The Sound Board

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

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

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.

Lawrence wrote: ↑Feb 09, 2026 5:25 pm 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

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...

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

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.)



__

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.

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?

Mike Greene wrote: ↑Feb 19, 2026 2:28 pmI 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.

Guy Rowland wrote: ↑Feb 19, 2026 3:53 pmIt 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.)

Digital Native Dance was mos’ def one of the original
presets, I think?? Unless every D-50 included a memory card?
It was one of the quirkier presets and helped sell me on the synth, along with the much more (over) used Staccato Heaven and Fantasia.

I had a module actually, not the keyboard, a D-550 I think it was called. I remember using a patch called OK Chorale and a particularly aggressive pizzicato strings patch in “Zorro.” a lot.

Mike Greene wrote: ↑Feb 19, 2026 6:22 pmWhat the heck, I still have it here, so I decided to check it out.

That's fantastic - you brought it back to life! And yes, the Eric Persing sonic signature can be heard in Omni, though that feels more like choice in terms of some of the more famous patches than anything inherent in the synth itself. I don't know if those tiny sample sizes in the D50 somehow leant themselves to that glassyness in the sense that reverb in particular helped fill out the sound. Fantasia is a classic example - that slightly atonal chink bathed in reverb. Those built in FX were really part of the D50 sound and that was kind of new for synthesis then I think. Often people say with Omni that in a mix you end up stripping off some or all of the FX as it busies a mix too much, some patches are almost complete mixes on their own.

Digital Native Dance is a mystery. As Larry says, it was an internal patch and just as you remember no 21 according to this chart - https://www.synthmania.com/d-50.htm

Jay - was that by any chance pizzagogo, the famous pizzicato patch used in Enya's Orinoco Flow? It's impossible to NOT play that when the patch is loaded I find...

Yes, Guy, that’s the one. I am not familiar with that Enya piece, I will check it out.

Guy Rowland wrote: ↑Feb 20, 2026 2:03 am... according to this chart - https://www.synthmania.com/d-50.htm

Whoa. My internal patches (the names, at least) are only 50% the same as this chart. It makes no sense, because no way would I have overwritten Fantasia and Digital Native Dance, but ... apparently I did? Although Patch 11, now called "Inishas Friend", sounds exactly as I remember Fantasia sounding. I wonder if I just renamed some patches? Or lent the synth to someone else and that's what they did? (Digital Native Dance, though .... completely obliterated and now just a generic synth patch.)

The only explanation I can think of is maybe I sold mine and then bought a used one to replace it later, but that just makes no sense, since first off, I don't remember doing that, and second, even if I did sell mine (something I never do, but supposing), why would I have bothered replacing it, since it isn't especially collectible?

This mystery is going to really bug me.

Ashermusic wrote: ↑Feb 20, 2026 8:02 am I am not familiar with that Enya piece,

Yes you are.

Speaking of which:

Guy Rowland wrote: ↑Feb 20, 2026 2:03 amJay - was that by any chance pizzagogo, the famous pizzicato patch used in Enya's Orinoco Flow? It's impossible to NOT play that when the patch is loaded I find...

I hereby retract my earlier statement that the sounds in the D-50 were largely dated on arrival, since Orinoco Flow was a year after the D-50 came out, and you don't get much cooler than that song.

I'll go so far as to say that of all my synths that I've revisited, this one is the most fun. I'm not sure what I'd do with it in 2026, mind you, but for just pure fun of strolling down memory lane, this was more of a treat than any of my other synths.

Speaking of what would I do with it in 2026, one other thing I noticed is the samples (the first half of most D-50 patches) are very noisy. As in you can hear the hiss fade out along with the intro sample. I wonder if the software version cleaned that up.

I drank whiskey in the pub of her parents when all of the sudden she stood behind me... unforgettable late night... that being said, I disliked the D50.

The OB-xa was the best sounding synth I owned and was my first with digital memory (128 patches!) The DX7 was the most utilitarian from a gigging standpoint. The Polymoog was my biggest disappointment-man, I dreamed about it from the moment I saw an ad featuring it, and went into serious debt to buy the first one I found. It was thin sounding and spent much of its life in the repair shop.

The D50 made cool sounds that quickly became ubiquitous, and that made it necessary for me to have in the studio along with the Korg M1.

