The Roland D-50 - A Late 80's Love Story

A documentary short on the Roland D-50 - A classic synthesizer from the late 80's which helped define the future of digital synthesizers for years afterwards.

[marsupialmicron]

Yes, those were the times. My father gave me a D-10 when it was release. I was so enchanted by it. The he gave me a Korg SQ-1 sequencer. How I miss my dad

[bluediamond]

I remember getting my D50 in 92. Paired it with a Korg M1. Best combo EVER. 30 years later in 22, they have been replaced with their soft synths. It's still the best combo EVER. 😊

[michaelmitchell]

Funny when you look back how exciting the 80s was, I remember getting my DX7 back then and carrying it all the way home on a train then walking miles with it in a big box lol. Lots of good synths came out in the 80s.

[MrJpbmusic]

Jean Michel Jarre's "Revolution" heavily featured a D 50

[LuiWallentinGttler]

I remember the D50 from my school in around '89 - '91. And although I was a drummer, I just remember all the beautiful sounds this thing could produce, when I fiddled around with it. Knowing very little about chords or musical structure, you could feel like Jean Michel Jarre by pressing a few buttons. So for the folks who actually used this, it must have been such a huge enrichment of their musical palette of sounds and creativity.

[RoyMaya]

My father purchased a D-50 when it came out. And I too was floored when I heard the Digital Native Dance preset. It was so new and fresh. 80's and 90's were exciting times for us keyboard players.

[OscillatorCollective]

The D-50 always reminds me of late 80s PRINCE…

[thoang]

My wife forced me to sell it. I regret ever since. I was so in love with the sound it made.

[stevefranklin]

I too was a teen in the 80s
The D-50 was my second synth
My first synthesizer was a Roland Juno 2
But the D-50 was special. It's the first keyboard I used in a band environment
Thank you for your videos

[MatthewChristianMurray]

Yes, you did the D-50! Can’t wait to watch.

[NikKershaw]

Roland D-50, without doubt one of the best synthesizer ever made. It can produce such wonderfull sounds.

[zmix]

The D-50 was everywhere in the late 80s.. I recorded them on tons of records.. Really excellent video, Johnny..!

[JLXcellent]

Lovely homage :-) I still have my D-50 right next to me! So many good memories from a lifetime ago! I still remember using it with my JX-3P, S-50 and Cakewalk 1.0. Wonderful retrospective and the Keyboard magazine flashbacks were a nice bonus. Keep it up!

[MrCaramelSnow]

Nicely done. In the late 80's I was asked to provide music for a play and I was having trouble with my Poly800 so I rented a D50 for a few weeks. I was stunned by the sounds it could make, one patch after another had these complex layers of lush tonal character. Every sound suggested new music. Whoever programmed this was a true sound artist. I hated returning it, and I can still hear its haunting sonorities in my memory.

[music]

Never able or even had the 💵 to purchase any synths in the late 80’s to early mid 90s.
I’ve finally purchased the korg m1 and Roland d05 synth.

Enjoying every free time I get to jam some great melodies and songs.
My teens have been restored 🎉🎉🎉🎉

[manmusic]

Man, that sure brings back memories. I got the D-550 when it was released and it was the main Synth in my rig. I too anxiously awaited my Keyboard Magazine to arrive to soak up all that was new and coming. Great video Johnny, keep 'em coming!

[andrewmarkusmusic]

Love this. I also had a Korg Poly 800 and other Korgs.

[oddities-whatnot]

I used to work for a large music retailer up north and ended up being the go to man for all the tech gear we sold in the shop. We had a room filled with synths, drum machines, sequencers, all sorts, all linked up to a mixing desk with speakers on the walls. It was like a mini recording studio in itself. Anyway, my boss said to me once “anyone who comes in with long hair on a Saturday, just take them in the back room and sell them something”. The shop was in a posh area and on Saturdays you would get a lot of wealthy people coming in to look at pianos. He didn’t want band members cluttering up the place, lowering the tone haha happy day. Really enjoyed it there.

[youngchool]

I, too, was becoming a teenager in early 80s and DX7, D50, and M1 were the star synthesizers of 80s indeed! 'DX7' written on the back of 'sythesizer' looked so cool and attractive! Now fast forward 1 or 2 decades, I was at an indoor concert and the keyboardist was filling the venue with the soundscape that I never experienced... grainy? gassy? bubbly? organic? I felt like I was immersed in musical Ether. Then when I looked up, there was a D-50 in action on the stage!The keyboardist was playing a D-50, not a Motif or Triton underneath it. My first thought was 'OMG? I know this one... D-50, from 1987, isnt it quite old by now?' Fast forward more years, I ended up buying a D-50 from a musician who played for Shelia E. Wow! That is my D-50 story. Thanks for the wonderful video Johnny!

[PGX]

Thank you for that really passionate and perfectly navigated research – historical – love letter/anecdotal account on this amazing synthesizer. I played your movie in the background as I was going to pick up the D50 from a seller. I played one in the middle of a trip with my family my parents when I was a kid… And the experience only being a matter of …well it actually probably was about an hour never left me. I would go on to never owning one being distracted by other releases until now in 2024… I had a D70 that was the closest D I ever had. The way that you know it has any sort of “analog-ity “ is if you take that synth and when you play it, it makes you want to play it and keep playing it. The D50 does that. The RS 505 does that. Certain boards place you into a meditative state. The guy that sold it to me, just said yeah you know you can play it for a while, and then sell it again they always go for a good resell value… And all I could think was, this almost was the one that got away. Welcome home.