Roland D-05

Started by szilard, September 09, 2017, 12:21:12 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

szilard

Eric Persing, Roland sound designer and Spectrasonics founder, talks about some of his D-50 patches. Plays a D-50 and the new D-05 module. The new module sounds nice and has a good price point - I always liked the D-50.






Brent Flash

I have a functioning D-50 in like new condition. Love to create sounds with it to this day. I also have an original DX-7 in pristine condition. Two of the pioneers of the new MIDI generation.

The D-50 is a little easier to understand how to make sounds the DX-7 is pretty much trial and error.  :D

Brak(E)man

I gave my d-550 away and my u-220 last year
I used them a lot in the late 80ths early 90ths
with my Casio midi guitar
Kinda wish I hadn't but..
The breathy sounds from the d50 are great
and the only VG to reproduce it so far is the 8
( the SY is close )
swimming with a hole in my body

I play Country music too, I'm just not sure which country it's from...

"The only thing worse than a guitar is a guitarist!"
- Lydia Lunch

gumtown

Nice !
I used to have the D10
Free "GR-55 FloorBoard" editor software from https://sourceforge.net/projects/grfloorboard/

hippietim

I've already preorder one :)

BackDAWman

I have a GR50. I believe that was based on the D50?

Still love the GR50! Feels nice to play.

arkieboy

Any news on the MIDI spec?   The D550 had midi mono mode ...
Main rig: Barden Hexacaster and Brian Moore i2.13 controllers
Boss SY1000/Boss GKC-AD/Boss GM-800/Laney LFR112

Other relevant gear: Line 6 Helix LT, Roland GR-33, Axon AX100 MkII
Oberheim Matrix 6R, Supernova IIR, EMu E5000, Apple Mainstage, Apple Logic, MOTU M4

RogerVG8EX

Quote from: BackDAWman on September 09, 2017, 11:49:27 PM
I have a GR50. I believe that was based on the D50?

Still love the GR50! Feels nice to play.

The GR-50 has the D-110 sound engine, it has very similar sounds because it also uses LA synthesis. Michel Cusson from Uzeb used a GR-50 and blended the internal sounds with a D-550, check out the Noisy Nights album.

szilard

IIRC the D-110 lacked LFOs for the filter and amp modules so it wasn't as capable as the D-50, but the PCM sounds were the same so it got a lot of the same sounds. I think they both had multi-segemented (more points than ADSR) EGs so you could get a sweep out of the filter, but it wasn't cyclic.

Elantric


hippietim

Quote from: arkieboy on September 10, 2017, 01:34:23 AM
Any news on the MIDI spec?   The D550 had midi mono mode ...

It's supposedly fully D50 compatible - even the PPG-1000 works.

Elantric

#11
Quote from: hippietim on September 16, 2017, 02:30:52 PM
It's supposedly fully D50 compatible - even the PPG-1000 works.

Worth reading the D-05 MIDI Implementation 

Roland D-05 Parameter Guide
https://static.roland.com/assets/media/pdf/D-05_ParameterGuide_eng01_W.pdf


specifically page 18

MONO MODE will be useful for MIDi Guitarists   - allows independent string bending, etc.

hippietim

#12
Quote from: Elantric on September 16, 2017, 02:36:17 PM
Worth reading the D-05 MIDI Implementation 

Roland D-05 Parameter Guide
https://static.roland.com/assets/media/pdf/D-05_ParameterGuide_eng01_W.pdf


specifically page 18

MONO MODE will be useful for MIDi Guitarists   - allows independent string bending, etc.


Mono mode sounds fantatic!

arkieboy

That's it.  I'm having one of those.


I used to have a D550 (with mono mode) which I used with my GM70.  Fantastic sounds, pretty decent leads too.  I sold it to fund a GR50 and the D110 sound engine just couldn't hold a candle against it (I did have an Oberheim Matrix 6R and a Roland U110 to fall back on though  ;D ).


I did pick up a D50 keyboard but I sold that to a friend because it needed TLC, which he duly restored and loves to this day.  Missed it ever since
Main rig: Barden Hexacaster and Brian Moore i2.13 controllers
Boss SY1000/Boss GKC-AD/Boss GM-800/Laney LFR112

Other relevant gear: Line 6 Helix LT, Roland GR-33, Axon AX100 MkII
Oberheim Matrix 6R, Supernova IIR, EMu E5000, Apple Mainstage, Apple Logic, MOTU M4


Elantric

#15
Great historical overview of the Roland D-50
https://www.roland.com/us/promos/d-50_30th_anniversary/

Tadao Kikumoto (Technical R&D Leader at the time of D-50)

"Roland D-50: Born from the "Ideality" of creative musical instrument development"

Through my development experience of TR-808 and 909, I found that 90% of all sound identities occur during the quick transformation of overtones arising from the initial touch to around 20 or 30 milliseconds. The sound after the attack is not so important. Actually, this way of thinking led to developing the D-50.

