Roland D-50

There is no software for the D-50 that is accessible to me at the moment.

The D-50 presets are variable. The strings and synth lead sounds are very good. Some of the brass sounds are pretty bad though. For some reason my D-50 has different presets than normal and the usual reset procedure of "0" and "data transfer" do not make a difference even when write protect is off. Otherwise some of the presets are amazing and very usable. great. Editing presets are a little confusing until you figure it out but once you do, there is so much you can create once you get the hang of it. I do not use a patch editor due to my vision impairment. No accessible program yet. Its very helpful that there are buttons for U and L and partials 1 and 2, it makes it easier to find them and program with instead of total menus.
The manual did not come with mine and there isn't one in braille of course so I just go without one and research info online with text to speech program. To bad there isn't one for synthesizers!

There is 8 to 16 note polyphony. I do not feel limited by this though.
The keyboard action is ok. Some of the keys have sensor problems and always stay at a high volume level so I MIDI it to my A-90 or my CZ-5000 and use their keys. Pitch bend transmits fine but velocity will not if the recieving/sending keyboard like the {CZ-5000} does not send or receive this data. The built in effects are very cool. I really like the chorus/reverb section as well as the "chase" feature, very cool.
The D-50 accepts cards and can save to cards as well. These give the user more patches/sounds and more external memory space.
As far as using MIDI and a sequencer with the D-50, I was really surprised when I recorded a few tracks from the D-50 through MIDI to an old but awesome Yamaha QX 3 midi data recorder. I recorded perfectly with not track switching issues. Im guessing maybe they work well together becuz they are both from 1987. who knows. With the QX 3 the D-50 has 16 tracks and can be saved to a floppy disk through the QX 3. The D-50 does not have its own sequencer though.

The more realistic sounds are the strings and wind instruments. Very Sweet sounds!
The brass sounds are not too good though. The wind PCMs are not bad and could be very helpful in forming a more realistic wind instrument.
I believe the D-50 can work for most types of music styles but new age, trance and techno and non-melodic pure synthesis music would probly benefit the most. It also depends on the programmer/musician using it.
I find that the D-50 reacts decently to playing and the pitch bend is pretty good too. The velocity and aftertouch are as good as some of the newer synthesizers of today.

The D-50 is VERY reliable and turns on ready to work without any crashing and glitches. The LCD is getting a little dark with age but that is ok since I can not see good enough to use it. Also if you find that the LCD is fading on yours, the best thing to do is to make a written copy of all the menus and make detailed programming notes so that when and if the LCD fades too much or stops working, you can refer to them and still use and enjoy the D-50 the non-visual way. Also it is helpful to hold down one of the keys so that there is a constant sound being heard and when you make any changes with the joy stick or the buttons you can hear whats going on even if you can not see the numbers on the LCD.
As far as going to a gig, the D-50 is definatly capable enough to be without a backup. Also it works well with the JV-880 and the Roland Juno 1 and A-90.

no opinion

If it were lost or stolen I would be very sad and would want another D-50. A lot of newer synthesizers are too visual based and the D-50 is easier to use with its scroll through/predictable menus. The menus always stay the same no matter what. The D-50 is DEFINATLY worth what I paid for it. I saved it from a store where it was hanging on for dear life on a pile of speakers and left on with its LCD blinking to itself for who knows how long. I have been playing and programming synthesizers for 18 years. I also own a Roland A-90, JV-880, Casio series CZ-101 and CZ-5000 as well as the Roland Alpha juno 1 and Yamaha QX3 and QX 1 midi recorders. Even though I am only a few years older than my synthesizers, they are always used in my recordings and are never to old or outdated to be enjoyed by others.
The only thing I wish that it had is a built in sequencer with a disk drive but like I said earlier you can solve that issue with a computer or the old and wonderful QX3!
The D-50 inspires me in my music, especially for some of my 80's songs that I write, its the classic stuff!
The only other thing I would like to mention is that as far as repairing keys or sensors or cleaning the inside of the D-50, its not difficult at all. I was able to take the main board out and undo the whole keybed pretty easily. Even with low vision, taking out the keys and disconnecting the wires are not too difficult. If you are careful the wires will have a tendancy to stay how they were connected and you can use their length and position around the main board to help you figure out where to reconnect them. Also remember that the brackets that they connect in are all unique sizes that only that one set of wires or connectors can fit into. The keys are held in by springs and a thin plastic strip that keeps them from coming away from the metal casing that they are in. They are easily put back into place with pliers.

the presets from the factory were ok, but this synth can do alot more.
for that you'll need a pc/mac editor for a good overview, because it's filled with tweek parameters.

16 voice with two full setups of osc,filter and complex env.generators, EQ, two chorus and one delay/reverb FX. keyboard has been great, except for the hard after touch action. it's easy to save sounds to internal or card memory, but you can also transmit/receive sounds thru MIDI cables. worked well as a master keyboard for my old MIDI setup

if you don't have the patience to make your own sounds, ther are alot of sounds thru user forums. the FX are chorus/flanger, some ROM presets with delays and reverbs.the reverb sound reveales that it's a synth from -87. I tweeked some wonderfull sounds of my own with an editor for my Atari St1040fm computer when I bought it new.It produces good synth bass, strings, pads and brass sounds.

It has been very reliable the first 10 years, but then the keyboard keys needed simple cleaning up from dust and oxide on the rubber contacts under the keyboard, and I broke a pitch bender. the display is showing signs of age, with lowered contrast and background light.

very nice people at roland scandinavia helped me with spare parts for both the D-50 and my Jupiter-6 at the time. I even got the service manuals for both instruments when I won their D-50 patch competition ;-) back in 1989.

The D-70 got my interest later with better filter emulation, but that one was focused on sampled sounds and lacked vital synth parameters that the D-50 had, like PWM modulation of oscillators. it remainded my central sound unit fot 10 years, together with my samplers for drums and vintage samples.

