A documentary short on the Roland D-50 - A classic synthesizer from the late 80's which helped define the future of digital synthesizers for years afterwards.
No true wife that really cares for your happiness does that ....ever !!! If she complaint that her time was her time, she is a true narcissisti needy one and not the one for you !! Read about NPDisorder and it will help you know who she really you have been with for such a long time !
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!
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.
It's not often you can remember everything around a purchase of a piece of technical hardware but I bet you can! A stroke of genius at the time this one.......
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 think I was about 20 and in 1990 bought a used D10 at Guitar Center on Ventura for something like $700. It was all I could afford, making $4.25 an hour. I learned all the ins and outs of that thing, down to the last parameter. I still have it buried away, a few of the buttons don't respond. I also used a DOS program called Forte (I think) as my sequencer. Anyone else heard of it? For a monochrome DOS program back then I was totally happy with all of it's functionality, including sysex messeaging through midi events. I didn't have anyone else to talk to about all of it so it was just me in my little room plinking away. Anyway, after I heard the M1 (at ABK Music), I realized how poor the D10's op-amps sounded. I think a big part of it was there was no built in compression. And as someone else mentioned, the attack 'punch' was anemic. I didn't realize all of this until years later after working with other equipment. Aaannnyyywayyy... my D10 was one of my best friends for years and I'll cherish the memories.
Thanks for sharing your story Louis. I didn't play much with the D-10, but you're right - once the M1 came out the Roland LA synths were pretty much second class. Because the D-10 was Multi-timbral it was much more useful though. I didn't try Forte, but I had Cakewalk V 1.0 on an IBM XT (with 20MB Hard Disk) for Dos 5 - used that quite a bit. You should dig out your D-10 from storage! Ok all the best.
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.
I was lucky to get one in 1987. Yes at the time it was genuinely exciting - you have to remember this was mostly uncharted territory in the digital world back then by making something sort-of affordable........
It certainly has a lot of character and a certain timbre about it. I first came across it much later in the early 2000s. I was fascinated by its looks and sounds and bought myself one in pristine condition. I agree, for someone who has no idea about music structure, chords, and sound design this beast would make them feel like JMJ by simply browsing through its preset sounds. It is also worth mentioning just how many of its preset sounds appeared on hit records. The number is just too much.
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
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.
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!
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. 😊
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.
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.
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
@@epicon6 I wish my first synth had been a Juno 106 But that's history lol One of my favorite keyboards was the the Korg Triton and the Kurzweil SP88x Kurzweil had a really good feel about the keyboard, easy to play on. The Triton has brilliant sounds. The expansion boards are fantastic Unfortunately I played a lot of gigs on an Ensoniq SQ 2 I don't recommend that. Great sounds, horrible feel to the keyboard 😕 But it did the job...
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.
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.
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 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
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
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.
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!!!
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 ☑️
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.
8:40 Not Stacato Heavon, nor Fantasia, nor Digital Native Dance were signature sounds for the D50. The killer sound was patch 47: Spacious Sweep. It was one of the very few (less than 10) presets of the whole 5 card library actually utilising the digital resonant filter! This machine had a killer synth engine, yet nobody cared nor used it. It was only with the 30 year anniversary that Legowelt finally showed us how to make D50 patches. This machine looked friggin awesome, yet it had so little use. Almost any specimen you find today looks MINT. Like nobody used it for real. Buy a second hand DX7 or M1, and big chance it has serious stage wear. This is never the case with the D50, well, except your polished blank aluminium one perhaps.
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.
Another thing that's easy to forget is if you take out the internal effects and admittedly dated Digital Native Dance stuff it's a very capable DCO-based synthesizer. I doubt the internal effects were used professionally for recording but talk about a genius sales pitch.......
I agree - the synth engine is actually really decent and still very much Roland. I actually like a lot of the Structure 1 sounds where it's all WG. I'd compare it to an Alpha Juno which is pretty good considering it's all digital.
That was certainly my experience at the time. Digital Native Dance! I nearly binned my DX7 when I first head that in the studio. We stuck that preset straight on one of our (failed) singles, without the skeletons and reverb, as you speculate. Amazing synth.
