Roland D-50 | King of synthesizers 

I remember the first time I played the D50 in 1987 and was blown away by the factory presets. The George Michael Faith pipe organ and Enya pizzicato patches blew me away. However I was even more blown away a year later in 1988 when I played the Korg M1 for the first time! Oh my goodness, I thought that I was going to melt when playing the Universe program and hearing pianos, saxes, guitars and drums that actually sounded realistic. The D50, M1 and DX7 were the staples of 80s and 90s music.

I just set up my old D-50 after many years in storage. Thanks for re-aquainting me with my old freind.

I purchased my D50 when it first came out in 1987. I still have it to this day, it has never been on the road for anything and is in showroom condition. It's a fantastic piece of the 80's.

Nothing sounds like a D-50... I never forget when I, in 1988 at age 14, played my older friends D-50 for the first time and always dreamed of owning one. Now 33 years later I finally managed to get one in close to mint condition AND ! a PG-1000 - how lucky can one be ? 🙂 Only viewers of this channel will fully understand 😉

One of the best synthesizers ever produced in the late 80's.

Some of the presets in the D-50 are timeless and that's why a love it.

Actually, it wasn’t the technicians at Roland who came up with the idea for LA synthesis. It was Steve Porcaro of Toto, who was already using that technique by layering attack transient samples with his analog synths. Steve demonstrated his synthesis technique to Roland’s Ikutaro Kakehashi, and the rest is history.

The Roland D50 is the ONLY digital Synth of the 80s digital Synthesizers which i would gladly buy again in addition to my only D50. Difficult to program but my god does it open up SPACE for you when you load the proper presets.There is absolutely no other synthesizer like it which has such a "very-hard-to-narrow-down" sound aesthetic. Hard to put it into words. It's not as dry and glassy as FM synths but also not as cold and harsh as Wavetable synths. It is one of it's kind. A truly emancipated Synthesizer that literally makes you fly, both on a wave of nostalgia but also floating through time and space. No other synthesizer sounds like it. The D50 is eternal.

I love that 80's sound, it was part of my childhood. A chilhood that I want back so badly I can't even begin to tell.

The D-50 is my “home” keyboard. I played one as my main instrument during the late 80s/early 90s on hundreds of gigs. Solid build and very reliable. It never failed me. Didn’t always use the sounds live(I owned some newer modules) but 1 of my all time favorites.

My first synth was a Juno 106. Following the hype around the D-50, around 1988 I sold the Juno in order to buy one. In retrospect, considering how expensive the 106 now is, maybe I should have kept it, but in any case I still have my D-50, in a closet but with me! After having come across many videos like this one in which many people sing its praises, and realizing that in fact it is as good a synth as any, that I got sucked way too much into the whole software synth trend, I'm taking the D-50 out of retirement, will get it a fresh battery, whatever maintenance it needs, and will make it part of my renewed interest in hardware synths (just bought a Hydrasynth keyboard and a DeepMind 12 desktop).

i love the honesty and the generosity , you are not here to get subscribers but to share your love for the 80 s sounds. bravo !

Best demonstration of sound editing I've ever seen for a D50. You make it seem less mysterious.

You tune allways me in happy mood with that 80's groove!

Your chord progressions and song arrangements always make my day. Beautiful! So much to deeply study.

I like your demo a lot! The D-50 is great, beautifully KRAFTed sounds! Thank you for all that work.

One fun fact about the D-50 is that the bulk of the instruments in the Amiga 500 Soundtracker were based upon D-50 sounds. So around the late 80s/early 90s, the demoscene was crowded with tracker music using monophonic 8 bit versions of famous D-50 presets, becoming cliches in their own right. Pizzagogo became "Pizza" and Shamus Theme became "Shamus", both of which were way overused in the demo scene music at the time, at least until musicians got their own samplers and made sure to make their own sounds from their own synths. :)

Juno 2 - so much emotion

Keep these videos coming :) Your passion for 80s synths is infectious, and inspiring to me for the retro game I'm making. Firing up my Roland Cloud D-50 now to mess about!

Thank you Espen, bought the D-50 in Hong-Kong 1997, sold it a view years later and bought one in stellar condition together with a PG-1000 last year. So many good memories...

I love the clarity, depth and ambient qualities of those D-50 sounds!

Wow. I'm so glad I kept my D-50 that I bought in 1987. I have a D-05 as well! This is by far the best demo I've ever heard of the D-50. It reveals some magic I never knew existed in there. Please keep us updated on your patches for sale. I would love to buy them.

