Roland D-70

While the Preset sounds and Patches have many parameters to edit, if you edit five or six times a sound you understand perfectly the interface. The manual is very confuse and doesn??t have a step by step wizard on any way of learning.

For today standars, less than 30 notes of poliphony is awful, but the sound is rich, warm and fat enough to play up to 5 instruments including percussion without a problem.
On the other side, fx processor is pathetic and a very dated RAM and ROM cards (only 256k on each).
MIDI implementation is just fine, and do not has a sequencer but I think its best use is as MIDI controler using a Computer based sequencer.

One of the very best of this keyboard is the react and overall feeling on live play. Acoustic sounds is not premiere sounds but compete with all those 90s stuff. For rock and some electronic is just great and was one of my favorite keyboards for playing. And don??t forget it has 76 keys!

Honestly, too many people has used this keyboard to show its capabilities on stage, but I think is more appropiate for a Club or as a MIDI controller on studio.

Roland is a must brand on any keyboard player.

A hard contender for the best 90s keyboard!

I mainly use the thing live, and that rather as a masterkeyboard controller than as a sound engine. Why a D70 as a masterkeyboard? Because it's a good compromise between size/weight and features! Actually, it's probably one of the few models (and the only one known to me) which are NON-88 hammer action keyboards and STILL have MASTER KEYBOARD FUNCTIONS which are actually good for LIVE USAGE!
Plus, an 88-key masterkeyboard with hammeraction only makes sense if you're going to play acoustic or electric piano sounds most - if you're aimed more at synths and organ, you need light keys to get the correct feel! My core setup is a Rhodes piano with the D70 on top, from which I trigger Access Virus, Emu Vintage Keys etc. in my rack. I'll eventually use some of the string presets, but that's about it.

System setup is somewhat sparse, would like it to be more versatile in some respects... plus there's a few special but important functions (exp. pedal assignement etc.) NOT mentioned in the manual, only changeable via holding butons at startup... oh well.

Normal plastic keys, good for synths, organ etc. (well of course I prefer waterfall for organ, but as a compromise... it's still OK). Aftertouch is good. But DON't do heavy slides with it! Keys might break out of their sockets... the only real drawback as a live master keyboard with this one - keys are not heavy duty build.
Only thing I hate about Roland keyboards: combined Mod/Pitch bend wheel! You have to keep pressing the Mod upwards, or it'll slide back to null position... would prefer dedicated mod & pitch wheels. still my favoured live master keyboard. Because:

- You have a big graphic display for intuitive use of at least some basic functions in conjunction with just a few buttons (program preset groups of 5, access (+graphic represenation) to midi volume, PG-change etc. of 4 indiv. ch's, etc... VERY important for live.
- meaning you can independently enable 4 midi ch's / zones, adjust volume by dedicated sliders, etc. - seems normal requirement, but:

Checked out other Roland models, some older, some more recent, but none of the 76-lightweight key models had any LIVE MASTER KEYBOARD FUNCTIONS worth noting. Synths, merely. All other masterkeyboards had 88 heavy keys...

In-depth editing of MIDI-patches can be time-consuming, but hey, all in-depth editing is, right?

As for MIDI: see above.

Internal sounds: much like D50, totally 80's. Meaning, some characteristic layer/sweep sounds, more on the cold/digital side. Horns terrible (well, as in almost all rom-players), strings/pads ok if you modify em. piano's boring. leads... well they're OK, but they got too much aliasing in the highs (again, like most rom-players and even many of the virtual-analogs). As a compromise, I use a VA synth (=virus) live, but in the studio, I always mostly reach for my prodigy or MS20. Basses - same here, analog simply rulez! But who's gonna use a bass key sound for live? There's a bass player there already...! ;-)

Standard Reverb sucks big time in comparison to today's standards. Rest of FX is average.

