Roland D-05 - First Look and D-50 comparison 

Hi Mike and Jim. Nice to see you again around. Great and very clear comparison between the D-50 and the new Boutique D-05!!. The little D-05 is awesome and has nothing to be ashamed for :-) Cheers, PauloF

These new product really touch my soul making me remember the 80s when I was a commercial composer and I search for the new sounds we can create on the D-50, M1 and wavestation ... I need these one !!!.

Thank uou for the videos guys!! Not sure why the hate on the boutique line in the comments? I get there are some purest out there who want the originals, which is totally cool and I fully respect that. These new units give people who haven't had a chance to own the original to relive these memorable sounds and integrate it with our production, dj sets or whatever they want. Regardless of Rolands business choices, I think it's dope that we get a chance of owning these iconic sounds.

I just received the Roland TR-08. Now I need this as well. I'm going to compare the TR-808 with the TR-08. It should be fun! :)

Thanks for the video and demonstration it sounds incredible

What happend to 6.3 jacks & 19'' these days? How many desktops can fit in 1 studio?

Great video and review guys. I'm definitely coveting one! My favourite sound was Stereo Polysynth (55), and it's a shame that wasn't included in the demos

I bought a D-550 a few years ago and the output had a really weird problem that made it unusable. Glad to see an updated hardware unit.

XP30 has some of the D50 patches and sound good, also my V Synth xt with the D50 card is nice. I love the Roland sound and for any one wanting the classic D50 sound of yesterday Roland has made it available at a reasonable price.

Nice!! Wish it was a full size reissue, but I'm pe-ordering one now!

I think all these new boutiques are fun

I am sooo happy Roland is releasing this! How about a Boutique JD-800 / 990 with BUILT-IN SR-JV80-04 Vintage Synth expansion board with exclusive JD patches!! :)

Cheers guys, great demonstration of the D-05. Can't wait to order mine!

Thanks I still have my 2 D50 modules plus the D50 keyboard

Happy that i have not sold my d50. Always great synth 👍

The 80s will never leave.

Good recreations but with greater flexibility 👍 Thanks guys 😎

sounds absolutely the SAME! Huge well done work Roland!!!

Wow this is great!

This is one of the few boutique synths from Roland that I'd actually buy. This and the se02

excelente video colega saludos desde mexico

This is great! Thanks for posting this. So, around 10:00 in, where are the drum tracks coming from? What gear are you using for those? Thanks again!

You two gangsters *never* age!

Great video! Tell me, please, is it possible to return to factory settings if changes were made earlier? Are the presets compatible with the D-50?

Awesome, thanks for the comparison. How did you track them? It seems the D-05 lacks quite a bit of low end on most patches and sounds quite hi-middy. Is that just the D-05 itself or could it be due to something external?

Will the D-05 patches properly respond to pressure aftertouch as on the original?

I need to see Linndrum LM1 or 2 drum machine like the TR09 will buy immediately.

Whah!! Roland finally did it! Great sounding mini-D50. Super identical, close to original 95-98%. Samples is a real POWER =)) Ok, waiting for the incredible JD-800/990.

wow awesome:)))) thanks guys. I remember D-50 big instrument - legend:))

Not a bad little package. Maybe Roland should bring out more digital synth boutiques as a pose to ACB emulations . In my head it kind of makes more sense. Very very close in sound . Here some suggestions Roland : Roland JD 98 , 800/990 combo with all the pcm roms installed. Maybe a W 03 advanced sampler, thou not sure how you could load your old disks. Perhaps just a Sd slot. Anyway great demonstration from you guys and a well played to Roland this time round.

Yes!! It supports d50 sysex files, i can take my d50 on the go now, how exciting :)

Roland stated publicly that a decade ago when they made the D-50 emulation for the V-Synth & VariOS; the article said they went into the archives and used the original programming from the D-50 and basically ported/translated it for the modern systems. So of course it'll sound exactly the same - other than the DACs on the 80s keyboards, I know the DX7 had a 12-bit DAC for output which made it more gritty than say a Korg Volca FM...Roland commented when they did it a decade ago that the sound output was cleaner for that reason. The PCM samples it uses for the attack partials are all 8-bit! ALSO - much respect for showing sounds that are important and classic!

cool that joystick and chase are modelled. what's the poly, anybody know?

