Roland D-20 v D-50 pt 1: Comparing sounds, sound demo

Opening the new year with a sound comparison between the #RolandD20 synth from the end of 1988 and the #RolandD50 from 1987 in order to see how much they differ in sound. Tell me what you think in the comment, thanks!
2:18 Skip the talk, hear the sounds
Also check out these D-20 videos
Part 1 • Roland D-20 pt 1: Perf...
Part 2 • Roland D-20 pt 2: Perf...
Part 3 • Roland D-20 pt 3: Perf...
Part 4 • Roland D-20 pt 4: Perf...
Part 5 • Roland D-20 pt 5: Perf...
Part 6 • Roland D-20 pt 6: Perf...
In November I spotted this old synth with issues offered at a low price, since it had some issues. Since I've had the big brother Roland D-50 I was curious to hear, if the #rolandd20 would sound the same or maybe better, having been released 2 years after the D-50. I was not too impressed with the D-20 at the time, since I had no need for a sequencer and did not understand multi-timbrality. It just felt like a lesser D-50.
Now I'm giving both synths a sound demo run together, looking for sounds that sound similar, so you can hear the differences more clearly. In part 1 I pick out sounds mostly namned the same from both synths, in part 2 I will test a few sounds that someone made trying to imitate D-20 sounds on the D-50.
#synths #synthesizers #keyboardist #music #improvisation #roland #rolandd20 #rolandd50 #synthsounds

[@EG-gt7te]

It is unbelievable that the both synths come from the same vendor! Simply, D50 sounds like a synth while D20 sounds like a counterfeit dummy of the synth, so rough and lifeless.

[@patsonmusic]

Playing presets it is hard not to agree with you! I think you can get some nice sounds out of the D-20, if you dive into programming them yourself. That said, I really like the warmth and wideness of the D-50 sounds, so for me the D-50 is a keeper.

[@maccagrabme]

Sometimes the D50 can sound a bit too glossy and hifi thats where the D10/20 is better for layering imo.

[@bbeightynine]

Very much so. I need a D50

[@MichaelSouhoka]

D-50 is better than D-20, but the uniqueness about D-20 that it is a multitimbral synth which includes the rhythm part, while D-50 is a single synth. Moreover, some D-20 synth patches like Ice Rains, Polysynth, Echo Drop, are inherited into Sound Canvas patches, and becoming the part of General MIDI patches. Besides, D-20 has it's more value version, D-10 and D-5 which is the same as D-20 minus the sequencer feature and the floppy disk drive, and the rack module version D-110, and the compact module version, MT-32.

[@doordedeur]

I believe Roland has put different patches in the D-10/20, so it would differ more from the D-50. But I think most of the D-50 patches will be compatible with the D-10/20, only without chorus and eq.

[@patsonmusic]

Yes, some patches are very similar, some are very different, despite them having the same name. And probably also different patch designers did the factory patches.

[@studiodw12]

I had exactly both the D50 given to my son and the other sold I miss it does the emulation work as well This material is professional, it costs a lot to manufacture

[@patsonmusic]

Nice! What did you think about them both at the time? Did you prefer one over the other in some way? Here's a series where I'm playing both D-50 and the Roland Boutique D-05 . I think the D-05 sounds great and is a nice substitute for the D-50. It contains all the cards Roland released plus 8 user banks of patches. And if I layer both synths it sounds really massive. Check it out kzbin.info/www/bejne/hmSQnYx-j9iIiqc

[@studiodw12]

@@patsonmusic I am one of those who sold or gave them away at a time when it “was” almost obsolete. we all regret them the D50 is heavier and more professional, I think it's better to combine with another type of sound, Yamaha or Korg in a complementary way, or even with an organ or piano the D20 was combined with a Yamaha DSR2000 to "try" to make EQUINOXE it was in 1990 something like that even finding one, you need the parts and the repairer for maintenance and overhaul, so a real budget

[@patsonmusic]

@@studiodw12 D-50 sure is built like a tank, but also D-20 was very sturdy. My FA-07 feels like a feather in comparison. 🙂

[@studiodw12]

@@patsonmusic today the D50 would surely be very expensive in the 1990s having the D20 and in addition a Yamaha was already a lot at 20 years old, we took used ones, new ones were rare and expensive have you seen the price of a Jupiter today?

