The D-50 always reminds me of late 80s PRINCE…

Funny when you look back how exciting the 80s was, I remember getting my DX7 back then and carrying it all the way home on a train then walking miles with it in a big box lol. Lots of good synths came out in the 80s.

I remember the D50 from my school in around '89 - '91. And although I was a drummer, I just remember all the beautiful sounds this thing could produce, when I fiddled around with it. Knowing very little about chords or musical structure, you could feel like Jean Michel Jarre by pressing a few buttons. So for the folks who actually used this, it must have been such a huge enrichment of their musical palette of sounds and creativity.

Yes, those were the times. My father gave me a D-10 when it was release. I was so enchanted by it. The he gave me a Korg SQ-1 sequencer. How I miss my dad

I remember getting my D50 in 92. Paired it with a Korg M1. Best combo EVER. 30 years later in 22, they have been replaced with their soft synths. It's still the best combo EVER. 😊

Jean Michel Jarre's "Revolution" heavily featured a D 50

Roland D-50, without doubt one of the best synthesizer ever made. It can produce such wonderfull sounds.

I too was a teen in the 80s The D-50 was my second synth My first synthesizer was a Roland Juno 2 But the D-50 was special. It's the first keyboard I used in a band environment Thank you for your videos

The D-50 was everywhere in the late 80s.. I recorded them on tons of records.. Really excellent video, Johnny..!

Lovely homage :-) I still have my D-50 right next to me! So many good memories from a lifetime ago! I still remember using it with my JX-3P, S-50 and Cakewalk 1.0. Wonderful retrospective and the Keyboard magazine flashbacks were a nice bonus. Keep it up!

Nicely done. In the late 80's I was asked to provide music for a play and I was having trouble with my Poly800 so I rented a D50 for a few weeks. I was stunned by the sounds it could make, one patch after another had these complex layers of lush tonal character. Every sound suggested new music. Whoever programmed this was a true sound artist. I hated returning it, and I can still hear its haunting sonorities in my memory.

My wife forced me to sell it. I regret ever since. I was so in love with the sound it made.

Johnny you are now my official new hero. I really appreciate your coverage of the history of Roland Synths. I currently own a Roland Fantom 6 and absolutely am BLOWN AWAY by its capabilities. Your videos really helped me to understand how all this began. Thank you!!!

Man, that sure brings back memories. I got the D-550 when it was released and it was the main Synth in my rig. I too anxiously awaited my Keyboard Magazine to arrive to soak up all that was new and coming. Great video Johnny, keep 'em coming!

The ‘spacious sweep’ patch also happens to be the foundation for most of my D550 patches too. such an incredible sound that always make me think of Prophet 5 sync sweeps.

Yes, you did the D-50! Can’t wait to watch.

I might add that Jean Michel Jarre’s 80 album “Revolutions” is an absolutely fantastic example of what this synth can do as it managed to avoid a lot of the 80 sound cliques while utilising some fantastic presets. Even the opening loop of “The overture” is just a gritty 8-bit loop from the D50

great stuff! keep doing this type of video. I really appreciate the amount of work you put in.

Nice! The D-50 was the first professional synth I ever bought. Love the Roland Cloud version with all the many different patches.

Great video! I saved up to buy a D-50 in 1990 while I was in college, still have it. One of my favorite features was CHASE, where what you played you would hear from one partial then it would echo to the other partial and back and forth. It allowed you build loops, and you could manipulate the loop speed in real time, I've never seen anything else like it.

These vids are great! Love how you cover both history and in depth technical information.

Fantastic video Johnny! The Roland D-50 has a certain something to the sound... organic digital, grainy texture, very airy and ethereal... perhaps why it was so good for new age music too. :) There is a nostalgia in the sounds that is timeless from that era and instantly transports you back. It is truly special to this day. Thanks for sharing your insights as always and hope you are well.

Loved this. I found my D-50 at a flea market a few years ago and didn’t realize it’s significance. It’s been babied since I found it and I’ve only used it as a midi controller for the most part, but am getting more interested in learning all its cool sounds. Thanks for the video essay.

Great video! I bought the D-05 Boutique one a couple of years back and it is still great to explore!

I love the Roland D50. I got one with the PG1000 controller. With this controller it's so much easier to design your own sounds. I also love the basic presets and for me, age 45 now, it's always a walk on memory-lane when i play it. Same as my Yamaha DX7 and Korg M1 The Roland D50 in combination with my Strymon Big Sky, i enter Ambient Heaven!!!

I love these vids you do, and yeh the d50 really sounds awesome!

Really enjoying your 80s synth videos, top notch.