I had my first synth back in 1986, Korg Poly800II also….next was the D50, plus SQ1 sequencer and R20 drum machine….I liked my D50, but…it was not multi timbral….shame really, I did record onto a Yamaha MT1X four track recorder…..ended up in 1989 getting an M1….that was brilliant….sold the whole lot as starting a family…since then I bought a Korg Triton….now…..well I use a cheap MIDI controller and Logic……wish I still had my D50, the extra sound cards were great and creating wind sounds were incredible…..think I spent rather a lot of money back in the 80s….oh the programmer was really tricky to program…., for me at least.
Still one of my all-time fave keyboards. Give me a D50 over an M1 ANY day. I used to program it via a patch editor on the Atari, which have the ability to "morph" patches together, which gave some surprising and very usable results. I went on using it for many years with a number of big names, and it always sounded fresh, (just so long as you avoided the well-known patches!) Just one point, the D550 has a noticeably slower MIDI interface than the keyboard, so be aware of that.
@@johnnymorgansynthdreams Yeah, I used to have both, and running side by side I discovered there is a noticeable lag on the 550. If you don't run any MIDI on it, how can you play it?
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.
The fact that there wasn't a fx disable button on d50 was a big drawback since it's internal sounds needed to be processed by decent reverb , also it's Midi timing sucked and fact you better not used 2 d50 sounds in a track since the frequencies quickly turned to a same mush lacking definition, but at the sametime it diserved it's succes since it still was a synth wich the Korg m1 wasn't
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!
I was amazed when it first came out but, having owned two (a D50 and a D550) in the nineties and noughties, I must confess I grew tired of that sound. I still like a number of specific presets but I won't bother getting another one. It's a great synth nonetheless, especially the non-PCM synth engine. Another thing I didn't like was the attack portion of the envelopes, which wasn't snappy enough for my taste, at least when compared with my other synths at the time.
I think at the time the M1 had more to offer, but now as a retro-synth, the D-50 has much more magic and definitely held up better. I don't think I'd have much use for an M1 in my studio today.
I fully restored mine a year ago, there isn’t a mark on it. The only thing all D50 owners will agree, is that the aftertouch will fail to the point of virtually having to stand on the keys to get a response. Luckily this is a fairly easy fix. You need to separate the aftertouch strip that consists of a semi conductive rubber and a copper one, the copper oxidises overtime causing the lack of response. But clean the two strips ( Brasso for the copper & acetone for the rubber) and it will work better than new. I’ve done this to five D50 with success.
Thanks for that info Sonic - I should try this. My D-50 and JX-10 have badly oxidized aftertouch strips. I've had a look at them, but not attempted anything yet
Never able or even had the 💵 to purchase any synths in the late 80’s to early mid 90s. I’ve finally purchased the korg m1 and Roland d05 synth. Enjoying every free time I get to jam some great melodies and songs. My teens have been restored 🎉🎉🎉🎉
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!
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!
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!!!
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.
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 😄
Did anyone back around 1990 take advantage of a Roland D-50 Postcard offering a special reduced purchase price? I did! But I can't remember though if it might have been from an ad in Keyboard Magazine. I just remember somehow getting the official Roland postcard and taking it to my local music store sales guy who had not heard of the promotion and had to get it all checked out before he'd sell me one for the advertised price!
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.
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
What currency is that? The list price in 1987 was $1799 USD. Still a lot of money then. I was able to pick up a used D-550 in the early 90s for $500 which I still own.
@@zibbybone Australian Dollars. Do you know how many Australians are musical instruments tourists? I flew to NY and bought many stringed instruments from places like Sam Ash. Even with the weak Australian dollar of $0.70US, a Fender Telecaster is still worth buying and returning to Australia with. At the time Roland D-50s were retailing for $2,995 (AUS) in Australia (without a case).
@@johnnymorgansynthdreams Are you aware of the Roland D-05 Linear Synthesiser that was released a few years ago? (may be discontinued today) For about $600 you get a module type unit that has the iconic sounds and control found in the original D-50. I still recall returning to my music store several times just to play the D50 in the late 1980s. The "Digital Native Dance" was an incredible sound to extract out of a synthesiser. I couldnt find a spot for that sound in any of my songs but I remember thinking, "if this thing can create that sort of complex sound, it can probably do anything". Cheers
@@PetraKann HI Peter - yes I have a few of the Roland Boutiques. They're pretty decent for the value for sure. I might get the JD-08 which also just came out - seems like a decent recreation of the JD-800
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 😂. 😎🤙🎵🎹🍻
Your accent gives you away. I pegged you as Canadian even before you mentioned CanCon as Rob Preuss popped up in the video playing a D-50 for Honeymoon Suite. :)
Great Channel Scott - I'd love to chat with you some day. Was really interesting to watch your story on your DJ years in Toronto and your hearing damage. Subscribed!