[@patsonmusic]

@@studiodw12 Neither D-50 nor DX-7 are very expensive today, you can get them for 400-600€ even in pretty good shape. The Jupiters are very expensive and also expensive to maintain so I'm personally pretty happy with the newer versions, the Boutiques like JU-06a or JP-08, or Jupiter-X myself. I've had my D-50 since I bought it new in 1989. I also had a Juno-2 but sold it to get the D-50. I regretted selling it and bought a Juno-1 a few years ago, which is a great sounding synth!

[@matthiasstock9620]

Worlds apart. The D-50 sounds so much better.

[@patsonmusic]

Yes, I agree!

[@marcump]

I like the D-20 also@@patsonmusic

[@whatistau]

Crazy thing is that D20 is all Drexciya. That shows its not the synth, but how you use your imagination. Thanks for the video!

[@patsonmusic]

Very true! Interesting, I was not aware of that! Have to give Drexciya a listen. Thanks for watching!

[@whatistau]

@@patsonmusic Nice! Bass on "Depressurization" is one of the best

[@Frontier2000AnoDomin]

We still have an old D-20 lying around. It does sound "crusty" compared to the D-50. That said, it had an 8 track built in sequencer and was handy for live gigging and programming keyboard parts if you were short a keyboard player.

[@patsonmusic]

Yes, they sound very different. The 8 track sequencer was a great feature. Sometimes I wounder why they didn't build it with the D-50 engine.

[@funkmachine6420]

I have a D-10 which I really like, but defo gonna look for a D-50 as well! Great video

[@patsonmusic]

Thanks!

[@oupahens9219]

Nice combination. Use Drums and Bass and some multilayered sprinklers from the D20 and then chords and solos from the D50.

[@patsonmusic]

Sounds like a great concept!

[@flexiblemusica]

I used D20 Sounds and Sequences + U20 in 90´s Great Sounds Great Combination!

[@patsonmusic]

Nice! I did have the U-110 module which now sound very dated and limited, but it was probably the first Roland with a pretty good acoustic piano sound. Never played a U-20, but I have a U-220 module waiting for me 🙂

[@gieselats]

My personal feeling is that the D50 sound is „better“, more distinct or more depth. Sorry! I can’t explain it really good. I am not a musician. Keep up the good work.

[@patsonmusic]

Thank you! Yes, I see what you are saying. It is probably due to a wider sound with more movements, the D20 sounds a little more sterile. And these keyboards may also have different digital to audio converters which affects the sound, making one sound fuller and the other thinner.

[@Super-Data2001]

Pretty close but in my opinion it depends a lot on the way the sysex was programmed and it is necessary to take into account that the sampling frequency with regard to the PCM part on the d50 is undoubtedly higher in 44.1khz and that it integrates better effects

[@patsonmusic]

Yes, the warmer sound of the D-50 is apparently due to better samples, but also the synth part feels warmer. That said, the D-20 has some great sounds on its own, which I realized playing through the sounds in Nov/Dec.

[@Super-Data2001]

@@patsonmusic I bought a d110 for €40 which is obviously the RACK version of the d20 d10 (I don't really know what the differences are apart from the sequencer and the floppy drive) this machine, behind its romper appearance, is a real, truly underrated synthesizer on the other hand when it comes to ergonomics there is enough to end up like Jack Nicholson in The Shining😅

[@patsonmusic]

@@Super-Data2001 That's a great price for the D-110. Basically they are all the same, the D-10 is the D-20 without the sequencer and the floppy, and the D-110 is the rack version. As far as I know there are no differences. I can really relate to ending up like Nicholson 🙂. Roland's 80s gear have pretty complicated user interfaces and rack modules are usually painful to program. Fortunately nowadays there are some nice editors available to help you out, CTRLR is one supporting many synths and Edisyn is another great effort in bringing editors to the people.