I've had some repairs with this unit, mostly broken keys. ONLY WEAK POINT! keyboard should have been built more heavy duty... you wanna treat this baby carefully, don't hit it too hard, at least not in terms of SLIDING - especially not the black keys...!! otherwise the little forks holding each key in place might get too much tension and eventually break & make a key fall out of the socket. for a repair, you basically have to take more than half of the instrument apart, in order just to get to the keyboard panel. plus, the safety holders are just glued to the panel, so you have to rip em off, exchange the key & just stick it back on and hope it' ll last...? yikes... did this a few times and had no problem with the repaired keys, though.

at one point, i bought a second unit, to have one at my studio plus one for rehearsal/gigging. After travelling by plane with it a coupla times, something got seriously messed up and I got weird error msgs and wild characters on the display! probably due to a bad flight case (got new cushions for it afterwards), though. Eventually, I took both units, had my tech make one good unit for live use, and the other one I use for spare parts now... ;)

With a re-cushioned flight case, I'm feeling kinda safe travelling with the unit now...

owned it over 15 years, was living near the german hq at first, so they one time even sent it back to my house for free.
have had a couple of key repairs and managed to get them to send me spare keys for free, too. but not anymore... ;)
nowadays i live in berlin and give it to my local tech if anything is wrong.

i got so used to the thing as a live master, wouldn't wanna miss it (that's y i got this second one for spare parts now)!
IMHO your secret live master key weapon if you use a rhodes or other heavy weight keyboard and just need masterkey functions, but not too much additional weight or bulkiness! there are not too many lightweight units with these masterkey-functions AND 76 keys! which you definitely need for 4 independent MIDI zones... well maybe some most recent models, but i don't have the time to check up on them.

Easy Squeasy! Im 18, im getting money in and this is my first keyboard(past the hunk of junk sitting in my garage that was made in 1970, something i dont care to mention and won't). This things wonderful, the presets are masterful and varied with lovely fiddly nobs to control synths and voices, its like orchestrating sound itself! The Interface is simple as hell and if you just use your common sence you can work your way round this keyboard within the first day of use. Mastering it is trickier however.

BIG FAT KEYBOARD. Its huge and feel great to play, its so heavy, in fact delightfully so because it just feels expensive and worth the money uno? Looking at some of the prices other guys have paid for yours seems a little strange however if you will look at the price i paid youll see why.
The 4 volume control with pitch bender C1 and Brightness nobs are just plain fun to use when making sounds sound great. I can't seem to find any RAM cards for the thing online, im sure if i keep hunting some will pop up.

Polyphony is wonderful and rich, im just streaming the thing straight through the soundcard on my PC in mono and it still sounds beautifully fat in sound. This thing is so sensitive, velocity and aftertouch are beautifully engineered, just using thsi thing ive composed trance songs, piano solos/ trios and sonatas with the strings, it also sounds great when you wanna make some ROCK! Multitracking straight to PC using the range of synths on this is GREAT! Bare in mind, this thing is 15 YEARS OLD but still sounds like the best of the bunch especially the wonderfully crisp grand piano sound.

Stops working every now and again, no idea why i will find out however, its probably be being too over enthusiastic but then again saying that ive hit it to buggery and back again and it still works fine. Every now and again mine just stops working out of the blue, however it seems to be remedied simply turning off the individual voices and back on again which takes a second if that. Apart from that, my welsh mate was a bit stoned and smacked it into a lampost and the thing works fine. It just feels heavy, rhobust and ready and i wouldnt hesitate to take it gigging with me again.

Never touched upon support as not needed it. It works fine and isnt broken.

For #260 thats about #500 its bloody brilliant! I cant believe every else other than me paid so much for theirs! Perhaps right place at the right time? I don't know but the guy that sold it to me is kicking himself as i sent him teh link to this site. MUHHAHAHAHA!!!

Excellent keyboard, however, this is my first of many to come so i have little to base in comparison, however as a classical pianist i can say that the Piano voice on this instrument is excellent.

Here's a review follow-up. Right after I wrote my review of the D-70, I started thinking I really should buy one, so I surfed ebay and got one about a month after the review. The guy that was selling it stated that some of the keys did not work and he was correct. I figured I'd take it apart and fix it (I'm pretty good at that) or just use it over MIDI as a sound module.

This is one beast you should never take apart. You have to practically disassemble the entire unit to get at the keys. Anyway, I did get most of the keys working...some keys you just had to hit hard to make them work.

To mak a long story longer. I was wrong. No price would make this unit worth owning unless it was the only unit you have. I have a lot of gear so my perspective is different. If you only have a small amount of gear it may be the center of your musical universe and I can respect that - bottom line is I ebayed it to a guy in Texas...hopefully he loves it.