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
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
I remember we DID want knobs and faders. But as most musicians were young and broke, putting up with membrane buttons and a single fader was a sacrifice we’d have to live with to get the incredible new sound making tools. I started with a Poly-800 and SH-101. I moved to a JX-8P rather than a DX7 or 9 specifically because I’d also bought the PG-800 programmer and I wanted controls for live use. My next main synth was an ESQ-1, which when combined with a Mirage Rackmount, meant I was in multi-timbral heaven. I never bought a DX-7, although I did get a D-550 (D-50 rackmount) to give me native synthesis power when I traded the Mirage and ESQ-1 for the original 12 bit EPS. And that’s what brought me here! (The D-550). I won’t continue or go into detail of the ancillary kit, like my DMX drum machine or TB-303 I had at some point. :D The main irony is I actually identify as a guitarist. But in the 80s, if you owned and could programme synthesisers/samplers, you were in high demand for post punk-new wave-electronic and electronic influenced bands! I bought my first synths so I could write and record my own music, which was, and has again become, mostly fruits based. Sure, I could knock together a chord if I concentrated hard but the keyboard players who came from a jazz or classical background were often disadvantaged when playing a huge sounding synth. We one and two finger players would be forced to concentrate on the sound design using fewer notes, which turned out to be an advantage. Over the years I’ve learned to play with both hands. At the same time!
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.
Thanks for sharing your story DavR. I'm glad I'm not alone! I have the 2 D-50's and the D-550 here with me in the studio and still use them a lot. D-50 Librarian is great and yes there are a surprising amount of great patches and sound sets. When I get bored I load in something fresh and it totally surprises me. Ok all the best!
@@johnnymorgansynthdreams "... the DX1 was unveiled at roughly the same time as Yamaha's DX7. The 7 immediately went into mass production (and massive success), while the DX1 was taken back for the fine polish befitting a Rolls-Royce."
@@ShallRemainUnknown They were basically the same thing. I believe the original design was for the DX1, but it was big, cumbersome and expensive, so Yamaha produced the DX7 as a cosmetically cut-down version for the masses.
@@andygriffith5160 Yes, that might have been the case, and I think DX9 did not sell well because its cost-reducing measures left it far less versatile and desirable to most musicians in proportion to the money saved. (I didn't research now, but off top of my head, DX9 only 8-polyphony, 4-op with only sine wave, no velocity keys, lesser keybed, other deficiencies? Something like MSRP difference only $500, so only about $350-400 actual street price less.)
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 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!
My wife forced me to sell it. I regret ever since. I was so in love with the sound it made.
Divorce
Deeeeevorce!
No true wife that really cares for your happiness does that ....ever !!!
If she complaint that her time was her time, she is a true narcissisti needy one and not
the one for you !!
Read about NPDisorder and it will help you know who she really you have been with for such a long time !
1992 году первый разу увидел услышал этот синтезатор Roland d 50 в селе на свадьбе, звуки сочные жирные до сих пор так
@@dnantisok dr Phil
I was very fortunate to get a D-20 for my birthday in 1988. Loved that thing! ❤
It wasn’t ideal for learning how to program, but I got there, lol!
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!
Thanks for sharing!
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.
I know - Digital Native Dance was mind-melting. When I first heard it I immediately knew the D-50 would be my next synth.
Great video! I still have my D-50, and I treasure it.
It's not often you can remember everything around a purchase of a piece of technical hardware but I bet you can! A stroke of genius at the time this one.......
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.
Likewise! Walked it down from Ealing Broadway to South Ealing with a flat mate.
Very nice Video... I, like you, will always be proud to have a D-50 in my studio...
I think I was about 20 and in 1990 bought a used D10 at Guitar Center on Ventura for something like $700. It was all I could afford, making $4.25 an hour. I learned all the ins and outs of that thing, down to the last parameter. I still have it buried away, a few of the buttons don't respond. I also used a DOS program called Forte (I think) as my sequencer. Anyone else heard of it? For a monochrome DOS program back then I was totally happy with all of it's functionality, including sysex messeaging through midi events. I didn't have anyone else to talk to about all of it so it was just me in my little room plinking away. Anyway, after I heard the M1 (at ABK Music), I realized how poor the D10's op-amps sounded. I think a big part of it was there was no built in compression. And as someone else mentioned, the attack 'punch' was anemic. I didn't realize all of this until years later after working with other equipment. Aaannnyyywayyy... my D10 was one of my best friends for years and I'll cherish the memories.
