Great demo! I still love my D-50 that I bought in 1987. These days I also can play D-50 sounds with the V-Synth XT and D-05. Never really gotten into those nerdy software things. I should also do a D-50 video on my channel one day. I need to repair the after touch on mine.
I'm trying to find out if I can load the VST D-50 on to my Juno X. I think I can use the Juno as a controller for the software, although I'm wondering if it's possible to actually load it onboard as another model expansion to go with the several already included out of the box. Any advice you can offer?
So iconic. I have always loved this synth for it's rich and quite distinctive sound. I recently purchased an original D-50, which sadly ended up damaged in transit and arrived unusable. I returned it to the previous owner without issue, and fortunately he was able to repair it, but I've since instead invested in a Roland Juno X which - although an original D-50 is a nice touch - better suits my live performance needs and includes countless D-50-esque presets. Great demo - thanks again for this, Woody!
It's because it's a sort of unique blend of ROMpler and VA. ROM was too expensive for full samples, so they added virtual analogue for the sustains. So it has a more dynamic sound than a straight ROMpler. It also had onboard FX which was a fairly new thing for a synth.
I remember a boy in my class came into the music department with a brand new one in 1987 . It blew us away. the sounds were, and are, so usable. Eric Persing's best preset of all time I think was "Soundtrack' which every TV show / movie and a multitude of songs used in large amounts in the late 80s / early 90s. Cory Lerios and John D'Andrea for Baywatch being one notable power user together with lots of M1 piano . Seal's first album is littered with it. Apparently it was itself based on an earlier Jupiter patch. The JX-10 was also lovely from the year before.
Ugh. Thanks. After switching from Korg & Roland to primarily Yamaha keyboards, this, until recent releases, has been a frustration. Imitating guitars is ridiculous on wheels.
I've always loved the D50 sounds, so much so that a few years back I purchased the Roland D-05 Linear Synthesizer which has provided me with a lot of old & new sounds. It's still my favourite synth.
Beautiful, thanks Woody. Still some great sounds in the D-50... I will be checking out the "Glass Voices" this evening, you can fall into a deep trance with that one.
WOW. This sounds beautifully 80s, yet many of the pads & bells are very useful for stacking in modern music. It just occurred to me the the D50 had... vector capabilities? I'll have to Google it. Thanks for another A1 contribution to my synth mania, Woody! Lol
The Greatest Keyboard/Synthesizer of all-time hands down! I definitely remember hearing a lot of these legendary sounds in a lot of different songs growing up. My favorite D-50 Patches/Presets are: Soundtrack, Nylon Atmosphere, OK Chorale, Fantasia, Digital Native Dance, Slow Rotor, Piano-Fifty, Spacious Sweep, Bass Marimba, Vibraphone, D-50 Voices, JX Horns-Strings, Horn Section, Pizzagogo, Glass Voices, Living Calliope, Future Pad, Jazz Guitar-Duo, Pipe Solo, Stereo Polysynth, Staccato Heaven, Nightmare, Afterthought, PressureMe Strings, Synthetic Electric, Combie Strings, Arco Strings, Jete Strings, and last but not least Intruder FX. The whole entire Synthesizer is incredible even over 30 years later…thank you so much to the Roland Corporation for designing, developing and manufacturing this timeless masterpiece of a Synthesizer.🙏💯😎🎶
D50 is a personal favourite. I did a deep dive with the plugin and it blew my mind how it get's these sounds out of the tiny little samples it uses. But once you get to grips with the looping and how smooth and tweakable the envelopes are, it all makes sense. The Roland Cloud synths are mostly all great emulations, just the price is a little steep ! I'll never pay for subscriptions either
3:42 THAT. 4-7 is the signature sound of the D50. Where Stacatto,Fantasia and Soundtrack are very M1-ish, 4-7 is a true virtual analog patch with resonance.
