I still have mine. It was my first synth and I loved programming it. However, the D-5 was limited: no aftertouch, only sustain pedal input, no arpeggio, no reverb and basic effects. So I plugged-in a 60’s spring reverb, still have it, to give its voice to the D-5 for leads and pads later combined with some effect pedals and it progressively sounded amazing. It has a Roland sound but less expressive than the expensive D50 without a bit of help. 32 years later, still own it, rock-solid 1990 quality and still working perfectly!
Hey all, I need someone's help! I have a D-5 and I wrote over JazzyOrgan by mistake! It's tone i08, you can see it in performance mode B23 by pressing Edit and choosing Tone.
Must be some license for the name or something mentioned in the manual because the D-5 was NOT released in 1984. First came D-10/-20/-110 in 1988, then D-5 in 1989. There were no remotely affordable romplers back in 1984.
This was on of my first synth back in the day, then I bought the Roland W30 and used it to sequence the D5 along with samples from the W30. It’s the D5 was definitely a great synth for the time and reasonably priced. Between those 2 keyboard and a Tascam 4 track I was probably more productive than I am today with all the gear I have now lol. Well as far as putting song ideas down I think I was.
The D-5 is great for creating your own synthetic/abstract sounds. The acoustic sound presets are not very convincing and very dated. I did not like those back in the day either and programmed my own sounds. My favorite preset tones are Warm Pad, Hollow Pad, Space Horn, Mini Bass, and Warm Bell. I bought a new D-5 on blow out in 1991 from Sam Ash. It was my second synth and first "Digital" synth. My first was the Juno-106. I made interesting music with those two synths and an MMT-8 sequencer. I still use all three to this day with my other gear. Now if only I had a tape deck to play all of those early 90's recordings I made.
Also, if you really want to get the most out of the D5's sounds: fire up a sequencer, select a synth bass, and loop a pattern. If you go into edit-mode tweak the parameters of the different partials (resonance, decay etc.). The menu is a bit cumbersome, but the D5 turns into a mean 303-competitor, for all your acid house needs! The note volume affects the lowpass filter, if I remember correctly (so you need some automation in the DAW). Come to think of it, when you connect the D5 to a midi-controller/(hardware) sequencer you should be able to control the parameters of the patch (not the underlying partials).... But I cannot remember whether the D5 recognizes midi control change messages... I'll have to go to the garage this afternoon and it dig up ;-)
@@ramseydoon8277 Yeah, I dug it up. As for the basic patches, the D5 probably overlaps with 90% of the other D’s, or perhaps even more the MT-32, so your probably better of with a sampled Soundfont pack plus your VST effects etc. When you want to explore the synth potential (like said 303’ish sound) it is a fun piece of gear. But for a bedroom producer it might sound too gritty and lofi; its raw early digital sound will probably sound better in a professional setting. I might sample some of the drum sounds: a nice alternative to the ubiquitous Roland/Boss. Might be cool for minimal/deeptech etc tracks. So, it is a stayer 😊
Ive had mine for years and years and years.. I remember the internal sounds and being able to change and edit the partials.. it was fun at the time.. I only use it now as a controller board running through Propellarhead Reason.. love the unweighted light touch keys.. lets me do much more than weighted keys can.. this unit is a tank and has never needed repair
Mine now only stares at me through the LCD small panel, and doesn't respond to anything...sob...I still keep it hoping some miracle or info on how to fix it...any ideas? Please?
Miałem D- 5 jako drugi syntezator. Pozazdrościłem koledze z zespołu który miał D20. Gdy go przywiozłem na próbę a już ograłem w domu i wiedziałem jakich brzmień użyć, kolega pożałował zbyt drogiego zakupu. W dodatku nie mógł opanować obsługi bardzo nieprzyjaznego sequencera. Znałem niedostatki D- 5. Na szczęście kuzyn żony który porzucił karierę DJ zostawił mi uniwersalny efekt stereo Viscount mający 100 presetów z możliwością regulacji time, depth, tap tempo for echo. Bez MIDI ale wystarczający. D- 5 dzięki filtracji innej niż w d- 10 i D- 20 miał ostrzejsze selektywne brzmienie. Opanowałem nieprzyjazną edycję z panelu i uzyskałem ciekawe syntetyczne brzmienia. Potwierdzam opinię o jakości. Metal, niezła odrobinę któtka lekka klawiatura idealna do szybkich solówek. No i zrobione przeze mnie brzmienia gdzie cutoff i resonance reagowały na dynamikę. Świetnie sprawdzał się do brzmień syntetycznych.
