place. They're still cheap as hell to find. Who could pass up this kind of sound for these prices, plus the realiability and durability of the unit? Plus, I would go the whole "nine yards" and purchase a used D-50. These Roland LA synths were heard all throughout the late 80's/early 90's are countless albums from Van Halen to Erasure to Mike Post. For 200 bucks or less, who could complain?

I've had this for 10 years and it's finally starting to make sense to me. The manual is essential because the presets plain suck. But I've finally started digging deep and pulling out the pcm and synth sounds which are within the machine...It turns into something else entirely. The loops are great for electronica and such after they've been processed and tweaked. Really cool stuff. But you gotta be patient and refer to the edit manual constantly-all the lists and the explanations of the various structures are contained within. Takes a hell of a lot of time, but you can be plesantly suprised. A nice variety of sounds can be had. If you can figure this machine out, analog and fm synthesis seem incredibly simple. Never knew there was a patch editor for this, I'll have to look around. Overall a tough board to crack, but worth it

Features: very little. I use this as mainly as a midi controller for my set up, so the arpeggios,especially "random" are nice to use on boards which don't offer this (yamaha dx-21, sequential 6 track). Chase function can be interesting at times, but I've never used it in a composition (that I can recall), modulation sucks, will not modulate with any noticable effect on any presets. Even after tweaking, I have yet to find a good use for the mod. switch on here. Haven't had any qualms with the midi on here seems to work fine for my needs and I've got 5 pieces daisy chained together without a midi thru box!!

see above, I use this for the strings and loops I dig out of it, but has a couple other presets which are ok as well. Nothing I'd search out though. For home grown sounds though, it rocks. I'm suprised how modern they can sound

It's been used and abused but still kicking. Had to replace a couple of broken keys last year and clean the contacts. But has never died on me yet. This was my main keyboard for 7 years, through several bands and traveled around the country on several occasions. It keeps going and going...

Well the tech found some keys which fit it last year direct from Roland while The item has been out of production since the late 80's...so whats the problem?

I would not look for this again, I'm looking into a korg ms2000 and throwing everything else away. I haven't had the heart to part with this so I'm glad I've found new uses for it. I also play a juno 60, sequential 6 tk,yamaha dx-21, fender rhodes, hammond m-101a, hohner pianet, univox compac2, etc...It was worth what I paid considering the amount of use I've gotten out of it. At todays prices, it's worth the 100-200 price tag if you have the time to spend on it

ALL HANDS DOWN THE EASIEST, MOSTEST, BESTEST, GREATEST INTERFACE IN THE
IN ALL THE GALAXY!!!

32 NOTE POLYPHONY IS MORE THAN ENOUGH. IF YOU NEED MORE THAN HANG UP
BEING A MUSICIAN. MIDI? IT INVENTED MIDI. NO SEQUENCER, BUT IF YOU
NEED A SEQUENCER TO MAKE MUSIC CONSIDER A DIFFERENT LINE OF WORK.
IN ORDER TO PLAY THIS SYNTH YOU MUST BE WORLD WIDE LIVE!!!

10 (ten) IT HAS THE GREATEST, BESTEST, HOSTEST WITH THE MOSTEST SOUNDS
IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND (and I'm not just whistling dixie here kiddies)!!!!

I'VE THROWN IT OFF BULIDINGS, ROLLED OVER IT WITH MY MOTORCYCLE, AND
SAILED THE SEVEN SEAS ON IT. SAIL OF THE CENTURY WITH GERALDO RIVERA
WOULD NOT HAVE MADE IT TO GIBRALTAR WITHOUT THIS PIECE OF THE ROCK.
YOUR IN GOOD HANDS WITH D5.

NO COMMENT.

A TRUE SYNTHESIZER. IT'S IN THE TOP 5 OF ALL GREATEST SYNTHESIZERS TO DATE.
LOOK AT THE NAME IT SAYS "D5(TH) GREATEST SYNTHEIZER OF ALL TIME, RAAWWW!!!!)

the presets won't make you come in your pants, i'm afraid. editing patches is not fun with the crummy roland interface, but there's at least one editor out there (the one i use, dunno the name, was written for the d-10 but works with the d-5 as well). i don't have the manual.

theoretical polyphone is 32, like all other roland lineair arithmetic stuff i know of. usually, you'll be using 4 "partials" (waves) per voice because this tends to sound a bit non-descript otherwise, so polyphone will be 8 voice. no build in effects, the d-5 is basically the d-10 minus the effects. MIDI capabilities are good. it has no aftertouch, however, and it has the roland combined pitch/mod wheel which i find crappy. opinions differ though. no onboard sequencer, but an onboard arpeggiator is fun, and the chase function (which is kind of a MIDI-delay with programmable 'feedback' and 'time') is cool.