Generally, I love Roland gear. I use an XV-88 as my main controller, so don't think I hate Roland gear.

Sound is subjective so if you love the D-70 buy it, but my take is that it is poorly engineered mechanically and electronically. It's off my list.

I may not be too objective in judging how easy to use the D-70 is, because I've owned it since 1991, and it's probably a synthesizer I know best. But, let me say this: it is easier than anything I have. The large LCD always keeps me informed what's going on in the multitimbral settings and so, very intuitive, I have to say. Kudos to Roland programmers.

I am learning the XV-88 now, and I'm trying to replicate some D-70 sounds with it, and I still can't get these great synth lead sounds that D-70 has. I am going to have to set up my D-70 again, cause I haven't used it for the last 2 years or so, as I have no space anymore in my bedroom, but I WILL have to take out that D-70 if it's only for its lead sounds! Also one of the RS-PCM cars, I believe JD-03, or something, it has those wonderful waves from JD-800. The best waves I've came across so far. You just have to have this RC-PCM card.

Believe it or not, the D-70 can be more expressive than one can think. Maybe not as expressive as the DX7 card that I have in my S80 [Yamaha], but I can't compare apples to oranges.

Oh yeah, one key lost the velocity response. It was stuck with the velocity value 127, and that was it. I got it fixed, they charged me like $150 in Rogue Music. Ouch!

Never dealt with Roland, I didn't even know I could. Come one, it's not like there is a Roland 800 number, or is it?

The D-70 is an irreplacable keyboard for its lead sounds! And the DLM textures are one of its kind as well. Not as unique as Casio VZ-1, for instance, which I still regret I sold. [I was plain stupid to sell it just because the VZ-1 had no effects and good piano sound]. Anyway, I love my D-70, and I will never sell it.

I used a D70 for about 6 months on a project back in the early 90's.
Presets are warm just like most Roland sounds. There's a very lenghty and informative review below that is very much on point, and I'd like to add my opinion. This machine is beautiful and sexy, nice display (reminds me of the display on my Wavestation) and fairly well-laid out controls, but it is the most bug ridden piece of gear I've ever used (except for a Yamaha TX16W I owned for 2 years). I've experienced the LFO slowdown and CPU lag that is inherent in this unit and it's an unforgiveable oversight. Don't try to program this machine without large doses of Prozac!

Read the other reviews.

I really like the feel of the keyboard. Velocity and aftertouch can be easily and expressively used. I generally like the D70 sound over an M1. I have to agree with other reviewers - I don't like the pitch bend/mod joystick. I don't like it on my Juno 106 or XV-88. Roland should just dump it and go with wheels.

I've played at least a dozen different D70's over the past 10 years at used music stores and in studios etc. Most of the owners had stories of bad keys, buttons, and the like, that needed repair + all the O/S woes. A couple had some extremely severe problems. I wouldn't gig without a backup.

They're generally good once you get them on the phone...once you get them. I own a lot of Roland gear, and except for the Juno 106, the quality and durability has been excellent.

I've thought quite a lot over the past 10 years about picking up a used D70. There's something about the feel of the keyboard and warmth of the sound that I like. When I balance the truly frustrating nature of it's O/S against the relatively high price it still seems to demand, I'm not ready to do it. I believe that when the used price is <$250.00 it will be worth the effort.

I love this board. If you know what you are doing, this thing is incredibly easy to use. Your average joe who knows nothing about what an LFO is will have a hard time, but anyone who knows synths will find that it's fun board. The presets are nice and fat, it's got a great analog sound to it. I really really enjoy the more ethereal patches as well as the bass. I got it second hand so I didn't get a manual. Didn't really matter, though, with some digging it's pretty easy to learn it.

I think it's only like 20 voice polyphony, which isn't a lot by todays standards. I don't care, though... if you know what you are doing you can squeeze amazing sounds out of anything if you have the right board. The onboard reverb and chorus are acceptable, I wouldn't record with 'em, but they work live. It has a couple of expansion bays, don't have any cards, though. It has MIDI in, out, through, like any keyboard should have. I don't think it has a sequencer, but I don't know. I use the board for recording and lead stuff, I wouldn't use the sequencer even if it had one.

