Roland D-05 & an old D-50 patch revisited

Published on Aug 13, 2018 DreamsOfWires

"This won't be of interest to everyone, musically or otherwise, and I tend not to go into personal details in my video descriptions, but for this one I'll make an exception: In 2011 I owned an original D-50 for a while, and some of the patches I created for it are among my earliest videos on this channel. I'd not long discovered that my father, who I lived with, had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. He was only 60. It was the night before what I knew would be his final birthday and I had a blank birthday card in front of me. I thought 'what can I possibly write to a dying man?' I was too distraught to write anything. Then, for whatever reason, I switched on the D-50 and tinkered around on a patch I'd just created for it. I found the result comforting somehow, so I recorded it right there. I then uploaded a video containing that recording shortly after, and it's remained on my channel ever since.

It's quite unremarkable as a piece of music, and I never told the story behind it to anyone until now, but it's of personal value to me, and this channel has become much more personal to me since that time, both in the music I make for it, and because of the words of support and encouragement I've received on here over the last few years, so I feel able to share it. From innocent beginnings this channel has gradually become much more than I'd imagined it would.

When the D-05 was released I immediately thought of my old D-50 patches, which I'd backed up to a sysex file, and wanted to revisit them, along with this recording. I used the D-50 Librarian app on a PC back in the day, which also works with the D-05 and allowed me to upload these old patches to it. I'll make some more videos with the instrument soon I expect.

Location video is of Long Beach, CA and some other beach/pier south of LA.
Recorded into AUM on an iPad. No external effects, just pure D-05."