The only thing I miss about hardware was the visual solidity of my investments. Keyboards, racks of modules, monitors, mixing boards etc etc. One could look over one’s hardware empire with pride-now it’s just some 1s and 0s hiding on a drive (unless you’re Mike Greene )

Since we're all still on the D50 - I made a comment earlier that this could be the last synth to ever be released that sounded genuinely and obviously different to anything that had gone before. Can anyone think of any other contenders?

It's actually a pretty short list of synths that come into this category. In fact now I'm wracking my brains, I think it could just be this and the DX7. Even something as iconic as the MiniMoog was just a more convenient version of a familiar sound. The Synclavier II? The Fairlight would qualify but it's a sampler.

Guy Rowland wrote: ↑Feb 21, 2026 2:03 am Since we're all still on the D50 - I made a comment earlier that this could be the last synth to ever be released that sounded genuinely and obviously different to anything that had gone before. Can anyone think of any other contenders?

I can't think of other contenders, although "sounded genuinely and obviously different" is a pretty narrow criteria. Maybe the Sequential Circuits Prophet 12? (Or whatever was the first modernized "analog" synth that had extra capabilities.) That synth did things way beyond what normal analog synths could do. (Mind you, I never had one, so that's just what I think I remember.)

If we expand to "big deal", though, then the Proteus came out a year or two after the D-50, and although it didn't sound different from anything before it, it did sound different from anything that most of actually had. In other words, real people didn't own Fairlights or Synclaviers. I owned the Prophet 2000 sampler, which I guess technically could have had all the acoustic sounds the Proteus had, but that's not what I used it for. I'm not even aware if any piano or acoustic guitar or strings libraries for the P2000 even existed. Even people who could afford the Emu Emulator probably didn't have anything like what the Proteus gave us. (I can't say for sure on that one, though, since the Emulator was way too rich for my blood.)

Lawrence wrote: ↑Feb 21, 2026 12:32 am The only thing I miss about hardware was the visual solidity of my investments. Keyboards, racks of modules, monitors, mixing boards etc etc. One could look over one’s hardware empire with pride...

I have to confess, I do take a lot of pride in still having this stuff, although the "pride" is mostly unearned, since the main reason I kept it all is because until 10 or 20 years ago, it just wasn't worth selling. It was just "old gear," and honestly, I kept it on display mostly to fool TV clients into thinking a lot of expensive gear was required to do the high quality work I was giving them. One client even said, after seeing my studio, "Wow, now I see why you charge so much!" Of course, I didn't tell her that everything I was doing for them could be done on a laptop, and hardly any of the synths, or even the tape machines, were even plugged in.

More self-indulgence, here's my synth wall. This is a really old picture, but the stuff is the same, although arranged a little differently now. And we put in new floors a couple years ago.

Is that an S1000 at the bottom of the rack? Those were so golden back in the day. Does anyone use them any more at all?

I started with an S1000 (after the Prophet 2000), but that's an S5000 in the picture, which has more ram and a bigger screen. There are also a couple S2000's and two S3000s in that rack, and then an S6000 in a rack offscreen. (The S6000 is the same as the S5000, except the front panel is detachable, so it was like a remote you could put on your desk as you manipulated samples.) I was all in on the Akais, baby!

I'd be surprised if anyone uses them now (I sure don't), but who knows.

I had a Prophet 2002, an Emu Proteus Orchestral Plus, Kurzerill 1000 PX, Roland D55 and Korg M1, at the time of my largest collection.

Ashermusic wrote: ↑Feb 19, 2026 3:22 pm 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?

Yes, Jay, there's a ton of D50 in Omnisphere, which makes a lot of sense. On the overdub session I mentioned above, I would actually toggle back and forth between the D50 plugin and the equivalent in Omnisphere, and they sound surprisingly different from each other even though the core sounds are basically the same (and the same guy built both). Sometimes I'd pick the Omni patch and sometimes I'd pick the D50, but I would have been happy with either.

If someone has Omnisphere and/or Zenology Pro, they already have the "most important" D50 sounds when it comes to music production. Fantasia, StaccHeaven, various brass and leads, organs, etc. Still blows me away how ubiquitous those sounds are in music production since the late '80s, still used all the time today!