It's several years old, so some of the presets suck, I'm not a big fan of the orchestra stuff. It's real strength is the analog synth models. They are FAT and LOUD. I like using some of the 303- and 404-based patches with a distortion pedal to get some amazingly dirty sounds. The onboard effects work for live, I wish it had distortion but it only has reverb and chorus. It feels pretty good, not like a piano or anything of course, but it responds pretty well to aftertouch stuff.

The thing is built like a tank, and it worked well for me up until recently, when some of the keys stopped working. I'm going to take it in and see if it can be repaired, I really hope so.

Haven't ever dealt with Roland.

If it turns out that this thing stops working, which I hope it doesn't, I'd sell all of my organs to get another one. I use it all the time for recording stuff, especially analog synth sounds, which it does well. So I'd definitley get another one.

OK. The first synth i've owned (and still have, too).
First two weeks I was about to lose my temper for good but finally
it cleared how to fix patches. Considering the fact that I didn't know even what LFO or resonance filter were, I have to say it can't be as hellish to learn as stated above. Still, it is slow and the pages aren't as logical as they could. I'm still beginning the trade and can't really compare to many synths but I'm handling the sounds pretty easily nowadays.

I'm very fond of a couple of presets. I don't use much other presets than piano/string + some organs. Still, there's lots of basic, warm sounds you can edit for your own needs.

Using the 4 zones/layers is neat. I really appreciate the quick clicking ON/OFF for the layers. I can easily use one performance for both soft chords + lead by just pressing e.g. layer 4 ON when i want the strong polysynth up. this does NOT stop the sustain. Just have to choose the "background" sounds well or click some of them out at the same time.

Manual suffices for me. English isn't my main language so I may have neglected some symptoms of bad translation there. However, since I'm able to read and understand English quite fine, I totally ignored the Finnish version of the manual. It didn't cater the whole book and left the reader a lot more uncertain than the English one.

the technical specs of polyphony etc. were said already and i'm not even sure of them. expansion possibilities were mentioned already as well.

I really like the touch of the keys that aren't as light to press as many other synths. Originally I practised playing piano and I totally lack the confidence when playing with a keyboard that doesn't have any "resistance". this is maybe the best part of D-70 for me.

As for the effects, I like the echoes, delay + chorus. It is obvious that D-70 was designed a decade ago and it can't compete with later models as it hasn't got tremendeous FX capabilities. forget the delays of precise milliseconds and exact addressing of the FX.

I have 2 ROM cards with some patches. There were some decent sounds but I haven't had the urge to use them yet, as I'm totally content with the internal ones. Also I have 2 RAM cards which would be useful if I ran out of space but I haven't used them much yet. I do have backups there but computer is a lot better for that.

I'm not very well aware of all the MIDI possibilities but this is what I've done and been 100% satisfied so far.
recording & playback with computer (sequencer)
recording & playback with XP-80 onboard seq.
using as mother keyboard to control 01R/W.
so, just basic things..

About the instruments i don't have that clear opinion. I always end up making my own things which aren't that logical or common developements. Some basses sound nice and the original tones are enough versatile to make your own sounds.
If I just take the time to create the sounds it's usually perfect for me. only need external effects.

Style? I'd say any live performance. not a dance-synth, though.
sounds aren't exactly the state-of-the-art anymore but still good.

I am depending on it everyday. Have used it without any backup for a year now and have had two flaws in it:
There was a mysterious flaw last winter,
The internal battery "died" twice(and all RAM was gone) but eventually the battery wasn't old. The final X-files closing of the case was that the battery, due to the physical limitations, couldn't give out the electricity in the cold temperature (-25 C)

I've kept it from the cold and there hasn't been any problems with the battery.

Now one key won't release completely and I have to take it to the repair one of these days but this is just inevitable. hope they have the parts /spring needed.

Overall. Since I got the battery problem solved I've been totally content with the reliability.

Haven't dealt with the company, just the local dealer.

Eventually I've decided to get it fixed first at the local electric repair shop who also fix synths, mostly analog. Then (when all else fails) take it to the dealer cause they have higher prices for the work.