Thanks for sharing your story Louis. I didn't play much with the D-10, but you're right - once the M1 came out the Roland LA synths were pretty much second class. Because the D-10 was Multi-timbral it was much more useful though. I didn't try Forte, but I had Cakewalk V 1.0 on an IBM XT (with 20MB Hard Disk) for Dos 5 - used that quite a bit. You should dig out your D-10 from storage! Ok all the best.
@@johnnymorgansynthdreams Cheers!
Jean Michel Jarre's "Revolution" heavily featured a D 50
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.
Thanks for sharing Lui!
I was lucky to get one in 1987. Yes at the time it was genuinely exciting - you have to remember this was mostly uncharted territory in the digital world back then by making something sort-of affordable........
It certainly has a lot of character and a certain timbre about it. I first came across it much later in the early 2000s. I was fascinated by its looks and sounds and bought myself one in pristine condition. I agree, for someone who has no idea about music structure, chords, and sound design this beast would make them feel like JMJ by simply browsing through its preset sounds. It is also worth mentioning just how many of its preset sounds appeared on hit records. The number is just too much.
The D-50 always reminds me of late 80s PRINCE…
He used it a lot
Lovesexy batman graffiti bridges even diamonds and pearls
The D-50 was everywhere in the late 80s.. I recorded them on tons of records.. Really excellent video, Johnny..!
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
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.
Thanks synth4ever! I totally agree on your comments - so airy and ethereal. Great to hear from you and see your latest videos as well.
omg you nailed it. It could also do killer organ sounds!
great stuff! keep doing this type of video. I really appreciate the amount of work you put in.
Thanks Michael
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!
These vids are great! Love how you cover both history and in depth technical information.
Thanks Jack - I try not to get too deep either way.
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. 😊
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.
Totally agree - you should try out the Carl Johnson sounds sets. They really breathed some new life into my D-50.
How have you got on?
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.
Totally - I forgot to mention how cool the chase feature was.
Don't ever sell it - cherish it.
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
No way! In the 80's my first synth was also a Juno 2 and second synth was a D-50!
Not really lol.
@@epicon6 I wish my first synth had been a Juno 106
But that's history lol
One of my favorite keyboards was the the Korg Triton and the Kurzweil SP88x
Kurzweil had a really good feel about the keyboard, easy to play on.
The Triton has brilliant sounds. The expansion boards are fantastic
Unfortunately I played a lot of gigs on an Ensoniq SQ 2
I don't recommend that.
Great sounds, horrible feel to the keyboard 😕
But it did the job...
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.
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.
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 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
Nothing wrong with 80s sounding synths!
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!
Very true - feels like that time all over again now.
Nice! The D-50 was the first professional synth I ever bought. Love the Roland Cloud version with all the many different patches.
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
Roland D-50, without doubt one of the best synthesizer ever made. It can produce such wonderfull sounds.
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.
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!!!
How many machines do you have?
@@MeneTekelUpharsin Almost too much ;-)
You want me to name them all? :-P
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 ☑️
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.
8:40 Not Stacato Heavon, nor Fantasia, nor Digital Native Dance were signature sounds for the D50. The killer sound was patch 47: Spacious Sweep. It was one of the very few (less than 10) presets of the whole 5 card library actually utilising the digital resonant filter! This machine had a killer synth engine, yet nobody cared nor used it. It was only with the 30 year anniversary that Legowelt finally showed us how to make D50 patches. This machine looked friggin awesome, yet it had so little use. Almost any specimen you find today looks MINT. Like nobody used it for real. Buy a second hand DX7 or M1, and big chance it has serious stage wear. This is never the case with the D50, well, except your polished blank aluminium one perhaps.
I totally agree - the synth engine in the D-50 is actually super impressive - and it still has the 'Roland Sound'.
If the Jupiter 8 is Roland's king, the D50 is the queen no doubt.
