Tadao Kikumoto (Technical R&D Leader at the time of D-50)

“Roland D-50: Born from the “Ideality” of creative musical instrument development”

Through my development experience of TR-808 and 909, I found that 90% of all sound identities occur during the quick transformation of overtones arising from the initial touch to around 20 or 30 milliseconds. The sound after the attack is not so important. Actually, this way of thinking led to developing the D-50.

The Yamaha DX7, which was already in the market at that time, was an epoch-making digital synthesizer, adopting complicated and anharmonic sounds (which did not exist in analog) in the initial part. Our first fully digital synthesizer adopted granular PCM in the initial part, after which I decided to implement an intuitive and versatile digital signal processing using an analog subtractive method. It was a big question which phoneme to adopt for the initial part. If it is too concrete sound, it is not versatile, so we sought for a sound which is close to real, but obscure. I consulted Eric Persing, who belonged at that time to Roland, and he said, “I have an idea, leave it to me!” As a result, an “ideal” sound was born.

Another important point for the LA sound source is that we integrated digital effects for the first time in history. There was opinion against it inside the company, but we obtained a synergy effect by adding Chorus and Reverb.

We aimed at “real” sound, but we could create the “ideal” sound around there.

The TR-808 and TR-909, which were developed long before D-50, aimed at reproducing real sound. However, in the end, a new sound which is simpler but stronger than real drum sound, without contaminating or being trivial, was born. And this is the “ideality”. It doesn’t mean just “idea” but also Theory of Forms (Plato), ideal, imagination, or creation. If reality is compared to a photograph, ideality is a painting.

Therefore, D-50’s sound is like a painting of impressionism and abstractionism, and it is not a sampler but a synthesizer, which is a creative instrument.

Japanese anime has its special aesthetic standard; big eyes in small face, small mouth and chin. It looked strange to western people, but is well accepted nowadays. Aesthetic study, which is a study of aesthetic value, seems to become more and more popular now.

I think D-50 is just a milestone vintage of the transition period from analog to digital. I am proud that Roland was, and still is, searching for “ideality” in such transition period, and even now for the future.

Finally, let me express my big appreciation to Eric, Adrian Scott, and the engineers who worked for this project, and who became creative leaders.

We Design The Future.

Kazz Takahashi (Development Engineer for D-50)

“Focused on Visual Interface”

At that time, Yamaha was recognized as the first in digital, with Roland being seen as an “analog brand” in the market. The project of D-50 started under such pressure among management and all the staff. The development of digital synthesizers encountered so many first trials, with so many headaches, however, all the members felt that they were opening up a new path, and thus we could keep working hard.

In most digital synthesizers of the time, there were no buttons or controls that could be operated intuitively, and an “info display” was a kind of industry standard. It was so hard to make sounds with those small displays and unusual parameters, having to go deep into a directory. Therefore, with D-50 we tried different visual and physical interfaces such as the joystick and “PG-1000” Programmer. Especially, the joystick enabled parallel handling of two parameters while playing, and as a result, unexpected sounds were born - this was really creative.

I was simply happy to hear such comments as “Oh, it is a Roland-ish synthesizer”. I felt satisfied to be a part of the project. It is a big honor of mine to take part in Roland’s historical first digital synthesizer. The D-50 is a great machine which produces unusual, and warm sound. Please give it a try whenever you can.

Adrian Scott

(Original D-50 Sound Designer)

Adrian Scott is a rare breed of musician – having forged multiple careers as a performer, musical director, writer, producer, demonstrator and sound designer.

His credits are like reading a timeline of popular music. From touring the world with such legendary groups as Air Supply and Little River Band to being music supervisor for a multitude of Australian acts, including Kylie Minogue.

Adrian has also been involved with Roland for more than 30 years, starting out as a demonstrator, then moving into R&D and sound creation. He has been instrumental in the development of Roland synthesizers, having contributed sonically to the designs of many of Roland's most beloved and celebrated synthesizers and sequencers, including the legendary D-50.

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