well, without effects this tends to sound a bit bland, at least to 21th century ears pampered by build-in effects! but add a little reverb and some basic chorus/phasing etc. and it comes to life. in fact, there's probably not that much difference between the d-50 and the d-5. the 5 has many more waves (just like the d-10 and d-20), but de d-50 maybe had better DAC's, i dunno. you can program some great pads on this by transposing the otherwise overused samples, and there are some good analog sounds in here (analog as in moody+burbly as opposed to phat+squeeky - he, talking about music is as effective as dancing about cooking...). you won't get the lush, raspy strings. you won't get 303's. some sounds do have a oberheim-y quality to them (in an alliased, digital sort of way - hehe). overall, it's nice to have one of this series in your arsenal, because nothing sounds quite like it.

it's plastic. no problems though

i paid $100 for it, which is about right. don't pay too much for this or any other early digital consumer synth! at least not until their retro-value starts to soar... this belongs to the first wave os s+s synths, and as such, it's part of history.

i don't know how to play peeano style keys very well so I had trouble with the playing part, but otherwise it was fine, you know...

excellent features! has everything I'd ever need...wonderful sounds =)

the piano patch stands above the rest as terribly realistic...this particular patch was the reason I purchased it! other things like bass and synth leads are somewhat limited though...

well, once most of a fishtank was emptied onto the top surface, while it was on. The unit prevailed! I'd say that's enough quality for me.

well, I had some difficulty with roland. repeated tries to contact customer service using a number I got out of a magazine just directed me to a 1-900 porn service. They were not helpful. Well, not in THAT way. YOu know what I mean. Right? Right.

I've been pretty happy..no complaints =)

The presets on this set of keys are preety rokin. The bass tones are buzzie and the strings mellow. Piano on this synth lacks realisum but the thing is coming up for something like 15 years now so you can't really complain. The editing options are ok, mine didn't come with a manual but i know how to do eveything if that gives any idea of ease of use ?

They keys are a little clunky but i know that the one i own has had some hammer and i don't know if this could have casued this to happen. There are no effects on this synth and there are no expansion board capabilites but then the D-5 was the lil baby in the line up. MIDI seems to work fine, I've had it in a loop comprising of a PC (cubase) and an EMU ESI-32 sampler and as yet not even a little glitch. They keys are velocity sensitive but there isn't after touch.

Like i mentioned earlyer the Bass are really good if your looking for that 80's sound (sort of late 80's erasure sounding). The strings are quite amazing to say when they were constucted but the Piano is, well... something tells me you wouldn't fool even the deafest of granma's with those. Lots of interesting little sounds that can't really de discribed (youll just have to buy on and see) I still love it for it's bass's.

Ok, well... i'll start with the fact it looks like an ex-school unit, quite what this was doing there i'm not sure but the fact that "F**K off mrs lings" and the sound "pluck" has been changed to, well.. think about it. This all with the ade of a compas point, also the keys had there names written on them one time in the past which have scince been removed with whta looks like......wait for it..... Wire wool and tipex !!!! The corners are preety much bashed through and the buttons aren't quite as "easy prees" as they once where, but, after all this they thing STILL WORKS !!!! (oh, did i mention that a broken key has been replced at one time) what is it with these and broken keys !?!?

Customer support, whats that again ???, serios;y though, this units just to old to warrent the cost of keeping it "active" in the roland corparation. If your very lucky they may have a stray spare part but i very much doubt it.

Overall for the price i personly paid the word "bargin" springs to mind. The sounds are at the usual "roland" standard and if your's works then all the better (i had to wiggle some dry / broken) connecters in mine to get the "whole" system working" the main board in these seems to live on, on and on though. A good synth from the 80's for a good price now. Comapred to my other synth "Yamaha CS1x" it isn't as addaptive BUT sounds tottaly different which is exactly whta i was looking for. as for making music those bass lines (how many times can i say this, lol) rock. the little un placeabule sounds fit any where (youll under stand if you buy one)

The manual was pretty hoopty...Patch editing was a real chore.

Lousy action...lack of any kind of sequencing was a big minus.
Had to use the 'power beat' patch to fake a click track when recording. Then only way
to adjust the speed was to use the arpegiator holding down one note. ACK!

Awful all the way around

Well, back when I was spilling my beer on it all the time at gigs, it did hold up
for a couple of years.

Don't but this thing...even used!

The key to this unsupported keyboard is to dig up a copy of "Ballade" for DOS, and an original Roland MPU-401/MPU-IPC MIDI controller pair. With this combo, the old clunky D-5 really comes alive! You can program great drum tracks, tweak the waveforms, and control 8 tracks of synth sequences using standard notation and a great software mixer.

Once again, the Ballade software is crucial. With the right software, you can bend the synth waveforms into your own custom sounds and store them on your computer hard disk. The velocity sensitivity is nice to have since custom waveforms can be made to change dramatically or not at all based on how hard the keys are pressed. Don't expect it to ever feel like a piano no matter how long you tweak it though -- this was velocity version 1.0.

The organ and pipe sounds get pretty ripping, and the drum sounds are cool (since they are actual samples.) Don't expect too much depth and realism however in the violin and piano. Think 80s low-fi indie pop rock.

I've had this keyboard forever (12+ years,) and its still ticking. I too broke a key because of stepping on it... Mine never fell out of a truck however. The biggest problem is keeping track of the power supply and MIDI controller, because without all the accessories, you don't get the full functionality.