However, the question of which sound path was used for the demonstration?

Okay...SOLD. That Soundtrack demo did it for me!

It sounds really close but I do have to say I noticed the reverb on the new one sounds like it has lower resolution. It sounds a little "echoy". Also the "tone" portion of the sound seems a little brittle like it been slightly bit crushed. Some patches are right on though.

Not is multitimbral? Same the original?

I made also a comparison with D-50 PC card from V-Synth XT! All of these three sounds very similar. Amazing!

So, the touch strips are for Scene One and Scene Two? Would these allow for deep editing of parameters like the PG-1000? Can they be assigned?

The Re-Revolution of Music HAS BEGUN!

how many parts can it play, from the original d 50s 1 ?

Please help, I'm trying to save a patch, but it tells me that the memory is protected, I've disabled it in the function menu and I was able to write the edited patch, but when I restart the D-05 it goes back to factory settings and the memory protection reactivates. So basically it's not saving any edited patches. What I'm I doing wrong?

Should the D-05 send and receive sysex from any D-50 software librarian via midi? either USB or 5 pin?

That sounds really really good..

There is a difference in sound but they sound close, it seems as if the 05 has more highs/mids but for 350 this is a great product

I'm usually one of the people that gets hated on in the comments for saying the original sounds better (in the case of the JP-08/TR-09/TR-08/etc. where it was SO obvious) - but in this case.. I'm sat in a dead silent room with great monitors and I really struggle to hear a difference here. Horn Section sounds very slightly brighter on the D-05. Fantasia sounds VERY slightly more pleasing on the D-50. Soundtrack sounds a little cleaner on the D-05. But these are really really extremely small differences on the order of

Pizzagogo: AKA the Enya preset lol

The difference is really quite minimal, there is a bit more weight and heft to the original but not much. The effects don't sound as expansive though. They did a damn good job! Let's hope they release a programmer!

where have you guys been

One thing they failed to mention was the original D50 keyboards MIDI was s-l-o-w. (Not the D550 rack version though) Also, I wonder if the PG-1000 controller would work with this?

Can it's presets be erased and initialized?? I like to start from scratch rather than tweaking to taste

@ADSR Music Production Tutorials 2:16 Now, I've discovered what sound from the Roland D-50/D-05 they've used for the famous and funny Macintosh Quadra 660AV death sound...

The D-05 sounds a bit brighter to me, and to be honest, I think I prefer it over the sound of the D-50. The highs can always be filtered out if the mix asks for it. Neat stuff, Roland!

Which sound mode are you using on the D-05 in this, the "Original" (more like the D-50) or the "Clear" (newer inception)? I believe by default it's set to the new 'Clear' sound mode which is supposed to be more clear than the original D-50 but the 'Original' would be closer to the original sound. Good demo.

the original has a slightly bigger low frequencies but you would never notice it in a mix. also the reverb tail is a bit different...great job by roland

Is the D-05 just the Cloud D50 in a module? Or is there a difference? For what it’s worth, I am a very pleased owner of Cloud D50. And Cloud Juno-106. I chose those two to keep after my subscription ended.

I'm kind of surprised they didn't improve the interface. No sliders or knobs? are the touch strips good enough for editing?

What's the intro he's playing at 4:25? I know it but can't get the name! Driving me nuts!

Awesome comparison. What drum sounds were you using on fly fairy?

Will there be a software editor?

are the drumkits in the latter part of the video included as well or were they external?

Bloody hell, rolands costing me a bomb im just saving for sh01 and 808 boutique .. now this

Wait, so based on Water Drops, does this have something similar to the Wavestation's wave sequences, or the drum beats are pre-recorded?

What song is the part they played with soundtrack from?

Can't believe you guys didn't play the one and only STACCATO HEAVEN :-/

What's the riff @ 4:26 ?

Both sound great and are very similar. But I detect a little fuller sound with a tad more bass and heft in the original D50 also some extra resonant timbres. I agree with Marvin the D-05 seems cleaner.