A decent (for it's day) 40x2 LCD display and plenty of buttons make it pretty easy to get around. The manual isn't too bad and it certainly points newbies in the right direction. The presets are great, but since they've been used to death you'll probably want to start tweaking straight away.

Again, when it was launched it had a pretty impressive feature set and was one of the first (the first?) to have proper FX built in.

8 or 16 voice poly is the go and never really seems to be an issue.

Some people (audiophile types, I suspect) complain that the FX are crap, but I think they're fine and really add sparkle to the sounds. The keyboard action is typically Roland, which has always been pretty darn good.

Oh boy, this is the business! The D-50 was, and will always be, one of the most unique and special sounding synths ever. Even now, 20 years after it first turned up, there are sounds that NO OTHER synth can come close to. Even some of the presets still bring a tingling to my spine and a tear to my eye - thinking of "Glass Voices"! Truly a special machine, one of, if not THE best.

Tough as old boots. Should last longer than most of the people using them!

Hmm, never having dealt with Roland, I can't really comment, but people I've talked to (regarding Roland Australia) have nothing but praise, so I suspect they're pretty good.

I bought one of the first D-50s in Australia, back in 1988 and sold it about 6 months later. I always missed it and now, 19 years later I've just picked up another - and this one I'm KEEPING! A truly special and groundbreaking synth. A future classic and no mistake!

For what ?
Better than anything since the 18 yrs that I've owned it
Easy - dont need an editor
dont need the manual

not so good when splitting the k/bd
mainly reverbs
External cards not sure about internal memory
in/out thru
Nah.. This is a kbd for the user to play

Only organs / strings
Rock / New age
ok
ok
ok

18 yrs & still going - Except the screen is starting to go..
I do

Not from Roland

Could never be replaced... unthinkable
25 yrs. The only other kit I use now is a piano module to compensate for the crap piaNOS
Love strings hate pianos
Nope.. Class of its own
real grand Piano. 64 note poly
how can you ask that?
Not my D%) that's for sure

Turn it on and play the sucker, that's what it's about.

There are alot of patches on the net, to mix with the mostly great but of course by now overused presets.

No knobs, typical 80:s thing, but a joystick for mixing partials.

Pretty cool modulating possibilities 3 Lfo:s/tone=6 Lfo:s/patch and PWM(on square and saw waves),different synth/output structures,EQ etc
which makes it sound FAT, BIG ,etheral and atmospheric.
Try to layer it with a DX-7 II/TX-802..or an analog.Uber Gorgeous !!!

As mentioned above it sounds great. It has a true charachter to it, more alive and Fatter and not as harsh as most romplers.
One reason for this is that I think it generates the saw and square waves(with PWM) as opposed to romplers where they are sampled. Although they are not really analog sounding, something great happens.
When the M1 came out and I looked at the specs, I said to myself, now this is gonna be the shit, this is the way to go, real long pcm samples so goodbye D-50 right? Well not really...The D-50 almost always sounded more natural, ballsier and better than the romplers (except for piano,choir etc due to the multisamples in those ) until maybe the Motif came...and the Kurzweils of course, since they are much more than just romplers.
It does great pads, brass and leads, bells, and unique sounds impossible to nail on another synth.

Never crapped out except once when the pitchbend lever got worn out and sent weird pitch messages to my other modules through my Midi-patchbay.

No problem when I needed spare parts (Sweden)

Don't buy this it you want it to be your do "everything" workstation, 'cause it's not.it's a digital fat sounding thing with an identity.
When you put on your headphones or of course plug it to a good PA, there is a VIBE to it that my triton and K-2000 won't always give me.
Simply put: a great synth for what it does (and that's alot)

This is my first synth and I will never sell it.

Incredible synthesizer, very easy to use. One doesn't have to be an expert to operate this wonderful synth. The factory presets are of remarkable warmth and character, also featured on most albums of the late 1980's. The manual, while a bit dry, does help a great deal. Editing patches is rather simple and intuitive.

8 Voice Polyphony is more then enough for what I do with it. The Keyboard action is excellent and once you play it, the feel of the keys is unmatchable. The built in effects are great. Some people point out that the output is a bit noisy, this is true, but I think it adds a touch of character. The memory cards allow an even greater range to the already incredibly wide variety of sounds. MIDI implementation is perfect.

The accoustic piano sounds are not very realistic as far as sounding like a real piano(how ever they do sound nice in a synthetic kind of way),If you want realistic piano-like sounds, your better off buying a digital piano. This synth can produce the most beautiful pads and leads.
Also, like most other people said, the organ sounds are top notch. I feel that it fits nicely in just about every style of music. The velocity and aftertouch work just the way they should.

You can without a doubt, depend on it. I would gig it without a backup if I did gig.

I did call Roland in regards to some general questions. They were unbelieveably helpful. The technical support representitive said to me "Your gonna love your new D-50, nothing we've made since even comes close to the sounds it can make". They also told me they have all the parts needed to refurbish should that be nessesary. At the end of the phone call he said "We are ready when you are as far as service and support goes". It's a very reassuring feeling to know they still support their old synths.

If it were stolen, I would buy another one immediately.Worth every penny that I paid, and would have paid more if had to. I have been playing for about 9 years now so I know whats good and what isn't. My other gear in use at the moment is a Roland MT-32, and thats it, the D-50 covers pretty much all the bases for me. I love it's sounds, it's feel, and it's ease of use. The fact that it's mono-timbral really doesn't hinder my ability to be creative with it. There really isn't anything else I wish it had, it's just about perfect. It is a great help in making music, as I center the whole mix around it.

If you're a prospective buyer reading this, I urge you to purchase a D-50. There really isn't much it can't do, and the sounds it's capable of can't be emulated by anything else. I have always felt that older synthesizers are superior, and still do.

Quite good. For playing, its so simply that a 6 year boy could easily operate it. To choose a patch, you press at most 2 buttons, and there are a joystick to control balance of the parts.

Otherwise, editing sounds take a while to learn. There are a lot of functions and parameters, but most of them are hidden in menus, and all are abreviated... So without the manual, will be a frustracting experience.