Thanks Woody, yes they’ve been over used but they really were (& still are) amazing sounds scapes you just could never have done with analogue..I do think while the DX7 & M1 rightly regraded as classics and it’s only more recently people realised how important the D50 was. As you demo,with the sweep preset, it was almost an early VA...as Compared to other 2 it could even do “analogish” with it waveforms and decent TVF....
hello @@WoodyPianoShack thx for your feedback :) - when the master keyboard has a joystick, maybe there's a way to transfer it's commands into the DAW (via MIDI or USB) ? This way I could use my D-50 with the PlugIn, giving me so-to-say a "D-550 Plugin" for my D-50 😎
@@SEOTeamBerlin I have a korg Triton tacktile midi controller with the kaoss pad in the centre. Which I believe is supposed to do same if not simular job as a joystick. Could it be a case of a good midi controller with a chaos pad just might sort the joystick conundrum? Haven't tried it on other hardware midi'd through but the pad does act like a joystick when playing built in sounds from the unit.
Just dipped my toes into buying the d-05 boutique model. Love the D-50 esp used in the revolutions album by jmj. Aswell as enya and a Wide host of others. Plus bonus I can take it on travels and trigger it with the Yamaha qy100. The synth imho is still unique sounding today and with the rise of future pop and synthwave still pretty current. 🎹🖤
My poor D50 is now being used as a sound module. Some of the keys don't work, the buttons are funky and the screen is dying. I can't afford to repair it and the quality of the emulations on offer these days makes it even harder to justify the cost. 😔 I feel there's still that extra little sparkle missing though. Probably the DACs, current traveling down wires....or just my fondness for keeping big heavy half broken synths in the corner of the room 😂
you're right, wmulation is a bit lifeless compared to hardware, but gets you close enough. yes, all of our favorite keyboards from the 80s and 90s are slowly deteriorating and dying... caps and chips go bad, keybeds break down. too bad, but lucky we have the vsts.
Ive had my eyes closed for this whole video Woody, but I would have sworn blind that was a hardware D-50 I was listening to. with one exception. The lead synth to Africa felt a bit out.Otherwise it was neigh on perfect.
I've always wanted to own a D-50. Any thoughts on how close the Roland Cloud version compares to a real D-50? Roland claim it's an exact recreation, whereas some people say there's just that certain 'something' that a real D-50 has that the VST doesn't. Anyway, for space reasons I'll likely get the VST instead of an actual D-50, I'm sure it'll be close enough!
You know what else you could have played with the JX horns patch, you could have play the intro of I heard a rumour by Bananarama. Still such a good video.
i'm not so sure, those early roland arrangers were pretty awesome at the time, but now, the d50 maybe more sought after. a lot of fun those e-series and sounds derived from d10 and d50!
6:38 Wow!!! That was used in AL B Sure's 1988 song, "Just a Taste of Lovin". ruclips.net/video/hPAPSi6lgr0/видео.html Weird that the sound of that symth brings me back to him being that he coincidentally passed away the other day! As usual, great demo, Woody! 👍
@@maddengamer94 Glad to hear that! He was one of my favorite acts from the 80s! It made me sad when I heard that misinformation. His album, In Effect, brings back memories of a great and happy time. 🙏
Great video, Woody!! I had a D-50, and those sounds would surely satisfy any D-50 cravings I might still possess. And for anyone with Omnisphere, this are an interesting set of sound in there. Probably helps to have Eric Persing (an original D-50 programmer) as part of the patch-making task: ruclips.net/video/zq1lglfuCYA/видео.html
Okay, but this is a - very good - VST emulating D-50 patches... not a D-50 ! Roland cloud D-50 is okay but it really lacks some punch (i have both) : not as good as the original synth if in perfect shape.
Never played on a real D-50 but from Demos I have heard the reverb does not come close on the reinkarnation D05, and the cloud version suffers from the same problem. Rather cheap sounding reverberation that does not match the original dense quality.
I believe these songs, especially the first one in this video, were done with a D50 ruclips.net/video/e-Gxd7a7KyE/видео.html&ab_channel=ƝarayaɳaMaharishᶖ I don't know much about synths but does it have presets that would sound like this?
Can't deny it, synth noises are my favourite thing in the world
there's no dispute!
80s/90s Korg and Roland - you could just get lost in sounds forever
The sound of every 90s corporate training video!
lol, you have a point there!
The D50 which is on the roland cloud is responsible for some of the early 90s rave & techno classics. A powerhouse of a synth.
I have the D550 module, and I love the sounds it makes.
I had the D20 and fell in love with the Soundtrack preset. Still love this today! Nice to hear it back!
Great demo! I still love my D-50 that I bought in 1987. These days I also can play D-50 sounds with the V-Synth XT and D-05. Never really gotten into those nerdy software things. I should also do a D-50 video on my channel one day. I need to repair the after touch on mine.
wow, original owner, that's a pretty rare find, congrats and respect!