Sounds soooo good!! All those pads are so beautiful and rich... It's sometimes hard to believe these sounds are coming from a digital synth! Thanks for sharing, Espen. You truly are the 80s :-)

Great video, Espen!! I loved the way you explained the D-50 synth and those chords / atmospheres you were playing are to die for. The filter control was awesome, really smooth. It's my favorite synth (for nostalgic reasons). I remember the display to be green, though :^D Perhaps a replacement. Btw, personally I wouldn't call the D-50 a VA synth.... I think that's a rumor that DON SOLARIS :^D spread a few years ago - I'd call the first VA synth the Nord Lead / 1995.

The sound of every late 80s /90s corporate training video!

I've owned many different synths, but when I acquired one of these it was just fantastic, even now its lush sounds and pads are wonderful and expressive. For me, the D50 is number one even over 35 years later!

I really love your demos. You're great! Love the demo sounds at the end and also the song you've made. Fantastic!

Nice demo! Due to lack of space, I'm glad they offer a set of D-50 patches for my Integra-7. Together with all the other vintage patches, it's starting to feel like a Roland museum, highly usable!

Some of the best sounds I've ever heard coming from a D-50. Bravo!

Things are interesting second time around. It sounds so perfect and clean. The font on the logo is just as important as the sound.

One of the most iconic and famous synthesisers of all time! I very cool and interesting idea to combine the sound of a real instrument sampled for the first seconds and then combined with a digital synthesis, to create a whole new form of sound. Genius and inventive! I also love that demo song you did it’s so catchy and I can’t stop listening to it sometimes for how rhythmic and great it sounds, as well as those patch demos. Very cool and even inspiring! Great video as always Espen Kraft!

Thanks Espen for posting this fantastic video. I just acquired a Mint D-50 with the PG-1000 that was almost never used with all the manuals and blank card. I cant wait to start making music !

Thank you for this fantastic video Espen. For years I yearned for this synth, and it so happens to be that only a while ago I managed to find a (very) used one, bought it really cheap I was told it was completely broken (not so) So I was a little offish at first about playing it. A few nights ago at the studio I turned it on and started exploring. I mean deeply exploring it. I couldn't stop playing and being amazed at the sounds. I loaded different SYSEX files and each and everyone just took my breath away. This is a real jem and I am proud to be an owner of one...

Oh man ... every soundtrack from 80's movies just came rushing back! Love it :)

Those sounds and this composition really took me back! 😁 Good times! Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful and creative work!

I enjoyed listening to you getting into the D50 ..it was the first synth I ever bought back in the 1980s. Thanks🎹😊

The D-50 was my first ever synth, had it for many years. I kinda got tired of it at one point in the late 90s and had to sell it in a bad financial time... I regret it now, it definitely is a unique sounding synth. I especially loved to play with the joystick ;) some of the d-50 sounds can still be heard on some of my songs on this channel . Thx Espen!

Not going to lie, I've just gone and bought a D-50 after being reminded of exactly why I need to own one from this. Cheers Espen!

Espen you are the D-50 master and the blue screen perfectly fits the color scheme! My reason to buy the D-50 in 1990 was mainly for the Valhalla Screamin B3 card Had such a blast in church with those 64 organ patches!

Great video editing on the demo! All in sync too. The track is really well put together, and always interesting. I'm just about to take delivery of a D-50 and this vid has confirmed my decision to buy one.

I too heard this dermo'd in a music shop. Somewhere in Regent Street, London. Blew my socks off then and is still one of my favourite synths. Thanks for the classy run-through.

An hour ago, I added your name to “D50” in the search machine to check if you had some videos of this synth on your channel. I commented on that video of yours from two years ago about the D50. 45 minutes later and you’ve uploaded this one. Funny coincidence!🤣 excited to see the video!

Fantastic demo of the D-50 Espen, amazing sounds from you as per usual.

Great video and song. Your channel has the best 80s vibe. I love the sound of the D-50. Back in the day it was so revolutionary. The 80s were a magical time for the evolution of synthesizers. I would have no problem using a D-50 today, timeless sound. I am glad i lived through the years of the great 80s synth evolution. For me it all started in 1984. I wanted a YAMAHA DX7, but settled for a YAMAHA CS-01. When the D-50 came out i almost completely stopped wanting the DX7, lol. These days, If i was to buy just one old synth from the 80s, it would be the ROLAND D-50.

That Juno 2 pad is just heavenly !

Love the D-50. I never had one. Had a JX-8P. Have a Fantom now. Thank you for sharing.

