{"id":251,"date":"2009-07-02T16:33:34","date_gmt":"2009-07-02T20:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.synth-studio.com\/blog\/?page_id=251"},"modified":"2009-11-14T19:09:25","modified_gmt":"2009-11-14T23:09:25","slug":"roland-d-550","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.synth-studio.com\/blog\/synthesizers\/roland-d-550\/","title":{"rendered":"Roland D-550"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roland D-550 Synthesizer<\/h2>\n
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\"One<\/a>

One of my Roland D-550 Synths.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"A<\/a>

A photo of my Roland PG-1000 Programmer. A tool for the D-550.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This page is dedicated to the Roland D-550.\u00a0 What is the D-550?\u00a0 It is the rackmount version of the legendary Roland D-50 keyboard.\u00a0 I LOVE my D-550’s, I have two!\u00a0 There’s just something about their sound that to this day can’t be replicated, except by perhaps Roland’s own V-Synth which can be installed with a virtual D-50 add-in board.<\/p>\n

[history & brethren gear @ synth-studio]:\u00a0 Roland MT-32, Roland D-110<\/p>\n

[technical specs]<\/p>\n

Synthesis Type:\u00a0 Marketed as “Linear Arithmetic”.\u00a0 In reality it is a “Sample and Synthesis” machine, with the capability to utilize short PCM samples of instrument attack sounds married to digital synthesis for the sustain of the sound.\u00a0 Additionally, it is considered to be one of the first “virtual analog” synthesizers by today’s standards.\u00a0 This is due to the fact that while it is an all “Digital Synthesis” machine, it is capable of producing very realistic analog style sounds reminiscent of the older Roland, Moog, Oberheim, and other analog synthesizers.<\/p>\n

Polyphony:\u00a0 32.\u00a0 However patches on the D-550 were made up of an “Upper Tone” and “Lower Tone”.\u00a0 These tones then consist of up to two “Partials”.\u00a0 Each Partial, uses one note of polyphony.\u00a0 So the effective polyphony of many patches on the synth was really only 8.\u00a0 However, it is also common for many patches to use only one tone, making the effective polyphony 16.<\/p>\n

Effects:\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 The D-550 has available 32 types of Reverb and 8 types of Chorus.\u00a0 It is, to my knowledge, the first synthesizer to ever have on-board effects processing of any kind.\u00a0 The D-550 is also the first synthesizer to employ “Ring Modulation”; various modes of ring-modulation can be configured at the tone level.\u00a0 Additionally, the “Chase Play” mode of the D-550, which allows the Lower Tone to be output at a delay after the Upper Tone, has been used in many patches for interesting effect, and sometimes as what I would call a faux arpeggiator.<\/p>\n

[demo sounds]<\/p>\n

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