[@Jinji11]

Sweet vid. But for real. It’s lame how many people wanna dog on the D-20. We get it, you love your synth. D-50’s are getting expensive. They both sound awesome. There are people who can play on micro key Casio’s and make them sound good. They can all sound good if you know how to play them and/or combine them with other gear. It’s fun to hear two synths of a similar technological era. Thank you for sharing

[@patsonmusic]

Thanks! Yes, although I like the D-50 more, I think you can get some great sounds out of the D-20 if you put the time into programming your own sounds. I've heard some great sounds from D-110/D-10 which are basically the same engine.

[@chloedevereaux1801]

d20 came out a year before the m1, and IT was the first true ws not the m1..... as it had an onboard disk drive ( not expensive ram cards ) a full 250,000 step seq ( not 7,700 ) and more patches and combis....

[@patsonmusic]

You may mix up release dates with the D-50, since that came out the year before the M1. Now when I checked some old issues of Music Technology magazine, to refresh my own memory, the July 88 issue features the Korg M1 and the October 88 issue features the D-20. That also supported by my memory of my youth bands, because I had the D-50, my friend had the M1 and we were discussing which one was better. I swore by my D-50, but have to admit the M1 piano, which later became known as THE PIANO for house, was much better than the D-50 pianos - although I probably did not say that out loud 🙂 I do not actually remember the capacity of the M1 or the D-20 sequencers, but those awful proprietary cards where just too much. Low on capacity, only 64 to 100 sounds and very expensive. The floppy disk drive was a relief, and a few years later I used to program some song structures on either a Roland W-30 or a Yamaha V-50 for some music projects, and the floppies were such a blessing with the added capacity they provided.

[@sergiodeoliveira5358]

D20 and M1 both were announced at 1988 winter NAMM. D50 came out in 1987.

[@marcump]

I like some better on the D-20 (mello) and some on the D-50 (more brass) I was hoping you would play both together. I bet by adding digital effects to the D-20 you'd get an amazing sound between them. The D-20 is almost the same but without the digital processing included on the D-50. I have a D-50 and a boutique D-05, but now I want a D-20 also to layer sounds.

[@patsonmusic]

Some lead sounds were really great on the D-20, so definitively D-20 can do well, too. I feel that in a direct comparison D-20 sounds a little thinner, but I also did a separate video series on the D-20's sounds here offering a lot of nice sounds kzbin.info/www/bejne/hGWUlWOtnpukZrM Here is a more direct comparison of both synths and (almost) matching sounds. kzbin.info/www/bejne/a6aYiZajabR5rJY I also think the D-20 sounds really good, if you make your own sounds. And extra effects are really helpful, too.

[@patsonmusic]

Would you like to hear some layered sounds from both of them? Maybe I can try a few sounds like that. Are you happy with the D-05? Does it sound like the D-50? I was curious about the D-05 when it came out, but frankly I was not yet back into playing synths at that point, so wouldn't have made much sense to get one.

[@marcump]

yes, the D-05 sounds identical.. and when controlling the D-05 via the D-50 and mixing the sound through the mixer you get double D-50 sound.. run one with additional effects and mixing is fun. I actually like the difference in the D-20.. it would be fun to run the D-20 through similar digital effects.. the D-50 on one mixer channel and the D-20 on another through an effects loop and blend.. use simialr sounds from each or mix it up. Also, The great thing is.. the D-05 comes loaded with the entire D-50 library both in ROM memory and in the init patch memory. you can load your D-50 from the D-05 and use like a SSHD to swap out patch banks without the need of the internet or a computer patch library. @@patsonmusic

[@marcump]

Keep them both for sure

[@patsonmusic]

@@marcump Using the D-05 both as a polyphony/sound doubler and as an external bank sounds like very good usage of it. It is nice that D-05 has all memory cards issued by Roland onboard!