Yamaha has a sound called Sweet Haven which is the exact same as Sticoto Haven on the D50
Janet Jackson had some of the D-50 in there somewhere, and some of the new jack swing songs too.
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.
Good find on the D-50 Fitz - glad you liked the vid.
Another thing that's easy to forget is if you take out the internal effects and admittedly dated Digital Native Dance stuff it's a very capable DCO-based synthesizer. I doubt the internal effects were used professionally for recording but talk about a genius sales pitch.......
I agree - the synth engine is actually really decent and still very much Roland. I actually like a lot of the Structure 1 sounds where it's all WG. I'd compare it to an Alpha Juno which is pretty good considering it's all digital.
That was certainly my experience at the time. Digital Native Dance! I nearly binned my DX7 when I first head that in the studio. We stuck that preset straight on one of our (failed) singles, without the skeletons and reverb, as you speculate. Amazing synth.
Great video! I bought the D-05 Boutique one a couple of years back and it is still great to explore!
I had my first synth back in 1986, Korg Poly800II also….next was the D50, plus SQ1 sequencer and R20 drum machine….I liked my D50, but…it was not multi timbral….shame really, I did record onto a Yamaha MT1X four track recorder…..ended up in 1989 getting an M1….that was brilliant….sold the whole lot as starting a family…since then I bought a Korg Triton….now…..well I use a cheap MIDI controller and Logic……wish I still had my D50, the extra sound cards were great and creating wind sounds were incredible…..think I spent rather a lot of money back in the 80s….oh the programmer was really tricky to program…., for me at least.
Thanks for sharing your story.
And now we are back to the huge many knob synths that cost as much as a car.
Love this. I also had a Korg Poly 800 and other Korgs.
Still one of my all-time fave keyboards. Give me a D50 over an M1 ANY day.
I used to program it via a patch editor on the Atari, which have the ability to "morph" patches together, which gave some surprising and very usable results.
I went on using it for many years with a number of big names, and it always sounded fresh, (just so long as you avoided the well-known patches!)
Just one point, the D550 has a noticeably slower MIDI interface than the keyboard, so be aware of that.
Great info tryptychUK - I did not know that about the D-550 - I own one, but I don't run any midi data through it
@@johnnymorgansynthdreams Yeah, I used to have both, and running side by side I discovered there is a noticeable lag on the 550. If you don't run any MIDI on it, how can you play it?
@@TryptychUK Oh- wow - I mean I don't use the midi thru - just the in to play it. Ok I'll check this out today - very interesting.
@@johnnymorgansynthdreams Yes, I meant the MIDI in timing response.
What do you mean by ""you avoided the well-known patches"? What's wrong with the patches?
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.
Nice - I know the D-50 was pricey back int he day, but worth it!. That's a great setup.
At 6:20 “realistic creation of piano and brass”
“Brass” yes but “piano” sounded like crap. It was first achieved with the Korg M1
True - the D-50 piano was pretty lack luster, although better than most before it. The M1 took it to a whole new level.
The fact that there wasn't a fx disable button on d50 was a big drawback since it's internal sounds needed to be processed by decent reverb , also it's Midi timing sucked and fact you better not used 2 d50 sounds in a track since the frequencies quickly turned to a same mush lacking definition, but at the sametime it diserved it's succes since it still was a synth wich the Korg m1 wasn't
True - the D-50 does have it's flaws, but totally right - at least it could program like a real subtractive synth.
2 thumbs up. great video :)
Great video 👍👍 Thank you for sharing.
Yes, you did the D-50! Can’t wait to watch.
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.
Great to hear!
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!
Thanks for sharing AJMjazz. I remember having to pre-load sampler disks at the right time the song before the next - it was crazy!
How much did you make for a 5 hour gig?
I was amazed when it first came out but, having owned two (a D50 and a D550) in the nineties and noughties, I must confess I grew tired of that sound. I still like a number of specific presets but I won't bother getting another one. It's a great synth nonetheless, especially the non-PCM synth engine. Another thing I didn't like was the attack portion of the envelopes, which wasn't snappy enough for my taste, at least when compared with my other synths at the time.
You sound a hell of a lot younger than to have been a teen in the 80s!
You sound about 30-40-odd; about my age.
Grad '88... man time flies!
Great video the 80's rocked!!
It certainly knocked the DX7 out of the park. I think they even hold up better than the M1.
