Roland D-20: Sequencing external hardware tutorial

[@benharyo]

In the mid 90s I played with Roland D-5, and later upgraded to Roland JV80 and to XP10 in the late 90s. All three did very well for my purposes (I was in a Deep Purple cover band), but I remember that there was a D20 in my favorite music store. I always drawn towards the beauty of its appearance, and its built-in sequencer plus floppy. So thank you for the video, it brings back memories🙋‍♂

[@SeanPatrickFaling]

Dude! You and Espen do it right. You sold me on the D20, just got it! Thanks again for quality reviews and Demos!

[@theMIDImaniac]

You have no idea what a great comment you have given me. Espen is a huge example to me and I support him where I can. Enjoy the D-20! It can do much more than people think!

[@johnnydekock]

Great job Roger!

[@Hyper5nic]

Interessante video Roger! Heb zelf ook enkele vroeg-digitale synths, heb me gelijk geabonneerd op jouw kanaal en kijk al uit naar de volgende video! Ik wens je een fijn en creatief weekend!

[@theMIDImaniac]

Hoi Mark! Dankjewel voor je bericht :D Welke vroeg-digitale synths heb je staan? Bedankt voor je aanmelding en wederzijds wens ik je een fijn en eveneens creatief weekend. Groet, Rogier (is mijn echte naam, maar minder geschikt hier in Spanje en voor KZbin hahaha)

[@Hyper5nic]

@@theMIDImaniac Graag gedaan en de Roland U-20 en zijn rackversie de U-220 met een 7-tal RS-PCM-kaarten staan hier bij mij. Een leuke verrassing is dat bij deze verschillende patches tegelijk kunnen aangestuurd worden op hetzelfde MIDI-kanaal zodat men met layers en detune een veel vollere klank bekomt. Allemaal geleerd van een engelstalige gebruiker in Japan. :-)

[@archaicmelody8119]

4:18 that just answered a question I wanted to know the answer for the last month. I was looking at getting an Alpha Juno 1 its good to know it accepts velocity. Only drawback is if I do go for that synth I'll still be looking for something reasonably priced to use as a master keyboard.

[@faustocaruso296]

you dropped another bomb!

[@theMIDImaniac]

Thanks a lot! There's so much to explain more :-)

[@faustocaruso296]

@@theMIDImaniac definitely you are my hero!

[@Klaas-g3t]

Thank you, very interesting. I have the following question that you might be able to answer. Since the D-20, like all hardware sequencers at the time, does not have a swing/shuffle function, I want to start the D-20's sequencer from outside with a Roland SBX-1 or E-RM/Floatingpoint Multiclock via MIDI clock. Is this possible?

[@SergioVz]

Nice video! :) Saludos!

[@theMIDImaniac]

Muchísimas gracias!! Un abrazo!

[@SanplerVarondaro]

excelente saludos desde tijuana

[@anthonylee5834]

The MIDI Maniac , HI LIKE TO SAY HELLO FROM AUSTRALIA i have my d 20 still and would love to use it again !! you see i,m 83 years old and i just need to start up and i will be ok again for the life of me i cant remember how i did that ? really appreciate your obvious knowledge mate , all the best..tony lee

[@theMIDImaniac]

Hi Anthony, Thank you so much for reaching out to me. Yeah, the Roland D-20….I was king in 1988 with that unit. Drumcomputer, sequencer and a floppy drive. I spent days and nights with it. Please, tell me what I exactly can do for you. Normally it is turning on and start playing but perhaps you want to know more. Thanks for your reply. Best regards, Roger

[@anthonylee5834]

@@theMIDImaniac SORRY mate i just seen your reply and thank you for that . i,m with my d20 as i speak . in order to get recording pattern play i go through the manual and all i hear after doing same is the metronome no drum sound at all. great to hear from you and i hope all you may hope for in the new year comes your way

[@anthonylee5834]

the midi maniac my mate , thru watching your videos i,ve been able to achieve what i could not before , only have one more problem mate . been trying to connect my d 20 to the daw [ reaper ] i have appropiate midi leads etc but no success . not a midi expert by any means. forever grateful if you could help me get my d20 connected to reaper . hope you are staying well and that all you may wish for the new year come your way...anthony from down under..

[@vainsacrosanct2014]

Nice video man. Really like your channel. To what stand-alone Roland sequencer you can compare the D-20? Cheers from Antwerp! Grtz Ivan

[@theMIDImaniac]

Thanks Ivan! The sequencer of the D-20 can be found also in the MC-303. I don’t about the MC-505 but when I had the MC-303 I noticed that it works the same with the recording in song mode and the deactivation of tracks to trigger external hardware.

[@chrisroyer]

Hey, I used to have a d20 when it came out and I kept all the floppies of the songs I created back then. Do you happen to know if there’s a way to load these d20 files on a Mac and convert them into midi files for Logic Pro X?

[@matmoutvenom]

Can we save this sequenced song ? (In the D-20) ?

