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