I think at the time the M1 had more to offer, but now as a retro-synth, the D-50 has much more magic and definitely held up better. I don't think I'd have much use for an M1 in my studio today.
I fully restored mine a year ago, there isn’t a mark on it. The only thing all D50 owners will agree, is that the aftertouch will fail to the point of virtually having to stand on the keys to get a response. Luckily this is a fairly easy fix. You need to separate the aftertouch strip that consists of a semi conductive rubber and a copper one, the copper oxidises overtime causing the lack of response. But clean the two strips ( Brasso for the copper & acetone for the rubber) and it will work better than new. I’ve done this to five D50 with success.
Thanks for that info Sonic - I should try this. My D-50 and JX-10 have badly oxidized aftertouch strips. I've had a look at them, but not attempted anything yet
Never able or even had the 💵 to purchase any synths in the late 80’s to early mid 90s.
I’ve finally purchased the korg m1 and Roland d05 synth.
Enjoying every free time I get to jam some great melodies and songs.
My teens have been restored 🎉🎉🎉🎉
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!
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!
Johnny Morgan = quality. Done.
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!!!
I had a D-50, Juno 106, and Juno 60. Little did I know is that I could probably get 3x more now than what I paid for them then....ughhhhhh
Really enjoying your 80s synth videos, top notch.
Thanks Whiskers 770 - much appreciated.
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.
Had one of these D50s and an AtarST running Notator DAW (which eventually was Garageband)
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 😄
Did anyone back around 1990 take advantage of a Roland D-50 Postcard offering a special reduced purchase price? I did! But I can't remember though if it might have been from an ad in Keyboard Magazine. I just remember somehow getting the official Roland postcard and taking it to my local music store sales guy who had not heard of the promotion and had to get it all checked out before he'd sell me one for the advertised price!
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.
you should give it to me 😌
Interesting - yes - I really got into programming the D-50 in 1990 without the programmer. It's actually not too difficult but a lot of menu diving.
@@johnnymorgansynthdreams I have the Juno and JX programmer. I can’t find the D50 programmer though
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
What currency is that? The list price in 1987 was $1799 USD. Still a lot of money then. I was able to pick up a used D-550 in the early 90s for $500 which I still own.
@@zibbybone Australian Dollars.
Do you know how many Australians are musical instruments tourists?
I flew to NY and bought many stringed instruments from places like Sam Ash.
Even with the weak Australian dollar of $0.70US, a Fender Telecaster is still worth buying and returning to Australia with.
At the time Roland D-50s were retailing for $2,995 (AUS) in Australia (without a case).
Hi Petra - yes - totally agree - build like a tank - I toured with mine for years. Thanks for sharing your story.
@@johnnymorgansynthdreams Are you aware of the Roland D-05 Linear Synthesiser that was released a few years ago? (may be discontinued today)
For about $600 you get a module type unit that has the iconic sounds and control found in the original D-50.
I still recall returning to my music store several times just to play the D50 in the late 1980s. The "Digital Native Dance" was an incredible sound to extract out of a synthesiser. I couldnt find a spot for that sound in any of my songs but I remember thinking, "if this thing can create that sort of complex sound, it can probably do anything".
Cheers
@@PetraKann HI Peter - yes I have a few of the Roland Boutiques. They're pretty decent for the value for sure. I might get the JD-08 which also just came out - seems like a decent recreation of the JD-800
fantastic details
Thanks neon void!
Would love to see some videos about Ensoniq keyboards
I'm working on it!
You can also hear D-50 throughout the album But Seriously by Phil Collins. It's a really good synth
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 😂. 😎🤙🎵🎹🍻
Can you please do an episode on the Korg M1 next.
Hi Garbriele - I was definitely thinking about it - it's definitely on my list.
Your accent gives you away. I pegged you as Canadian even before you mentioned CanCon as Rob Preuss popped up in the video playing a D-50 for Honeymoon Suite. :)
Nice - loved the Honeymoon Suite back int he day.
Great Channel Scott - I'd love to chat with you some day. Was really interesting to watch your story on your DJ years in Toronto and your hearing damage. Subscribed!
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
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
Thanks Dar2win - the D-50 still holds up in so many ways
whats the song at 8:13? i love it is there a complete version?
Hey Way2muchNFO - it's a song I wrote for the video featuring the D-50 - send me an email and I'll send you a copy.
I bought one in a flight case about 5 years ago for ……..$50.00. Did I get ripped off?
