Hi, I'm thinking of buying a Roland Synth to have a play with and start as a learning tool, one of my friends keeps telling me to track down a Roland D50 and says this was an excellent Synth back in the early 90s and they are pretty cheap to learn on and get to grips with, I have also had someone demo me a Roland dealer demo a Juno D which I was impressed with. I currently have a Yamaha PSR 500 which has lasted me a long time, but I would like to try something else. Can anyone advise. Thanks
Yamaha Motif is down in price ever since they came out with the Motif ES. Not to difficult to use, and it has much better sounds then the KORG. "coolertech" <> wrote in message news:... > Hi, I'm thinking of buying a Roland Synth to have a play with and start > as a learning tool, one of my friends keeps telling me to track down a > Roland D50 and says this was an excellent Synth back in the early 90s > and they are pretty cheap to learn on and get to grips with, I have > also had someone demo me a Roland dealer demo a Juno D which I was > impressed with. > > I currently have a Yamaha PSR 500 which has lasted me a long time, but > I would like to try something else. > > Can anyone advise. > > Thanks >
Several years ago I owned a Roland D-50. Last year, I bought the rack mount version, Roland D-550, from Ebay for a good price. It is a great sounding synth, but its main "flaw" is not being multitimbral. If you ever plan to hook it up to a midi sequencer, you will not be able to create multiple instrument compositions using just the D50/D550. If you ONLY are going to use it for playing, it does have good sounds. The only drawback is its sounds are a bit dated... Many, many recordings in the 80's used this synth, so anything you do with it might have an 80's sound to it. If you are still interested in the D50, look on Ebay (and elsewhere). If you can get one under $400, I consider that a good price for a model in nice condition. MAKE SURE it comes with the PN-D50-00 card. You will NEED that card to restore the original presets to the keyboard. The card can also sometimes be purchased seperately on Ebay, but do not pay an arm and a leg for it. At most, it is probably worth $10-$20. There are also four other cards available for the D50/D550, with additional patches on them. The patches tend to be rather good, but all you really need is the PN-D50-00 card, which has pretty much all the patches the D-50 was famous for. ------------------------------------------------ As for the Roland Juno-D, while I do not own one, I have tried one out. I think it is a very good keyboard. A few things it has that the D50/D550 does not: Multitimbral capability (you can use a midi sequencer to play up to 16 sounds at once from the keyboard, being a one-person band if you wish); Drums (the Juno-D, as most modern keyboards, contains several drum kits with just about every drum/percussion sound imaginable). If you have ANY interest in composing songs, setting up a home studio, the Roland Juno-D is a good way to go! If you are not on a tight budget, I would also look at the Roland Juno-G, which has a 16-track sequencer and a 4-track audio recorder built in. It costs a bit less than twice the price of the Juno-D, so it depends on how much you really need in a keyboard. ------------------------------------------------ ROLAND D-50: If you only want to play the keyboard, not arrange/compose songs; don't need drums ROLAND JUNO-D: If arranging/composing is important; If you need drum sounds ROLAND JUNO-G: If you want to compose multi-instrument songs and do not wish to hook up to a PC/Mac. ------------------------------------------------ I am not affiliated with Roland, but I have used their products for years.
Re: Roland D50 (Get More Info Here) One more thing I should mention... You can go to the Roland website rolandus.com and download manuals to many of their products, from the 80's to the present. While that won't tell you how the keyboard sounds, it will give you in depth info about its features. Also... If you wish to hear LOTS of samples of the Roland D-50, check out the SyhtnMania pages. synthmania.com http://synthmania.com/d-50.htm
