Synthesizer
Roland D-50
Price: 88 EUR – 1.000 EUR
Availability: 8/10 (Common)
A defining late-1980s digital synthesizer built on Linear Arithmetic synthesis, combining short PCM attack transients with sustained synthesized tones to create sounds richer and more complex than either pure sampling or pure synthesis alone.
About the Roland D-50
The D-50's LA (Linear Arithmetic) synthesis layers a brief PCM sample - a percussive pluck, breath noise, or metallic strike - onto the attack of an otherwise synthesized tone, then lets that synthesized component sustain and evolve on its own. This hybrid approach let Roland create sounds with a realistic, detailed attack transient that pure subtractive synthesis of the era couldn't produce, while avoiding the huge sample memory a fully sample-based instrument would require.
The D-50's factory sounds, particularly its lush pad and bell-like tones, became inescapable across late-1980s pop and film scoring, and its built-in chorus and reverb effects - unusual to have onboard at the time - meant those signature sounds arrived essentially performance-ready rather than needing extensive outboard processing to sound finished.
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Source: https://reverb.com/item/99573582-roland-d-50-61-key-linear-synthesizer-1987-1992-black
Sound character of the Roland D-50
Roland's Linear Arithmetic synthesis layers short digital PCM samples (for sharp, bright transient attacks like a piano hammer or plucked string) onto sustained analog-modeled subtractive tones, plus a built-in digital chorus/reverb - the combination that gave the D-50 its crisp, airy, unmistakably 'digital-era' sound distinct from purely analog synths.
Technical data for the Roland D-50
| Synthesis | Linear Arithmetic (PCM attack + synthesized tone) |
|---|---|
| Effects | Built-in chorus and reverb |
| Voices | 16 (8 tone, dual-partial) |
| Year | 1987 |
The history of the Roland D-50
Released in 1987, the Roland D-50 introduced Linear Arithmetic synthesis and became one of the defining synthesizer sounds of the late 1980s.
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