Low poliphony (16 or 8, depends on mode), but the acoustic pianos are so bad that you wont need more. 3 lfo for each part of voice, a lot of parameters, envelopes to everything, modulation too. It really have a unique sonority. There's a card slot too, but i cant find a cheap one. Lacks sequencer and arpegiator.

GREAT! GREAT! GREAT! Oh God, i've never heard so beatiful pads! EPs are great too, organs emulate Hammond decently, incredible Syths leads. You can mix guitar sounds (good) with synths and get a guitar-synth sound like Jordan Rudess, wich is great for solos.

Although, Ac. Pianos are useless. It cant even be called ac piano. Looks like a sax mixed with xilo. Strings pad isnt that great too.

Well, it is too old as me (18 years now), and the only problem is the aftertouch (ill fix it soon). It's as solid as a tank, i think it could resist even to radioative exposition, because its case is made of solid and heavy steel. Realy strong.

Roland? pfff... I never needed them with this gear, but i know it is really bad...

I loved it. Every single patch i start to play, i can still playing for a lot of time. It make you play from the deep of your heart. If something happen with it, i would search another one in a heartbeat. I bought just a week ago, but i fell in love. It would have decent ac. pianos, orch strings and drums, because you will miss them.

If you have the chance to buy one, do. But if you will use it as the only keyboard in your setup, forget it, unless you play only Digital Pads, synths and organs. If you have other machine to play pianos and etc., it really worth each cent.

My three cents worth:

I got mine over 2 weeks ago, at first it was a little awkward to use, without alpha dial and cursor keys you'll need to get used to "scrolling" pages and typing values (with annoying messages if you type it wrong- too little or to much), or "increase"/"decrease" buttons- there's also joystick to enter the data, but it's very unreliable.

You need to get used to editing, but after a while it's pretty straightforward (there are controls to select/mute/compare and copy parts).

As for playing: no reason to complain, it works great for playing either by keyboard or MIDI.

16 voice polyphony isn't a blast, but keep in mind it was released 18 years ago!

Midi implementation is good, however there's one remark: dumping banks and patches is separated to totally different pages- which can be misleading and confusing (to dump patches, go to MIDI page and scroll to Sys-Ex, ON is the ability to receive patches, P-Dump makes D-50 dump patch thru MIDI when it is selected). After that, receiving and dumping patches is easiest cake. Warning, this synth is monotimbral! Also remark on previous comment: there are two MIDI modes D-50 can handle with bank dump: send-ahead (now the default for modern devices) and handshake (remote device must acknowledge every packet sent- this being the default on D-50).

The essencial of patch in D-50 are two tones, each consisting of two partials (basically synthesizer blocks), partial can be PCM source (no filter then), or synthesized sound (Sawtooth/SQUARE with PW and filter). You can use only one tone (you'll get 16 voices), two tones split (each 8 voices), dual (8 voices max) or separations with monophonic parts.

Pretty good chorus, you can use two programs separately for each tone- lack phase shift though.

Well, mixed feelings:
- it's so classical and overused that it's pretty easy to distinguish D-50 on your tracks,
- The sawtooth wave is not actually a sawtooth, but sine cut in half (that CAN have it's advantages, but not always).
- the filter has a very unique feeling (reminds somehow of FM synthesis feedback loop), hard to do something very inventive without messing with EQ and chorus. You can't use filter on samples too...
- the LFOs are tied to "tone" (the base building block of D-50 patch), so you get three LFOs total to use across all voices in tone (2 partials) and another three to second "tone"- only one LFO per "tone" can control pitch of all partials and the control is negative or positive influence only.
- Don't seek good samples on board, most are lo-fi attack samples.
- EQ is a joke (well, it works, but basically it just cuts, not boosts).
- Reverb simply is... enough said... (the only control you have is program and balance)
- Keyboard is a little spongy/rubbery- though pretty reliable for dynamic playing. Wavestation's is much better here.

on the other hand:
- Excellent PWM- very clean, not really digital sounding.
- Pretty good LFO sync (which is a nightmare on Wavestation for example), you can use LFO to do pulsewidth, filter and amplifier modulation- which in conseequence can be used as an arpeggiator. Excellent random modulation.
- Warm sound, filter is pretty good (see remark above, though), resonant.
- 5 stage envelopes, aftertouch and keyfollow on every aspect of synthesis.
- Can seamlessly balance mix petween parts in tone and tones in patch with joystick.
- pitch bend lever is very reliable and precise.

A workhorse: can play for several hours without problems.

Built like a tank, I was imagining it pretty fragile and light, but in reality it's a heavy-duty steel casing with plastic wrapped.

You won't necessary loose your work even if you don't save it- there's a key combination to recall your work even if you accidentally switched patch.

N/A, never had problems so far...

Manual is full of flaws though...

Considering it's an 18-year old synth which everyone's used ;-), it's a great machine. However expect certain flaws. Definitely worth having- among with Wavestation and Fairlight, it's a blast!

Thinking that over 3/4 of J.M.Jarre's "Revolutions" was done using D-50, it's a great recommendation- and the album is really about D-50, great sound effects, fat analog sounding strings.

What I love about it: It's a D-50! What I hate? It's only D-50 ;-)

Doing my part here to contribute to this great database. Reviewing my favorite "classic" synth, the mighty D-50. Easy to use for a live performer. It's a bit of a specialist's item for the home recorder, though. It plays only one patch at a time (which is fine for me since I multitrack), but what warm and "alive" sounds it creates.

One thing that might be useful: It requires "handshake" mode to do midi patch sends and receives. To do this, you need to press (and hold) the 'Data Transfer' button with one hand. While holding, you can select dump or receive. Hold the DT button down until it starts sending or receiving and you'll be in business.