I've never really had to get support... I suppose I would be interested in replacing the broken key, but where would I get one? Also, good luck finding an MPU-401/MPU-IPC or Ballade software when you misplace the stuff! Roland pretty much doesn't sell any of these accessories anymore, and ebay doesn't seem to have much supply.

I love my D-5! The drum machine serves my needs very well and the syth allows for poppy organ and synth bass overlays all in one device that connects to any old x86 master! I bet there are other more modern devices that can do all this, but I'm not interested in the cost of finding such solutions.

Fine, fine to use. Except I bought it used w/ no manual. Anyone have one? Only three keys need replacing. Anyone got a junk one for sale?

32 note
Velocity Sensitive
ROM/RAM cards
MIDI in, out, thru

Great sound fx, poor piano, guitar sounds. Overall pretty good.

No it's on my work bench right now. I am looking for parts. #$#@!

Ha ha ha, ROLAND doesn't even keep manuals. There is nowhere to buy parts. They suck.

No if it was stolen, I would use the insurance to buy some beer.
Been playing like 7 years.
I hate that it is broken and not GM.
I wish it still worked because it makes an OK MIDI controller for my Kawai K1r.

Welcome to the land of the Multi timbral linear synth...state of the art in the80' right? the d-5 presets are pretty chewy and thin at points. Everything has an underlying distortion sound to it. great for making very grindy synth and string sounds.Overall the D-5 is much like the Chevette, or the AMC gremlin..ugly little contraptions that are underpowered and have no options..yet we feel the need to race the guy with the Corvette at the stop light for about 20 feet. It is reliable, durable, and easy to use If you just want to turn it on and noodle around. It has the best Grindy sounds you can buy for the money(i saw one on digibid.com for $140) So if you want another peice of gear..or a synth that doesn't turn you into another knob twidling geekoid...buy this underpowered mistake by Roland..After cursing yourself for buyin such a menace, You'll learn to love this thing..and You can watch the tech heads in other bands jaws hit the floor when you pull this sucker out and make Grindy ass 8 bit noises...Let them eat cake! Editing the patches is much like standing in a line that is a circle....many many scrolls going on that share buttons with other functions not terribly hard, but if you don't have a manual it could give you a brain cramp. The manual is in two parts Performance and Edit(Wohoo) Written I suppose by very angry men who are not very descriptive and want to make you suffer...chuck the manual after a month you'll be better for it

The action on the keyboard(when i bought it new in the late 80's early 90.s was stiff and not very sensitive..the touch sensivity is the difference between dropping a brick on your foot and dropping a cinder block..Expansion is a no go..no disk drive..sequencer, effects, metronome, your luck if you got a dc adapter in the box(yes dc)You can get new sounds for the card slots..good luck though..Roland pretty much abandoned the D series right after it came out..especially the d-5.Midi is pretty scarey if you can get it to talk to anything other than a mr coffee. this baby came out before general Midi so it is manual mapping time.

Instrument sounds are like this..some engineer thought that this sounds like and oboe..and this sounds like a string. so you have sounds that an engineer made for himself..they are fairly flat, thin and expressionless with little or no decay..But there is hope..if you make your own sounds you can make the most kick ass grindy ass noises known to man or god. I used it in my Industrial band to pick up where no guitar was and used it in a metal band to pick up when the rythm guitar player was too drunk to play. So if you spend a rainy day punching tiny buttons and looking at the 1 inch screen you can kick ass and take names and spend a hell of a lot less then you would on a vintage Arp, Moog, or the 90's cheesy ass over priced Nord Lead...oh yeah and the pitch bender funtions are super easy to change...24 notes in either direction(you can do the Stabbing Westward octave bends)

I bought my D-5 new when i was 15 and too young to know any better. The d-5 has pretty much a thin metal shell and durable bender.. It has an LED so temperature does not make it freak out like my Korgs when it gets hot or cold. the buttons after 11 years of everyday use still all work and I only had one key break(that was because i stepped on it) I have dropped it down the stairs thrown it on the floor..and had it fall out the back of a ryder truck and it still works..the only proble i have is it uses a dc adapter..they burn out about every 2 years....I have used it at a gig without backup

Funny story..i did something very bad once that cause the keyboard to make only one sound about a year ago while editing in some long lost menu....I called the tech support number in California..and after the guy was in shock that i had a d-5 ..he was able to fix my problem in 5 minutes after he stopped laughing...i would say they are on the ball

Overall the D-5 is much like the Chevette, or the AMC gremlin..ugly little contraptions that are underpowered and have no options..yet we feel the need to race the guy with the Corvette at the stop light for about 20 feet. It is reliable, durable, and easy to use If you just want to turn it on and noodle around. It has the best Grindy sounds you can buy for the money(i saw one on digibid.com for $140) So if you want another peice of gear..or a synth that doesn't turn you into another knob twidling geekoid...buy this underpowered mistake by Roland..After cursing yourself for buyin such a menace, You'll learn to love this thing..and You can watch the tech heads in other bands jaws hit the floor when you pull this sucker out and make Grindy ass 8 bit noises...Let them eat cake!