I'm trying to find out if I can load the VST D-50 on to my Juno X. I think I can use the Juno as a controller for the software, although I'm wondering if it's possible to actually load it onboard as another model expansion to go with the several already included out of the box. Any advice you can offer?
So iconic. I have always loved this synth for it's rich and quite distinctive sound. I recently purchased an original D-50, which sadly ended up damaged in transit and arrived unusable. I returned it to the previous owner without issue, and fortunately he was able to repair it, but I've since instead invested in a Roland Juno X which - although an original D-50 is a nice touch - better suits my live performance needs and includes countless D-50-esque presets. Great demo - thanks again for this, Woody!
That sounded fantastic, the D-50 has such a wonderful sound
It's because it's a sort of unique blend of ROMpler and VA. ROM was too expensive for full samples, so they added virtual analogue for the sustains. So it has a more dynamic sound than a straight ROMpler. It also had onboard FX which was a fairly new thing for a synth.
Awesome revisit!
You really can never get bored of the sounds of the D-50. One of the most lush sounding digital synths of that time, I'd say.
Roland D50 beloved and underrated amazing synth
I remember a boy in my class came into the music department with a brand new one in 1987 . It blew us away. the sounds were, and are, so usable. Eric Persing's best preset of all time I think was "Soundtrack' which every TV show / movie and a multitude of songs used in large amounts in the late 80s / early 90s. Cory Lerios and John D'Andrea for Baywatch being one notable power user together with lots of M1 piano . Seal's first album is littered with it. Apparently it was itself based on an earlier Jupiter patch. The JX-10 was also lovely from the year before.
yes, you never forget the first time you play the d50!
It's about time a USB keyboard manufacturer finally released a keyboard with a joystick controller.
yeah, right on!
Studiologic SL models have joysticks
Could use a real D50, Midi to usb cable
Korg kontrol 49 has joystick control.
Ugh. Thanks. After switching from Korg & Roland to primarily Yamaha keyboards, this, until recent releases, has been a frustration. Imitating guitars is ridiculous on wheels.
At 6:04 The Midnight's The Comeback Kid. Amazing choice of patch. Great video Woody.
well spotted, respect!
I've always loved the D50 sounds, so much so that a few years back I purchased the Roland D-05 Linear Synthesizer which has provided me with a lot of old & new sounds. It's still my favourite synth.
"Those presets" 😋 yum!
Tasty classic D50 Sound!💖
I have got the D50, great synth of the 80’s 👍
congrats, what a classic!
Beautiful, thanks Woody. Still some great sounds in the D-50... I will be checking out the "Glass Voices" this evening, you can fall into a deep trance with that one.
WOW. This sounds beautifully 80s, yet many of the pads & bells are very useful for stacking in modern music. It just occurred to me the the D50 had... vector capabilities? I'll have to Google it. Thanks for another A1 contribution to my synth mania, Woody! Lol
Great Woody! So nice to see you again playing the Classic gear! 👍🎶
well, virtual versions of it anyway! thanks :)
The Greatest Keyboard/Synthesizer of all-time hands down! I definitely remember hearing a lot of these legendary sounds in a lot of different songs growing up. My favorite D-50 Patches/Presets are: Soundtrack, Nylon Atmosphere, OK Chorale, Fantasia, Digital Native Dance, Slow Rotor, Piano-Fifty, Spacious Sweep, Bass Marimba, Vibraphone, D-50 Voices, JX Horns-Strings, Horn Section, Pizzagogo, Glass Voices, Living Calliope, Future Pad, Jazz Guitar-Duo, Pipe Solo, Stereo Polysynth, Staccato Heaven, Nightmare, Afterthought, PressureMe Strings, Synthetic Electric, Combie Strings, Arco Strings, Jete Strings, and last but not least Intruder FX. The whole entire Synthesizer is incredible even over 30 years later…thank you so much to the Roland Corporation for designing, developing and manufacturing this timeless masterpiece of a Synthesizer.🙏💯😎🎶
great list there, although i have a feeling you may have listed half of the 64 factory presets... but most of them are indeed winners
YES! YES! I'm loving it! legendary d50 cool synth
and by the way this synth from roland doesn't load up cpu unlike other synths from roland
Owned a Roland D50 and loved it - sometimes the stars align and we get a synth as good as this even 25 years later.
well, in fairness, I did avoid the more cheezy & dated presets!