Another similar comment. This synth is from 1987, so you may need to "slow down" the rate at which your sequencer sends sysex patch data. (There are usually configuration options, sometimes hidden in some ".ini" file if you use a software seq such as Cakewalk, as I do.) In some sequencers, if you send data too rapidly to the D-50, it gets confused and your patches may come across as garbled. It took me forever to figure these last two things out, so I wanted to share.

Low by today's standards, but very high by 1987 standards. You buy this because of the great sounds it is capable of, not for the spec's.

If you are a rock keyboard player fancying music from the Marillion, Rush, prog-rock genre, this is a great board to buy. Main comment: I bought a ROM card made by Voice Crystal - it's their "Keith Emerson" card, I think it's model VC-03. Holy cow, waaay better than the presets. I kid you not, I was a big tweaker until I got this card, and I've literally been using those (unedited) patches since mid 1993 to write song after song. I have entire compositions that just flowed from my fingers based on inspiration from these sounds. If you have a D-50, try to hunt that card down!

Like others said, the piano is horrible and unusable, and I always thought the board lacked in the low frequency department. Beyond that, it's all good. If you like "rock synth" sounds (think Journey "Separate Ways", that sort of thing), then this board will keep you occupied for years. (Mine has been a mainstay in my studio since early 1993.)

It's also great for evolving, atmospheric, "soundtrack" type sounds.

The synth sounds have a meat to them that todays $2 grand and up boards lack. I will never part with this thing.

The "brains" are as solid as a rock. (Still running on the original 1987 battery!)

The only weak point (as others mentioned) is that the contacts under the keys can get a bit unreliable. I've had 2 or 3 keys that haven't worked for years. No worries for me, though, as I use it as a module and control it via a 76-key master.

I've tried to take it apart to clean them a couple times, but I admit that I always get a bit daunted - I'm afraid I will mess something up. So I just live with it.

Terrible. I bought mine used ($600 or so in early '93) and it came with no manual. The store thew in a Bo Tomlin instructional video, which helped a lot. I spent 20 minutes long distance on the phone with California to order the manual, for which they want $40. I receive it, and (a) it's photocopied pages(!) and not a book, and (b) it's the most useless thing ever. No instructions at all, just a bunch of hard to read charts and graphs. Plus, the worst "engrish" ever. DO NOT order the manual! Save yourself the headache. The "manual" is truly worthless.

Best synth-related money I've ever spent. It has propmted or inspired me to write some of my best work. It sounds just fabulous doing what it does best, which is big, fat synth chords and leads (and I have two analogs from "the day": a Moog and an Oberheim to compare it to). This thing will be essential to "my sound" forever. If you see one (or it's rack counterpart, the D-550) and have the scratch, jump on it. Surf the web for the Keith Emerson Voice Crystal card (or download as many patches as you can find and assemble your own batch of favorites - I did this too, and it was definitely time well spent).

It doesn't do everything, and it's definitely not a "bread and butter" board, but it just does certain things better than any other board I've heard (and I do try to keep familiar with what's out there).

Definitely a recommended buy.

Yeah - Another D50 review
I'm going to keep it punchy and simple. The D50 by any standards is easy to use. It is a nice machine with a good feel. You can download a multitude of patches off the net so it is quite well supported.

Here is the main thing that I am concerned about....

PROSPECTIVE BUYERS!!! Check the keys and the keyboard very carefully before buy your D50. I have have owned 4 of these over the years and every single one that I have had has developed problems (or already had) with keys dying and not playing or aftertouch on the keyboard giving up.
My latest one was hardley used and it is in mint condition. I am so paranoid about the keyboard stuffing up that I have it controlled by another keyboard. I play the D50 keyboard every now and then to keep it in shape.
I guess they are over 15 years old now but I have other keyboards the are older and are played more that have hung in there - DX7

Hey! It's a D50. Everyone knows what it sounds like.
Good bell noises. Good pads. Biting leads. Good 80's analog. Average bases that lack punch in my opinion by today's standards. GREAT ORGANS!!! Love the D50 organs

LAME, LAME, LAME electric pianos and no piano sound worth mentioning. If anyone has an ep sound that is remotely playable please let me know. (Patch 88 Reluctant EP is rude!!!)

Yeah it seems solid except for the brittle keys. It is getting old now so needs a little babying ie - Dont take a shower with it.

HA HA HA! It's roland man!

I love my D50 and I cherish it as a classic. It still gets a fair bit of use but it is not gigged and hardly is used as a first synth. It is nice to have there in the background and it thickens some thinner modern (xp60)sounds nicely.
Unless you specifically want one or you find one cheap I would get something more versitile. It is pretty limited by todays standards and I believe the DX7 has stood the test of time better in my opinion.

I'm using Roland D50, XP60, U110, (seriously hate the fantom series, c'mon roland! Make something that is not a repackaged 1995 Rompler!!)Korg poly 800, 05rw, T3, Triton Studio, Yami DX7, Ensoniq ESQM

I'll cut to the chase for anyone interested in buying. The D-50 is a digital synth, once the flagship of the Roland family..it's 61-note keyboard is a soft, expressive, immensely playable board which has never been improved upon. It is a real players keyboard. Almost every sound on it has been featured throughout 80s chart music, film scores, TV themes and instrumental albums. This of course dates it and at the same time makes it a total classic. It has no multi-timbrality (although there was a quadro-timbral add-on invented, but this diminished the quality by assigning each of the four oscillators to a separate MIDI channel), and only 16 notes polyphony. It is a collectable classic, up there with the DX7 and the Korg M1, but not at all a practical tool by todays standards. Most of the sounds have been reproduced by later Roland technology (although I would argue that none of them have the warmth or the charm of actually playing them on the D50s beautiful chassis). In fact, if you scan the pads of any good GM menu you will find a few signature D50 sounds right there (Fantasia for example). This is a self-indulgent buy for the gigging keyboard player, but perhaps arguably a sensible investment for any collectors out there. It has to be a few years off being an offical Vintage Keyboard. I would only suggest you buy if you really do have plenty of money and want to decorate your studio with antiquated, charming, beautiful, but slightly impractical synthesisers. I love this keyboard but I'm never going back there. Currently I own a KORG MS-2000, Triton PRO-X, Triton classic, Roland JV1010 with Session and 60s/70s and a Yamaha Clavinova.