I have one. Bought second hand - and cheap. Not used much but fun to add some quick, percussive sounds to some tracks when used sparingly. Cheesy sounds yes, but we all need a bit of cheese now and then,.
I was expecting a review of the synth, not presets from the 80's. If the question is does it have mojo in a modern context, then obviously a demo of forty year old sound design is not going to provide an answer. maybe show how programmable it is by making something that sounds good. that would answer your question
Bought mine somewhere in the early '90s and the internal battery has lasted till 2020! Replaced it... So sometime in the late 2030s I'll have to replace this 2nd battery again :-)
@@nateKitsura the D-50 has a few things the D-5 can't such as aftertouch and pulse width modulation, but that's not to say that the D-5 doesn't have capabilities to sound really nice
@@coolelectronics1759 I myself have a D-110. It's basically like an MT-32, but with different samples in ROM and it's much easier to make your own patches for it. In my opinion, unless you're a DOS gamer, you're better off with a D-110. They're cheap, I got mine for £90 for example, and their output is cleaner and less noisy. Still noisy nonetheless, but yeah.
i've had a d-5, a d-10, and a d-50 which i still have. external effects won't turn this synth into a d-50 because believe you me i tried. of all the d synths, the d-50 very much stands alone.
I had a d5 … I don’t remember the name of the patch, it was possibly pizzicato… anyway if you ran that through an external reverb it was bang on d50 pizzagogo a la Orinoco flow
Good question. I guess the product is protected by Patent law, so they might be referring to the manual, the demo tunes and any other 'artistic' creations included with the keyboard.
bro I think you made an error Not being a jerk or anything Just giving you the headsup but I think you might be a bit off with the launch date of this appliance by a few years. Imagine people in 1984 would of been freaking out about this had it launched that early with those sounds, such a nice display and UI with midi predating the d50 by 3 years! Looks more like it would of launched late in 1987-1991 at the latest. Still a pretty neat instrument and I wonder if the patches for this would work on the roland d550
I owned one somewhere around the early 1990's and I though (and still think) it was/is a piece of junk that sounds like a cheap Casio keyboard but costs about 5 times as much. The only thing that really surprised me about this synth was that is was the only one I ever owned that send out release velocity info instead of just the normal velocity other synths had. The D-5 itself, nor any other synth I owned made any use of release velocity information, so even this one cool feature ended up being totally worthless in the end. I should just have bought a D-10 instead...
@@looneyburgmusic But with an effects section, which made a world of a difference in the end sound. These days you can easily and cheaply add some revert to anything, but back then (the 80s) it meant you would have to buy a dedicated reverb unit, which is not something every home musician would like to spend money on. The D-5 on its own just sounds very flat, not much like the D-10 a friend of mine had.
I have to correct you my friend, The Roland D5 is a SAMPLE based instrument, and one of a few at that, and came out in 1989/90. In 1984 there was the D10/20/D50 and Juno series(84-86). In 1988-1990, there was the newer sample based keys like the D5,JD,and JV. The keybed for this keyboard was made in 1988-90, as it was a NEW engineering design and it featured a cheaper and more unique flexible mylar keybed contact STRIP instead of rigid keybed contact BOARD. It was strange indeed. The JD800 has the same keys and tech. The D5 was the trend setter for 2 major SOUND SET standards called: GS and GM! Now I could be wrong and I am speaking from life Experience with all these keyboards I played or saw in stores or magazines I checked out every day in the school library, but the D5, was not made in 1984.
You're probably right.... I agree that '84 sounded way too early ...but that's what the manual said, I 100% testify. The only conclusion that I can reach is that the person who typeset the final draft of the manual simply hit the wrong digit for this crucial bit of information :) # Gearfacts
It's not 100% sample based. It does have subtractive synth waveforms that can be filtered whereas the samples cannot. I'm not particularly fond of the misinformation that this line of synths are just romplers because that's only looking at half the synth's capabilities.
@@gearfacts sounds pretty good in a mix. Course it sounds bad dry. I love my D-110 and it actually kinda sounds really good for synthwave, particularly when you start programming your own sounds.
@@Cityzenz I use a Radio Shack MD-1800 (Casio WK-3200) portable toy synth for quick ideas in the studio and it sounds better than all those cheap pro digital synths from 80's early 90's. It cost me $200 bucks used.