If I lost mine I'd really try to look for another one.
The quality/price ratio is excellent, at least for my use.
If I had more money I'd perhaps try to get a VERY new expensive one.

plus:
good touch with the keys and live performing
separate downward/upward pitch bend parameter
sound editing, filters
4 sliders for the live-editing

minus:
sound editing (NOT: fast, handy, quick, easy to access)
effects
weight


As for my own background:
"every now and then" live-performing with two metal bands
+ computer sequencing. lots of jammin' with various styles when not working.
Also have Korg 01R/W (01 rack mount)

I read the other fairly positive reviews of the D-70 and thought I should contribute my experience with it and my $.02 (USD).
To cut right down to it:
1. If all you want to do with a D-70 is call up preset patches and play, it's a great keyboard. Especially for the vintage (1990) it still sounds pretty good.
2. If you intend to use it with a computer, and/or incorporate it into a large midi rig, or anything remotely complex, FORGET ABOUT IT.
Although I alternately loved and hated mine, I eventually sold it because it pissed me off so bad. I replaced it with a JV-90, and except for not having two controller zones and a cheaper display, I find the JV-90 to be a much better keyboard.
I call the D-70 the "Jaguar of Synths", in that it was kind of sexy (nice case, large display), sounded really cool, yet was the most aggravating, bug laden piece of crap I ever owned (and I've owned a lot of synths and midi gear).
SOFTWARE REV - I can't remember the original REV, I had it updated in 1995 with the latest REV (probably the last one), and that failed to fix my problems (more on those later)
According to some software people (editing software) that I talked to, different rev's fix some things, but then other things don't work right.
PRESETS - To me this was the biggest selling point of the D-70.
Although some of the sounds are kind of dated now, overall it has a big sound with nice filters. It has good piano, strings, and brass, and some of the pads and F/X patches are very good. Organs were just ok. As I said, if you are just a player and will only use the preset patches check them out - for most people they will work pretty well.
NOT A GOOD SYNTH FOR TINKERER'S AND PROGRAMMERS THOUGH
Editing patches SUCKS, and I know a lot about synth editing. Some of the edit pages are only available with one sequence of button presses, some other pages are available in many different edit sequences. It is real obvious that there were about 6 different development teams working on the D-70 that never talked to each other.
You'll find yourself deep into an edit sometimes, and want to go to edit another parameter, only to find you can't just go to it, you have to back out of where you were, one screen at a time, until you get to "home base", then go where you want to go.
The big screen really helps, and shows the envelopes as a graphic (you can edit just numbers, or edit the graphic envelope).
Editing performances is a little better, but not by much. Even in it's heydey (1990-1992), there was little in the way of third party sounds for the D-70. This was most likely because of the obtuse user interface.
I had a RAM Card (for patch and performance setup storage) for it, which I now use with my JV-90. I also had 2 waveform ROM cards with extra sample waves on it. I didn't get much use out of them though because the D-70 was so hard to program.
How hard is it to program the D-70? Let me put it to you this way; After TWO Years I barely had a handle on the thing. After I sold it and bought my JV-90, I was programming patches and performances within Two months.
I even bought a video (which features Marvin Sanders, who is now an editor of Keyboard magazine), which didn't really help much.
PATCH EDITOR - Would have made a big difference, IF IT HAD WORKED.
I use MidiQuest, by Sound Quest, which is a GREAT PRODUCT. I could never edit the D-70's patches with it however, as the D-70 would always lock up and give me a (midi Communciation error message).
Strangely enough, I could edit performances though, that worked just fine.
I had several calls to MidiQuest, and they explained to me that the D-70 was kind of "bug laden", and that every ROM REV had it's own unique problems. They were pretty frank in saying that the market for a D-70 editor (I had the entire Midiquest package, which includes about 100 different synth editors) was pretty small, and that they were concentrating their efforts on supporting newer synths. They suggested that I might want to sell the D

