Synthesist Ian Dixon shared this video intro to his free Roland D-50 Editor Librarian.
The Librarian is a browser-based Web MIDI tool for backing up, browsing, importing and editing D-50 sounds, without sending your patch data to the cloud.
Video Summary:
“In this video, I show the full workflow from the YouTube transcript: connecting the D-50 over MIDI, enabling SysEx, reading the current edit buffer, opening a patch library, sending sounds to the synth, receiving a full bulk dump from the D-50, saving a library backup, importing SysEx banks, and editing classic D-50 patches such as Fantasia. The editor also makes it easier to work with the D-50’s upper and lower tones, partials, PCM and synthesis structures, ring modulation, filter and amp envelopes, reverb, tuning and patch management.
The aim is to give the Roland D-50 a modern librarian/editor workflow: build a large library of card sounds and custom patches, search for sounds quickly, send patches to the edit buffer when recording, and avoid constantly swapping cards or managing small internal banks by hand.”
Availability:
The Roland D-50 Editor Librarian is available now as a free, browser-based application.
The only synth I regretted having to sell when I lost everything. What a machine, and I had the programmer too. amazing sounds.
Damn! Ian D. for the win again! I’m sure you’ve made many D50 owners happy.
AI is awesome. I’m using it to help me code a bunch of editors for my synths as well.
Brilliant, as always. Ian is an increasingly meaningful synth hero. Roland’s Cloud D-50 includes the PG-1000, so its serving me well as is. If you own the hardware, this is a whopping leap-ahead utility. If you really dig into it, a D-50 is not unlike a Jupiter-X, minus a few bits like the SuperNatural sounds.
Makes me wish I’d jumped on the D-05 when it was released at $300. They’re >$600 now!
Just get the cloud version instead. The little Roland boxes are not good for anything
Yeah, it’s essentially an expensive VST in a box.
Hi all.
I can confirm that this editor will also work on a Roland V- Synth XT running the D-50 emulation.
Midi connection to the XT is exactly the same as a hardware D-50 (you need both Midi in and out connected) and data transfer from the XT/D-50 to the editor is via the B.Dump function in the System menu on the XT. I used the default D-50 editor midi channel (0).
Selecting patches on the editor will change patches on the XT in real time, as does making parameter changes.
I havent tried or tested all of the functions but this looks to be working very well so far.