I bought one of these in 1987 (yes, I still have it)....I remember checking it out at EU Wurlitzer in Boston and noticing how "small" it was in comparison to the Jupiter-8s and Chromas they were still selling at the time! The effects may be grainy by today's standards and its noise floor was more the ceiling but OMG it was fun to play. Still is. Far from "perfect" but it captured a moment in time and I'll never get rid of it.

Great video the 80's rocked!!

Such a well done video!! Enjoyed every moment of it plus this unforgettable vibe of the late 80s..

Great video! I still have my D-50, and I treasure it.

Love this. I also had a Korg Poly 800 and other Korgs.

Great video, your D50 is in mint condition! Nice!!

Great video 👍👍 Thank you for sharing.

Wonderful documentaries on here!! Bravo😍🎹😍🎹

Awesome ode to the D-50. i assumed this was historical research piece by another passionate teen/young adult, so I was blown away when the presenter says he was in highschool in 1985. I didn't become a keyboardist until the mid 90s and the first pro synth I'd ever seen to that point was the Roland D-10 & the first I'd ever played was the D-5 (thinking they were the same keyboard), which i adored. I had no idea the D-50 existed until well into my 30s. After coveting the 550 for a few years now, I'll be grabbing the VST. Thanks for this awesome article

Thank you ❤️. I still have and play my D50 and have a librarian containing 20000 D50 patches and I love it and will never part with it.

Thanks for this great video! I’ve subscribed and look forward to seeing more!

My musician friends chuckle at my D-50 obsession. Similar story to yours. My first synth was a Roland Juno-6, then I got the D-50 in January 1988. To this day I remember getting it home, hooking it up in stereo to the big speakers I had in my room and hitting the two lowest C notes on Fantasia. Gave me goosebumps then and still does today. At the time I bought the D-50, the first two Roland cards 01 + 02 were out, so I got those too. I had 192 patches right out of the gate. I also bought the PG-1000, but set it aside for several hours while I stayed up half the night playing the D-50. Around 3am I decided to see what this PG-1000 was all about and nearly cried when i saw it. I had NO idea it was going to be so sleek looking an full of faders! (I had assumed it was like a PG-800 or something smaller.) Picked up the last two Roland cards 03 + 04 around 1990 or so. Years later I got a steal on another D-50 to keep at home as my "programmer" D-50. Then, eventually picked up two D-550's on eBay over a few years. My wife and son gave me the Boutique D-05 for Christmas in 2017, so I have the whole set. Lol. My live rig for years was an 88-key Roland RD-300s piano/controller, driving my D-50 and my Korg T3. The best combo for pianos, realistic brass and guitars and the D-50 for strings and pads. I also ran the D-50 into my 1962 Leslie 45 speaker for all my organ needs. (And of course bought the Valhala Screamin' B3 card to help with that.) Nice video and great multi-D-50 demo song! Nice to see I'm not the only one "in love" with the D-50. Lol. Nowadays I love using the D-50 Librarian software to organize my database of thousands of D-50 patches, including a lot of old commercially sold card sets. Great fun.

Great work love the channel! D50 is my favorite synth:)

Another great video, Johnny. Such a wonderful mood your score provides. Just recently got a D-550 and this makes me even more excited than I already was about exploring its capabilities.

My father purchased a D-50 when it came out. And I too was floored when I heard the Digital Native Dance preset. It was so new and fresh. 80's and 90's were exciting times for us keyboard players.

Wonderful vid - that was a very moving story. Thank you.

Thanks for your vids love them

I used to work for a large music retailer up north and ended up being the go to man for all the tech gear we sold in the shop. We had a room filled with synths, drum machines, sequencers, all sorts, all linked up to a mixing desk with speakers on the walls. It was like a mini recording studio in itself. Anyway, my boss said to me once “anyone who comes in with long hair on a Saturday, just take them in the back room and sell them something”. The shop was in a posh area and on Saturdays you would get a lot of wealthy people coming in to look at pianos. He didn’t want band members cluttering up the place, lowering the tone haha happy day. Really enjoyed it there.

Thank you for sharing this. The D - 50 is the very best keyboard synthesizer that I have purchased during the 80s. And gave me much more flexibility on creating the best sounds for composing my music. And, still use this in my recording studio to this day. During the 70s, I was working on building a Moog modular like synthesizer from the ground up, using circuit boards that I had made from schematics, yet much different from the original Moog models. This got my interest in electronics during school. But, finding this project became very expensive and time consuming.

What a great video! Tks for sharing it with us.

Still have my D-50 which I purchased in 1988 for $3k. A lot of money in those days, seeing as you could buy a fairly good second hand car for that amount. I changed the memory battery once since that time. About 7 keys no longer work and need to be cleaned or have the contact pads replaced, but with midi capability i can connect the D-50 to my other keyboards or run via sequencers or DAW. Superb sounds- well ahead of their time and I still use them today. My D-50 library editor has approximately 1800 patches or sounds saved in it including the 5 or 6 original Roland D-50 sounds (~300). And Roland built their synths like tanks during the 1970s and 1980s. Made for heavy touring and studio use

Very nice Video... I, like you, will always be proud to have a D-50 in my studio...

