PN-D50-03
sound expansion card
The third of the four official Roland cards that were produced at the time the D-50 and D-550 were released. Contains awesome strings, woodwinds, and choirs. These days, you can find all four of these cards in the public domain on the Internet, as sysex data.
Roland PN-D50-03 audio demos
Stream:
Stream all the examples below as an .m3u playlist
Individual listening:
| Preset name with audio demo | My comments |
| 11 String Section | Realistic and expressive string section. |
| 12 Syn-Strings Hi | Classic analog strings. |
| 13 Tension Strings | Nervous strings. |
| 14 Planetary Strings | Cosmic orchestral strings. |
| 15 Symphony Orchestra | Lovely reverb. |
| 16 Analog Syn-Strings | More analog goodness |
| 17 Crescendo Strings | Just what the name says. |
| 18 Warm Strings Pad | Great analog synpad |
| 21 Vibrato Cello | Digital cello |
| 22 String Quartette | Realistic and effective. |
| 23 Pizz Typewriter | Variation of the famous Pizzagogo patch. |
| 24 Strings Horns | Mixed instruments |
| 25 Strings ElecPiano | Ok. |
| 26 High-Strings Oboe | Middle-Eastern sounding combination |
| 27 Cello-ViolaPiccolo | Effective. |
| 28 Bass-PianoStrings | That's what it is. |
| 31 Powerful Brass | Typical LA brass. |
| 32 Mute Trumpet | Nice room reverb |
| 33 Westerly Brass | Awesome 80s synth brass |
| 34 Flugel Horn | Breathy, realistic |
| 35 Eye Brasspad | Reminds of certain sounds on the Yamaha SY/TG77 synths. |
| 36 Trumpetters | Very realistic trumpet ensemble |
| 37 Pressure 5th Horns | Great for Fusion solos. |
| 38 Pianish Horns | Interesting combo. |
| 41 Baritone Saxophone | Growl sax |
| 42 Silver Saxophones | Nice for Christmas and 70s easy listening. |
| 43 Saxcessive Tones | Great combo. |
| 44 Synthesized Sax | Another killer Fusion solo synth. |
| 45 Growl Saxophone | Very growly. |
| 46 Sopranino Sax | Very high-pitched |
| 47 Xarmonica | Cross between a sax and a harmonica? |
| 48 Happy Whistler | Outstanding patch - It absolutely sounds like someone whistling. |
| 51 Breathy Flute | Vibrato flute |
| 52 Bohemian | Orchestral flute, nice |
| 53 Recorder | Woody recorder patch |
| 54 Breeze Pipe | Works for many genres. |
| 55 Flutes Ensemble | Mellotronish in nature. |
| 56 Woodwinds | Nice and realistic |
| 57 Pipe Bags | Mega cool and realistic bagpipe patch! Note the low C that keeps going, just like the real thing... |
| 58 Vibe n Clarinet | Intriguing, mysterious jazzy patch |
| 61 Heavy Metal Lead | Yep |
| 62 Monophonic Lead | Deliciously analog. |
| 63 Pulse Lead | Gentle pulse wave |
| 64 Squeeze Lead | Another lead |
| 65 Energetical Lead | Full of energy |
| 66 Monotone Lead | Subdued but nice |
| 67 Harmonics Lead | Okay |
| 68 Metallic Lead | Very metallic but also woody. |
| 71 Jazz Organ | Very nice jazz Hammond organ |
| 72 Huge Pipes | Another contender, but I still think the "Cathedral" patch is best. |
| 73 Velocity Rotor | Full Leslie on. |
| 74 Choral Organ | Beautiful and sweet organ + choir patch. |
| 75 Click Organ | Nice emulation. |
| 76 Solid Beat | Strange piano |
| 77 Wavy Motion | Super synth, very wavy! |
| 78 Pressure Generator | Expressive. |
| 81 Whispy Vox | Lovely Fairlight-style 8-bit vox. |
| 82 Alpha Omega Enseml | Enigmatic choir |
| 83 Vox n Sawz | Beautiful pad |
| 84 4th Synth Vox | Odd and nice |
| 85 Husky Voices | Another excellent Fairlight-inspired patch. |
| 86 Stereo Panorama | Awesome - and a few years before the Wavestation came! |
| 87 Voyageur | Perfect 1980s choir synth pad |
| 88 Glass Voices 2 | Magnificent variation of the "Glass Voices" internal patch. To die for. |