I still have mine. It was my first synth and I loved programming it. However, the D-5 was limited: no aftertouch, only sustain pedal input, no arpeggio, no reverb and basic effects. So I plugged-in a 60’s spring reverb, still have it, to give its voice to the D-5 for leads and pads later combined with some effect pedals and it progressively sounded amazing. It has a Roland sound but less expressive than the expensive D50 without a bit of help. 32 years later, still own it, rock-solid 1990 quality and still working perfectly!
Yeah they built them tough in the 90s :)
Hey all, I need someone's help! I have a D-5 and I wrote over JazzyOrgan by mistake! It's tone i08, you can see it in performance mode B23 by pressing Edit and choosing Tone.
it actually sounds really good with some modern reverb and some chorus FX
Still have my D-5 from back in 91 and its still a solid keyboard. The cards are PCM!
Must be some license for the name or something mentioned in the manual because the D-5 was NOT released in 1984. First came D-10/-20/-110 in 1988, then D-5 in 1989. There were no remotely affordable romplers back in 1984.
Yeah it's probably something other than the date of release.
@06:51 the Majora's mask great bay coast effect. Yes!!!
This was on of my first synth back in the day, then I bought the Roland W30 and used it to sequence the D5 along with samples from the W30. It’s the D5 was definitely a great synth for the time and reasonably priced. Between those 2 keyboard and a Tascam 4 track I was probably more productive than I am today with all the gear I have now lol. Well as far as putting song ideas down I think I was.
Ah, so true! Limitations manifest creativity :)
@@gearfacts my thoughts also! I actually experienced what Nicolas said up there...
The D-5 is great for creating your own synthetic/abstract sounds. The acoustic sound presets are not very convincing and very dated. I did not like those back in the day either and programmed my own sounds. My favorite preset tones are Warm Pad, Hollow Pad, Space Horn, Mini Bass, and Warm Bell. I bought a new D-5 on blow out in 1991 from Sam Ash. It was my second synth and first "Digital" synth. My first was the Juno-106. I made interesting music with those two synths and an MMT-8 sequencer. I still use all three to this day with my other gear. Now if only I had a tape deck to play all of those early 90's recordings I made.
Also, if you really want to get the most out of the D5's sounds: fire up a sequencer, select a synth bass, and loop a pattern. If you go into edit-mode tweak the parameters of the different partials (resonance, decay etc.). The menu is a bit cumbersome, but the D5 turns into a mean 303-competitor, for all your acid house needs! The note volume affects the lowpass filter, if I remember correctly (so you need some automation in the DAW).
Come to think of it, when you connect the D5 to a midi-controller/(hardware) sequencer you should be able to control the parameters of the patch (not the underlying partials).... But I cannot remember whether the D5 recognizes midi control change messages... I'll have to go to the garage this afternoon and it dig up ;-)
Did you end up digging out your D5?
@@ramseydoon8277 Yeah, I dug it up. As for the basic patches, the D5 probably overlaps with 90% of the other D’s, or perhaps even more the MT-32, so your probably better of with a sampled Soundfont pack plus your VST effects etc.
When you want to explore the synth potential (like said 303’ish sound) it is a fun piece of gear. But for a bedroom producer it might sound too gritty and lofi; its raw early digital sound will probably sound better in a professional setting.
I might sample some of the drum sounds: a nice alternative to the ubiquitous Roland/Boss. Might be cool for minimal/deeptech etc tracks. So, it is a stayer 😊
I had that set, it didn't had effects sounds were dry without reverb, or delay.
I will be using my d5 Tonite for a new year's eve show. It still has kick ❤️❤️
Ive had mine for years and years and years.. I remember the internal sounds and being able to change and edit the partials.. it was fun at the time.. I only use it now as a controller board running through Propellarhead Reason.. love the unweighted light touch keys.. lets me do much more than weighted keys can.. this unit is a tank and has never needed repair
Thanks for sharing, it's good to hear about proper road-tests
Mine now only stares at me through the LCD small panel, and doesn't respond to anything...sob...I still keep it hoping some miracle or info on how to fix it...any ideas? Please?
Another nice keyboard I love it
Yep, Jeez I wish my playing skills would hurry up and improve though ...I've got nerve damage, it's a real bummer! :) # Gearfacts
I'd add one to my stack of Roland rack romplers in a heartbeat. It sounds warm and nice for its day, don't you think? Cheers Glynn! Have a great day!
Yep, it reminds me of my cherished PMA-5 sequencer, just in keyboard form :)
Miałem D- 5 jako drugi syntezator. Pozazdrościłem koledze z zespołu który miał D20.
Gdy go przywiozłem na próbę a już ograłem w domu i wiedziałem jakich brzmień użyć, kolega pożałował zbyt drogiego zakupu.