Gosh I remember hearing a D50 for the first time in 1987 as a 15 year old when I was doing a course in synthesis and the teacher purchased one of the first ones to come into Australia. I was blown away by the pads and strings, not to mention the huge pipe organ and that infamous digital native dance patch, amongst others. Saying that, I was even more blown away a year later when I first played a Korg M1 and nearly went to synthesiser heaven after playing its infamous Universe, piano, organ, guitar, sax and drums programs. The Yamaha DX7, Roland D50 and Korg M1 really define the synth sounds of the late 80s. Great video and keep up the great work!

I've been a subscriber for a while, and enjoy the quality, details and history that you cover in your videos. I also appreciate the technical details. I have a small KZfaq channel myself, with a few videos on synth/keyboard restorations, so this stuff is right up my alley. I grew up in the 80s, so these flagship synths were out of my reach at the time, but I was lucky enough to inherit a D-50 several years ago. Thanks for another great video.

I remember working in dance bands in the late 70's and 80's as a bassist/guitarist/keyboardist. You couldn't get a gig unless you played keys and had a couple of good synths. My keys rig consisted of a Juno 60, ESQ-1 w/ the disc drive midi'd to a D-550. Doubling on bass or guitar required careful planning of bringing up the correct presets between songs during a 5 hour gig. Those were the days!

Superb documentary

Great video! I can tell this synth means a lot to u

Well, that was well put together!!

great, great piece I can totally relate to, the D50 was a big part of my sound back then too. Well done!

Loved my D-50. In addition to sounding unique and great, it was one of the most beautifully-designed synths out there. I own a Juno DS-88 now, but looking under the covers at the parameters, it's basically a Supersized D-50. So yay for that!

Great video, love it 🎉

As a kid in the 80s, my first keyboard synth was a Yamaha DX21. I still have it...but I use my DX7 FD more...and now my Deepmind 12. Plus, I have a bunch of Korg Volcas that are super fun to play with, and an amazingly versatile Korg NTS-1!

2 thumbs up. great video :)

My buddy Kevin got a D-50 our senior year of high school, I couldn't afford one (since I didn't have that kind of $$ the sale guy said I recommend this HS-60- what great advice!) I loved it from the first time I heard it, it was mind blowing. I have a D-550 now and it is still one of my favorite synths to just experiment with! Great video, thanks!

Nice video! At around 9:50 you say: "The late 80s were such a great time for a keyboardist." Well, you can say the same for today!

fantastic details

I truly recognize every bit of your story on the D-50 and the time when it came. We would hog the music store daily after school so we could jam on it. I have had several D-50's and I still miss them all the time. A magical thing happened where I'd had a D-550 for about a year and made patches on it that I hadn't saved. Fast forward 30 years and I pop in a D-50 editor in an old Atari and whopps. There were my sounds again. The next owner had saved them to disk, unreal! This was so crazy because I had that D-550 in Gnesta Sweden disconnected from the outside world with internet yet to come around. It all happened on floppy disks that users traded and kept stored.

I, too, was becoming a teenager in early 80s and DX7, D50, and M1 were the star synthesizers of 80s indeed! 'DX7' written on the back of 'sythesizer' looked so cool and attractive! Now fast forward 1 or 2 decades, I was at an indoor concert and the keyboardist was filling the venue with the soundscape that I never experienced... grainy? gassy? bubbly? organic? I felt like I was immersed in musical Ether. Then when I looked up, there was a D-50 in action on the stage!The keyboardist was playing a D-50, not a Motif or Triton underneath it. My first thought was 'OMG? I know this one... D-50, from 1987, isnt it quite old by now?' Fast forward more years, I ended up buying a D-50 from a musician who played for Shelia E. Wow! That is my D-50 story. Thanks for the wonderful video Johnny!

Excellent video!!! Thank you!!!

1987 was more 90s than 80s in all regards, and the fact the Japanese guy at Roland designed this thing in a few months is crazy. DSP chips were not around in 1986.

I just bought one in a very good condition. Love this synth ! Sounds great 🎹👏

Great video! I had a D-50 for a long time, but never could make it sound as amazing as some youtube videos, so i had it for sale a couple of times. But nobody wanted to buy it, so it stayed in the studio. Then i found a PG1000 a couple of years later and it completely changed the synth for me. Although it's still a little strange to program it, it's now one of my favorites! And i must say the VSTi version by Roland sounds very good too. Almost identical to the original.

