BlahBlahCafe - Jean-Michel Jarre forum

Vieon wrote:Thinking of buying a D50 for sale near me - how would I go about loading all the Jarre-esque patches onto it?

Sorry for the n00b question

You'll need a Midi interface from your PC to the D50,then you can use an Editor or librarian which sends the System exclusive data to the D50

this is what I use,its also handy if you want to make your own patches,the D-50's O.S is not the best,but its ok if you know what your doing,I prefer to use the software editor as it gives a better visual representation of the synths menus,as the D50 is quite tedious to edit using its own menu system(helps if you have a PG1000 EDITOR)


Roland D-50 Virtual Editor


or you can use a standard System exclusive program/Librarian which loads and sends any System exclusive data

If your looking to buy one.....


Make sure when you try it out that all the buttons work fine and also the Keys,the keybeds on the D50 are prone to having faults,due to their age unless they've been serviced regular you may find that some of the keys stop working(this can be rectified by stripping the keybed and a good clean)and also the buttons become worn on the underlugs which results in the lugs wearing down over time,this will mean that you'll have to push the buttons down hard for it to register on the contacts and in some cases the buttons will not make contact at all,resulting in what appears to be a non working button,so make sure you check them out before parting with any hard earned cash,especially if the seller promotes its fully functional,£150-170 would be fair for a mint condition model,these D 's are 20 years old now so doubtful you'll get an absolutely mint model(Unless its been stored for a large portion of its life)

I got mine for £50 but it needed some TLC,but works fine now

Mr Pitch wrote:Dear friends,


This machine sounds really powerfull by the way ... I prefer it than the D-550 am I crazy ??

Yes I was suprised by how good it sounds,especially given its age and I only got my hands on one Last year...


I can see why it was so popular upon release,but I never liked it when it came out,Its capable of some Nice pads,(check out Radeks Aero- Oxygene 2 Intro pad Sweet,some nice editing there)The Sys ex file is on dj Epos page

I agree, my first interest for synthesizers and electronic music began in 1991 and at this time, the masterpiece was the JD-800, not really the same thing considering the interface...

Anyway, thanks for the link to Dj Epo's page, I already knowed it but now I have the beast and his page is different to me ... I am lucky because the D-50 I own has some Jarre sounds in his internal memory, including the awesome Oxy2 pad by Radek !!)

It is very interesting to work with a sound like this, I didn't know the "random" chords played with it during the concerts, now I can find the right chords easier with this kind of sound.

Long live to the D-50 !!

I'd rather prefer Sound Diver. Really great for ALL SYNTHS WITH MIDI

radek tymecki wrote:I'd rather prefer Sound Diver. Really great for ALL SYNTHS WITH MIDI

I have a little "off topic" question concerning Sound diver (maybe a stupid one): If you work with some synths plugged into a MIDI dispatch (Roland A-880 as an example), plugged itself in a PC, will Sound diver recognize your synths through the disptach and send/receive some datas or not ?

I ask it because I tried a Microkorg editor via the same set-up and if I plug directly the MK in the PC, it works fine, but if I connect the MK into the dispatch, the soft does not find the MK ... If sound diver could works like that, it would be great to program my D-50 and other synths

Thanks for your help and really sorry for the off topic.

I don't think so. It's a midi connection, not USB. So there's not much to recognize.

In other words, if you send D50 sysex to your JD800, it will get a bit screwed. But just a little bit. Just be sure to send the right data on the right channel and you'll be just fine

You need to have both Midi "IN" and "Out" connected to your synth/PC,in order to edit them from the PC,the reason being most editing programs work with System exclusive data,so there needs to be what is called "Handshaking",where by the device your editing will receive the system exclusive data and then will send back that handshake message,each time a parameter is tweaked on the editing program telling the editing program that (Insert synths name here) is connected,if you just connect your synth from your PC using the Midi out from your pc to your synths Midi in,there will be no handshake communication,and therefore the PC has no way of recognising if the synth is connected or not,

I use soundiver,This works using system exclusive handshaking,so you need to have your devices setup so that the Midi in and out are connected to the PC,I like sounddiver as it allows me to alter my Midi setups according to how I work,and depending on how certain devices are chained in my setup,its also a great Patch librarian too,its also a great universal program rather than having Multiple editors for each synth,you have control over all your synths from one central program(As long as your synths listed in the devices menu)

You can use a Midi patchbay connected via USB to your PC to edit your synths,You just need to connect all the in/outs of your synths to the Patchbay,so theres a 2 way communication system..

I have 2 8X8 midi patchbays(gives me 16 midi ins and 16 midi outs),as all my synths(both midi in and Midi out) are hooked up via these Patchbays and I do all my editing from the PC,

GeeJee wrote:
In other words, if you send D50 sysex to your JD800, it will get a bit screwed. But just a little bit. Just be sure to send the right data on the right channel and you'll be just fine

You can't screw up another synth by sending another synths System exclusive data to it,even if they are from the same Manufacturer
system exclusive messages work with a byte system whereby the message contains a code specific to a certain device,so you can't send JD800 sys ex to a D50,because it will just ignore the message
Roland devices use a checksum value in with the sys ex strings,so that the message will only be intepreted by the correct device,its a foolproof way to stop the data being sent to the wrong device

All sys ex strings include a Manufacturers ID plus a Model ID,so even if you sent roland JD800 data to a D50,even though they will both use the same Manufacturer ID,they then have seperate Model ID so unless the message is sent for the D50,it will ignore if it doesnt contain the D50 Model ID code,and even then the Checksum value will determine if its is for this synth

Thank you very much Equinoxe !!

All is clear now and I understand my mistake: I plugged only the midi IN of my synths !! It is obvious, it can not works fine ...

Now I have to buy another MIDI patch to manage all the MIDI OUT from my synths and keyboards to the PC.

Thanks for your help

Does Radek or somebody else have the instructions, how to tweak the synth knobs that I can try to make jarre sounds of d50 with my Yamaha cs2x?

Well dunnow specs of CS2X so i cant help ya buddy

Eeh, just try, try, try, try, and at last but not least, you get some jarrish sounds

Use the correct samples and tweak them, filters, adsr, etc.

Be patient and you'll do it. You may even create some nice personal sounds while trying to emulate JMJ's sounds.

Sure, but it is not rather easy to make sounds on the D50 or the SY77 !
Or maybe, you have the PG1000

I used to have a CS1X, but I sold it. I didn't like to program it, mine seemed to have some bugs as well. It can do some nice sounds, but it was just too limited for my taste. It also had a VERY recognisable thin yamaha sound to it which I didn't like that much...