PN-D50-04
sound expansion card
The fourth of the four official Roland cards that were produced at the time the D-50 and D-550 were released. This is also a very strong card, that features great vibes, mallets, bells, special FX, and excellent split sounds. These days, you can find all four of these cards in the public domain on the Internet, as sysex data.
Roland PN-D50-04 audio demos
Stream:
Stream all the examples below as an .m3u playlist
Individual listening:
| Preset name with audio demo | My comments |
| 11 Perc E-Piano | Classy Rhodes, very 80s |
| 12 Ballad Piano Choir | Nice piano + choir |
| 13 New Age Piano | Medieval-sounding piano. New Age was all the rage as a genre, when the D-50 was released. |
| 14 Xmod E-Piano | Cross Modulation electric piano. That gives the patch very good expressivity. |
| 15 VIvidly Piano | Nice and semi-realistic acoustic upright. |
| 16 Air Piano | Moody electronic piano, with synth backwash. |
| 17 Honky-Tonk Piano | Classic saloon piano. |
| 18 Antique Harpsichord | Realistic. |
| 21 Spanish Guitar | Excellent, expressive acoustic guitar |
| 22 Ringmod E-Guitar | Fantastic sound. In 1987, the in-fashion sound for electric guitar (Stratocaster) was THIS. And the D-50 reproduces it perfectly... |
| 23 Gypsy Guitar | Another good guitar. |
| 24 Rock Guitar | Nicely tube-overdriven. |
| 25 HarpStrings | Sweet harp. |
| 26 Dulcimer Voice | Beautiful patch |
| 27 Combie Clav | Classic Clavinet. |
| 28 Stereo Clav | And a stereo, more biting version. |
| 31 Toys in the Attic | Gorgeous, hypnotic bell play. |
| 32 Music Toybox | Beautiful, just as the above. |
| 33 Bells Harmony | Nice, spaced-out bell wash |
| 34 Star Chime | Excellent wind chime |
| 35 African Kalimba | This sounds real! |
| 36 Okinawa Session | Aah Loop on the left, Jamisen on the right... |
| 37 Jamaican Sounds | Very nice steel drums. |
| 38 India | Incredible sound!!! Great percussion + drone on the left, and expressive sitar on the right. With the right outboard reverb effects, this could sound very realistic. |
| 41 Sweet Vibes | Very, very nice vibraphone, very mellow, intimate and jazzy. |
| 42 Clear Bell Pad | Exactly what it is. |
| 43 Marimbell | Lovely, enchanting, mesmerizing combo... |
| 44 Venetian Cafe | I love this patch! Partly because I'm Italian, but really, this nails down the concertina on the left, and the mandolin on the right. |
| 45 Grand Canyon | Another great split!!! Perfect for scoring a classic cow-boy movie! |
| 46 Funky Bed Trax | The D-50 utilized to the max: a Kick-HiHat on the left, and a Bass-Clav on the right. |
| 47 Ohayashi | Ohayashi is a type of traditional Japanese music. |
| 48 Koto-BambooFlute | Again, a beautiful patch from Japan. |
| 51 Digital Atmosphere | Typical D-50 digital synth. |
| 52 Polyphonic Synth | Nice poly. |
| 53 Pad Combo | Cool, digital synth |
| 54 Attack-Reso Synth | Nice staccato synth. |
| 55 Velo-Oct Pulse | Cool '80s sound |
| 56 Perc Release | Sounds like a certain sound David Bowie used in China Girl... |
| 57 Steam Synth Pad | Classic LA sound. |
| 58 Zean--- | Another great digital creation. |
| 61 Hopper Bass | Gritty, raw synth bass. |
| 62 Electric Pick Bass | Nice and hitting. |
| 63 Octave Synth Bass | Very good synth bass. Perfect for emulating the bass part in New Order's "Blue Monday". |
| 64 Natural Bass | Incredibly realistic (especially for the time!) acoustic bass. |
| 65 Glide Bass | Nice! |
| 66 Funky Reso-Bass | Showcasing the D-50 nice resonant filters (something the M1 didn't have, my friends ;-) ) |
| 67 Steelblue Bass | Nice for sequencing. |
| 68 Funky Cutting | Slap bass + rhythm guitar |
| 71 Soundtrack n Hold | Phenomenal synth FX! |
| 72 Reso Release | A burst of resonance as you release the keys. |
| 73 Ballet Voices U-L | Beautiful, different patch which spanned several emulators (I'm thinking of a patch on the Kurzweil K2000, and one on the Generalmusic S2R) |
| 74 PressPan SamplHold | Excellent sample and hold action. |
| 75 Twilight Zone | Superb special FX |
| 76 AfterBend-Panning | Beautiful sound!!! |
| 77 All Diminish Chord | yep |
| 78 STAR-TREK Voices | A classic D-50 patch! Work of beauty! |
| 81 Marshy Zone | Scary! |
| 82 Dense Forest | The Natives are restless! |
| 83 F-1 Grand Prix | A Formula 1 track. Incredible programming job, with the back fire and the Doppler effect! |
| 84 Passing Sky | Very, very nice jet plane passing |
| 85 Devildom | Incredible patch! We have the Devil himself here... |
| 86 Haunted Bells | Another special FX work of art. |
| 87 Vietnam FX | Classic war zone. |
| 88 Big Waves | Outstanding programming job!!!!!!! You can hear the ripples from the waves crashing on the beach. I've always been fond of this patch. |