Brilliant Jonny!! Well enjoyed as an avid D-50 fan, still owning both the keyboard & rack versions since the early ‘00’s, with lots of specialist cards also the rare M-EX expansion overlay by now defunct Musitronics. God only knows how many user patches I’ve accumulated over the decades too!! (Carl’s are superb btw). Looking forward to your next microdoc on synth history. Ps Eric looks so young at that show assume NAMM 😂. 😎🤙🎵🎹🍻

Cool video, although I'm a huge fan of analog there is something really unique and cool about the D-50. I have one now and the PG-1000 programmer. Looking forward to diving in and creating some of my own unique sounds with it. For me the pads and strings are my favorite aspect of it. Soundtrack has to be one of my favorite presets that comes with it.

Subbed. The D-50 is what started me down this path when I first encountered it (also as a teen) upon its introduction. Inscrutable to program, yet delicious-sounding... the workhorse in my garage band days playing cover tunes 😄

well put together video! thumbs up! and subscribed! keep up the good work.

nice mate that an instrument touched you so much.

My D-50 is dead. I need a new battery. 😔 I also own a D-70. Love the channel and information about my favorite Digital Keyboard 🎹 Synthesizer the Roland D-50. 🤗 Subscribed ☑️

I totally remember every add from Keyboard Magazine and other in the video haha! And oh man ... I bought a D50 again in the form of Roland D05 Boutique a few years when they started to dry up but before the prize went ballistic. The only important question, is the sound and experience there as my old D50. YES! It's a new box with the old sound and it's USB and fast, although the jacks and plugs on top is totally brain dead. Other than that it's SO MUCH FUN TO PLAY AGAIN!!! You did a great job with this video as well!

The video showed your love for the D50. From Japan.

that Keyboard mag with Keith Emerson was the first issue I bought. I was big into prog at the time, and an interview with a superstar like Emerson, and all those drool-worthy synths shown inside was an added bonus. I think I bought every month for the next five or six years.

"...the one synthesizer I'll never be without". I could not have said it better myself 🙂 I love my D50, purchased off eBay from a studio in Birmingham (UK) five years ago for less than £200. Two keys failed to sound when I got it (and it was filthy!) but some soldering over a broken PCB track fixed one and cleaning the contact points fixed the other. I used a while back to re-create most of the tracks from JMJ's Revolutions album, an example of what the D50 could do in the right hands and I will never, ever, sell it. Thanks for video, Johnny.

I bought a D-50 used in 1991, and it still runs great. Personally, I always found it easy to program - I found and bought a PG-1000 in the late '90s and maybe used it twice. Still have it, but don't need it.

THE milestone synthesizer! ❤️

I had that same experience, seeing the D50 set up at a music shop in '87 and hearing Native Dance! I was 12 at the time and had a CZ-101, which I understood fairly well, but this was, as you say, complex and mysterious. I remember loving the look of it as well, and the sinking feeling that I'd never be able to afford it. I picked one up a few years ago, in mint condition, and it sparks joy every time I see it. Love the video!

The D50/D550 was something very special. It still is.

great video!

Bought my first D50 in 1991 in mint condition for $600. I traveled playing in a church choir and got the Valhalla Screamin B3 card which sounded great at the time

Reminding me of my formative years, the icing on the cake would be the re-release of the XP - 60 and 80. Those were the best sounds to date.

LOVE the bleached D50 you made. Nowadays you could soup that up with an ice blue display. Great video and very relatable

Many memories there - I had an M1/D50 setup for about 15 years and remember using that polysynth patch for Van Halen's 'Jump'. Good times.

STill have my original D550 it cost me over2300 and at 18% interest back in the day but man still sounds as amazing. sitting next to big Brother MKS80 with brand spanking new programmer. my sysnths look as new as the day I bought them.

Great job man! This is a really awesome documentary..Thanks for share :))) By the way, I love Honeymoon suite too! 👌✨

ahhh keyboard magazine ..love the vinyl in the middle of the page

I bought my Roland S-550 this January! Now I am considering the D-550 to go with my S-550 and PC-200. :D I'm having the time of my life with the Roland S-550. It's so gritty and grainy beyond what I thought all this time. :) Groovie!

Love that D-50!!!!!!!!

I had the D 50 and loved it and like you I waited eagerly after the next issue of Keyboard every month - Ha Ha - Now youtube gives us a much better view of Synths cause we can actually hear how they sound.

I was keen on getting a D50 :) but when they introduced the D-05! I went for that!!! Small. Easy to transport and loaded with everything D50

People were basically giving away Moogs and Oberheims to fund their D50 purchase 😂 I had a Jupiter 6 and D50 as my main rig in the late 80’s. In 1991 West LA music was selling the PG1000’s for $50

Iconic synth.

I still use my D-50. It looks cool and sounds cool.

If the Jupiter 8 is Roland's king, the D50 is the queen no doubt.

I own a D-50; alaways sounds incredible 😊