Great keyboard feel, limited features.

Warm sounds, not many of them.

Pretty dependable.

TODAY PRICE IS 200 EURO,NOT SO EASY BUT WITH PATIENCE D-50 IS THE
KING OF THRD GENERATION ANALOG SYNTS.NOT 3000 SOUNDS CHEAP SAMPLED
CRAP SOUNDS ONLY 64 WARM ANALOG SOUNDS WITH DIGITAL OSCILATORS CALED
PARTIALS.NOT SO EASY TO USE BUT WHEN YOU LEARN ITS HEAVEN,BABY.

GREAT LIVE FEELING WITH THAT SO SO GOOD KEYBOARD ACTION,
AND AFFTER TOUCH, AND BENDER .NO SEQUENCER

If you have a rom cards,try to mix sound rich brass upper tone brassy
1 from pn-d50-oo card with synth lead 2 from pn-d50-01 card.
Set dual-s mode and play with portamento on 30.
You can make magic leads and brass.For editing these soundsyou can using STRUCTURE 1 I 2 for some ring mod effect.
TVF,and FREQ,RESO,KF TVF DPTH VELO
FORM SAW OR SQU
PITCH CORS
TVA T1 T2 T5 ENV L1 L2
WG PW PW VELO AFTR LFOD
LFO 1 SYNC KEY
PITCH MOD EDIT LFOD AFTR
FOR GOOD PAD SOUNDS TRY TO MIX SWEEP AND STRINGS SOUNDS TO ONE GREAT SOUND,THAN SET THE TVF MOD AFTR + 7 ON EVERY PARTIAL,THAN SET THE AFTR SLIDER ON MAXIMUM AND PUSH ACORD ON ROLAND D-50 HARD.SOMETHING HAPPENING WITH THIS SOUND.FOR DYNAMIC USE TVA VELO.
FOR FLANGER EFFECT SET CHORUS ON 3 AND 45 66 55.
ANOTHER FLANGER EFFECT IS ON PITCH CHORS FINE OSC1+3 OSC2+4 OSC3-5 OCS4-6,CHORUS IS +4 -4 -4 +4.
FOR PADS TRY ENVELOPE OSC1 T1 35 OSC2 T2 35 OSC3 T1 40 0SC4 T1 40
OR 60,60 60 60
30 30 30 30
30,35 30.35
40 40 30 30
15 15 15 15
15 15 25 25
30 40 30 35
35 35 45 45
THESE PARAMETARS ARE MOST IMPORTANT FOR ALL ANALOG SOUNDS.
IN GENERAL ALL ANALOG SOUNDS ARE SUPPER EXEPT SYNTH BASS.
HAMMONDS GREAT,EL PIANO GREAT IF YOU DONT COMPARE WITH YAMAHA DX-7.
SOUNDS ARE VERY BRIGHT,GENTLY,SILKY AND WARM AND YOU CAN PLAY
EVERY MUSIC STYLE ON PLANET EARTH.SAMPLE SOUNDS ARE GOOD ONLY IF YOU
EDIT AND MIX THEM WITH SAW AND SQUARE WAVES.SOUNDS ARE ALWAYS ALIVE
AND FRESH,THANKS TO PORTAMENTO,REVERB,CHORUS AND CHASE EFFECT.
CHASE SETING:ULU 25 25
ULU 35 35
ULU 45 45
ULU 55 55
FORGET VIRTUAL ANALOG THESE IS THE MACHINE OF YOUR DREAMS PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE.

12 YEARS AND YOU CAN CHANGE THE BATTERRY CR 2043.
SAVE YOUR SOUNDS ON COMPUTER LIB PROGRAM.
OR USE ROM CARDS FOR BACK UP .

YES OF COURSE,IT IS A CULT AND FOREVER SYNTH FOR GREAT MUSICIANS OVER
THE WORLD.BUY IT ITS A WONDER AND GENIUS MACHINE .SOUNDS ARE SUN.
ONLY LIMITS ARE YOUR FANTASY,INTUITION AND CREATION.ENOUGH SAID.

IF YOU WANT POWER KILLER ANALOG D-50 SOFT,SMOOTH AND WARM SOUND
SET THE PITCH SHIFT -20 ON PARTIALS(1-4)
SET THE DUAL MODE ON 50
SET ONE ANALOG SOUND WITH 2 OSCILLATORS OR PARTIALS ON LOVER TONE
SET OTHER ANALOG SOUND ON RIGHT TONE WITH 2 OSCILLATORS
SET REVERB 23 BALANCE 60 KILLER DELAY
SET SOME CHORUS

D-50 IS LOVELY SYNTH AND MY FAVORITE BABY ALL THESE YEARS(12)
CLASSIC ROLAND AND LAST SUPER ANALOG ROLAND AFTER JD-800...

I bought my D-50 around 1995, it's overall a great perfomancesynth.
Most of the presets sounds great, especially for 80's music.

Patchediting is a bit of a jungle, the easist way for me to program the D-50 i found was to adjust each and every parameter up and down until it sounded like i wanted it to, just like adjusting an equalizer. ;)
Most of the editing is pretty logical and when u get used to it it's not that difficult.

A pactheditor has been made, Roland PG-1000, it has a slider for everything and is said to be a great assistance when programming the D-50, especially because the D-50 only has a two line display capable of showing 40 digits on each line.
The display is very clear and sharp and are always readable even in very bright sunlight and from any angle of view.

I never had the manual as it did'nt come with my D-50 that i bought used.
The manual is (here in Denmark) pretty expensive and therefore i decided that i could live without it.

The polyphony is 32 notes, BUT, the fat sounds it delivers comes with the cost of polophony as each patch can consist of up to 4 partials which brings the polyphony down to 8 notes.

