What a nice surprise to see our website Cult of D-50 featured here! Thank you!

Hey thanks for featuring my 'Soundtracks' soundbank. I'm planning to compile a new D-50 soundbank soon.

Gorgeous thing. Everything that comes out of it sounds like it's being played in some shimmering, icy cave on a distant planet.

By the way, I love the way you've presented/filmed this. One gets a real sense of the instrument's feel, and your explanations are lucid.

One of the greatest synthesizers! It was and it is one of the best pad machines on the planet. I grow up with this synth at the end of the 80s and it still works in my studio for certain duties. Last year I spent my old D-550 a new OLED Display (plug&play -no soldering) by synth-parts.

It is one of THE best synths for Space music. And the D-50 basically becomes your very own spacecraft to go on Sonic Journeys you never dared to imagine. There is still an insane sound potential in this synthesizer. And it rightfully deserves to be at the top of the list of the greatest Instruments ever built.

Yes, I still have mine in my studio and use this to compose my music. I remember back in the 80s when I discovered the sounds, I was sold.

I just bought one 🎹🙏❤️ I am very happy, I had wait for one in a good condition for a long time and mine is very good 🤩 Love it

Fantasic video! Love your journey - and demos of different soundbanks.

Why am I just seeing this now? I've had a D-50 since '92, still works fantastic, rugged and a great build quality to boot. I also have a Roland factory memory card, along with the Jonathan Cain and Keith Emerson sound cards. A few years ago, I considered selling it, but with Keith Emerson's passing, and the sheer love I've found for this thing online, I will never sell it!

that first patch is sooo beautiful

In the 1990s I used a D50 as my main live synth for nearly 10 years, being the keyboard player in a rockband. Honestly? It's probably the best synth I've ever owned. It was an amazingly versatile tool, especially after I'd gained some experience with it. People always found it difficult to program. I can't say it was, I used to program it while playing live. We did many Simple Minds type songs and it was wonderful how you could flow, for example, from a bright brassy sound into a choir on stage, just using the joystick, aftertouch or keyboard velocity. I'd fill in the few sonic gaps by having a another, bright-sounding fully analog synth MIDI'd to the D50, as well as an inexpensive piano module (EMT-10 from Yamaha). It was all I ever needed. And the D50 was very rugged. The build quality was fabulous. Despite seeing heavy (ab)use every week, it only needed some cleaning every now and then, and the odd key replacement. Sold it because I needed the money and space. Still regret it.

This is a magic keyboard! How I dreamed about her in 1989!!!))

Mark Rushbury "Soundtracks" pack is still the best pack, in my opinion. Makes the D50 (and Boutique D-05 which I have) just a synth you can never get rid of! So unique.

Great video! You set a mood and tone that is enveloping.

Loved the D50. I spent so much time writing instrumentals with it. Nice video.

My favorite synthesizer. I owned 3 over the years and still have 2 of them.

Very useful vid as opposed to all the preset playing D50 vids. Thank you for this.

Amazingly inspiring patches aside, you really make those sounds come alive. Ambient sounds need a characteristic approach, what the sound is meant to inspire in the player matters. Hats off.

My Roland D50 is coming to me by postal service soon

A useful tip for all the D50 enjoyers out there, you can assign the filter to the aftertouch and then control aftertouch with the external control port. Plug a foot pedal into that port and now you have a filter that can sweep, you won't be able to set the full 0 - 100 range but you can get like 60 percent of the range. One downside is that the standard aftertouch won't work until you unassign the ext control setting or change it to another mode. I've even disassembled a foot controller and used just the circuit and the knobs as a filter, just like an analog synth. I didn't really miss the aftertouch anyways because mine is stupid heavy.

Wow what a great journey

makes you nostalgic for a past you didnt know , well let me tell you it was glorious , people all sold their biggest analogs for this or a dx7 , we got loads of great vintage synths in 1986-1990 due to the d50 , lol

EXCELLENT VIDEO. SUBSCRIBER Number 285. Just subscribed today. I LOVE MY D50. For me it is a preset synth. I have knob per function synths for that sort of thing and the D50 screen and menu diving doesn't appeal to me. I've been looking around for a programmer every now and then, but even with just the presets and fx it's a great synth!