W dodatku nie mógł opanować obsługi bardzo nieprzyjaznego sequencera.
Znałem niedostatki D- 5. Na szczęście kuzyn żony który porzucił karierę DJ zostawił mi uniwersalny efekt stereo Viscount mający 100 presetów z możliwością regulacji time, depth, tap tempo for echo. Bez MIDI ale wystarczający. D- 5 dzięki filtracji innej niż w d- 10 i D- 20 miał ostrzejsze selektywne brzmienie. Opanowałem nieprzyjazną edycję z panelu i uzyskałem ciekawe syntetyczne brzmienia.
Potwierdzam opinię o jakości. Metal, niezła odrobinę któtka lekka klawiatura idealna do szybkich solówek.
No i zrobione przeze mnie brzmienia gdzie cutoff i resonance reagowały na dynamikę.
Świetnie sprawdzał się do brzmień syntetycznych.
My first keyboard!
Wow not a bad start.
a lot of the sounds seem very attacky to me. I'm looking for something cheap that sounds better than my casiotone. Thanks for the comprehensive demo!
You're the best, 💯😎🤘🎹
haha you think so? I've been trying to play piano for 20 years but I think I sound like I've been trying for 20 hours!
Hello brother how was your day? Excellent work just like always. God bless you.
@@transforminggravity15626 Cheers :)
I have one. Bought second hand - and cheap. Not used much but fun to add some quick, percussive sounds to some tracks when used sparingly. Cheesy sounds yes, but we all need a bit of cheese now and then,.
Yep I've got nothing against cheese :)
I still have the D 10, my first synth and I love it, the same sounds
It has many devoted users!
Sounds a bit like an MT-32 with keys, not far off it anyway
Close relatives!
I was expecting a review of the synth, not presets from the 80's. If the question is does it have mojo in a modern context, then obviously a demo of forty year old sound design is not going to provide an answer. maybe show how programmable it is by making something that sounds good. that would answer your question
Yeah fair point.
How to switch from "Initial patch" to "Upper tone sel" ?
Bought mine somewhere in the early '90s and the internal battery has lasted till 2020! Replaced it... So sometime in the late 2030s I'll have to replace this 2nd battery again :-)
I always was a fan of the D-50. I always wondered if you could get the same sounds with a D-5 and external effects.
@@nateKitsura the D-50 has a few things the D-5 can't such as aftertouch and pulse width modulation, but that's not to say that the D-5 doesn't have capabilities to sound really nice
@@autumnbrushtail seccond that!
I have an mt32 that sounds pretty nice
@@coolelectronics1759 I myself have a D-110. It's basically like an MT-32, but with different samples in ROM and it's much easier to make your own patches for it. In my opinion, unless you're a DOS gamer, you're better off with a D-110. They're cheap, I got mine for £90 for example, and their output is cleaner and less noisy. Still noisy nonetheless, but yeah.
i've had a d-5, a d-10, and a d-50 which i still have. external effects won't turn this synth into a d-50 because believe you me i tried. of all the d synths, the d-50 very much stands alone.
I had a d5 … I don’t remember the name of the patch, it was possibly pizzicato… anyway if you ran that through an external reverb it was bang on d50 pizzagogo a la Orinoco flow
hey wassup , so i got a roland d5 and im tryna plug it in midi but i can't find the driver nowhere. Would u know where i can find it ?
I don't sorry. Maybe try googling up a generic midi driver? Might work
Gearfacts the roland d 5 came out in 1989
alot of the roland manuals say 1984 trademark copyright is what they are referring to not the actual product its confusing
Good question. I guess the product is protected by Patent law, so they might be referring to the manual, the demo tunes and any other 'artistic' creations included with the keyboard.
bro I think you made an error
Not being a jerk or anything
Just giving you the headsup but I think you might be a bit off with the launch date of this appliance by a few years.
Imagine people in 1984 would of been freaking out about this had it launched that early with those sounds, such a nice display and UI with midi predating the d50 by 3 years!
Looks more like it would of launched late in 1987-1991 at the latest. Still a pretty neat instrument and I wonder if the patches for this would work on the roland d550
That's cool man, I'm always open to being corrected on technicalities :)
@@gearfacts sounds good, same!
That is how I myself learn a lot of new things especially on electronics and gear stuff.
How to link Roland D5 with fl studio please ??
You need a MIDI to USB Adapter, very cheap on eBay
Sega! This you!
