If Roland made a D50 vst emulation, would you purchase it?

[wagtunes]

In my neck of the woods we didn't get the D 50 until 1988. I was 31 at the time. I wasn't impressed with it then and I'm not impressed with it now. Obviously, there was something about it that people loved but I'll be damned if I know what it was.

[fmr]

The fact that it has pianos, and drums, and yet we still could made those lovely strings and brass and leads and basses that people loved Roland for. And it has effects too.

You have to remember what the alternatives were back then. E-Mu Proteus, for example, was celebrated. When I heard it I was horrified, and asked: "Is THIS the famous Proteus?"

[ghettosynth]

In my neck of the woods we didn't get the D 50 until 1988. I was 31 at the time. I wasn't impressed with it then and I'm not impressed with it now. Obviously, there was something about it that people loved but I'll be damned if I know what it was.

In fairness it did something that largely wasn't possible at the time with existing instruments. It was able to give you expressive sounds that did not have looping artifacts but that had realistic attack transients. As computer memory dropped in price it was simply replaced with pure romplers which met needs better. But there was nothing else in 1987 that was as simultaneously expressive and realistic at that price point. Samplers were more realistic but less expressive and generally more expensive, generally didn't have built in effects, were difficult to setup and use on stage, etc.

By 1989, the rompler was clearly the new way, even though, ideas that were broadly similar to the D50 conceptually, e.g., the SY-77, were more interesting.

I still have an SY-77, I wouldn't bother with an M1 or even a D-50 unless they fell into my lap dirt cheap.

[fmr]

I still have an SY-77, I wouldn't bother with an M1 or even a D-50 unless they fell into my lap dirt cheap.

You too, huh? I have a TG77 and an SY99. These and the Wavestation were my main machines for years, and are still very important to me.

[ghettosynth]

I still have an SY-77, I wouldn't bother with an M1 or even a D-50 unless they fell into my lap dirt cheap.

You too, huh? I have a TG77 and an SY99. These and the Wavestation were my main machines for years, and are still very important to me.

Yes, in fact, if I came across an SY-99 at a reasonable price in good condition I would put it where my JX-10 currently sits.

[Caine123]

f**k u roland!

[chk071]

f**k u roland!

Who's Roland?

[HunterKiller]

I have the hardware D50, and it's not that big of a deal. As usual, people expect synths they've lusted after to be the second coming or something, that will save them and take them to musical heaven. Unfortunately a synth can not do that. What it can do is stir up something inside you to go and create something meaningful, and out of all that meaning, perhaps something heavenly will come out, every once in a while.

The D50 has so many recognizable presets (and it sounds in some ways crude), that playing them, you are almost constantly in the territory of someone else's record. The strings are very simplistic and require good reverb to get them to sound more realistic. The analog presets sound kinda hokey, the digital sounds are ok-ish, the brasses are brash and over the top at times, the basses are nothing to write home about, the pads are simplistic though interesting at times, the sfx are also kinda interesting and also in everyone's records already. There are a lot of patches for the D50, that's for sure, but sooner or later you'll see that its not that grand. Sometimes it's like playing a DX-7 phenomena on steroids, i.e. the presets are even more recognizable than DX-7 ones are.

[ghettosynth]

I have the hardware D50, and it's not that big of a deal. As usual, people expect synths they've lusted after to be the second coming or something, that will save them and take them to musical heaven. Unfortunately a synth can not do that. What it can do is stir up something inside you to go and create something meaningful, and out of all that meaning, perhaps something heavenly will come out, every once in a while.

The D50 has so many recognizable presets (and it sounds in some ways crude), that playing them, you are almost constantly in the territory of someone else's record. The strings are very simplistic and require good reverb to get them to sound more realistic. The analog presets sound kinda hokey, the digital sounds are ok-ish, the brasses are brash and over the top at times, the basses are nothing to write home about, the pads are simplistic though interesting at times, the sfx are also kinda interesting and also in everyone's records already. There are a lot of patches for the D50, that's for sure, but sooner or later you'll see that its not that grand. Sometimes it's like playing a DX-7 phenomena on steroids, i.e. the presets are even more recognizable than DX-7 ones are.

Agreed, at least the DX7 can still take you into unchartered territory.

[goldenanalog]

I'd consider it - but maybe it'd be better off as an Ipad offering?

Korg has got both the M1 & Wavestation available as stand-alones for the Ipad - and as devices that integrate into Gadget - maybe Roland's & Korg's cultures are just too different to logically extrapolate; but how much of a cpu load can a '1:1 feature' port of the D50 possibly be?

In other words: it'd be fun to play around with on my iPad - vs on the computer - it's a cool synth; but it's usefulness to me would probably be limited to nostalgia, and possibly a little inspiration - it'd likely be more of a fun toy then anything else -

[overhishead]

It's heavy as a tombstone, carrying it for several city blocks began feeling biblical. when I opened up the case of my new D50 in 2014, i was ecstatic. i can't describe the feeling of getting that keyboard that I hyped myself up on for so long. a lot of the tactile switches were fiddly, so i fixed them. it really is a marvel of a keyboard to this day if not only for it's appearance and material composition. it can do weird and funky things if you make your own presets, and there are thousands of presets out there, with a very wide array of sounds. it's not going to interest state of the art purists today, well, i guess that depends on how you rate who is a purist. aphex twin just won a grammy and there is a track on that album that uses what i think is a preset from a D-550. so, should the D50 be emulated? I can tell you that nobody asked for korg, roland and behringer, and every single software company for that matter, to start making their own versions of the same 2 synths. they did it anyway, why? do we need yet another minimoog?? that said, i don't mind if roland makes a d50 emulation, but for now, only the hardware dongle will make the exact sound of a roland d50

oh, and I love FM synthesis, i adore Yamaha. Dexed (dx7) can make a wide array of sounds, but FM synthesis and D50's linear synthesis with the first digital effects in a synthesizer, well there's no point in arguing about which one is "better" they just do different things.

[Kumi_27]

Korg nailed the sound of M1 and Wavestation. Made it even better with resonant filters. And priced 50$ each, and 25 when on sale.
That is the way it should be for D50, not 30 bucks every month

And I'm curious, what is this DCB.
Always thought, that binary logic is, well, binary...

[Munin]

Can we stop the cloud bickering and talk about the actual synth? Are there any videos or demos yet?

[K-Bee]

No.

I gave up on the possible d50 plugin and decided to get the d50 card for the V-Synth. It's awesome too, as it has all the d50 expansions included. Editing is a breeze too since the V-synth hands on controls can be used directly. Best of both worlds.
I highly recommends V-synth owners to get this but unfortunately copies are scarce these days. (Later V-synth versions GT and XT has it built in)

I don't think a plugin will happen...ever. Maybe something will come close but the real thing, no

[chk071]

I don't think a plugin will happen...ever. Maybe something will come close but the real thing, no

But... Roland just released one.