The keys are semi-weighted and are actually really good, they have a good feel when pressed, they don't have that "plastic-feeling" nor sound when u hit or release'em.
There's aftertouch wich works great with flutes, brass etc. and u can adjust the aftertouch intensity by a slider next to the volume slider on the left just above the pitch/aftertouch control.

It works with both PCM samples and pure L.A. synthesis, also it has a ring modulator, there's 100 pcm samples to choose from, ofcourse they're lowfi, but yet some of them are really good for attacks etc. and makes it possible to create good guitarsounds using a sample for the attack and the synth for the hold and decay.
I think it's about the last 20 pcm samples that are made as loops from other samples, some of them are really good when used together.
U can't change the sounds in the loops which makes'em pretty "as they are" usable, but ofcourse u can filter them all u want. :)

It also has a split feature so that u can split the keyboard into an upper and a lower section, that means that if u need to play a string in the lower section and a brass in the upper u would create a patch where the first 2 partials are making the stringsound and the other 2 partials make the brass, then when u split the keyboard the upper and lower partials are assigned accordingly.

There's pretty many built-in fx, they're also really good, there's flanger, echo, reverb in different combinations and types.
They provide u with the ability to produce really "foggy" sounds for ambience aso.
Among the fx-section it should be mentioned that it has both portamento and a "chase" function, the chase is a kind of echo function, for some sounds it's a really great utility, but it eats up polyphony, and using chase for notes played fast one after another
results in lack of polyphony.
The D-50 has a ROM/RAM-card reader on the top back, u can store up to 8 patches in each of the 8 banks on a RAM card (64 patches), u can dump patches from a memorycard to the internal memory which also consists of 8 banks with 8 patches in each bank, giving u a total of up to 128 patches to switch between without directly from the controls on the keyboard.
Also, u can dump any amount of patches to/from the memorycard, so dumping for the sake of one sound does'nt erase everything else with it.

The D-50 sends/recives through on midichannel at a time, but with the earlier mentioned split function u can play different instruments at the same time via one midi-channel.

A multitimberal mod-kit has been released, it makes the D-50 quadrotimberal meaning that it can receive on 4 different channels at the same time, the mod comes with not only the cost of a great deal of cash, but also the cost of great sounds, what it does is that it assigns a midichannel to each partial of a patch, that means that u can have only a sample or a pure synth-generated sound on each channel, considering that the D-50's greatest force is the partial-combined patches, it's like ripping the beeds of a flower and use each beed as a seperate decoration.

The MIDI supports "omni-mode" which vasically means that it recieves MIDI on all 16 channels and also u can manually select a send/recive channel.

There's a possibility to turn "Local" on/off, what it does is muting the local sound, if u use the keyboard as a master u may want to mute it locally but still send MIDI.

It has some more MIDI-functions that i've never used and never really figured out, but maybe someone else in here knows about it.

There's some controller inputs on the back of it for use with piano pedals etc.


There's no sequencer onboard.
The D-50 is a perfomancesynth and it's really good at it also.

There's been made a bunch of sounds for the D-50 so i'll only describe preset sounds here.

The accoustic sounds are pretty good, especially some of the guitarsounds are very realistic, the jazz-guitar is warm and fat with release effect where u can hear the finger mute each string when released.
Flutes sound pretty good also, the strings are hard to rate as they to me sound both realistic and synthethic at the same time, but i think it's because i'm used to the sounds of todays keyboards, let me put it this way, the strings was great compared to the competitors that i know of.

The accoustic pianos stinks, they sound nothing like the real deal at all, but more like if u sample a piano with a toymic in the bathroom at 11khz samplerate, i read somewhere that it's because of the L.A. synthesizes that accoutstic pianoes sounds bad.
The electric piano sounds are great though.

Organs sounds really good also, maybe some distortion on the rockorgan to make it more dirty and real, unfortunately there's no distortion fx built-in.
Speaking of organs, the D-50 has a very fat, warm and unique Cathedral Organ, i've never heard anything like it in any other synth/keyboard, it's just so great and when u apply som external fx to it it's cream for the soul.

Synthsounds is a must on a synthesizer, and some of them are really great, some of them are also really boring, there's a lot of pluck/pling sounds, only one synthbass though and it's not actually kicking any arse, it ain't punchy, solid or anything, but pretty plain sounding.

There's some synfx sounds which are ok, especially two of them (Intruder FX and Digital Native Dance) has been used in a lot of horror movies from the mid 80's til the mid 90's.

There's the usual "Fantasia" sound which comes in every keyboard today, and also is in every 80's synth, the sound of that is clear, sharp but also warm and fat, it does'nt have that tinny and sometimes harsh sound as todays keyboards deliver.
In that range of sounds there's some other "beel"-like sounds which are also warm and fat.
In particular there's a "Tubular bell"-sound that sounds exactly like the one "Band Aid" was using in "Do they know it's christmas", it has that crispy sound instead of that more "plainbell"-like sound most of todays keyboards deliver.

The D-50 is a truly all-round synth, whether it's dance, techno, pop, you name it, only for hip-hop and stuff like that it may not be too usefull.

Owning and knowing the sound of the D-50 it's easy to tell when your hear it's sounds on the radio etc., that tells me that the instrument's sounds are very unique and a lot of perfomers has been / and still do use it.

This machine is a very faithful instrument, i've had mne for almost 10 yrs now, and never had it caused me any major trouble.

There're two bad things i've experienced with it though:

1. The rubberconnectors under the keys gets weared out, it basically means that a key will stop functioning at all, loose aftertouch function or the velocity stops responding and the key plays with max velo no matter how soft u press the key.
It's nothing a little isopropylalcohol can't handle, but dissembling the D-50 is kind of a bore and because of it's relative heavy parts it's pretty unhandy to fix.

2. The MIDI has been f***** up since i got it, it can't dump from the D-50 via Midi, well, the dump itself are possible to make, but when i dump it back into the D-50 weird signs appears on the display and there's no sound or just some scratching sounds.
I've dumped patches from the pc via MIDI and that works fine, also when i dump from another D-50/550 it worls fine.

