PN-D50-01
sound expansion card
This is the first of the four official Roland cards that were produced at the time the D-50 and D-550 were released. It's arguably the best of the four, featuring excellent strings, realistic horns and organs, analog-style synthesizer leads, and magnificent vocal pads. These days, you can find all four of these cards in the public domain on the Internet, as sysex data.
Roland PN-D50-01 audio examples in .mp3
Stream all the .mp3 examples below as an .m3u playlist
| Preset name with audio demo | My comments |
| 11 Bouncing Bows | Classic orchestral strings |
| 12 Deep Analog Strngs | Incredibly beautiful analog strings. Analog style strings and pads are one of the D-50's forte. This reminds me of the ARP sound used by Joy Division in "Decades" ('Closer' studioversion) |
| 13 Psycho Strings | Uncanny recreation of the string playing in the classic movie "Psycho"!!! |
| 14 Warm Strings | Fantastic, creamy and sweet strings. |
| 15 Deep String Ensmbl | Realistic, full string orchestra. |
| 16 Symphony Strings | You can hear the bowing of the strings. |
| 17 Chase String Ensmb | Nice synthesized analog strings. |
| 18 Baroque Strings | Great for Vivaldi and the like. |
| 21 Cello | Typical Linear Arithmetic sample. |
| 22 Viola | Realistic and expressive. |
| 23 Solo Violin | Cute violin sound. |
| 24 Contra Bass | On the D-50, the bass goes "LOW"... |
| 25 Choir and Strings | Classic 80s style pad. |
| 26 Harpsi Strings | Useful combination between of harpsichord and strings. |
| 27 Horns and Strings | Another nice combi. |
| 28 Pulse Pad | Very similar to the D-50 classic factory patch "Soundtrack". |
| 31 Classical Horn | Realistic and classy. |
| 32 Fanfare | Nice 'n' brassy |
| 33 Tuba | Powerful and cheerful! |
| 34 Velo-Brass 2 | Very used sound in the 80s |
| 35 Stab Brass | Standard 80s sound |
| 36 Mallet Horns | Interesting combination sound. |
| 37 Slow Brass Sweep | Showcasing the excellent filters of this synth.. |
| 38 Slappin Brass | Punchy |
| 41 Tenor Saxophone | Expressive. |
| 42 Alto Saxophone | Nicely done |
| 43 Soprano Saxophone | Realistic in the upper range |
| 44 EPiano n Sopranino | Useful split for smooth jazz. |
| 45 Wild Blow | Breathy sax. |
| 46 Squeeze de Sax | Synthetic sax |
| 47 Harmonica | Very nice harmonica patch. |
| 48 Whistling Soldiers | Outstanding patch! Perfect for playing the classic "Bridge on river Kwai" song. |
| 51 Flute-Piccolo | Realistic and another example of classic LA synthesis. |
| 52 Oboe | Beautiful! |
| 53 Bassoon | Nice! |
| 54 Clarinet | Cool! |
| 55 Ocarina | Awesome! |
| 56 Breathing Pipe | That's what it is. |
| 57 Calliope | Excellent pump organ sound. |
| 58 Wabi Sabi | Similar to the excellent on-board factory Shakuhachi patch, and just as good. |
| 61 Synth Lead 1 | Powerful and analog-sounding Minimoog style lead synth. |
| 62 Synth Lead 2 | Nicely filtered and more gentle solo synth sound. |
| 63 Griitttarr 2 | Excellent variation on the Griitttarr factory patch! |
| 64 5th Lead Synth | Classic 70s solo synth sound. |
| 65 Amazing Solo | Another classic that made it to the GM set. |
| 66 Synth Lead 3 | Brassy, trumpet solo synth.. |
| 67 Gotham Low | Nice and digital, similar to other classic D-50 sounds. |
| 68 Taj Mahal | Reflexive. |
| 71 Ham and Organ | Beautiful emulation of a Hammond organ! |
| 72 Slow Rotor 2 | Nice and chorused. |
| 73 Slow to Fast Rotor | Excellent patch - using the joystick, you can control the balance of the Upper and Lower tones and switch from slow to fast Leslie. At the time this was kind of groundbreaking! |
| 74 Good and Old Days | Typical 70s organ, drawbars out. |
| 75 Percussive E-Organ | Happy percussive organ. Sounds such as these were popular within the House genres. |
| 76 SlapBass and Organ | Useful split |
| 77 Pipe Organ | Very nice |
| 78 Weird Organ | COOL! |
| 81 Star Peace Chorus | Incredibly beautiful vocal pad!!! |
| 82 Spacy Voices | Very Fairlight-like, stupendous! |
| 83 Thinful | Weird and nice. |
| 84 VOX harmonium | Perfect pad. |
| 85 Android | Cool! |
| 86 Nuns | Beautiful, moving singing-nuns patch. |
| 87 Pressure Pad | Digital hollow pad. |
| 88 Digital Sound | Classic LA sound |
Roland PN-D50-01 pictures
