Does anyone talk about D70s?

[Mark V]

I have to ask this question,I know I will get sensible answers.I have the opportunity to purchase a D70 for a reasonable price,(around US$300) I have been reading lots of good and bad things about them on the net.Any opinions would be appreciated..

[Tusker]

Mark:

 

I don't have a D70.... but one of the people at my church offered me one to play. I have used it occasionally though I don't particularly care for it. I'll explain why below. Here's what I know:

 

The D70 is part of the Roland Linear Arithmetic (LA). It is not comparable to the D50 which is a more capable synthesizer. The D70 is essentially a simple rompler which adds samples together. It has the occasional nice pad, or lead sound, but things like pianos and organs sound awfully dated. It does have a mellow kind of sweetness to it however. By lurking at the user community:

 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lugnuts/

 

... I was able to find out a few more of it's quirks such as the funny way the lfo's slow down when you play two many notes and stress out the micro-processor. The thing is, I have access to some JV series (XP30 XP50) synths and I think they do nearly all this does and a lot more. The used XP's seem to go for $500 and up, and I would think they are worth the difference.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Jerry

[tofrancehotmail.com]

D70: Very good filters. Very good pads. I think the sound quality (converters) are better than the JV series. But the patches (and waveforms) are dated. You need to tweak the sounds.

Nice keyboard. No expansion slots like on the JV/XP series. AND... The slopiest synth ever from Roland when it comes to Midi timing. I have a tread here about the JV-1080s bad midi timing. The D70 is the slopiest ever.

 

Best regards: and sorry for my bad English)

 

Jesper

[DanS]

I've had mine for 11 years. Never had any problems with it.

[Steve LeBlanc]

I thought the sound of this synth was pretty good in comparison to other stuff from that period.

 

I disagree with Tusker...I think the sounds on the D70 are a lot more usable than the D50...especially if you have some of the ROM cards.

[Laurie Z.]

Mark - IMHO, BAD bad bad.

 

I had one for a few months and almost threw it out the window when I was doing my 2nd album. Ended up selling it just in time (before I destroyed it or me).

 

Hated the sound, the architecture....

 

I HAVE heard a D70 actually sound good, but that was someone who had tweeked the heck out of it and was over 10 years ago.

 

My 2 cents...

 

lz

[Steve LeBlanc]

FWIW...the following song was created completely with sounds played on a Roland D70 with a few of the drums on the bridge coming from an R5 drum machine.

 

http://www.jamfree.com/somebody.mp3 (4.6mb)

 

P.S.

Do that with a D50 and I'll be very impressed

[miroslav]

Bought it brand new in 1990...still have it...still use it...no problems.

 

I have a whole bunch of ROM cards for it, which expands the sound possibilities. You can get a LOT of sounds out of it...but yes, it is PITA getting around the thing...and having the manual only makes it harder!

 

I'm no virtuoso...so I don't worry too much about very minuscule details and fine features/points. What I mean is...if you are looking for the best-of-the-best in a keyboard, and you really need all those very fine points/details/features...the D70 ain't it....and…it is a 12+ year old design. You can't compare it fairly to newer stuff.

 

But, if you have a little patience...and are just looking for a very usable bunch of sounds...you sure can get it from the D70…for $300 you won't get hurt.

[robmix]

I had one for about 7 years. Lot's of usable pads and lead sounds. Actually, Teddy RIley used it extensively on Michael Jackson's Dangerous record so you can get a pretty good idea of what one can do with it by checking that record out. I sold it when the display started to fizzle and the outputs started to freak. I think I broke about 4 keys on it. I play pretty hard but it always seemed a bit more fragile than any other keyboard I have owned. I agree with the poster above, at this point I'd rather have a JV series or even a JD-990.

 

Rob

[Mark V]

Thanks a lot you guys for your input,much appreciated.Lots of food for thought there.

 

Cheers. Mark V.

[Mark V]

Forgot to say- Very impressive stuff Steve.

[steadyb]

I love D70's...Pet Rocks, Disco, "Have a Nice Day", the ABA, 8-tracks...great times. D70's rule!!!

[Steve LeBlanc]

HAHA SteadyB...I'm often told by the shortsighted that I'm stuck in D-70s...

 

Thanks Mark...I've always had to make-do with what I was able to get my hands on...I found the D70 could be a pretty good tool. There's better workstations but for $300 I think you'll be happy.

 

Good luck whatever decision you make.

[Raymar]

I've got a U-20 which is a stripped down D-70, still works, the battery is still going strong too.

 

Steve

[ABECK]

Originally posted by Tusker:

Mark:

The D70 is part of the Roland Linear Arithmetic (LA). It is not comparable to the D50 which is a more capable synthesizer.

Isn't the D70 exactly the same machine as the D50, but with an expanded keyboard?

[r33k]

Originally posted by ABECK:

Isn't the D70 exactly the same machine as the D50, but with an expanded keyboard?

ACK!!! Absolutely NOT!

 

Think of the D70 as a U20 with nice filters, a nicer 76-note kayboard and master controller features, and you'll be 95% of the way there. In fact, the original model number of the D70 was U50, which you can see by looking at the circuit boards. I guess Roland (correctly) figured they could sell many more units by aligning the product with the insanely popular D50, rather than the lowly U20.

 

Here's an experimental noise piece composed entirely with the D70, using heavily edited internal sounds and onboard effects processing:

D70 Experiment

 

The D70 is hard to learn to use, but it can be done. The results were always worth it to me. YMMV.

 

Michael Erwin

Synthtank

[bigswole31]

Hey Steve,

 

Was that you doing all of the performances on that tune (keys, vocals, drum programming)? If so I really enjoyed you. If not who did what? What was this produced on (DAW, analog tape)?

[Steve LeBlanc]

bigswole31,

 

It was recorded in Nashville at Sanchez Harley's Studio in 1993. We recorded to 2" tape.

 

I'm playing/programming everything except the Acoustic Piano patch...we hired Derek (the keyboard player/musical director for Bobby Jones Gospel and longtime friend of the singer) to play the Piano part because he does that style so well.

 

I wrote the song with my partner Raymone Carter (the singer)...if you want to hear more music in that vain...check out this site: http://www.besonic.com/rbc ...some of the recordings on this page are really rough demos.