Tack Espen! Den här videon är tillagad med kärlek.👍

Unreal 🤯, absolutely loved that song, just incredible, all of the parts but the lead is 😎...Thanks Espen...You are “The 80s” 😃

Great Video Espen Kraft! You are so right about the D-50's programmer. It really does seem to get in the way more than help when making patches :D

Uncle Espen strikes back! The coolest man on earth! The one who teaches us how beatmaking was born!

Amazing! Youre lucky to have one! every sound is nailing it and that itself is rare.

Thank’s for your work and videos, always love it!👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

One of the best synth of the history! The sound potential is so incredible ! The D50, the SY77 for the AFM and the JD800= Best digitals synths of the 90’s fof me...

Love and respect to everyone that made the 80's so amazing. To Espen Kraft for the amazing videos.

Thanks for sharing this video - helps to tune out from virus talk and just nerd out over one of my favorite Roland synths of all time

Thank you for making this video Espen! :) I recently picked up one of these at a really good steal. One of the most lovely sounding instruments I have ever gotten to play. :)

D-50, DSS-1 and Wavestation are my all time favorite digital pad machines!

Fabulous synth. It was my dream synth back then, but I could never afford to get one. I did have D-10 and D-20 at one point it time, but they did not sound as rich and lush. When Roland released the D-05 a few years back I jumped all over it and I tell you what Espen... I love it. The cool thing about the D-05, is I can take it around the house, it has a build it speaker (okay that is not good but that's okay) it has all of those after market sound cards preloaded and only at a fraction of the price of the original. I don't know if you have had a chance to play the re-pop version but Roland did a really good job of replicating the D-50. Thanks for the video.

I have the D550 and it's still one of the most emotive electronic instruments I've ever played. You can literally get lost in it. The Juno 2 demo in this video is absolutely fantastic

Wow! I love the way this synth sounds! I saw a D-05 video that went into making custom patches and I was very impressed with the results, even though programming it is different than what I’m used to. The UVI version is the closest I’ve come to working with it.

The Roland D-50 is the Enya sound! I just love those unique presets. The PG-1000 is a nightmare to me. I hardly use mine. I really need to sit down and try to figure it all out. The D-50 and D-550 are great synthesizers for getting that outer world sound. The Korg M-1 does a great job of this as well. I'm sure everyone reading this already knows, but maybe it's news to someone out there. Take care and keep the great content coming. Sam.

I've been looking for the final components to my time machine...this magnificent devise will be used to power my flux conpasitor (powered by soundwaves) which is controlled by my memotech computer..lol thnx for the vid! I've always wanted to create my own retrowave music.....and you just inspired me to do so! Thnx again!

Clear and precise! Congrats for the post. Amazing.

I love my D50 and PG1000! My first synth when I was 15. Still love it! The built-in effects was the primary reason I got that over the DX7IIFD. Also have the D-50 cartridge for my Roland Vari-OS. So it's like having 2 D50s! Also just got the Hypersynth memory card which holds 6400 patches (one for the DX7 also). It's amazing! Great video!

Love it Espen! When I played keys in bands in the 80s, my rig was a D50, an M1, a DX7, an Alpha Juno 2, an ESQ1 and a TR707

Thanx Espen, the D50 has so many merits on it's own, because it was used in so many songs. You can argue "it's not a proper this or that" but the guys using it could get their music out there, while the mockers who want to grow everything by themselves, did not get their songs out of the door, because they were all still tweaking their oscillators and fiddling on their filters... ;)

It is quite a powerhouse! I love blending it with my JX-8P😍🎶🎹 Great stuff as usual, Espen👍

I have been really mad at myself for selling my Roland Juno 60 years ago when the street price was less than 1/3 of what it is today. Then I remembered I have a D50 and after seeing this video, I'm not so mad anymore. You got some great sounds out of this machine!

I still have my Roland D-50, still in great shape and still sounds great.

That juno 2 patch is amazing!

Such an amazing synth. I never owned one at the time but I got a very close set of samples for my Kronos and it sounds like the real thing. Great video, thank you.

That Juno 2 patch is absolutely ridiculous! When the filter AT comes in - pure eargasm!