POLYPHONY - Only 30 voices, which sounds like a lot, until you notice that a lot of the patches use three oscillators. This means 10 note polyphony, so when you play that great piano/string patch and hit the sustain pedal, it's all over.
Unless you are playing a lot of simple keyboard lines, or use mainly two oscillator sounds, forget about using the D-70 in multitimbral mode.
The Keyboard magazine review noted that if in performance mode, you played repeated chords, that the processor would bog down and the LFO would actually start cyclying slower.
I didn't try this test, but I did notice that if you called up a stock performance that used 3 or 4 patches layered, that you could hear the delays in the attack of the sound caused by processor lag.
Since I used mainly only one or two patch layers at a time, it wasn't a big deal for me.
The keyboard action is great, I liked it a lot, especially for 76 keys.
EFFECTS - these are pretty decent, especially for 1990 vintage. Not a lot of flexibility, but not bad. The reverbs can get kind of grainy on an exposed patch.
There's something that's not really an effect, but can sound like one called "Analog Feel". This randomly detunes the oscillators on the fly so the sound gets fat. If you crank it up, it just sounds out of tune, but in small amounts it's great.
Good luck finding it buried deep in the editing pages...
The D-70 takes patch RAM cards (the M-256E) for extra patches and Performances. It also takes these hard to find ROM Wave expansion cards. I had two of these. A while back, a lot of mail order places were blowing these (ROM WAVE CARDS) out for $15 - $20 bucks. I wouldn't pay a lot, but they are nice to have.
MIDI CAPABILITIES - My original intent was to use the D-70 for it's sounds, and as a four zone controller for my midi setup.
There are four separate keyboard zones, each with a dedicated slider (mainly for volume, but can do other things). Then there were 4 buttons under each zone to cut them on and off.
This was the one thing that really pissed me off, I COULD NEVER GET THESE BUTTONS TO WORK. You could go into an edit page and cut the zone on or off, but that was about 4 button pushes. The whole idea to me was to be able to cut on a module or another keyboard "on the fly".
These buttons worked on Marvin's D-70 in the video, and the manual described how to use them to toggle zones on and off. MINE NEVER WOULD WORK!!! I had the ROM OS chip replaced, the keyboard in the service dept., Talked to Roland Tech support, and to Midiquest, and never could figure out why those buttons didn't work.
Strangly enough, 6 months after I sold the D-70, I saw a used one in a store. I went up to it, went into performance mode, and pushed the buttons. They worked. I guess mine was just defective from the beginning.
The one really cool thing the D-70 had that I wished the JV-90 did was two controller zones (ok, 4 or 8 would be best, but two are better than one).
These are divided into lower and upper zones, and allow you to say - use the sustain pedal on the left half of the keyboard without sustaining notes on the upper half (mainly in performance mode).
The aftertouch was pretty good too, and you could assign the C-1 slider to any midi controller.
It had that same crappy mod/pressure lever that Roland keeps using.
Why don't Roland and Korg just hang it up and use wheels like everybody else?
No on board sequencer, although the demo was pretty cool.
I'm giving it a middling score, because some of the features *when they work * are pretty good.
As I keep saying, the best role for the D-70 is a live keyboard used to play just patches. Get something else to control your midi rig

Some of the sounds are very realistic, others aren't so good.
I think Roland did a great job for a 1990 vintage keyboard. There are not too many patches that suck.
It would work well for about any style, and since the filters are very thick and have resonance, you could do dance stuff with it. Probably not too good for dance though since the user interface is so screwy.
The effects are servicable, but not great. Just having reverb and chorus in 1990 was a pretty big thing. I used outboard effects on it a lot because some of the patches deserved better effects than the keyboard could deliver.
The velocity response of the D-70 was very good, and was also very programmable. Most of the patches were programmed well in this respect the filter would open nicely depending on velocity, etc.
The aftertouch was one of the better ones I've used.
Although I bitched about the zone select buttons not working, the sliders were great. They had a lot of travel and were easy to tweak "on the fly". In contrast, my JV-90 (which has 8 sliders) sliders are very twitchy, and hard to get smooth changes out of.
Based on the quality of the stock sounds (especially for 1990) and the velocity and touch response of the keyboard and sliders, I'm giving the D-70 a higher rating than the other categories

RELIABILITY - Physical - just great. The guy I sold the D-70 to (at work) left it in his car with the sunroof open DURING A RAINSTORM!
He told me water was pouring out of the keyboard when he took it out of the car. He let it dry out, fired it up and it worked! It's still working 2 years later.
The D-70 is a very solid keyboard, likely to take a hit without much damamge.
RELIABILITY - Softwarewise/Midiwise - TOTALLY SUCKS I could never get this thing to work right, even after putting it in the shop multiple times, replacing the OS ROM, etc. As I keep saying if you ever want to hook a midi cable to this thing Watch out!
The only product more bug laden than the D-70 would probably be the Yamaha TX-16W sampler (which was so bad, a company called Typhoon made a living off of developing an alternate operating system for it!)
I'm giving the D-70 a 2, because to me there was no excuse for having a keyboard with so many software problems

