Roland D-20: Quite a lot better than you might think. The nostalgia factor is strong in this one. 

Sorry to hear. My Dad bought his D-20 new when they were released and it's still going strong - as a MIDI controller. So it's been around my whole life, the sounds are always gonna sound chessey or at least dated to me. Always hated the piano sound. New workstations may have more polyphony & parts, but they're pretty much the same thing going on as the D-20, with all the updates time and technology progress has given us. I really enjoyed exploring every bank of every card he had. I can accept that I'm soured on it because if you grew up with these sounds when they weren't even current anymore, you'd get bored of it after like 25 years. One thing i agree with the video - it's not NEARLY as difficult to wrap your head around the programming as it seems initially. I sampled Warm Pad Fade & Harmonicity into my MC-909 groovebox, those are always good. Agreed sound around 8:30 is very warm & nice. I shouldve tried PROGRAMMING it myself more, like I did with every subsequent synth I crossed paths with.

I'm in the same boat! Bought my D10 back in 88 and used it for a number of years. Now, the battery died and I need to restore the sounds (I can play it using expansion cards). Doesn't seem hard to do based on videos here on youtube. I'm planning to resurect it and my old Mac+ to show my kids all the old tracks I worte back in the day. :)

@@EricTheDane You should absolutely go after replacing dead 'PRAM' batteries in 80s electronics lest they eventually burst or leak corrosion over the motherboards - it really is easy, its like doing a watch battery.

Have you tried squeezing the pins that hold the CPU in place? I'm sure there is a tutorial for that somewhere online. It helped my D-10

@@carlgeorgbiermann2915 This is usually the cure for the problem. Strange but simple.

The built in demo songs were great. I also liked the big band song.

👍👍 me too

me too

I loved Mergatroid too

Gotta love those slightly crunchy drums 😁

I agree

I'm pretty sure I've heard it in at least few Italo House tracks.

@@Blahdnb The organs crop up all over the place too.

@@Blahdnb Very possible, but as is the case with The Happy Monday's "Step On", it is more likely the Roland piano you heard was from the Roland U-220 or U-20 RS-PCM module/keys of the same period.

PS1 intro was composed of D50 sounds IIRC. However both synths can share same patch.

@@B1SCOOP no English speaker. IIRC???

@@lucobek8821 "If I Recall Correctly"

Pretty cool reminds me of frankie knuckles the whistle song

Thanks and welcome ! :)

yeah it is typical Estuera sound, love it :-)

I also had D-10. Full of great sounds and drum sounds are excellent! My D-10 lost it’s battery power later (I think) and all the patch names were gone. Some of them I could remember by numbers and sounds were still there. I also had a memory card with my own patches but it was dead after years. It was with me many years still but I didn’t use it - now I can’t understand why. But I gave it to a friend who collects old music gear like this.

substitute for the d50 NO another fantastic animal YES LOVE MY D110

Indeed the D10/20 drums are all over that album and are so recognisable.. I had a D-10

Yes indeed. The D-10 and D-110 will do the same sounds. The only difference is the sequencer but nobody will need that in 2021 I guess :D (I certainly don't) It also really surprised me in a positive way. I initially loaned it from my friend just for the challenge of it but in the end it didn't take that much work to get it sounding really nice.

@@Estuera There are great 3rd party sounds for these

@@Estuera I wonder if the D to converters are the same for D20 D10 and the D100

I'm quite sure they are actually.

+1 here... :)

I did something similar pairing this with an EMAX. We played videos on stage or a guy who was with us for a while would play all these tape loops. Eventually I moved to a Sony Minidisc for the main tracks to eliminate loads and played over the top.

Agreed. I might be creating some rave and tech stab samples before I give this synth back to its owner 😁

That would be very nice 😁

It;s like D-50...Adjacent

I think that's the thing indeed with this synth. I doesn't seem very exciting at first but once you start writing a track you discover all the sounds fit very well and the final result becomes more than the sum of the parts.

Merci :)

The dust on the one I loaned almost seemed glued on. I hope yours is a bit cleaner.

It's quite dirty indeed. It's not mine so I only did some superficial cleaning when I got it. Only after seeing the video footage I noticed it was quite bad. Usually the lights aren't that bright here and I'm not looking at it from 10 cm height :D

yeah this is by far the very best thing I've heard multitimbral created on a D5/10/20/110. I can't get down w the drums still (but what can you do about that?) but the melodic sounds WOAH, nice programming

That's a fact. Nowadays a synth like this is quite nice as it offers some quite nice sounds and everything it doesn't do you can fix with outboard fx or plugins. And obviously multitracking it is quite easy now. I can totally understand how frustrating it must have been when it was still new. The same experience I had with the MC-303 when I got it in 98, although I actually figured out how to use it multitimbrally. Still didn't solve the problem of only having one stereo output. Luckily nowadays we can have the best of both worlds, combining these synths with the power of the modern DAW.

Or simply transpose the keyboard ;) I guess that assistant didn't have his coffee break yet :D

Well it depends what you consider to be a 'hit' :D but within the trance scene I guess I had my share. It's really great though to reach a different audience with my music through these videos. Imo the best 'cheesy late 80's' synth is going to be the M1, but I'm biased towards dance music off course. For all round 80's vibes the Roland D-series are very nice as well. The D-50 has the famous presets off course but as you can hear the later D models aren't that bad at all. If you're looking at getting one I'd recommend looking for the D-10 as well, same sounds but no sequencer so it might go for a lower price as it doesn't have all the 'features' (that you won't need anyways)

@@Estuera Oh perfect! Yeah I'm using a Polyend Tracker as my core sequencer, so a synth without an unneeded sequencer is fantastic for my budget! I've also been shopping for an exM1R rackmount. Thanks for this, I'll keep you posted

I had the D110 in the same year, it served me well and I sold it in the early 90s but got the exact same unit I sold given back to me a couple of yrs ago for free with all my late 80s patches still intact, I personally still love the sound of these, same with the K1 and Poly 800, all have that lo-fi 80s sound.

Same here! My first synth as a teenager until my beloved D-20 got stolen. I miss it dearly