The Yamaha DX7, which was already in the market at that time, was an epoch-making digital synthesizer, adopting complicated and anharmonic sounds (which did not exist in analog) in the initial part. Our first fully digital synthesizer adopted granular PCM in the initial part, after which I decided to implement an intuitive and versatile digital signal processing using an analog subtractive method. It was a big question which phoneme to adopt for the initial part. If it is too concrete sound, it is not versatile, so we sought for a sound which is close to real, but obscure. I consulted Eric Persing, who belonged at that time to Roland, and he said, "I have an idea, leave it to me!" As a result, an "ideal" sound was born.

Another important point for the LA sound source is that we integrated digital effects for the first time in history. There was opinion against it inside the company, but we obtained a synergy effect by adding Chorus and Reverb.

We aimed at "real" sound, but we could create the "ideal" sound around there.

The TR-808 and TR-909, which were developed long before D-50, aimed at reproducing real sound. However, in the end, a new sound which is simpler but stronger than real drum sound, without contaminating or being trivial, was born. And this is the "ideality". It doesn't mean just "idea" but also Theory of Forms (Plato), ideal, imagination, or creation. If reality is compared to a photograph, ideality is a painting.

Therefore, D-50's sound is like a painting of impressionism and abstractionism, and it is not a sampler but a synthesizer, which is a creative instrument.

Japanese anime has its special aesthetic standard; big eyes in small face, small mouth and chin. It looked strange to western people, but is well accepted nowadays. Aesthetic study, which is a study of aesthetic value, seems to become more and more popular now.

I think D-50 is just a milestone vintage of the transition period from analog to digital. I am proud that Roland was, and still is, searching for "ideality" in such transition period, and even now for the future.

Finally, let me express my big appreciation to Eric, Adrian Scott, and the engineers who worked for this project, and who became creative leaders.

We Design The Future.

Toshio Yamabata (Development Team Leader for D-50)

"The sound of D-50: neither digital, nor analog"

The D-50's synthesis caused unique overtone elements due to its special calculation method. This is why every sound from this machine has its own unique ambience and warmth.

I felt that these overtone elements added a kind of noise that we could not get rid of, which made me think this product wouldn't be marketable. During the development process, this noise actually turned out to be the D-50's character. It went so nicely with digital effects, and became a special air/ambience. In this way, such warm sound which is neither analog or digital was created.

Before D-50, it was normal to make sounds after hardware development, but for the D-50, Eric Persing and Adrian Scott participated in sound making and evaluation from the very beginning of the process. They understood the D-50's characteristics, and created so many new sounds which I had never heard before. In BANK-1 (11-18), we put our favorite and most characteristic sounds as presets. One of the characteristic sounds is "Digital Native Dance", which produces a special atmosphere. It is a PCM loop born by chance. An engineer, wanting to use many phonemes in one shot, combined them all into one loop. Eric (Persing), who happened to be there, noticed this and said, "That was nice!". No one knows if this engineer did it with intention or not. It is still unknown...

Kazz Takahashi (Development Engineer for D-50)

"Focused on Visual Interface"

At that time, Yamaha was recognized as the first in digital, with Roland being seen as an "analog brand" in the market. The project of D-50 started under such pressure among management and all the staff. The development of digital synthesizers encountered so many first trials, with so many headaches, however, all the members felt that they were opening up a new path, and thus we could keep working hard.

In most digital synthesizers of the time, there were no buttons or controls that could be operated intuitively, and an "info display" was a kind of industry standard. It was so hard to make sounds with those small displays and unusual parameters, having to go deep into a directory. Therefore, with D-50 we tried different visual and physical interfaces such as the joystick and "PG-1000" Programmer. Especially, the joystick enabled parallel handling of two parameters while playing, and as a result, unexpected sounds were born - this was really creative.

I was simply happy to hear such comments as "Oh, it is a Roland-ish synthesizer". I felt satisfied to be a part of the project. It is a big honor of mine to take part in Roland's historical first digital synthesizer. The D-50 is a great machine which produces unusual, and warm sound. Please give it a try whenever you can.

Eric Persing

(Original D-50 Sound Designer)

Eric Persing's unique sounds and best-selling virtual instruments are used constantly by top music producers from all over the world and can be heard on thousands of major albums, Oscar-winning films, popular television series and video game soundtracks. From the original "Hoover" to "Digital Native Dance" and many more, Eric has created some of the most iconic sounds of Electronic Music.

