Roland D-10 / D-110

Roland D-10 Image

Second generation D-50 style synthesis. The D-10 is a Digital Linear Arithmetic Synthesizer and the D-110 is its upgraded rackmount version. Capable of decent acoustic sounds and great new synth-type sounds the D-10/110 is a great and cheaper alternative to the popular D-50. It has a confusing synthesis / editing method composed of tones, partials and timbres. Basically it all boils down to tricky programming which, if you know what your doing, can have interesting and unique results. On-board drum sounds, reverb effects and internal / external memory storage are also a plus.

Roland D-110 Image

The D-110 rackmount version adds 6 individual outputs, and the follow-up D-20 keyboard version adds an 8-track sequencer. Definitely worth a listen for any musician on a budget! It has been used by Suzanne Vega, Future Sound of London, and Information Society.

90 Visitor comments
Digi Fan
January 14, 2010 @ 10:41 pm
D-10 was my first board, bought it when first came out. Nice to hear that mp3 of the old demo again. Allway's dreamed of owning a D-50. Miss my ol D-10 an wish i never sold it.
Graham
January 12, 2010 @ 2:38 am
I bought one of these when they first came out and loved it. After 20+ years in the loft I decided to get back into it again and bought a patch editor to help me get some better sounds. However, it reports that the system rom needs to be 1.05 or above in order to work. Now I'm stuck as mine is 1.03 and I can't find any reference on how to upgrade it. Worth checking out before buying.
Reinaldo
October 26, 2009 @ 2:06 am
I really liked the D-10. When a kid it was an awesome synth but I ended up buying a Kawai K1 wich was great. I like how bright the D-10 was and I remember there was some special effects in the drum section.

Today I have a D-50 and let me tell you, they are two totally different machines. The D-10 does the job well, but the D-50 takes over the stage. The only sond comparable with the D-50 is the JD-800 witch I think is a cleaner and a bit more digital version of the D-50. The D-70 was basically a prototype of the JV series, it has nothing to do with the D series sound engine.
il
August 30, 2009 @ 4:52 pm
from SOS article:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan05/articles/roland.htm

"The same synthesis architecture lay at the heart of the D10 and D20 synths, and their rackmount equivalent, the D110. Again, these employed the limited LA synthesis pioneered by the MT32 so, in comparison to the D50, they sounded uniformly uninspiring."

Lets make it clear here to all those idiot EBAY sellers who HAVE to mention the D-50 in their 'other D series' adverts to boost their resell prices. None of the synths other than th D-50 contained the 'FULL LA' Engine, none sound like the D-50. The D-70 included.
Matt Young
July 16, 2009 @ 8:17 am
You can pick these up for nothing, mine cost me £50, the keyboard stopped working (admittedly I took the hood off, not really knowing what I was doing - was very careful but obviously not careful enough). I actually took it down the recycling centre I could of kept it as a sound module but it took up too much space. It was ignored most of the time but I did program a great bass sound in. It's possible with time and effort and that's what it takes.
 
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  • Demos & Media
  • YouTube Thumbnail
    Video 1
    - Roland D-110 demo sounds

    YouTube Thumbnail
    Video 2
    - Roland D-110 Rom Play

    Audio Clip 1 - A few demo tunes submitted by Mick Genialis.

    Manual - Roland has made manuals for most of their products available as free PDF downloads.

    Patchs - Original factory patches for the D-110. These are Midi SysEx files and can be downloaded for Macintosh or Windows/PC.

  • Specifications
  • Polyphony - 32 voices
  • Oscillators - Digital LAS (Linear Arithmetic Synthesis) & ROM Samples
  • Effects - 8 Effects
  • Multitimbral - 9 parts
  • Drums - 1 kit, 63 sounds
  • Memory - 128 internal & 128 external patches, 64 performances
  • Keyboard - 61 note with velocity sensitivity (D-10)
  • Control - MIDI
  • Date Produced - 1988

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