Roland's tech support varies quite a bit. They have a lot of product and personal turnover so it has to be hard to keep good people who know a particular product.
The first guy I talked to had no clue what I was talking about when I brought up the zone button problem. The second guy was much more helpful, and while telling me the D-70 was a underdeveloped piece of crap, suggested that an OS ROM update might help.
Kudo's to him for his candor.
Upgrades and repairs were pretty easy, but they didn't seem to help.
As I said, Owning a D-70 is kind of like owning a Jaguar...

I sold it for a JV-90, that says a lot right there.
I definetly don't want another one, unless it was free.
In all seriousness though, this experiment cost me about $600 over 2 years, which isn't so bad for a keyboard depreciation (I bought it for $1200, put about $200 in service and ROM upgrades into it, and sold it for $800) curve.
The D-70 was my first really "Pro" synth and while it blew away most of the rest (not my Oberheim Matrix 1000!)of my stuff (a Korg DW-8000, Kawai K-1, and Roland MKS-100 Sampler) back in 1993, it was a really bad experience overall.
Within a few months of getting the JV-90, I knew I had made the right choice. It sounds just as big, AND IT WORKS! Plus it has 8 zones, not just four, and can take two kinds of expansion boards.
I've been dabbling with keyboards for about 10 years now (I'm really a bass player), and I've gotten pretty good at programming and midi stuff (hey I'll admit it, I'm a technological geek).
My current setup consists of the JV-90 (with a SRV-JV-80 Piano board and a VE-JV1 synth expansion board), which is my main controller, along with an old Korg DW-8000 (with an Angel City Turbo DW expansion board), a Kawai K-1, a Proteus F/X module, an Oberheim Matrix 100 module, an Alesis D-4 drum module, and a Yamaha CS-1x synth.
I have reviews of some of this stuff on this site, so check them out if you like. I tend to be pretty even handed - believe me I like to point out the weak points of a piece of gear, but I'm not into just trashing stuff for the hell of it. IMHO, the D-70 deserves it.
Believe me, If I couldn't get a handle on the D-70, you would have to be Hans Zimmer or somebody to understand it.
The guy I sold it too is very happy with it, but all he does it call up preset sounds and play it - I don't think he's even hooked a midi cable up to it.
The D-70 initally inspired me (some of the sounds were very cool) to write a couple of songs, but after that IT REALLY GOT IN THE WAY! It's very frustrating to try and program something really simple and to still be pushing buttons a half hour later.
I've been pretty harsh in my review here, but I want people to benefit from my experience. I went into the store, thinking about getting the D-70 because I wanted a 76 note keyboard, and controller features (I wanted to be able to send on multiple midi channels at once).
They were having a blowout sale on the D-70, $1200 new for a keyboard that was $2000 - $2200 in it's heyday. Sounded to good to be true and it was!
They guy that sold it to me is know a rep for Kurzweil, and laughs his ass off everytime I see him and mention that he sold be that DOG-70!
Hey, it was my fault, I sold myself on the keyboard, not him.
I'll reiterate one last time:
1. If all you want to do is play presets and use the D-70 in a "live" setting, it's a pretty good keyboard. There are a lot of better alternatives these days though, so I wouldn't pay more than $800, which is what I sold mine for, and it was in MINT condition.
2. If you want to use it with a computer, or as part of a large midi rig - KEEP YOUR MONEY IN YOU WALLET AND RUN LIKE HELL!!!!!