The physical build of the D-50 almost qualifies it for a battle in Robotica on Reality TV, it's heavy as hell and the hard plastic combined with metal leaves no doubt about the physical quality of the instrument.

I would without any doubt replace it with another one if the one i have got stolen or broke down for good.

The $550 i paid was well spend, it brought me a lot of inspiration when just "playing" around with it, and now i use it primarily as a master keyboard with my pc and other soundmodules, but sometimes when i need that special sound that does'nt come in todays gear and cant be made with a software synth, i use the D-50 which has totally unique sounds.

The best part is the sounds being clear and sharp, but without getting tinny or harsh at all.
It has a sound of warm analog synth mixed with "modern" well-defined pcm sounds.

My fist keyboard was a Yamaha PSS-680, i got it for christmas in 1990, my parents gave it to me as i were showing interest of playing music, also my dad was getting a bit bugged with me as i was using his keyboard/organ which he used professionally.

I use it along with the following:

Roland JV-880
Roland Juno-1
Roland M-GS64
E-MU Orbit 9090 v.2

When i bought it, it was an impulse buy, i tried it at a local dealer, i just fell in love with the sounds immidiately and bought it right away.
The part i don't like is the programming interface, it's complex and to a rookie who just knows the very basics of programming a synth it's a complete mess.

Multitimberality would be nice, but as i use it for studio purpose it does'nt really matter that much as i can sample it trackwise on the computer.

I' ve beeen using this keyboard since 1994 and in the beginning i've found it quite difficult to use.Now it' easier but there's yet something dark to me.The manual is an horror tale.I've called Roland customer's service to send me one but the first pages are runes.You have to tweak and re-tweak , and spend time to make d-50 sing as you want.

I think the polyphony is 32 but each tone use 2 partials so the real polyphony is lower.Otherwise the result you get is good:I own a korg m1 and the limitation in polyphony is heavier than in the d-50 because the sound of the d-50 is in my opinion richer than the m1.The keys are excellent, ones of the best i've touched.Aftertouch and dinamic are very good.There are some reverb and chorus effects.It's not multi-timbral, and i' ve had some difficult in midi connection.

The d-50 is a synth type keyboard.I think it's an instrument that has its place in the history of music.The pads, strings and digital sounds are very rich and hot;the electric pianos are quite good;the acoustic piano are awful, it lacks in this category but i repeat this machine is a monster for digital sounds.Good for brass and flutes, i've found some patches on the net very realistic.The organ section is IMHO very good.It's pity that there's not a rotary speaker effect inside neither a distortion;in this way the hammond sound could be excellent.There are some sounds that only this keyboard can sing out.On the net there is a mountain of good material for this baby:just connect it with a pc and send files via sysex and your opinion on d-50 will still grow.

One night i broke the display and the control panel under the lcd.A nightmare.But i went out without any backup it was a fault of mine.I couldn't change the patch because the control board was broken.The machine is anyway solid and you can trust it.I play heavy a lot of time on the keyboard and always everything go good.This machine is excellent.

Quite easy to get the manual.Instead When i was looking for the lcd display and the panel control...oh my God.No one in Italy, no one in Japan.I think that boys in the after-sales shop where i brought my broken D-50 they didn't want to waste their precious time with a so old machine.They told me that the only thing to do was looking for another d-50 to reapir and take those two pieces and substitute with the broken ones.I brought the keyb to a friend of mine who is good with tin and after repairing some tracks on the broken board, the d-50 returned as new except for the display without calling Japan.

I've just bought another one while the first i used was broken.Some suond are unique.Very good and perfect for a beginner, excellent for a professsional user.There are newer machines that are beyond d-50 for the quantity of sound, patches and effects, but d-50 has its place,IMHO like stratocaster for guitars.Difficult to leave this keyb

I just don't know to say how easy this keyboard is to use. You turn it on, it plays. And that's all. Never tried to program a patch onto it, and the card system is safe enough I can program my sounds onto cards and use it on live gigs. Nice keyboard.

The keyboard is superb! Nice sounds, a very good feeling on the keys, nice effects and MIDI bus, this is the best keyboard I've got. Ever.

The instruments are great, in the category of this keyboard. The Pipe Organ is simply W O N D E R F U L L ! ! ! and the other patches are excellent also. But the pipe organ is what makes my heart beat...

Completely reliable. Never had a problem. Seems to be rock solid as my DX-7. Maybe should have a better painting on top, mine is loosing the numbers and letters.

never had to use it.

The best keyboard I have. Period. Of course, there must be better keyboards around. But this is the best I've ever played. If a simple keyboard like D-50 is so good, I can imagine what the Wavestation and the Nord Lead has reserved for me ;o) My other keyboards are: Yamaha DX-7, Korg Poly 800 MkI, Roland MV-30. I'm looking for a better cosmetically keyboard, or a replacement for the top cover. This is an unsellable keyboard!

It's no easy to use,but you can learn for few months.
Than is super easy,if you have a little patience.
Preset sound is perfect and some patches are brilliant,
and you dont make better some patches.example;
DIGITAL NATIVE DANCE ,STACCATO HEAVEN,LIVING CALIOPIE,
FUTURE PAD,SHAMUS THEME SPACIOUS SWEEP.THESE SOUNDS ARE GENIUS,
AND YOU CAN HARDLY MAKE THEM BETTER.
If you want to make your own patches this synth is present from GOD.
Like roland jd, jx-10,jv,and xp synths sounds have 4 oscilators.
Best sounds are ELETRIC PIANOS,HAMMOND ORGANS,SYNTH LEADS SYNTH BRASS
SYNTH STRINGS AND SYNTH PADS AND NEW SPACE SYNTH SOUNDS.
If you want this type of patches buy it.There is no mistake overal
rating is 10.Manual is so confusing.

