We finally have a legit sampled Roland D-50 to use in our DAWs thanks to Roland's new effort for the computer era called RolandCloud.
https://www.rolandcloud.com/instruments ... ology-1987
Haven't tried it yet but they say it's super deep sampling so I guess it's good. I'm very happy as I've been waiting for this product for about 4 years now.
Just thought I'd post this in the Sampling forum as well, maybe not all people visit the Instruments one.
Cheers!
We finally have a legit multisampled Roland D-50 now in RolandCloud
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 883 posts since 4 Jul, 2012 from Blue Crest, Eastern Europe
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- KVRAF
- 11093 posts since 16 Mar, 2003 from Porto - Portugal
It's not programmable, as far as I can see, and only 64 programs. As the "Roland's new effort for the computer era" this is a joke, and only justifiable if it was some sort of promo offer.
Fernando (FMR)
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- KVRian
- 520 posts since 22 May, 2009 from Portugal,Azores (faial island)
I agree with FMR,it's a shame that Roland didn't invest their time in programming a d-50 instead of sampling the real thing.the d-50 is not very hard to implement,thankfully we have a good alternative at the moment:
http://flowstoners.com/wp-content/uploa ... shot-3.jpg
from the developer:
"The Quilcom Q-50 is a synthesiser inspired by the Roland D-50.
"Quilcom Q-50
The Quilcom Q-50 is a synthesiser inspired by the Roland D-50.
It’s not an emulation and the presets and embedded wave files are not a copy of the originals. However the architecture is very similar and I’ve kept the original’s nomenclature.
The original D-50 replaced the Yamaha DX7 in terms of popularity back in 1987. It used a method now referred to as sample and synthesis and was easier for users to understand, and use, than FM synthesis and yet was still all completely digital.
The principle of the synth was to use tried and tested familiar analogue-type metaphors and routing, but combine these with acoustic and other samples for the attack phase only. Our brains apparently recognise a sound with greater emphasis on the initial sound than the Sustain or Decay phases but this Attack phase is the most difficult to synthesise properly. Since memory was very expensive back then it simply wasn’t economical to create a full blown sampler so Roland supplied a built-in ROM with a 'whopping' 8MB capacity pre-loaded with 100 8 bit attack-phase and other PCM samples.
The basic architecture for the D-50 and Q-50 is as follows: A patch (preset) is made from 2 Tones called Upper and Lower. Each of the 2 Tones is made up of 2 Partials. The 2 Partials can each be either a Wave or a Synth. This means you can be using any 4 from 8 generators available.
Each of the 2 Tones has a static filter, a chorus/delay and a Ring Modulator. The final outputs from the 2 Tones are fed into a reverb.
Each Wave Partial has a choice of sample used, pitched or static, single shot or looped and can be tuned in pitched mode. The wave is then fed into an ADSR envelope stage.
Each Synth Partial comprises a tuner, waveform selector followed by a filter with its own ADSR and a separate amplitude ADSR.
Both types of Partial have, in addition, LFOs available for various functions and a Pitch envelope generator.
Of course there are differences in the Q-50 and I see these as improvements:
-Each Partial has 4 LFOs rather than 3. This means each one has a specific assignment.
-Stereo is possible since the Upper Tone is routed left and the Lower right. Width can be adjusted.
-The samples are 16 bit 44.1Khz so sound much cleaner
-You can load any single User sample instead of using the ROM; its path is stored in your preset.
-There are more waveforms available for the Synth Partials and the LFOs
-There are more filter options available for the Synth Partials
-The Tone mixers can have levels set for Partials 1 and 2 AND a Ring Modulator; you don’t have to choose either-or.
-The parametric EQ is far more advanced than the D-50’s
A point of interest to sound designers is that you can make this your own instrument!
In the Flowstone app the schematic’s top level allows you to easily load a different ROM for each Wave Partial, should you want to experiment. As supplied, all 4 ROMs (wave arrays) are loaded with the same WAV files. I have provided detailed instructions in the schematic to show how you do this. Of course you need Flowstone for this but you can get a free demo to play with.
The first 50 presets all use at least one of the samples. The Q-50 should really be thought of firstly as a synthesiser but which can also be enhanced with samples, and I made preset 51 (Fatima) to show just how phat this can sound without samples at all."
http://flowstoners.com/wp-content/uploa ... shot-3.jpg
from the developer:
"The Quilcom Q-50 is a synthesiser inspired by the Roland D-50.
"Quilcom Q-50
The Quilcom Q-50 is a synthesiser inspired by the Roland D-50.
It’s not an emulation and the presets and embedded wave files are not a copy of the originals. However the architecture is very similar and I’ve kept the original’s nomenclature.
The original D-50 replaced the Yamaha DX7 in terms of popularity back in 1987. It used a method now referred to as sample and synthesis and was easier for users to understand, and use, than FM synthesis and yet was still all completely digital.
The principle of the synth was to use tried and tested familiar analogue-type metaphors and routing, but combine these with acoustic and other samples for the attack phase only. Our brains apparently recognise a sound with greater emphasis on the initial sound than the Sustain or Decay phases but this Attack phase is the most difficult to synthesise properly. Since memory was very expensive back then it simply wasn’t economical to create a full blown sampler so Roland supplied a built-in ROM with a 'whopping' 8MB capacity pre-loaded with 100 8 bit attack-phase and other PCM samples.