Yesss - it's really the king of the 80s beside the DX7. Still today one of my favourite synth. It has something magical and some sounds (e.g. Spacious Sweep, Soundtrack, Glass Voices etc.) that can't be generated by other synths. One reason for D-50's great success were its excellent on board presets - designed by Eric Persing. Eric Persing was a consultant and chief sound designer for Roland in that time. One of his most celebrated accomplishments with that company was programming many of the factory patches for the popular D-50 synthesizer, along with fellow sound designer Adrian Scott. 20 years later Eric Persing presented the VSTi Omnisphere....and made it to the king of vsti's...hehehe...again... Unfortunately most people only know those famous D-50 factory presets, that are maybe dated today, but it has also a huge potential for numerous modern sounds. Especially with tone stucture 1 and 2 it's like a great VA-Synthesizer too. Would never sell mine. Roland D-50 Celebration Moments with Eric Persing (Performance) - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VggsB5eZ0oM.html Mr Woofer - Molding Glass (Roland D-550 Demo) - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5T5WFGv9ZEM.html

Cool. I purchased a D-50 as my first keyboard back in 96, I still have it

That melody 😲 2:44 love it ! 👏👏👏 Very impressive... Thanks for the videos and tutorials ✌️

LOVE THIS! Definitely in your top 3.

What a perfect warm and lovely sounding synth. Wish we would have some sort today...

I bought my D-50 in 1987--traded in my JX-8P for it, as I could only afford one synth at the time--and I still have it. In my opinion, the best sounding and least cliche patches are those that use structures 1 and 2 (both synth, no PCM). With three envelopes, three LFOs, and ring modulation there is a lot of raw synth power here.

Bought the D50 new back in the 80s, sold it in the 90s. I regret that every day. When it was new I swear it had the most beautiful keybed I've ever touched. Really appreciate the programming you've done here.. Maybe I'll get another some day.

This synth has very nice sounds! For what I see, it's versatile, with many editable parameters, even in real time and has a wide palette of timbres. Thanks for the video!

When Reason finally got Midi out, the D50 was the first thing I hooked up. The brass patches sounds amazing arppegiated

My Dad’s D-50 was the first synth I started learning to program my own synth patches on. Was a fun one.

Sounds so good man! Great work

D-50 fantastic sound, and very nice demo song you made.

Amazing video, thanks! The D-50 remains my favorite synthesizer (unfortunately I've sold mine 20 years ago, be sure I regret).

one of the most expressive and inspiring synths ever created. i will never sell my D550. mine sits right next to it's older brother MKS-80 and MPG-80, but holds it's own with pride. this luscious monster doesn't get intimidated by pure analogs or pure waldorf analog filtered waveform synths or pure Yamaha FM beasts. D50/D550 is a synths that even after 4 decades, it will make you sigh.....like an old sweetheart never forgotten.

I still have my Roland D-50, and I absolutely love this synth. I also use this when I'm composing my music.

Great Video. The Roland D50 was my favourite Synth in the late 80‘s.

I could listen to the Juno 2 demo part for ever.

I had the D-70, -lovely pad machine, especially with the *analog feel* active...

Wow, I learned something that I NEVER knew. I liked the D50 but I didn't know that placing a digital or sampled attack on an analog sound could make that much of a difference!! I spent hundreds of hours back in the day trying to replicate sounds that I heard from the EMU and Fairlight with analog synths. Not obvious samples, but sounds that just sounded really cool... Excellent video!!

Great sounds Espen, the D50 has a great unique sound.

Back in those times I was a live gigging musician and I still am. I stuck to my Hammond, Rhodes Moog, Korg Dw8000, etc. ensemble I was right. Until the M1 the D50 nor DX7 never quite got there. It was about Piano's back in the day. that said, it was a lovely machine and one i wanted though not really sure why.

Nice. K1 and K4 from Kawai were very unique and awesome too( and also far cheaper) - and needed not fear comparison back in 1988

I have two units and love them. Thanks for the review!

God, those chord progressions with the "Juno2" preset was so beautiful and atmospheric. I think i levitated a bit.. thank you for that😄

I forgot to add, one area the D50 brings a little something extra, is that it's possible to slow the ADSR envelopes way down which allows you to create sounds that drone and change and evolve over several minutes just from latching a key or holding sustain. It's one of the only synths that can do that. It makes it excellent for pad sounds on movie and TV soundtracks.

I love the D50..and also Korg M1.. both Synthesizer are the perfekt Combo...👍❤👀

Never stop these videos ❤

Thanks for your reply to my comment on your D50 photograph tease earlier this week. You were right in saying that I'd probably love today's video. Amazing work, Espen!! I love your approach on using the D50's synth engine over its PCM-samples. As you say, I think the samples have their rightful place in music history and the sounds they were used for by the geniuses at Roland at the time (i.e. Eric Persing and others) are amazing and were one if a kind in 1987. But I think you debunked people's complaints about how artificial the D50 might sound from today's perspective by really showing how good the synth engine is, especially when combining it in all four partials. You showed how huge it can sound and that there's actually so much depth and warmth to it!! Keep it up!! Fantastic demo!!