25? What about 35?
@@greys1245 Quite right 35 years, sold mine 25 years ago - still fond memory of that D50
Great video, great playing, great synth. Thank you Woody
I own de D-05 Boutique synth just for nostalgia's sake! The sound of the D-50 are so cool! Great demo Woody!
congrats on that d05, future classic!
Such a great performance!
It's always a treat to listen to the D-50, thank you 🙏
D50 is a personal favourite. I did a deep dive with the plugin and it blew my mind how it get's these sounds out of the tiny little samples it uses. But once you get to grips with the looping and how smooth and tweakable the envelopes are, it all makes sense.
The Roland Cloud synths are mostly all great emulations, just the price is a little steep ! I'll never pay for subscriptions either
3:42 THAT. 4-7 is the signature sound of the D50. Where Stacatto,Fantasia and Soundtrack are very M1-ish, 4-7 is a true virtual analog patch with resonance.
I love this device!
Early Star Trek TNG episodes used D50 patches - Fantasia and Sountrack et. al. Very spacey!
Awesome, I was wondering where I heard those before!
3:45 is the D50 at its best, it may have a bit more airtime Woody! Weird that it is maybe the only factory preset using the digital resonant filter.
"O K Chorale" - what a patch name. 😀
D70 sounds are so lush!
gigged with one for many years, i agree!
The D70 Ghosties pad is great. Unfortunately, the key bed is not Roland’s best, being a bit flimsy and suffering the red glue problem.
Still have an original D-50 in mint condition, a D-550 also in mint condition and i added a new D-05 boutique last year :-))
Thanks Woody, yes they’ve been over used but they really were (& still are) amazing sounds scapes you just could never have done with analogue..I do think while the DX7 & M1 rightly regraded as classics and it’s only more recently people realised how important the D50 was. As you demo,with the sweep preset, it was almost an early VA...as Compared to other 2 it could even do “analogish” with it waveforms and decent TVF....
some people say it was the first va, but i've not dug into that debate.
Late 80's Gary Numan (New Anger:1989)
Where is Slow Rotor? That was my go-to B-3 sound for years!
I've got a D-50 myself, planning to get the PG-1000 programmer now. But the sounds in this PlugIn sound fabulous as well ;-)
you're lucky to have the hardware, the software comes close, but soundtrack is not quite the same, and of course, where's the joystick?
hello @@WoodyPianoShack thx for your feedback :) - when the master keyboard has a joystick, maybe there's a way to transfer it's commands into the DAW (via MIDI or USB) ? This way I could use my D-50 with the PlugIn, giving me so-to-say a "D-550 Plugin" for my D-50 😎
@@SEOTeamBerlin I have a korg Triton tacktile midi controller with the kaoss pad in the centre. Which I believe is supposed to do same if not simular job as a joystick. Could it be a case of a good midi controller with a chaos pad just might sort the joystick conundrum? Haven't tried it on other hardware midi'd through but the pad does act like a joystick when playing built in sounds from the unit.
Theres a sound like 'Intruder' on the Korg Wavestation too I think.......
Just dipped my toes into buying the d-05 boutique model. Love the D-50 esp used in the revolutions album by jmj. Aswell as enya and a Wide host of others. Plus bonus I can take it on travels and trigger it with the Yamaha qy100. The synth imho is still unique sounding today and with the rise of future pop and synthwave still pretty current. 🎹🖤
Woo-hoo! Hooray!
I remember when you cried when playing the Soundtrack patch years ago
My poor D50 is now being used as a sound module. Some of the keys don't work, the buttons are funky and the screen is dying. I can't afford to repair it and the quality of the emulations on offer these days makes it even harder to justify the cost. 😔 I feel there's still that extra little sparkle missing though. Probably the DACs, current traveling down wires....or just my fondness for keeping big heavy half broken synths in the corner of the room 😂
you're right, wmulation is a bit lifeless compared to hardware, but gets you close enough. yes, all of our favorite keyboards from the 80s and 90s are slowly deteriorating and dying... caps and chips go bad, keybeds break down. too bad, but lucky we have the vsts.