I have a D-05. I really lusted after a D-50 as a kid but we couldn't afford that! I love the sounds of it and have made a few of my own, but even with software editors, I find the menu system absolutely arcane! Maybe I should do a 'sound a day' mission and really get to know it. I love the sound of it (USB whine aside)

Excellent video thanks, I have a d50 is the best keyboard I ever played 👍

OMG! I never knew there were so many nerds out there with me on this! You will love my Nerd Vault and how I break down my tracks old school. This was one of my favorite keyboards, however I always loved Yamaha weighted keys and finally got one in 2007. Still I wished I had kept that old thing. Great keyboard, inspired so many songs for me! I hope you like my channel.

I bought a D-50 last week... it's a nice keyboard! Thanks for the video, it's a pleasure to understand the keyboard and hear those analog sounds! My D50 ame with Hcard 750... it's just fantastic, with lots of patches includes... I think this keyboard is nice to do soundtrack stuffs... And how u do to play those keyboards at upper level, while seating? lol

Merci beaucoup pour cette information très informative!

I'm a guitar player and my landlord gave me a Mint Roland D-50 and a very dusty Peavey KB/A 100 keyboard/acoustic 4channel amplifier that seems to be working fine. I read there was updates for it patches or whatever and that i could use a 2gb memory card in it instead of the M-256D card it says in the manual? , is this before or after update? I dont have a card for it atm so was wondering before purchasing anything. Do i need to install patches or updates on the card first to put anything on it? or can anything be loaded through midi ports?

Hello maybe you can help me I have not much experience playing a board, but I currently have a Roland Juno ds61 on its way to me and I really like the Roland D-50, is it wise to buy the Roland 05 since I like the sounds of this board?

Does the soundbank card contain additional PCM samples or just patches based on the internal PCM samples? I am curious what could be achieved if we could replace and/or expand the PCM using an eeprom-burner

Nice video! I Bought a D-550! I missed a lot my D-50.

I'm about to purchase one in excellent shape.

Hey, does anyone know how to connect a Roland D-50 to a computer or laptop and record the music played onto it?

Thank you Japan ❤

Thank you for your video. How do you connect the editor(computer) to the D50 or the D-05, which is what I have?

Not all good sounds used upper and lower tones, in Dual mode 8 note polyphony. Some good classic synth sounds were in whole mode, 16 note polyphony.

@7.20 I thought you were going to play Mama by Genesis !

Good Job Timmy.

where did you get those colored bands on your cables? i’ve been looking for something like that

Thank you for uploading this video, Timmy! A very special synthesizer. May I ask what synth is above the D-50 on your rack?

I really love the patch right at the end of this video, is this also from the 'soundtracks' soundbank?

What is the patch at 1:20

Mono Fontana Programmed This Synth Really Well. You gotta check his music on Spinetta's Career. Commonly Used in: Tester De VIolencia And Don Lucero

This is just a fantastic synth, there's really no sound like it. What would you recommend for someone to get who is new to this world? a D-05, D-550, or just the original D-50? I'd get the plugin from Roland Cloud but that's a subscription service :( excellent video btw!

I have an XP-10. How does the D-50 compare to the XP-10?

Are there any arpeggiators on this thing? If not, then what could you use to get an arpeggiator sound?

If you want to listen to a band that have used the D50 over almost every album they made then check out Ozric Tentacles.

Nice, what u do for living?

2:49 It sounds like that song when you're on hold

0:28 Another World - fluid movement

Timmy can you download the roland d 50 sounds on to an ipad

Heavy, like the Mirage Ensoniq

This synth sounds like Star Trek. Love the D50

Weighing up one in mint condition with original box for £700. Is it worth it? Are they easy to master?

I once owned 4 of these at separate times during a 7 year span and yes it’s a fantastic synthesizer But because I always wanted fantastic electric pianos (and even spent years trying to program a good one) and it never rendered it I began to detest everything about it I absolutely detest the Roland D50. The Korg 01W is what the D50 should’ve been Again, fantastic for all the obvious reasons But I detest the Roland D-50 and find it to be the cheesiest of them all I much prefer the DX7 which as a programmer I feel it gives me more satisfaction in every way

shout out to the Pantha Du Prince desktop background

So all of the sounds are just built into it

J'achète ! 😍👍Not for sale ? 😁

You do know that you can make you own sounds on a D50?

1:01 I hear PlayStation 1 in there

t'es français ?

Uh, each partial ("voice", as you call it) does NOT get its own filter, as PCM (sample) partials CANNOT be filtered whatsoever.

Buenos sonidos, no que los latinos para pura chingadera lo usan...

This audio in this video from the D-50 is distorting often. This is really bad for people's speakers you should learn to gain stage better while recording.

sooooooooooooo glad i got rid of the d50 and have a yamaha EX5 .............. 128 note polophony..........4 different synth engines 100 X more powerful than the d50