Roland D-50 £44

[Guy Rowland]

Another day, another tempting bit of vintage classic Roland gear for a tempting price (until March 3)

https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/ ... 15264-D-50

[Lawrence]

Considering that the hardware version cost me $2200 back in the day…

[playz123]

One of my favorite synths from back then, and I have many fond memories of playing and recording with it. Can’t recall what it cost here in Canada, but yes, I think it was well over $2000. Definitely interested and will check this out. Thanks, Guy.

[Thomas Mavian]

Considering that the hardware version cost me $2200 back in the day…

Yeah, it was my first digital synth. I tried a demo a while back but I couldn't get the same "feel" for it as the first time I tried it in a store. I'll pass and let the memory linger

[progger]

I used the D50 plugin on an overdub session a few weeks back and it was just the ticket... even though I have many similar patches in the XV and Zenology plugins, as well as my FA06 (and now Jupiter XM... I got a lot of Roland stuff...) the patches on the D50 plugin usually sounded more "proper." This is mainly for the classic brass and Fantasia sounds, as you can imagine...

[RobS]

I remember passing from DX7 to D50 made a difference playing live, much more full and satisfying. Gave it away for free a couple years ago, it was lying in my basement unused... the plugin is attractive, if the sound is good

[Piet De Ridder]

Odd one out here: the D-50 never spoke to me. Probably had a lot to do with several of its iconic patches that I didn't and still don't like the sound of — maybe it's those early digital and sample-based technologies my ears had/have difficulties with — and also, inevitably, with a lot of the music it was used in, most of which I don't like the sound of either. (Said it before, the 80's is sonically my least favourite of all the decades of recorded music.)

I just had a listen to this video, and there's not a single sound here that makes me want to get a D-50, real or virtual. (Dr. Mix's presence doesn't help either of course, fine keyboard player though he is.)



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[Mike Greene]

I still remember the day I bought mine. (Self-indulgent story ahead. You've been warned!) I had been in L.A. for only a few years when the D-50 came out. I was all in on "Gonna be a rock star!", so I spent literally every nickel on gear. (As my wife can confirm. No furniture in my apartment, my car was a horrid station wagon I bought for $800 that used to be a county coroner's wagon, and dates were to wherever one of my friends could get me in free. Looking back, I can't believe she, or any other woman, would go out with me.)

I made it a point to have as much cool gear as I could, and that opened a lot of doors for me. I could show off the newest sounds, plus it looked good on stage. For better or worse, the reality of being a keyboard player at this time was "He who has the most gear" was most likely to get the gig.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't like that this is how it was. I came to L.A. because I thought I was a pretty good musician and could make a name for myself with that. But I quickly learned that nobody gave a fuck about the fact that I could play blazing fast solos. It was more about sounding cutting edge as you played ridiculously simple parts. And buying an effects unit with gated reverb presets before the other guys did. (I'm with Piet that the 80's is probably my least favorite musical decade, but alas, I didn't get to choose which decade I came of age.)

I'm just a poor country boy, though, so I had to stretch a dollar. When the DX7 came out, for instance, there was a waiting list in L.A., and even when your name finally came up, you'd have to pay list price. But a friend had a hookup with a store in South Dakota where I could get it right away, and for $200 off. Same with my SP1200 (Florida) and my Roland MKS-80 (grey market from Japan.)

Mostly, though, I'd buy from the Recycler, which was L.A.'s weekly classifieds paper. It came out every Thursday at around noon at the 7-11 near me. There would sometimes be totally killer deals, there, but I was usually too late. Dang! So It occurred to me that if I could find out where it gets delivered earlier, then I could be the one to get the great deals. The first delivery was to World of Books on Cahuenga in Hollywood at 7:00am, and I was there every week at 6:50am (just to be safe), along with a bunch of scraggly looking guys, who I would later learn were mostly car guys looking for quick flips.

I know that sounds a little obsessive to be so dedicated to this routine, but I got a lot of killer deals, including a Prophet 5 for $400, a MemoryMoog Plus for $250 and an Oberheim OBXa for $180. All working perfectly, and all with MIDI mods. I even got a '72 50-Watt Marshall stack (featured in this book) for $450.