[@squishmusic]

Nice lil groove. Im not sure I get what 'clean loop' does/did. I notice a 'glitch' in timing when you are muting the tracks towards the end. Was this just a timing thing or something to do with clean-loop? So if I understand it, you set a x-bar length for the pattern, record 1--9trx, then they loop around and that is ONE pattern. You can then record other patterns to assemble as a song? In the other video you mention theres no copy function for any seq-function so I assume you if you want track 1 to be piano chords for 99 bars you gotta sit and play them all in one go live? or can you create a 4bar pattern for track 1 piano and then insert that pattern xx times? Yeah I know ...I should look at the MANUAL at this point :D I just found a D20 4 sale locally so interested how 'deep' the SEQ is :D

[@theMIDImaniac]

Clean loop to me means having all recorded bars played without an empty bar. To be honest...the sequencer is not that interesting compared to the Roland MC-500/MC-50. Also units from that time. The D-20 only works linear so yes...you have to sit down and record all 99 bars. No copy... And only the drums use patterns to create a song. So you have to linear record the bass, the chords, the solo etc. The D-20 can be bought for around 100-150€. Less is always better. Consider it as the cheap D-50 with a nice extra, the sequencer. Good luck on your decision!

[@squishmusic]

@@theMIDImaniac oh ok thanx for clarifying that. Well I have an ext SEQ just sometimes nice to sit and do a 'all in one box' track :)

[@_meechpeach]

Great video, very useful. One question, is it possible to get rid of that timing glitch when the sequence loops? Cheers.

[@theMIDImaniac]

Thanks! Well...the timing glitches are indeed a PITA. That’s why remove the Program Changed every time because the restart is like a complete new start with all midi cc info. The glitch can be avoided when using the D-20 as a midi slave to another clock. Then the D-20 has to follow that clock. Just tried it 😉

[@_meechpeach]

@@theMIDImaniac Oh cool! Thanks for replying 😀

[@theMIDImaniac]

@@_meechpeach always a pleasure. My saying: money can be shared only once, knowledge can be shared always.

[@krystianseibert6610]

Thanks for this video. If I’m buying one of these second hand, and have the opportunity to test it - is there anything in particular you would suggest I run through when testing it? (And of course I know it’s never 100% sure to be perfect when buying from another person) Seems like a great unit, both the in-built synthesis, and the sequencing capabilities.

[@theMIDImaniac]

Hi! The D-20 offers a test mode. Press EXIT+EDIT and turn the unit on and you’re in Test-mode. Then you’re able to to test all kind of parameters like working keys, sliders, memory, floppy and Leds. Good luck with it. And yes, do the test because after 30 years the unit can have some issues.

[@krystianseibert6610]

@@theMIDImaniac Excellent - thanks again. I just realised one broader issue I may have is that I wanted to sequence Volcas with it. But as they only have a MIDI in - it may not work well, as they don’t have a MIDI out. Or would that not be a problem - because whenever you’re sequencing external units using it, you need to run the sound out from each external unit anyway and through a mixer etc (because MIDI is just for note information, not the actual sounds etc)?

[@theMIDImaniac]

@@krystianseibert6610 well, you will have an issue when you have multiple units to trigger. You will need an external midi thru box because the D-20 has only 1 midi out and the volcas can’t be daisy chained (using midi thru)

[@krystianseibert6610]

@@theMIDImaniac Indeed - an issue with any external sequence for them. One thing I wish they had was a way to centrally change patterns saved on each Volca from one controller. Thanks again!

[@jerrywielenga3819]

If you are still around, is there a way to transmitt midi message from the sequencer? In other words, I sequence a song on the d20, can I play the d-20 and send the messages to a DAW and use the sounds on it? I seem to have done it for a couple minutes on my d20, but it kept sending the drum part, which I didn't want. I erased the drum part...but since then I can't get the d-20 keyboard to send midi messages when the sequencer is playing. I can do it when I hit the keys, but not during playback. Help??? :)

[@theMIDImaniac]

Hi! Try to ‘mute’ the track like I did in this video. When you mute the track, external gear is triggered, which means the D-20 is sending MIDI messages to the external gear. I hope it works. Good luck ✌🏽

[@stanleyvandenhoek9236]

Dude! I have a d20 and I love it. But when I try to send midi information (like notes) from my interface it says "midi buffer full". Do you have any idea how to fix this?!

[@theMIDImaniac]

It sounds like a midi loop. Do you have two cables connected? Midi in to midi out and vice versa? Is this in multi Timbral mode or performance mode? Take out the midi in on the D-20 and check if you can send notes to the interface. So only leave midi out d-20 to midi in on interface. Are you using a daw?

[@Lexinous]

Nice! A question: how many bars can you record each midi track?

[@theMIDImaniac]

Hi! Well, the D-20 works with a linear song mode. This means there's a maximum of 500 bars to be programmed. It works like a tape-recorder, 1 rhythm track and 8 instrument tracks with a maximum length of 500 bars. But there's a limitation of notes. I thought it was 40.000 notes for a complete song. I hope this helps.

[@Lexinous]

@@theMIDImaniac I see, Is 500 bars the memory limit or are they considered per program? Ty

[@anthonylee5834]

so sorry to annoy you again MIDI Maniac been following you as best i can ive achieved all thank you except for the life of me cant get any sound via the multi timbre mode , must have pressed the wrong button ? appreciate your comments as always thank you from australia.

[@carlmeyer6840]

I still have one in mint condition.