[@sundenis]

I think it is not correct to compare D20 with D50.

[@patsonmusic]

Why do you think so?

[@sundenis]

@@patsonmusic there is no "versus" here, the D50 is the one to get, the D20 is the crappy knockoff that shares the same letter and the number zero. I used to have both and these are quite different.

[@patsonmusic]

@@sundenis Yes, I agree! I thought the 20 would be a multi-timbral 50 based on the name, but playing both the 20 by itself and together, it became clear they are sonically very different. D-50 feels almost analog at times in comparison. It was a nice to run them side by sode, but D-50 is the keeper!

[@cyberrealmagicpro506]

D20を使いこないしてね🎵

[@patsonmusic]

Thanks for watching! However, I decided to pass it one to the next user, who seems to be the right guy for this keyboard. He had one from before and was really into still using it.

[@cyberrealmagicpro506]

残念🎵裏コマンドでムーグ並みに拡張出来たのに😢​@@patsonmusic

[@patsonmusic]

@@cyberrealmagicpro506 Oh, that sounds interesting! Is there a video demo of the sounds you were able to make?

[@daniels874]

Difference is like ...Upper one is for child that you love, care soo much ,you bring him heavens and other one is for unwanted kid, that you dont give damn 😂😂😂

[@patsonmusic]

They all have their own flavours, I think. D-20 is not bad, it is just very different - and it does not have the same warmth as the big brother and lacks aftertouch keybed, too.

[@RobertWrightOneManCovers]

Can you not hear octaves or something?

[@patsonmusic]

Yes, can you? You probably noticed that many of the sounds are actually tuned an octave higher on the D-20 compared to the D-50. Why that's the case I don't know. I just played sounds with same or similar names on the synths, factory presets.

[@RobertWrightOneManCovers]

@@patsonmusic I ask because comparing sounds is pointless when you play them set to different octaves per synth, which you do here. I figured you must simply not hear the distinction.

[@patsonmusic]

@@RobertWrightOneManCovers I get your point, but I'm also dumping octaves all the time as you can see. But still factory sounds with similar names on D-20 and D-50 are not in the same octave as you can see from my fingers usually starting from the same place on the keybeds - and this was a little bit strange I have to admit. Anyway, factory sounds were not too great on the D-20, but I've heard people program some nice stuff on the D-20/10/110.

[@RobertWrightOneManCovers]

@@patsonmusic I'd just like to ask Roland why the D-70 was an overgrown D-20 instead of a fully featured flagship D-50. That seemed like a real wasted opportunity.

[@patsonmusic]

@@RobertWrightOneManCovers That's a good question, which I'm also curious about. To my knowledge, and I have no experience of the D-70, it was actually a U-series synth. Roland put out the U-110 (which I had and back then sounded pretty great, taking the PCM samples a step further, nowadays it sounds very dated). Then they put out the U-20 and U-220 and was apparently working on a U-50, but probably for marketing reasons renamed it to D-70, maybe the U-series were no hits. I heard it was a little buggy and very slow user interface, but I haven't played it myself. I have a U-220 I will try out at some point. Then thinking about the competition, both Korg and Yamaha started making multi-timbral synths like the D-20, so it seems they put all their efforts on the JV-stuff with the JV-80, 90, 1000, 1080, 2080 for multi-timbral synths and JD-800 for performance synth. Some say the JD-800 is the real follower of the D-50. I haven't played a JD-800 nor JD-990 , so I can't really say. JD-800 offered hands-on control which the D-50 lacked (but you could always get the PG-1000 programmer, if you had extra the money back in the day). Adding to this, Roland's naming policy is sometimes very fuzzy.