2.12 sounds like the very beginning of when you used to turn an original Playstation on. But the comparisons are spot on. Is pizzagogo used in ENYA?

It would be interesting to hear some phase cancellation between the two.

is the d05 multitimbral?

I NEED THIS

Having a Real Orginal D-50 and paying what I did for it at the time. I like it. To me the Original D-50 sounds fatter, by a little not much. I do think this I a great device for 349.99

Do you know if the infamous MIDI lag has been improved on the D-05? I assume it is, but just wondering if you guys noticed it.

Sounds great to me the original has a little more warmth or maybe it's noise and the new model has great reverb but of course it's more modern tech.

Awesome!!

Original has a more pleasing and less piercing top-end IMO. A tad bit of EQ on the 05 should solve that. Great product!

Spot-on recreation of those iconic presets. Probably much easier than modelling analogue synths. Expect we'll be hearing more classic D-50 sounds from now on.

Fantasia is back. Very cool.

What about programming this thing.. they going to release a mini PG-1000 too?

Somebody knows if this device comes with all card sounds??

Yes I my ears can hear the difference and I guess Expansive is a good description but I’m still getting one. Doesn’t take geniusity (not a real english word) to get the D-05 to an expansive sound quality. Found one for $250 and I have a W30 for a controller!

Boutique version has a bit more high frequencies but fortunately they can be filtered out later.

i just ordered the D05 and I don't know how to play any song

thanks

I wasn't all that enamored by the Jete Strings recreation at all! The tail on Living Calliope, leaves a bit to be desired too. Oh, I've just seen the price. Cancel everything I said previously!

The world's gone nostalgia mad. The D-50 only had 3 good sounds and they have all been used 30 times each in 300 no.1's. You can't get any more sounds coz it's not possible to program it coz it's too hard. Having said that, it was fun seeing people leave Fairlight CMI's in the corner of the studio to just lay down another 'Digital Native Dance'. I want one! But then again, I'm one of the few people that probably spent over a year learning how to program 'Linear Arithmetic' synthesis. On a D-20, which I know is not the same. But then again, I learned how to program FM synthesis on a 4-operator version of the DX-7. Again, not the same. But still, when I have FM7 and FM8 in my hands, I have a rough idea of what it's all about. This looks like a very cool little toy. Love the controller. Kudos to Roland.

OMG OMG OMG OMG Where do i order one now!

velocity AND aftertouch?

Why not make the touchstrips the data entry devices for programming it?

love the 909 shirt !

can you load d50 sounds into the d-05?

What??? Where's Staccato Heaven -- the most ubiquitous D-50/D-550 patch of all time? Anyway, comparing a digital synth to a digital synth and that they come remarkably close, not so surprising and down to splitting hairs (D-05 sounds a bit brighter). But taking an analog synth like the Jupiter-8 with discrete oscillators and other components and comparing it to digital chip synth like the JP-08, that's where coming really close in a comparison test becomes noteworthy. Back in the day, a square wave on the Jupiter-6 with it's Curtis chips came no where near the Jupiter 8's square wave with the 8's insanely rich harmonic content produced by it's discrete oscillators. Same could be said of the Prophet-5. The Curtis chips introduced in Rev 3 brought oscillator stability but took away the heart, soul, and warmth of the machine. My D-550 is still rocking to this day. Just fired it up the other day and it still sounds as good as it did when I bought it back in '87.

Esta excelente

Clean mode! That's great!! The original was bloody noisy. The effects were noisy; the PCM samples had lots of aliasing in the upper region. I want to know more about that "clean mode". It may make me buy one...

Is the D-05 programmable?

It would be nice if it was multi-timbral , so you could layer the patches.

It sure would be nice instead of demos of synths that sound 'almost as good" as decades old synths, Roland came out with some stuff that sounded better than the old synths. Don't get me wrong - it is a great deal for the price - but that doesn't matter to those who want the best sound. Come on Roland, it is 2017. Put something out for the high end of the market too.

Excelente maquina el roland d-05 saludos desde Buenos Aires Argentina 😀🇦🇷🌎👍👍👍🥇

will the PG-1000 work with it?

Does Mike still rock the MV-8000?