The presets on the machine (I got it used, so some were altered) were in general very nice. There are 64 performances to choose from (I'll discuss what a Performance is below). When I got it, I couldn't afford a Kurzweil (no one could). So I was happy that the piano was very respectable. The rest of the patches are interesting to ok. Programming, other than setting midi outs and effects, is pretty horrendous. In fact, I was pretty scared of ruining the presets, which I liked. On the plus side, having five synth parts and a drum part midi controllable makes it a great sequencer adjunct as well as a great performance keyboard. IF you can program the machine, which is not impossible, you can do lots and lots of things. It is very creative. Live: The four sliders allow lots of fast performance control over the sound. It you change patches, if will blank out the sound (not sustain like a Kurzweil), so do it in a quiet area of the tune. Manual: As the Dutch fellow said, I think the same Japanese translator worked on the English version of the manual. I thought there was soemthing wrong with my brain. The guy I bought it from gave me an article from a magazine that REALLY explained how it worked.

30 voices, and I like the big keyboard. The chorus reverb are convenient to have if you're live, but it is unfortunate that the effect is not configurable for every patch in a performance group. I got it with the RAM expansion card, which is great, but cannot share data with the onboard RAM. I have gotten two different sound expansion modules (one was a two-card set). Both allowed the promise of much flexibility in the future. The single card set gave more original tones (I made new drum soudns in the rhythm section). In the two card set, the new original PCM tones are already built into new patches and performances, so it's like getting a new keyboard. MIDI implementation it expensive, althought I only just found out how to turn off the control channel from spewing duplicate note events into my sequencer. (i bought it before the Web got big, so I was on my own.) It generates sounds by using combinations of PCM samples and FM-like waves--Tones. These Tones are grouped in sets of up to four to make a layered Patch. Patches have all the action in tone swtiching based on velocity, key tracking, etc. The tones are set up in two groups that can be Spilt. All four can be layered, or assigned to Zones of the keyboard (or MIDI range). A Performance takes five Patches together, along with the effects settings to create a MIDI group of sorts. It would be nice if the power cord unplugged. No onboard sequencer.

I got the keyboard for its acoustic sounds, which are full and warm. I was particularly happy with the grand piano/strings. The sax and acoustic bass patches was pretty impressive. It works for well for Jazz, classical and fusion. It isn't a real techno sounding board. It has neat velocity controls, which can be used to switch tones and channel aftertouch, which is demonstrated to advantage in the acoustic guitar patch. The pitch and mod paddles, which some folks doen't like, are among my favorite features, as they automatically snap back to "0". The drum section, although hard/scary too mess with, offers lots of control over the original samples.

It's always worked. The only thing I have to do periodically is get the key contacts cleaned. I have never been concerned about getting left high and dry at a gig.

Never had occasion to use it.

I pondered a lot (in 1990) as to what keyboard would be "perfect" for the two opposing needs of MIDI composer sound box and live performance keyboard. This keyboard truly met all my needs for a long time. I still use it alot, and really wouldn't think of getting rid of it.

How do the presets sound? When I compare it to the JV880, which I own too, I would say: the D70 is more analog, warmer, fatter and more noisy. When you're really into synthesis editing is easy, when you're not: this thing is a pain in the ass! Especially editing the rythm setup is REALLY annoying and takes a hell lot of time! The manual is translated into dutch by some stupid Japanese moran, who studied Dutch but didn't get an A to his exams. The manual really sucks, when you know a little about synthesis, forget the manual and start experimenting!

This thing is really great! I've a Roland JX10, which I use as a masterkeyboard, but lately I had no possibility to take it with me, next to the D70. I programmed the D70 to control the JV880 and THAT'S HEAVEN!! Transmitting over FOUR midi channels, all with volume control under 4 sliders!!! This thing is 30 voice, but I don't care because I've a JV880 (28), the JX10 (12) and a SY77 (32) so that's enough!! The D70 has reverb and chorus inside. Chorus is great, reverb is a bit hard to measure. Most features work OK for me, but the real heaven on this thing are the masterkeyboard functions!!

Sounds as I sad are warm and rough (really FAT OBX sounds, eat this Eddie van Halen!) Piano is OK, B3 organ is fantastic. Cool drums (kicks ass man) good basses good effects. A real pity is the not assignable keyboardtracking to the note number.

I own it for one and a half month so I don't know

See above

This thing is really great. I thought a long time about buying a second keyboard, and had a CS1X in mind, a U20, a X5D, but I'm glad I bought this killer. Toghter with my other stuff I got a REAL great setup. When you find one, get 'em!! The only thing that actually sucks, is that this thing is really BIG! (and I've got a f#$%&*&cking heavy flightcase around it, so my arm is really getting torn apart.