Roland D50 is it a classic or out of date?

Hossinfeffa · Post by **Hossinfeffa** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 9:11 pm

Another great D-50 demo can be heard here: http://perkristian.net/music/PerKristia ... rMusic.mp3
Per Kristian can really make some great music.

Anyone wanting to find out the date of their Roland gear should check this thread: http://www.vintagesynth.org/phpBB2/view ... hp?t=36288

Mr. Black · Post by **Mr. Black** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 9:19 pm

The PCM samples when isolated, sound noisy regardless of the serial number(There only 8 bit), it's the DA converter's on later ones that contributed to less noise and a cleaner output.

mao · Post by **mao** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 10:27 pm

D-Collector wrote: I have a little question too. I have the Musitronics m.ex. card installed, but I can't access the extra internal bank. Did they sell those cards with the extra storage purely as an option? I read in the m.ex. manual that the standard version has storage for 64 extra patches. Their website has little info on this.

If you have the MEX... well... at least you have bank X and bank Y (the option is to have another two banks installed).

To access bankX press INT + 2
To access bankY press INT + 3
To access internal bank INT + 1

+ means: while keeping pressed INT press the number

bank x and y have the multi timbral presets (1 part per channel)

D-Collector · Post by **D-Collector** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 4:54 pm

mao wrote:
D-Collector wrote: I have a little question too. I have the Musitronics m.ex. card installed, but I can't access the extra internal bank. Did they sell those cards with the extra storage purely as an option? I read in the m.ex. manual that the standard version has storage for 64 extra patches. Their website has little info on this.
If you have the MEX... well... at least you have bank X and bank Y (the option is to have another two banks installed).

To access bankX press INT + 2
To access bankY press INT + 3
To access internal bank INT + 1

+ means: while keeping pressed INT press the number

bank x and y have the multi timbral presets (1 part per channel)

I keep trying that but nothing happens. Quite strange, maybe something has gone bad in the board?

D-Collector · Post by **D-Collector** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 6:36 pm

According to the chart mentioned above, my D-50 is from August 1987. Does anyone know which month the first ones were made? I assume they were developed during 1986 and early 1987?

mao · Post by **mao** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 10:01 pm

D-Collector wrote:Here is the link to the patch archive.

http://analogkid.us/Patches/Linear.zip

Many great banks.
(Note that there are a lot of duplicates)

... ehm... In this huge library ... there are some banks that are still on sales... so I don't think it's a great idea to link it. I bought some months ago the same metrasound banks from a germany company who owns the rights of the banks... so ... it's up to you now...

Don Solaris · Post by **Don Solaris** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 11:11 pm

mao wrote:... ehm... In this huge library ... there are some banks that are still on sales...

Please give me a list of the banks you noticed inside which are for sale and i will pass this info to Analog Kid to remove them from the archive.

D-Collector · Post by **D-Collector** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 12:44 am

Point taken.
I hope Analog Kid will make the appropriate changes.

Can't really see why anyone would spend money on the metrasound patches though. They are of poor quality and you can find way better patches in the hundreds of public domain banks.

Many of the commercial banks available for the D-50 are bad. Especially the Voice Crystal banks. (How can they sell those???) I sure hope none of you here on the forum are the programmers. Sounds like they have spent maximum 20 min. with the synth just pushing random buttons.

There are exceptions however, like the excellent Valhala series and Patch Pro banks. PA Decoder has some good patches, and Kid Nepro maybe.
If some of you want the Valhala banks I have them all nicely organized in a folder which I'm happy to email to you. (I can't find anything related to the Valhala co. on the net, so I guess it doesn't matter)

In the end you really should learn to program the thing. Once you make friends with the D-50, it will reward you greatly. It's more original, and you won't have to pay xx amount of $ for 36 kilobytes of c**p.

Mr. Black · Post by **Mr. Black** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 3:31 am

Kid Nepro D50 sounds are awful!! I wasted money on those some years ago, a ram card of volume 2 patches.

i_watch_stars · Post by **i_watch_stars** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 4:40 am

The Roland cards (PN-D50 01 through 04) are the best. All I have to say is ;

STAR-TREK VOICES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually, I just got a PG-1000 for my D-550; so I'm back in magical D-50 land.

D-Collector · Post by **D-Collector** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 5:15 pm

Mr. Black wrote:Kid Nepro D50 sounds are awful!! I wasted money on those some years ago, a ram card of volume 2 patches.

Well I said maybe (;

I have only heard one or two patches from them, which I did't think was too bad. I guess those must have been the only ones then.

Maybe we should make a blacklist, thereby making it easier for people who are new to the D-50 and are looking for some sounds to get started.

Mr. Black · Post by **Mr. Black** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 6:49 pm

There where a few cool sounds, but i dont like useless sound effect's, and those are there the programing is not that great, alot of sounds just isolate one or two partial's and call it a new patch,like that damm Digital Native Dance, they removed the looped portion renamed it.That was it,maybe the other volume of patches are better.

D-Collector · Post by **D-Collector** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 10:33 pm

Mr. Black wrote:There where a few cool sounds, but i dont like useless sound effect's, and those are there the programing is not that great, alot of sounds just isolate one or two partial's and call it a new patch,like that damm Digital Native Dance, they removed the looped portion renamed it.That was it,maybe the other volume of patches are better.

A lot of "professional" programming houses did that sort of thing. That and, like you said, making loads of shitty effects you will never find use for.

I'm sorry for being off topic in my last posts. I think the D-50 is a classic, but the patch creation business around it sadly leaves a lot to be desired.

Mr. Black · Post by **Mr. Black** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 3:01 am

I don't think your off topic D-C everyone has different musical taste.

Automatic Gainsay · Post by **Automatic Gainsay** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 4:45 am

This thread is like an alternate reality.
It is a manufactured context wholly outside of the context within which the D-50 was created.
It's good that people can be happy, though.