Roland D-20

[Parrot of Doom]

A mate has given one of these to me. It was in a pretty bad way (gig keyboard) but I've cleaned it up and its looking nice, the problem is that about half the notes are no longer functioning. The two faders are noisy as hell but that's a simple fix.

Does anyone have any experience with velocity-sensitive keyboards? I'm going to open it up, my gut feeling is that its a failure of one component and not each key.



Its allright for nowt, and if I can repair it it will make a nice toy to play with. Considering its age the instruments sound pretty good.

[GetCarter]

Bloody hell, that takes me back. Are all the notes that don't work 'in a bunch'? If not I think it's the sensors on each key.

fk knows how to fix it mind.

[Parrot of Doom]

No, its individual notes, so I don't think its a ribbon connector or anything. A job lot of pads perhaps, and a couple of hours of soldering? I can certainly test it by swapping a working key over.

[anonymous-user]

Yep, I bought a D-50 earlier on in the year. It is not a difficult task but can be a bit time consuming.

It needs to come apart, the Carrier with the keys on needs to come out, each key needs to be removed (best to number them individually), then there is a strip of rubber contact covers, you need to peel these back and clean the contacts under these.

The contacts get dirty with age and the keys can pack up. It is very common.

When deciding whether to do the one key that was playing up, we decided to do the whole lot. Took an afternoon, but it now plays rather well. Particularly with all the Jarre "Revolutions" sounds

I'll try and post some photos.

Edited by anonymous-user on Monday 22 December 19:13

[MitchT]

Parrot of Doom said:

Considering its age the instruments sound pretty good.

I bought a D-50 earlier this year - sounds awesome. Roland synths from this era are lovely. The guy I bought my D-50 from (on eBay) turned out to live ten minutes' drive from me and worked at the BMW dealership that I bought my car from nine years ago. He recognised my car when I went to pick-up the D-50!!! (Yes, I still have the same car that I had nine years ago!)

Edited by MitchT on Monday 22 December 21:06

[Parrot of Doom]

I've cleaned it all out. Aside from one dead note (completely utterly dead, tried different pads as well) it should go back together ok. I did find a corroded track that I hardwired, but the note is still dead.

For free, I think I can live with it I can't wait to play Revolutions!

[MitchT]

Parrot of Doom said:

I can't wait to play Revolutions!

I have the original sounds from Revolutions on my D-50. Not sure if they can be loaded into the D-20 but if you find out that they can, and you happen to need them, let me know!

[anonymous-user]

I'm sure D50 patches can't be loaded onto the D20.

Some of the ones I have are:

Machine Run - Backing "Anvils" to Industrial Revolutions Overture.
Grittaar 2 - Which is one of the Roland pre-set cards, which was the lead in Overture, Industrial Revolutions 1 and IIRC Docklands Version of Magnetic Fields 2.
Kukobo Strings - Main String Section for Industrial Revolutions 1 & 3
Orchestra Philamon - Industrial Revolutions 2 Strings (I think).
Motor Strings - As above.
Ocean Scenario - Computer Weekend Lead part.
Sound effects for Computer weekend and the Machine/Darth Vader type Sounds at the beginning of Industrial Revolutions 1. Atari ST - Sound at the end of Industrial Revolutions 3.
ArchBass - Bassline for Revolutions.
Analog 1 - Main Keyboard part for September.
Gurgel Strings - Main Lead for The Emigrant and Calypso 3 (from Waiting for Cousteau).
Marshy Zone - Preset from a Roland Card - Sound effect at the beginning of Calypso 2.

All bar Marshy Zone & Grittaar 2 are from Aftermarket cards, but can be downloaded from the web.

Here is something I knocked together the other month. Apologies for the Keyboard playing, but you get the idea.

The set up is:

Technics KN6000 for the bass strings.
Roland D-50 for the Lead, but Midi'd up to a Korg K61 controller, so I can play both at once.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v459/LL75/?actio...

The next one I looped the Machine Run from a clip from the web (before I got the D-50).
Played again on the Technics KN6000 and the D-50.
Hadn't got the sheet music for this so just played it from clips from YouTube!!

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v459/LL75/?actio...

Thinking of picking up a D550 when one comes up locally.

[GetCarter]

You guys REALLY need to connect those 'D's up to your PC and buy 'Ominsphere'. It will change your life!

http://www.spectrasonics.net/omnisphere_teaser/

The previous version 'Atmosphere' must be on e Bay by now... also stunning.

Here's something I wrote last week using one of the string patches

(Recording it in Prague next month with grown ups)

http://www.stevecarter.com/firstcom/BuildingOurFut...

[Evotim]

I had wanted a D20 about a year after they had come out, but in the end went with a super Jupiter JX0 and used my Atari ST1040 with Steinberg 24 for sequencing duties. Pretty sure that D50 sounds are not compatible with the D20 (D10 and D20 shared the same synth engine, not the D50) Just pick up a D550 for peanuts on eBAY (D550 was superior in sound to the D50 anyway), D20 as the controller and you're all set :-)

[Greg964]

GetCarter said:

....'Ominsphere'. It will change your life!

GC - Is that compared to old hardware synths, or compared to other modern AU/VSTs?

[GetCarter]

Greg964 said:

GetCarter said:

....'Ominsphere'. It will change your life!

GC - Is that compared to old hardware synths, or compared to other modern AU/VSTs?

It beats the socks of any virtual or keyboard synth I've ever heard. It doesn't do 'real' instruments at all (the cello sound in the clip above is about the only one that gets close), but it had shed loads of astonishing noises, pads, fx, loops etc. Check out the Spectrasonics website - they have videos with demos. If you upgrade from Atmosphere it's just over £100 to buy. (You'll need a beefy computer mind - comes on 6 full DVDs)

[Greg964]

GetCarter said:

Greg964 said:

GetCarter said:

....'Ominsphere'. It will change your life!

GC - Is that compared to old hardware synths, or compared to other modern AU/VSTs?

It beats the socks of any virtual or keyboard synth I've ever heard. It doesn't do 'real' instruments at all (the cello sound in the clip above is about the only one that gets close), but it had shed loads of astonishing noises, pads, fx, loops etc. Check out the Spectrasonics website - they have videos with demos. If you upgrade from Atmosphere it's just over £100 to buy. (You'll need a beefy computer mind - comes on 6 full DVDs)

Crikey, it must be quite something then!
I'll pop into Turnkey and have a play with it.

[Evotim]

Agree with Steve on Onmisphere, in fact even Atmosphere (the predecessor to Omnisphere) is an incredible soft synth.The guy behind Spectrasonics, Eric Persing, has an incredible background and track record, he was behind pretty much all the sound design and programming for Roland (Jupiters, D50, JV1080, JD990 etc) . The kit list used for creating the sounds is incredible, pretty much every piece of sound generation and manipulation gear you can think of.
Listening to Atmosphere and Omnisphere for the first time to me was the same as being blown away by a Fairlight III and Synclavier demo at Syco sytems 20 years ago.

[Greg964]

I can't believe it hasn't been recommended before to be honest. I'll check it out, cheers!

[pimpin303]

hi im new to this but im having problems with my roland d-20 it will turn on but no sound.buttons are non responsive please help

[anonymous-user]

Not sure about the D-20, but imagine it is the same as the D-50. There is a battery inside which over time goes flat, and you lose your preset sounds. Might be worth checking. I have my patches backed up on RAM cards.

[pistonlager]

There's bound to be a Yahoo user group to help you.