Load single sounds into Roland D50

Forum for D-50/550 and other D and U synthesizers from 1980-1990's
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sergiomng
Posts: 2
Joined: 03:47, 16 April 2021

Load single sounds into Roland D50

Post by sergiomng »

I've recently repaired my Roland D50 from 1991.

Back in the day, I've spent a lot of hours editing sounds, and now I've found out that soud banks can be transfered to a D50 using a sysex file, and/or a .bnk file.

I'd like to know if it's possible to transfer only a few sounds because I don't want to lose all the sounds I have, but I do need to add a couple of rhodes and organ sounds.

Is this possible?

I've checked these instructions: http://bobbyblues.recup.ch/sysex_procedure.html and it says that sending a soundbank will erase all data from your D50's memory. As I mentioned, I don't want to lose all data, because I've already have some cool sounds.

How can I achieve this?

Thanks in advance
Miks
Posts: 24
Joined: 19:41, 5 March 2017
Location: Germany

Re: Load single sounds into Roland D50

Post by Miks »

Hi there,

first I highly recommend is to save the sounds you want to keep to a computer first! You never know... ;-)

Next thing is: use a dedicated editor for the D50/D550:

http://www.d50librarian.co.uk/home/

Best is: that application is free of charge! :-)

You can transfer your soundbank from the D50 to the computer and exchange single patches by draw 'n' drop - afterwards you can transfer your 'updated' soundbank back to the D50...

But take care what Midi interface you use! The very most of those 'El Cheapos' can't handle sysex properly due to lack of internal memory! An interface I can recommend (I have two of those running) is the iConnectivity mio (PC/Mac) - it's Class Compliant and don't need extra drivers!

Hope it helps... ;-)

Best,
Michael (aka Miks)
sergiomng
Posts: 2
Joined: 03:47, 16 April 2021

Re: Load single sounds into Roland D50

Post by sergiomng »

THANKS A LOT!!

I was thinking of using Roland UM-ONE MK2 USB MIDI interface, which hopefully works better than "el cheapos" (I couldn't find out the size of it's internal memory). I actually still have my very old midi interface but it cannot be connected/installed in today's computers.

Thanks again, I'm not new to MIDI but I am new to sysex.
Miks
Posts: 24
Joined: 19:41, 5 March 2017
Location: Germany

Re: Load single sounds into Roland D50

Post by Miks »

sergiomng wrote: 21:38, 16 April 2021 THANKS A LOT!!

I was thinking of using Roland UM-ONE MK2 USB MIDI interface, which hopefully works better than "el cheapos" (I couldn't find out the size of it's internal memory). I actually still have my very old midi interface but it cannot be connected/installed in today's computers.

Thanks again, I'm not new to MIDI but I am new to sysex.
You're welcome! The Roland UM-One seems to work flawlessly but drivers need to be installed - but that should be no deal-breaker...

Hope you'll get things working - let us know the outcome.

Have fun

Miks
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