My advice is to skip the D-50 and go with D-550. Takes less space, and most importantly (what most don't know) you can do realtime filter cutoff using a mod wheel! Here is a trick: in D-550 you can set aftertouch to modulate a cutoff. Now on you master keyboard just set mod wheel to have CC aftertouch and from now on you can enjoy endless filter tweaks, sequence sweeps, etc. Audio demo example.replicalex wrote:So I was thinking of picking up a D50 (a friend has one pretty cheap with the pg1000).
I wouldn't compare these two cause there is no much in common between D-50 and JD series except the name Roland. They are actually two completely different synths, based on different technology, different sound structure and most importantly they sound different.i_watch_stars wrote:To many, the JD800/990 superseded the D50. It is, essentially, D50 Reloaded.
For start JD can not sound as fat as D-50. Reason for this is D-50 can have 4 oscillators with pulse width modulation (JD doesnt even have the PWM), each with its own lfo rate, each detuned, etc. In short, as FAT as digital can make.
D-50 is essentially made of "virtual analog" (VA synth) with modeled pulse/saw oscillators, PWM, 6 LFOs and a resonant filter. The second part is a small PCM section made of sampled transients. Together can be combined and mixed / modulated using Ring Modulation (AM). The D/A converters give it unique and a very distinctive glassy (crystal) sound. JD-990 is however just a classic rompler, with different sound. They are like Ferrari and Lamborghini of digital synths.
