Roland D-50 facts for kids
.jpg)
The Roland D-50 is a special type of electronic musical instrument called a synthesizer. It was created by a company named Roland and first came out in 1987. This synthesizer has 61 keys, just like a piano. It can play many notes at the same time, which is called polyphonic sound.
Contents
What is the Roland D-50?
The Roland D-50 is a digital synthesizer. This means it uses computer technology to create sounds. It was very popular when it was released. Many musicians used it to make music for movies and songs. It helped shape the sound of music in the late 1980s.
How Does it Make Sound?
The D-50 uses a unique way to make sounds called Linear Arithmetic synthesis. This method combines two different types of sound creation. It mixes short, sharp sounds (called "attack" sounds) with longer, sustained sounds. This allows the D-50 to create very realistic and complex sounds. It can sound like real instruments or create completely new, electronic sounds.
Special Features of the D-50
The Roland D-50 has several cool features. It includes built-in effects like reverb and chorus. These effects make the sounds richer and more interesting. It also has a joystick that musicians can use. This joystick helps to change the sound as they play. It makes it easy to control different parts of the sound at once.
The D-50 was designed to feel a bit like an analog synthesizer. Analog synthesizers use older electronic circuits to make sounds. The D-50 tried to combine the best parts of both digital and analog worlds.
The D-550: A Rack-Mount Version
Roland also made a version of the D-50 that didn't have a keyboard. This version is called the D-550. It was designed to fit into a special rack in a music studio. The D-550 could do almost everything the D-50 could. It had many settings, about 450, that musicians could change to create their own unique sounds.
Controlling the D-50's Sounds
To make changing sounds easier, Roland also created a device called the Roland PG-1000. This was an external controller that could be plugged into the D-50. It had many knobs and sliders. This made it much simpler for musicians to adjust the D-50's many parameters (settings) and create new sounds.