As Chief Sound Designer for Roland from 1984-2005, Persing was deeply involved in the development of the key sounds for many popular Roland synthesizers, samplers and groove devices - from the vintage Jupiter and JX series, to the legendary D-50, D-70, JD-800/990, S-series samplers, Fantom series, the V-Synth and many more.

Persing is best known today as the Founder and Creative Director of Spectrasonics, his company that specializes in developing ground-breaking software instruments including the award-winning Keyscape®, Atmosphere®, Stylus RMX®, Trilian® and their flagship synth Omnisphere®.

Eric's lifelong love of the creative process is the driving force behind his pursuit of musical excellence.
Watch Movie




admin

#16


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/patch-base/id1070270299?mt=8

https://coffeeshopped.com/2017/10/roland-d-05-editor-now-available
iPad Editor for Roland D-05



Today, Patch Base 2.8.4 is available, and it adds an editor for the Roland D-05. You have access to all of the D-05's parameters, and you can import existing D-05 (or D-50, D-550) patches as well.

This update also includes a rewrite of the Nord Lead 2 and Nord Lead 2X editors, making them look a little cleaner, and fixing a few important bugs with them!

Why a Roland D-05 Editor?
Some people who are more intimately familiar with the D-05 and the D-50 have asked why I'm releasing a D-05 editor, when the D-50 editor works with the D-05? There is a couple of reasons why:

Support. My approach with Patch Base is a "one synth, one editor" approach, meaning that even though some synthesizers have identical, or nearly identical, MIDI implementations as others, I plan to release a separate editor for each synth. I take this approach because sometimes there are small differences between synthesizers that can make supporting both of them in one editor a hassle. Also, this way adding new features to one editor later doesn't have to cause potential bugs with the other. It just keeps things simpler.
To make it clear that Patch Base supports the D-05. Even though the D-50 editor will work with the D-05, the majority of people don't know this. Offering a D-05-specific editor makes this clear.
This approach is not about charging someone twice for the same thing. If you have the D-50 editor, feel free to use it with the D-05 editor! Just know that I'm not going to officially support that. Down the road, it might turn out that there are hidden features in the D-05, or Roland releases newer firmware that adds features, you never know. And I want to make it easy for me to add support for those changes, without affecting D-50 editor users. Thanks for your understanding!

admin


Elantric


admin

#19


This  in depth Roland D-05 review by Gaz Williams ( SonicState) covers many common synth programming concepts shared with the Roland GR-55

watch and learn

http://sunshine-jones.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Kordbot-Manual-01A.pdf


The D-05 does provide MIDI MONO mode - crucial for expressive MIDI Guitar. Supports natural guitar playing techniques,used in Rock / Blues / Country / fusion guitar styles.  Separate MIDI Channel per String is necessary for independent  string bending playing styles


Rolloq

With Roland D-05 and Fishman connect, F-C1, I only get the sound on the high e-string. I tested Fishman connect, F-C1 with another hardware synthesizer and there all six strings worked. Also i recently updated Roland D-05 to system version 1.07. Have read through the parameter guide, where they mention these parameters page 45. Mode 1: Omni On, Poly Mode 2: Omni On, Mono
Mode 3: Omni Off, Poly Mode 4: Omni Off, Mono. But I can not find them in Roland D-05.
I havre also read the Roland D-05 manual on midi and tried some it but to no avail.

Roland D-05 worked  really well with Ftp wireless unfortunately I had  the Ftp wireless broken when I tried change the battery and bought Fishman connect instead.

Does anyone know why?
Rolloq

Chumly

#21
I find that connecting a MIDI keyboard is a simple way to isolate if it's the sound module or the controller, and of course MIDI monitoring software can assist http://www.midiox.com/

It's almost always user configuration error although it can be a cable problem.
I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. - Richard P. Feynman

Rolloq

#22
Chumly thanks  for the answer.
I changed the midi cables but the problem remains when i touch the unsound strings fc-1 shows that the midi signal is working but no sound.
Rolloq

Rolloq

Chumley i  missread your post but now i tested D-05 with a Roland A-pro 300 and there  is sound on all the keys.
So what can it be?

Rolloq

#24
Solved.
I noticed Fc-1 patches was on mono patches instead of poly patches and i had earlier changed to mono mode with ftp software so i switched back to poly mode and started to use the poly patches then i got sound on all six strings.
Today i was in a music store and change Roland D-05 to mono mode.
Rolloq