The basic architecture for the D-50 and Q-50 is as follows: A patch (preset) is made from 2 Tones called Upper and Lower. Each of the 2 Tones is made up of 2 Partials. The 2 Partials can each be either a Wave or a Synth. This means you can be using any 4 from 8 generators available.
Each of the 2 Tones has a static filter, a chorus/delay and a Ring Modulator. The final outputs from the 2 Tones are fed into a reverb.
Each Wave Partial has a choice of sample used, pitched or static, single shot or looped and can be tuned in pitched mode. The wave is then fed into an ADSR envelope stage.
Each Synth Partial comprises a tuner, waveform selector followed by a filter with its own ADSR and a separate amplitude ADSR.
Both types of Partial have, in addition, LFOs available for various functions and a Pitch envelope generator.
Of course there are differences in the Q-50 and I see these as improvements:
-Each Partial has 4 LFOs rather than 3. This means each one has a specific assignment.
-Stereo is possible since the Upper Tone is routed left and the Lower right. Width can be adjusted.
-The samples are 16 bit 44.1Khz so sound much cleaner
-You can load any single User sample instead of using the ROM; its path is stored in your preset.
-There are more waveforms available for the Synth Partials and the LFOs
-There are more filter options available for the Synth Partials
-The Tone mixers can have levels set for Partials 1 and 2 AND a Ring Modulator; you don’t have to choose either-or.
-The parametric EQ is far more advanced than the D-50’s
A point of interest to sound designers is that you can make this your own instrument!
In the Flowstone app the schematic’s top level allows you to easily load a different ROM for each Wave Partial, should you want to experiment. As supplied, all 4 ROMs (wave arrays) are loaded with the same WAV files. I have provided detailed instructions in the schematic to show how you do this. Of course you need Flowstone for this but you can get a free demo to play with.
The first 50 presets all use at least one of the samples. The Q-50 should really be thought of firstly as a synthesiser but which can also be enhanced with samples, and I made preset 51 (Fatima) to show just how phat this can sound without samples at all."
...want to know how to program great synth sounds,check my video tutorials: http://www.youtube.com/user/sergiofrias25
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- KVRian
- 520 posts since 22 May, 2009 from Portugal,Azores (faial island)
one more thing...small tip,if you can find the original pcm rom samples ,you can replace and use them in Q-50 for your own use...take that roland ! 
...want to know how to program great synth sounds,check my video tutorials: http://www.youtube.com/user/sergiofrias25
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 883 posts since 4 Jul, 2012 from Blue Crest, Eastern Europe
You can't program a D-50 either unless you own a very expensive PG-1000 controller.
D-50's owes it's cult status because of it's presets. Sure you can program the hell out of
any synthesizer but you're never gonna be as talented as 1987's Eric Persing.
D-50's owes it's cult status because of it's presets. Sure you can program the hell out of
any synthesizer but you're never gonna be as talented as 1987's Eric Persing.
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- KVRist
- 353 posts since 24 Dec, 2015
I tried it and it's cool if you want to play around with 64 famous D50 presets. You can also layer many presets together inside 1 instance of the VST. However I've noticed many ugly clicks on certain notes with a lot of the presets... so "Deep sampling" technique...
I wouldn't subscribe just for using it. I don't know why Roland doesn't sell it directly. I find that they were really lazy to sample their own Synth instead of programming a true software emulation. I really don't get it...
For my personal use, I think I'm going to sample each note from each preset. So I can use it with Ableton's Sampler.
I wouldn't subscribe just for using it. I don't know why Roland doesn't sell it directly. I find that they were really lazy to sample their own Synth instead of programming a true software emulation. I really don't get it...
For my personal use, I think I'm going to sample each note from each preset. So I can use it with Ableton's Sampler.
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- KVRAF
- 25852 posts since 20 Jan, 2008 from a star near where you are
Not the most beautiful GUI I have seen, but as long as the sound is good that is what matters
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- KVRAF
- 11093 posts since 16 Mar, 2003 from Porto - Portugal
1. This is software, not a hardware sound module.cocoazenith wrote:You can't program a D-50 either unless you own a very expensive PG-1000 controller.
2. You could program through the front panel. It's a laborious task, a PITA, but it could be done.
3. I have several sound modules (MKS-30, MKS-70, MKS-80 etc.), and I always programmed them. Have you ever heard of something called Patch Editors?
4. Even if you didn't want to program, you could always load new banks through Sys-Ex.
5. Even the envelopes in this "thing" are wrong. The D-50 had different envelopes, with time/rate values, not this simple ADSR.
Nothing of what I say above can be done with this! This is just a small subset, an appetizer of what could be done with the D-50. Shame on Roland for releasing this. As usual, they are milking the cow.
Last edited by fmr on Tue Jan 24, 2017 4:38 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Fernando (FMR)
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- KVRAF
- 25852 posts since 20 Jan, 2008 from a star near where you are
+1 This product looks to be a rompler with the 64 original patches multisampled, and tweakable, with some basic controls like filter and envelope.fmr wrote:Nothing of what I say above can be done with this!