Ive had my eyes closed for this whole video Woody, but I would have sworn blind that was a hardware D-50 I was listening to. with one exception. The lead synth to Africa felt a bit out.Otherwise it was neigh on perfect.
Fantastic synth, fantastic sounds, fantastic demo. Woody, question - D50 or DX7?!
or M1...? :) like picking a favorite child, all wonderfuil´in their own way. you could own them all for less than $1000 I would think.
I've always wanted to own a D-50. Any thoughts on how close the Roland Cloud version compares to a real D-50? Roland claim it's an exact recreation, whereas some people say there's just that certain 'something' that a real D-50 has that the VST doesn't. Anyway, for space reasons I'll likely get the VST instead of an actual D-50, I'm sure it'll be close enough!
I just realised you did a video a while back where you compared the real D-50 with the Roland Cloud version. Well it sounds close enough to me!
Nice video ! :) What keyboard do you use to play the VST ?
thanks, this was i think the ni s61
@@WoodyPianoShack Do you really like the keys ? Does they have a good quality ? I was thinking about to buy the S49.
Best 👌 sounds
Lots of classic European rave pads on this beast
You know what else you could have played with the JX horns patch, you could have play the intro of I heard a rumour by Bananarama. Still such a good video.
I have a korg nanokey studio and map the track pad for xy vector it works ok so does a studiologic sl 88
Still waiting for woody to play a piano in a shack
what midi is he using or are you using?
you are playing the presets of the roland plugin ... ? the BI keyboard looks like a W30 from here
0
Gerry Rafferty👍
Fantasia! Great sound for Vst! Thanks)
Sounds good, that doesn’t look like my D-50.
I have bought my D50 in 1988, and sold it in 1993 to buy a Roland arranger e86 it was a terrible mistake !
i'm not so sure, those early roland arrangers were pretty awesome at the time, but now, the d50 maybe more sought after. a lot of fun those e-series and sounds derived from d10 and d50!
6:38 Wow!!! That was used in AL B Sure's 1988 song, "Just a Taste of Lovin".
ruclips.net/video/hPAPSi6lgr0/видео.html
Weird that the sound of that symth brings me back to him being that he coincidentally passed away the other day!
As usual, great demo, Woody! 👍
he didnt
@@maddengamer94 Really? I ran into something that said he was. Well in this case. I'm glad I'm wrong. Thanks for clearing that one up. 👍
@@raymondabella4684 he survived a cancer scare
@@maddengamer94 Glad to hear that! He was one of my favorite acts from the 80s! It made me sad when I heard that misinformation. His album, In Effect, brings back memories of a great and happy time. 🙏
Sorry I chick dislike by error, your music is always great, I chick like.
hahahaha, it's all good for feeding the algorithm, thanks for your good intentions!
Woody, get a mouse mat for your keyboard, it’s will get covered in micro scratches and look terrible. Like mine!
that's some great advice right there! normally i wouldn't use my mouse like that. do mouse mats even exist any more btw?
@@WoodyPianoShack yes. there are even big mats that will cover your whole table.
late 80s synth but to me that sounds pure early 90s
Great video, Woody!! I had a D-50, and those sounds would surely satisfy any D-50 cravings I might still possess. And for anyone with Omnisphere, this are an interesting set of sound in there. Probably helps to have Eric Persing (an original D-50 programmer) as part of the patch-making task: ruclips.net/video/zq1lglfuCYA/видео.html
cool, thanks for the heads-up, might be a video topic there some day!
Okay, but this is a - very good - VST emulating D-50 patches... not a D-50 ! Roland cloud D-50 is okay but it really lacks some punch (i have both) : not as good as the original synth if in perfect shape.
Never played on a real D-50 but from Demos I have heard the reverb does not come close on the reinkarnation D05, and the cloud version suffers from the same problem. Rather cheap sounding reverberation that does not match the original dense quality.
those grados headphones were the most uncomfortable and the worst sounding headphones i ever had in my life :(
mine are very lite and comfy, no complaints about sound either!
@@WoodyPianoShack amazing! glad it works out for you.
Sounds like Jean Michel Jarre or Enigma are gonna let rip😉
I believe these songs, especially the first one in this video, were done with a D50 ruclips.net/video/e-Gxd7a7KyE/видео.html&ab_channel=ƝarayaɳaMaharishᶖ I don't know much about synths but does it have presets that would sound like this?
First
Soundtrack in 5...4...
First