So anyway, the D-50 comes out and everybody is talking about it, so it would be great to have, but damn, the price. Recycler to the rescue! It was way too soon for there to be used ones, of course, but some guy had an endorsement deal or something, where he got two of them, so he decided to sell one of them for a couple hundred off. This was before cell phones, so I drove home as fast as I could and called right away. Probably 7:20 or so. He answered, and when I told him I saw his ad and wanted to buy it, I can still hear his voice, "Damn, you get up early!"

I told him I could pay cash right now, no waiting, no muss, no fuss, so would he take another hundred off the price. (I'm hardcore, baby!) He said yes, so I showed up to his apartment, where he was still in his pajamas. We chatted for a while, which is always fun, and I was home by 9:00 with my shiny new D-50 in hand, serenading my sleepy wife with Digital Native Dance.

I still have it, and it still works, although I'm again with Piet that it's not favorite synth. In fact, I struggle to think when I've ever used it for anything meaningful. No doubt there were some things I used it for, but with most of my other synths, I can name lots of very specific uses.

[Ashermusic]

I used it a lot on "Zorro". But I think a lot of those sounds ended up in Omisphere? as Eric Persing was one of the D-50 programmers?

[Guy Rowland]

I know that sounds a little obsessive to be so dedicated to this routine, but I got a lot of killer deals, including a Prophet 5 for $400, a MemoryMoog Plus for $250 and an Oberheim OBXa for $180.

Holy cow. Especially the OBXa holy cow.

I think the D50 was the last interesting synth, the last synth that really didn't sound like anything else. It was kinda no-mid, wasn't it? Rich low end, expensive top end, no body. Lots of glassy sheen.

Most of the really big ticket presets are there in Omni 2, so if I really have to have Fantasia there it is, pretty much. I see a lot of people say that the D50 plugin is pretty poor from a functionality point of view, could use a modern update so I'm currently resisting.

[Mike Greene]

It was kinda no-mid, wasn't it? Rich low end, expensive top end, no body. Lots of glassy sheen.

That's my memory, too. That's also how I'd describe the overall Spectrasonics sound, which would make sense.

What the heck, I still have it here, so I decided to check it out. I first have to say that there's a lot of fear that goes into this. One of the most depressing days of my life was when I turned on five of my old analog synths and not one of them worked. Not one! It turns out old synths aren't like old guitars, where you can just pull a 50-year-old Strat out of the case and start playing it.

That same day (this was maybe 10 years ago?), I also tried the newer technology synths (including the D-50) which almost all did work, so I had hope for today's experiment. But a lot can happen to a synth in ten years, so I'm nervous.

Ugh, right off the bat, it needs one of those annoying 2-prong Roland power cables. I don't know where the one for this synth is, but the MKS-80 uses the same power cable, and just came back from the shop two weeks ago, so I robbed that one, since it was right here. Step 1 ... complete!

It powered up, the LED display did its display thing and lights came on, but ... no sound. I could hear crackles and hints of a synth sound as I slid the volume slider, though, so I shot a bunch of De-Oxit into the volume slider, and ... bam, it works! (By old synth standards, this is considered "really lucky" that that's all I had to do.)

This thing sounds freaking great! The sounds are way better than I remember. Very 80s and very "pretty". (Yes, lots of low end and lots of high end sheen.)

So why didn't I like this synth at the time more than I did? I'm kinda thinking it's because it might have already been a bit dated when it came out. I think that was 1987? I'd have to look back at the Billboard charts to remember exactly where musical styles were progressing at the time, but I can't help but think that this D-50 sounds more like earlier 80s. More "Thriller" and less "Depeche Mode". Really nice sounds, but ... I struggle to think what I would have used them for in the late 80s and early 90s.

One disappointment - I can't find Digital Native Dance. I swear it was preset 21, but it ain't there. I guess it must have been a preset on the card, instead of an internal preset, but I don't know where my card is. I definitely know I had one, though, because I distinctly remember the guy who sold it to me confirming it was in the box and saying, "Here's your memory card." (Weird how I remember that encounter so well.)