The TI2 and the Roland D50

Hi all,
I have been able to emulate a few of the Roland D50 factory patches on the TI2, besides the few that are already in the TI2 factory patchbanks. Lots of fun! Of course, there are some D50 patches that you really do need a D50 to reproduce. I almost bought a used D50 recently but just couldn't plunk down the cash for it, as it really was a little outdated seeing it actually in person, classic synth that it is. However, after reading the Roland manual's list of D50 PCM waveforms it seems that the only truly original "partials" (other than just "plucked string attacks" and the like) are the Spectrum Loops 1 through 7 which are the partials numbered 68 through 74. I am really curious as to what these loops sound like!! Can anyone in the forum with a D50 please post a sound sample of these seven Spectrum Loops so I can see what they sound like individually? If they really are innovative enough I might just change my mind and buy a D50 anyway!
Thanks for your help!

Yes, I saw that!! Part of the Roland Boutique series. But the battery/USB only power sources and the "mini" size jacks were not to my liking. I wish they would have made it a "traditional" desktop like the TI2 or Blofeld.
Thanks for the suggestion!

Yes, the D50 sound is great indeed! I love its use all over Tangerine Dream's Canyon Dreams album in particular! And I love that the TI2 is sophisticated enough to approximate some of the D50 patches.
If no one can post a sound sample of the loops I mentioned, maybe my local Guitar Center will finally get in a D05 demo that I can solo an oscillator and audition them myself. And if I like the D05 enough in person I might go for it!

Would you mind sharing them?
Not at all! There's not very many at the mo' as I've done serious auditioning of the patch banks only through "H" so far for factory patches that emulate the D50. The ones with "D50" or "LA" in the patch name are easy to spot of course. I haven't been saving my own experiments yet just happy knowing that the TI2 can do them, but one stands out as an emulation of "Afterthought" that I asked about in an earlier thread, involving an enveloped wavetable. Let me get into my studio hopefully tonight and I will put a list together for you and post. BTW, I found several D50-esque factory patches on the Blofeld, too.

FYI, Roland also issued the D50 as VST plugin.
Yes, I saw that, thank you! But I'm a "hardware only" guy!

BTW, having craved for a D50 back in the day when it came out (but couldn't afford), I naturally also checked out all the videos about the D05. And in my opinion it fails to nail the D50 sound: It misses some of the deepness, movement and warmth. But that's probably highly subjective.
Thanks for the heads up! I'm sure your observations are valid!

Ok...taken from my Favorites list. Nothing too earth shattering here:
C49 LA Lore - "rotating" flutes. Name borrowed from the M1 patch?
C69 P@rtials 2 - classic D50 calliope sound.
G17 Biosyn - D50 flutes.
G30 D50-50 - soft "plucked brass" pad.
...and I thought I had a listing for the D50 "Soundtrack" patch, but that may be on my Blofeld, unavailable at the mo'.
To do an approximation of the "Afterthought" D50 patch, pull up wavetable Overtunes 2 (normal wavetable osc mode), modulate at +60 an index of 0 with a standard envelope with extra sustain (I just use the amp envelope but a separate one would probably be better), add dual Unison to liven it up a little and you'll be in the ballpark.
Remember, these are just emulations, not exact recreations, so some extra tweeking is probably necessary.
Cheers!

Discovering a whole new side of the Virus

As a side note, the way I found that the Overtones 2 wavetable was good for emulating the D50 "Afterthought" patch was from auditioning all the wavetables (which would be nice if they were numbered or in alphabetical order!) in the different wavetable oscillator modes using different index modulating sources, mainly a tri-wave LFO, an envelope, or keytrack.
As I am somewhat obsessed with the PPG Wave (don't have one of those either!) wavetable #27 Formant Vocal (#28 on the Blofeld), I also discovered that keytracking the TI2 wavetable "Sniper" with a little detuned doubling was a great way for the TI2 to produce a very nice emulation of those captivating PPG choir patches.
Still hoping to hear those seven D50 Spectrum Loops.....

UPDATE!: Well, I finally did purchase a Roland D-05 Boutique anyway because I'm one of those who just love all the classic and even infamous D-50 factory patches. As it turns out, the seven PCM Spectrum Loops are nothing special- a couple of bellish noises and mechanical sounding noises, a formant noise, and a sawing noise. Also, the "Combination Loops" as they are only listed are actually only a few bass arps and some zany sounding PCM sequences. In fact, all the PCMs are not THAT impressive on their own and with being only 8-bit samples at that. This synth shouldn't sound as good as it does. But the D-50 is truly a case of the sum being greater that its parts- 4 oscillator bi-timbral patches, some nice digital fx, a couple of legendary programmers (Persing and Scott), and bam!, there you have it, one of the most innovative synths of the 80's. After taking a beating from the DX7 on one side and then the M1 right after, from my perspective the D-50 ultimately won out and I am still able to make it fit in and greatly enhance the contemporary projects I am working on now.