I remember we DID want knobs and faders. But as most musicians were young and broke, putting up with membrane buttons and a single fader was a sacrifice we’d have to live with to get the incredible new sound making tools.
I started with a Poly-800 and SH-101. I moved to a JX-8P rather than a DX7 or 9 specifically because I’d also bought the PG-800 programmer and I wanted controls for live use. My next main synth was an ESQ-1, which when combined with a Mirage Rackmount, meant I was in multi-timbral heaven.
I never bought a DX-7, although I did get a D-550 (D-50 rackmount) to give me native synthesis power when I traded the Mirage and ESQ-1 for the original 12 bit EPS.
And that’s what brought me here! (The D-550). I won’t continue or go into detail of the ancillary kit, like my DMX drum machine or TB-303 I had at some point. :D
The main irony is I actually identify as a guitarist. But in the 80s, if you owned and could programme synthesisers/samplers, you were in high demand for post punk-new wave-electronic and electronic influenced bands!
I bought my first synths so I could write and record my own music, which was, and has again become, mostly fruits based. Sure, I could knock together a chord if I concentrated hard but the keyboard players who came from a jazz or classical background were often disadvantaged when playing a huge sounding synth. We one and two finger players would be forced to concentrate on the sound design using fewer notes, which turned out to be an advantage. Over the years I’ve learned to play with both hands. At the same time!
Fruits? Damn you autocorrect. I meant guitar. But fruit-based music is funnier.
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.
Thanks for sharing your story DavR. I'm glad I'm not alone! I have the 2 D-50's and the D-550 here with me in the studio and still use them a lot. D-50 Librarian is great and yes there are a surprising amount of great patches and sound sets. When I get bored I load in something fresh and it totally surprises me. Ok all the best!
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.
I also have a Alpha Juno 2, with the PG300. both great synths.
Molto bene grazie----
Yamaha DX7 available for sale in 1983, BEFORE DX1.
Was it ? I was not aware of that. I think they were within a few months of each other in late 1983 / early 1984
@@johnnymorgansynthdreams "... the DX1 was unveiled at roughly the same time as Yamaha's DX7. The 7 immediately went into mass production (and massive success), while the DX1 was taken back for the fine polish befitting a Rolls-Royce."
@@ShallRemainUnknown They were basically the same thing. I believe the original design was for the DX1, but it was big, cumbersome and expensive, so Yamaha produced the DX7 as a cosmetically cut-down version for the masses.
@@ShallRemainUnknown I think the DX9 was released at the same time as the DX7.
@@andygriffith5160 Yes, that might have been the case, and I think DX9 did not sell well because its cost-reducing measures left it far less versatile and desirable to most musicians in proportion to the money saved. (I didn't research now, but off top of my head, DX9 only 8-polyphony, 4-op with only sine wave, no velocity keys, lesser keybed, other deficiencies? Something like MSRP difference only $500, so only about $350-400 actual street price less.)
While the D-50 certainly was a versatile synth, it did not come close to the quality of an OB-Xa or Jupiter.
Nice video!! What kind of drum machine is on 8:16? Is in D50?
Hi Mur - uJam Beatmaker - Vice plugin
@@johnnymorgansynthdreams thank you!!
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.
I love the D-550 - Load on the Voltage Drift Patch set by Carl Johnson - it's amazing.
@@johnnymorgansynthdreams I will check it out! I also got the Patch Base sysex editor for it, which is great.
Are the sounds heard through the video a D50?
Hi Zac yes most of them. The song portion is all D-50.
I own a D-50; alaways sounds incredible 😊
I just bought one in a very good condition. Love this synth ! Sounds great 🎹👏
They are all in good condition. They never have wear. As if they were all put on the attic collecting dust when the M1 came in.
Wonderful documentaries on here!! Bravo😍🎹😍🎹
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!
Thanks for sharing the D-50 story Domenic!
Thanks for your vids love them
Thanks Brian
Great job man! This is a really awesome documentary..Thanks for share :))) By the way, I love Honeymoon suite too! 👌✨
I always loved how they were heavy, but keyboards still were an important part of the band. Ok Cheers!
Great video, your D50 is in mint condition! Nice!!
I love these vids you do, and yeh the d50 really sounds awesome!
bought one few days ago still need some little fixes but i'm so excited
I have a D05, in essence is almost the same, I love this synthesizer.