Polyphony is 32.If you use best sounds polyphony is 8.
Killer so live chorus effect and chase(delay effect )
This effect are programable.Expansion is 4 rom pn-d50-cards.
Pressure senstive keys with so damn good feeling.

This machine have no limit.You can use sounds in every music style.

I wish that roland d-50 have arrpegiator and sequencer.
With this features d-50 could be perfect . Thanks roland.

PRESET PATCHES ARE SO SO FAMOUS.EDITING PATCHES ARE HARD AT THE BEGINING BUT LATER ARE FUN AND EASY.MANUAL IS NOT GOD.

POLYPHONY IS 32.NO SEQUENCER ,NO ARPEGGIATOR.THERE IS A 5 SOUND CARDS
WITH NEW PATCHES.ON THE NET HAVE A THOUSANDS OF D-50 PATCHES.
SOME ARE VERY VERY GOOD SOME ARE NOT.

ANALOG INSTRUMENTS LIKE SYNTH STRINGS SYNTH LEADS SYNTH PADS AND SYNTH
BRASS ARE EXTREMLY POWERFUL.NO COMPARATATION WITH NEW SYNTHS.
IT'S MORE THAH WARMTH MACHINE.THERE IS NO WORDS TO DESCRIBE MAGIC
ANALOG SOUNDS FROM ROLAND D-50.IDEAL FOR NEW ELETRONIC MUSIC.
KILLER CHORUS EFECT AND REVERB AND DELAY(CHASE).
ULTRA COOL FEELING WHEN PLAYING AND SUPER AFTERTOUCH.

I HAVE TWO MEMORY CARDS FOR BACK UP.

OVERALL RATING IS 10.I ADORE THIS INSTRUMENT.WHEN SOUNDS OF ROLAND D-50 PUT IN ELETRONIC PROJECT WITH SAMPLED SOUNDS,D-50 SHINE!!!!
THIS IS MY SECOND ROLAND D-50 ,BEFORE ONE YEAR SOMEBODY STOLE ME MY
FIRST D-50.I ADORE ROLAND PRODUCTS,EXPECIALLY D-50.

i think this keyboard is the best keyboard i ever played with i bought like four roland d-50 already they stole two from me by traveling and 1 girl friend broke it now i have one it's been protected by adt lol! but anyway my problem is i'm dieing for some one to tell me where can i find sound cards over the site or stores located in ny my email add (datunes75@yahoo.com) thank you

very easy to used the best i love it.

the sound are very powerful i love it

no problem for 5 years now i used it np gigs no problem

i repaired twice i had keys problem water fell inside of it also

yes and i did buy it four times already i wish i could get it new i would pay anything for it .Playing for seven years now also own the triton le korg... I Need some sound cards and memories cards. thank you

The D-550 is somewhere between a knobby analogue and a parameter/value user interface. I didn't find it very intuitive, even though I programmed it extensively during the four months that I owned it. Fortunately enough, I had the optional PG-1000 programmer; otherwise, I'd probably have gone mad. Each of the four building blocks of the sound has so many parameters I kept getting lost. The manual isn't very helpful here - Roland have a way of descrbing the problem very well but rarely providing an effective solution.

The D-series synths were the first to feature on-board effects. I may be biased against digital synths, but I believe this was because they needed the effects to sound good. Strip the effects off the factory presets and they suddenly don't sound quite as lush and classy anymore.

I found the 8-note polyphony absolutely adequate, especially when considering that the D-550 is monotimbral and that one rarely uses more than eight notes at a time. A memory card slot is a Roland standard from their very first rack synth (the JX-3P) on and the M-256D card may be used either to back-up your patches or to double the patch memory. There is another way of saving your patches - MIDI sysex dump. The MIDI implemetation in the D-550 is non-problematic and I didn't experience any lags when using a hardware sequencer.

Instead of pointlessly ranting about how much I hated the sounds (which I did), I'll tell you why this happened: I used the synth for what it was not made to do. I never subscribed to string/pad/ethereal school and when I was buying the D-550, I was certain that I'd be able to squeeze some aggression out of this legend. Being a mediocre programmer, I failed and this is why the D-550 was used only ONCE on our demo tape - mail me at sartre@siol.net to hear an aggressive hit/pad from the D-550.

For me, the D-550 was a lose-lose situation. If I used the sampled attacks, I could never quite smooth-out the transition to the synthesised element. If I used the analouge-like waveforms, there was no character left, only cold and thin analogue emulation.

If you're thinking about buying a D-series synth, think carefully about your requirements. If you need complex pads and other "background" sounds, you're likely to find the D-550 very useful. If, however, you're like me and prefer lively and up-front sound, look somewhere else. I'm looking at another Roland - the MKS-30. It's warm, punchy and above all simple: all the things I missed with the D-550.

I had the D-550 for four months and during that time, it performed flawlessly. The only backup I used was the memory card - another synth lost all my patches once and since then, I'm extra careful about it.

The guys at Roland Slovenia are great. They're so bored with all the home keyboards and GM arrangers they have to repair that they're absolutly thrilled when someone brings in a real synth. The D-550 never needed a doctor, but if it did, I could rely on the technician to get it up and running again in no time.

The fact that I just sold it speaks for itself: the D-550 wasn't what I was looking for. It's been nice owning a legend, but due to limited funds and space, I cannot afford to keep a synth which I'd only use for one sound in one song. During the time that I owned it, I more or less realised that I prefer analogue to digital, not the ideology but the sound.

My final mark for the D-550 is not very good, but don't let it discourage you from buying it if you know what you're getting. As far as I'm concerned, D-550 really taught me the meaning of the phrase "your mileage may vary".

most of the presets are true to life. I found that if you take your time and build your own piano patches they can really sound authentic. it takes reading the manual a couple of times to kind of get the gist of this keyboard, but fun it is. lots of room for creating your own suonds

the keyboard action and polyphony is very good though i am not looking at this as an experienced keyboard player(I play guitar)but it works well in my home studio.No sequencer? Who cares? This is a vintage machine and it clearly does what i