Deal: for a limited time, you can get the Roland D-50 plugin, a faithful emulation of the legendary hardware D-50 for 50€ instead of 152,40€.
Many software companies emulate Roland synthesizers, especially the Juno, Jupiter, TB-303, and SH-101. The D-50 will, however, only be available as a Roland emulation for the foreseeable future.
This is because of their nature: the LAS synthesis and the PCM are copyrighted. Roland and developer Eric Persing are actively taking action against companies attempting to exploit this copyright. But there is good news: you can now get it for the best price.
The D-50 completely changed the synth landscape when it was released in 1987. Powered by Roland’s groundbreaking LA (Linear Arithmetic) synthesis engine, the instrument’s potent mixture of samples, virtual analog, and integrated effects allowed programmers to produce all manner of stunning sounds never heard before.
Roland D-50 plugin
The D-50 plugin is an faifhful emulation of the original hardware Synthesizer from 1987. For a limited time, you can buy the Roland D-50 plugin for just 50€ instead of 152,40€. The deal is so excellent because there won’t be any other D-50 emulation on the market.
Like the hardware, the plugin version features a linear arithmetic synthesis engine with the same sampled waveforms and subtractive synth functions. It uses Roland’s digital circuit behavior (DCB) technology to model and capture every sonic detail.
This includes the voice structure with its two layers (upper/lower), each with two partials. The D-50 plugin also includes additional waveforms and tempo-synced LFOs that enhance sound design and DAW integration.
No extra PG-1000 controller is needed for the plugin. It includes handy editing features, allowing you to customize your sounds on the fly. The plugin version also supports SysEx import and hardware patch swapping with the Roland D-05.
Deal Or Not?
Many are looking for alternatives to avoid the Roland Cloud. However, there’s no way around it here. There’s only one Roland D-50 emulation available on the market, and that’s Roland’s own.
If you want the D-50 sounds and the price was previously too high, you can’t go wrong with this. Plus, there’s a free plugin included.
Roland D-50 plugin is available now for 50€ instead of 152,40€ (67% OFF) as part of Plugin Boutique’s 14th anniversary sale. It runs as a VST, VST3, AU, and AAX plugin on macOS (native Apple Silicon + Intel) and Windows.
On top of that, you get a free plugin with every purchase made in February. You can choose between Thenatan TAWUS and Minimal Audio Cluster Delay.
More information here: Roland
Available from my partner
Affiliate link to PiB goes to LANDR’s Reason Studios instead of the Roland D-50 (the deal lasts until March 3, which might even carry other freebies).
I’d count it as a deal. In the past, almost got a year of Roland Cloud premium because it came with a lifetime license. The D-50 emulation would have been my go-to. (The XV-2080 (?) would have been my second bet, say through the Ultimate sub.)
What’s sad about these Roland emulations is that they don’t add the features that some of us come to take for granted. Like… some kind of usable interface, say.
(The overall UX is quite poor, especially when compared to the current crop of plugins from the likes of u-he, kHs, Bleass, Klevgrand, Dawesome, or Arturia. Even KORG has released a couple of plugins which come dangerously close to being usable by mere mortals… Although they’re not part of the KORG Collection, which includes emulations of their classic synths.)
Personally, I find MTS-ESP and MPE to be close to “table stakes”, at this point. (“But, but… some of the plugin devs you mentioned don’t support both of these!” Sure. Enough of these products do that I can make do.)
In terms of D-50 soundalikes with support for those features, I quite like “SQ80 V”. And Pigments, of course.
I’d also put Wavestation in the same (very) broad overall category and there are several ways to get those sounds.
Of course, while this is the only official D-50 emulation, there are other ways to get some of the same sounds. On both iPadOS and macOS, for instance, Fecher’s King of Digital does play in that territory while avoiding which would trigger Roland’s lawyers. There’s a Reaktor ensemble which “pays tribute to” the D-50. GiulioZ has been emulating similar DSP from Roland. And there are many D-50 samples out there.
Just wish Arturia or Cherry Audio would have some kind of agreement with Roland to release something.
Or, better yet (in my humble opinion), a new synth plugin carrying the “Linear Arithmetic” concept to a new level. Sure, PCM+subtractive is fairly easy, at a technical level. For some reason, though, it hasn’t been much of a thing. Sample-based is more popular, though it takes way too much storage space. Wavetable synths have had their day. There’s no reason not to combine that with “PCM”.
If nobody else does it, I might end up vibecoding it, at some point.
“We have the technology.”
thanks fixed.
In fact, pretty much all of the Roland Cloud emulations of their vintage synths all suck from a UX/UI perspective. Their sound library functions are very clunky and cumbersome to use. They followed the skeuomorphic idea too well with the rest of the UI. Plus, most of them have not had any real updates in close to a decade in some cases—complete with 10+ year-old UIs including low-resolution, non-resizeable graphics.
To me, one of the greatest advantages of software recreations of vintage instruments is when you not only are faithful to the sound but also expand upon it. Good emulations also ad a number of features to make programing them much easier and straightforward rather than copying the original hardware so close that you wind up bring what was bad about the hardware designs along with the good.
In my view, Roland really needs to take all of their vintage emulations and completely revamp them, bringing them into the modern DAW age and take advantage of the vastly increased processing power of todays computers and expand upon their feature set as well as REALLY update the old 2000s UIs for modern, high-res displays.
If they don’t do this, I only see Rolland Cloud as a fading has been.
Bought it at JRR for about 36€ with coupon “GROUP”.
thanks!
Great Information – it worked for me.
For me it’s also still one of the best Synt’s of the 80’s It reminds me at my Harware that i have selled because of lack of Space. and also i was not so satifieds from the AIRA Model. They are right in case uf the Software Gui – but the sound is still great !