Roland celebrates 30 years of the D-50 synth with a plugin version in the Cloud

Roland’s Cloud platform, which enables you to download a growing range of instrument plugins for a monthly subscription fee, has been expanded once again with an emulation of the company’s D-50 synth.

Released in 1987, this was one of the defining synths of the ‘80s, and featured what Roland called LA synthesis. This blended sampled attacks and synthesized sustaining waveforms, augmented by chorus, reverb and EQ.

The Roland Cloud has already flirted with the D-50 with the sampled Anthology 1987 instrument, but this new plugin is a modelled version that features, for better or worse, an authentic user interface with all the original controls and parameters. All of the original presets are also here, and there are new ones, too.

You can currently subscribe to the beta version of the Roland Cloud for $20 a month, but the price is set to rise to $30 a month soon.

Ben Rogerson

I’m the Deputy Editor of MusicRadar, having worked on the site since its launch in 2007. I previously spent eight years working on our sister magazine, Computer Music. I’ve been playing the piano, gigging in bands and failing to finish tracks at home for more than 30 years, 24 of which I’ve also spent writing about music and the ever-changing technology used to make it. 

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