Gearfacts is the roland d 5 still good and is it still worth it
I wasn't overly inspired to be honest, but some people love it
I owned one somewhere around the early 1990's and I though (and still think) it was/is a piece of junk that sounds like a cheap Casio keyboard but costs about 5 times as much. The only thing that really surprised me about this synth was that is was the only one I ever owned that send out release velocity info instead of just the normal velocity other synths had. The D-5 itself, nor any other synth I owned made any use of release velocity information, so even this one cool feature ended up being totally worthless in the end. I should just have bought a D-10 instead...
Interesting about the release velocity
" I should just have bought a D-10 instead..." - Which had the exact same sound engine, with the exact same PCM samples and patches.
@@looneyburgmusic But with an effects section, which made a world of a difference in the end sound. These days you can easily and cheaply add some revert to anything, but back then (the 80s) it meant you would have to buy a dedicated reverb unit, which is not something every home musician would like to spend money on. The D-5 on its own just sounds very flat, not much like the D-10 a friend of mine had.
I have to correct you my friend, The Roland D5 is a SAMPLE based instrument, and one of a few at that, and came out in 1989/90. In 1984 there was the D10/20/D50 and Juno series(84-86). In 1988-1990, there was the newer sample based keys like the D5,JD,and JV. The keybed for this keyboard was made in 1988-90, as it was a NEW engineering design and it featured a cheaper and more unique flexible mylar keybed contact STRIP instead of rigid keybed contact BOARD. It was strange indeed. The JD800 has the same keys and tech. The D5 was the trend setter for 2 major SOUND SET standards called: GS and GM! Now I could be wrong and I am speaking from life Experience with all these keyboards I played or saw in stores or magazines I checked out every day in the school library, but the D5, was not made in 1984.
You're probably right.... I agree that '84 sounded way too early ...but that's what the manual said, I 100% testify. The only conclusion that I can reach is that the person who typeset the final draft of the manual simply hit the wrong digit for this crucial bit of information :) # Gearfacts
The D-50 was released in 1987, followed by the D-10, D-20 and D-110 in 1988. JD- and JV-Series are synths from the 1990s.
It's not 100% sample based. It does have subtractive synth waveforms that can be filtered whereas the samples cannot. I'm not particularly fond of the misinformation that this line of synths are just romplers because that's only looking at half the synth's capabilities.
lol i saw this on gumtree.
i wanna play rich piano but i cant, please help me
Differences with D-10/D-110?
Gosh you'd have to google that one mate, my memory banks don't have the clarity needed to answer this! :) # Gearfacts
No reverb or chorus. Totally dry. I wanted reverb so much in 1989 that I cried.
@@ThomasCorfield D-10 doesn have chorus either. Just verb.
@@autumnbrushtail Yes. And my D-5 had neither. Oh, how I cried.
@@ThomasCorfield just use external effects. It can still sound great
No, it is not from 1984. Your information is wrong mate
It was just a guess, no harm done.
@@gearfacts Since the correct info is easy to find, don't guess, because spreading wrong information is always harmful
@@looneyburgmusic Sometimes its harmful but in this case I really doubt anyone has suffered. Let's focus on the sounds.
Yes, and it's better than the D-10
It is a scaled down version of the D-10.
@@larsbergen6126 it's just a d-10 with no reverb, but it does have an arpeggitator if I'm not mistaken
Urgh...bad as I remember lol. Had one for years. :-)
Haha yeah that's what I was quietly thinking! Gotta stay positive on these videos though, no-one likes getting flamed :)
@@gearfacts sounds pretty good in a mix. Course it sounds bad dry. I love my D-110 and it actually kinda sounds really good for synthwave, particularly when you start programming your own sounds.
I own one keyboard is second to none. The sounds suck
Gotta program your own sounds. Best the factory presets aren't great, but I don't think it's forever destined for awful cheese
Saw one for sale for $50. Now I understand why. Sounds like shit.
Glad I was able to enlighten!
Sound very bland to me ...
Yeah it didn't inspire me much either
Sounds as bad as my Kawai K1-ii
Yeah it’s not my *favourite* era in synths!
Kawai k1-II worst ever synth.
@@Cityzenz I use a Radio Shack MD-1800 (Casio WK-3200) portable toy synth for quick ideas in the studio and it sounds better than all those cheap pro digital synths from 80's early 90's. It cost me $200 bucks used.
it sounds really bad
I think the answer to your click-bait vid title is: No, definitely...not.
I think "clickbait" is a bit insulting, it's a reasonable title for an article.
"Best YT channel" with NO knowledge of history? Goodbye ...at the first 10 seconds.
Well that's just stupid for lots of reasons isn't it
@@gearfacts i so agree