I'm sorry I wasn't clear. I meant to say I located an 800K floppy disk to use in the Ensoniq. My Mac SE can read 400K/800K/1.4MB disks and it had no problem reading and writing to the 800K disk I intend to use in the SQ-80. However, the SQ-80 says the disk is unusable after I try to format it.

I tracked down an 800K floppy for my SQ-80. The floppy seems fine; my old Macintosh SE reads it without any problems. When I put it in my SQ-80 and format it, it says the disk is unusable and formatting failed. I shot some compressed air in the drive (which looks pretty clean as-is) to no avail. Any...

Junior year of high school. Went from a Yamaha PSS-480 to a DX21 to a JX-3P and now to my wonderful Ensoniq SQ-80 in three years

I've owned two DX21s in the past year and they've been absolutely bulletproof... it seems odd you are having key troubles. I'd suggest carefully opening it and looking at the contacts at the very least. Maybe a connector is coming loose and its a simple fix.

Does anyone here remember what happened the last time i tried to buy a synth from eBay? It was an ESQ-1 - it arrived smashed - completely destroyed... a member here uploaded "Taps" played on an ESQ-1. I made sure to buy an SQ-80 with a hard case this time and sent the seller a message ensuring that ...

Jump (For my Love)... I remember spending hours trying to recreate this heavy synth brass patch on my JX-3P. I just couldn't do it. The best I got was the synth brass at the beginning of "Little Boy Sweet" which isn't as thick. I can't wait to get my SQ-80 in - it uses the same thick filters as the ...

Right, I've read the keyboard is quite clackety. I'm not too worried about it and the advanced aftertouch sounds interesting. I also love the idea of being able to create entire songs right on the synth using the 8-track sequencer (which is supposedly very easy to use). I'm looking for a manual if a...

Well guys... I ended up getting an Ensoniq SQ-80 instead of the D-50 - it was 1/2 the price ($215) and the Prophet V filters intruiged me. It sounds incredibly warm and punchy and should suit my style of italo-electro music better than the D-50.

All can be overwritten... hmm. Would it be a good idea to get a ROM card with the original presets off eBay? Do they sell cheaply? That way I can make my own patches and write to the main RAM without compromising the presets, which are excellent as is.

Could someone please explain the memory system of the D-50? On my JX-3P, there were two banks of permanent presets (32) and two banks of open writable presets (32). On my DX21, there were 128 permanent presets that had to be recalled and stored 8 at a time in one of four open banks to use. You could...

Question: Does the joystick on the D-50 spring back to its central position when released? There is a D-50 on eBay now that appears to be in good shape except the joystick is pushed to the upper-right and I'm wondering if this is normal or if its missing a spring.

The demo features:

Moltocarina - Love for Sale
Virgin - Super Catching Desire
??? I'm actually not sure, its labeled as "Body Power - It's a Life" but it clearly isn't that song

These songs use the D-50's "Staccato Heaven" patch.

Wow the "New D-50" sure sounds cleaner. I'm hoping this noise isn't a widespread issue; I ran a quick Google search for "Roland D-50 noise" and didn't get any notable hits. At the very least, I hope the eBayer I may buy this from has the decency to disclose this problem if it exists or at least post...

*slams head against table* Arrrg! What a bargain! I'm afraid I've come down with "D-50 fever" for which there is no cure

I sold my last DX21 for $160 on craigslist, so I'm starting the price there.

Ideally, I'll find a D-50 on craigslist, but if not I'll carefully shop around eBay.