These are the features for the D-50VE Fully compatible with Roland D-50/D550 Look and feel of the D-50. The D-50VE is designed to start programming from the minute you lay your hands on it. Fully editable with special features, not seen on the D-50 e.g. undo's, copy curves, adsr, tvf, send-receive leds, ... Librarian built inside. Cut and paste, drag, organize patches, ... Library supports single files and .d50 and .syx bank files Drag and drop patches Manage between Source list to Destination list to build your custom bank from a single patch or bank patch. Manage the D-50 reverb types. Online community: Register by sending your banks. This gives you access to tons of banks from other users. Print Patch-list Can be controlled by mouse or keyboard, logical organized keys Hear and control what you're editing: Unlike most of the editors, the D-50VE can sequence notes to hear the result or play chords on a virtual keyboard Skins: make your own skins or download from this website Comes with tons of patches and additional skins...

A multinational development ! The D-50 is a highly versatile instrument. The only problem users encounter is the horrible interface: you KNOW your D-50 has a certain function but you just can't find it. And nowadays there are beautiful synths with glossy interfaces but they just lack this real (not virtual) analog sparkle... How to get it right? These were the thoughts that crossed two peoples minds for weeks. And it became a multinational cooperation: a Belgium graphic designer and a Dutch software designer put their hands together and started making a product that is absolutely a one of a kind: THE D-50 VIRTUAL EDITOR. After years, Frédéric Jagneaux, frenchman came into the scene. He gave the D-50VE new power in it's existence by adding a librarian and finishing the project.

A Belgian glossy interface
There are two major things wrong with the interface of the original Roland D-50 (or the module D550). First there is the fact that much features are buried too deep into the menu structure. The D-50 comes from a time where manufacturers wanted to cut down on the number of buttons and sliders on the surface of the device and this is the result of their savings... Second there is the fact that nowadays sound designers are somewhat spoiled by the interfaces of the currently available instruments. Most of the modern synthesizers have real time knobs and programmers are not bothered with settings of levels and times of e.g. the ADSR curve.

These considerations are currently resulting in a highly unique form of interface for the newly developed D-50 Virtual Editor. It has the same look and feel of the original device but contains many shortcuts to the functionality of the Roland D-50 and gives the programmer the same comfortable tools as the modern synthesizers. And some proud words to end this: it's a Belgian product... as sweet as our chocolates!
 

Dutch robust programming
A nice front end and pretty words are one thing. To get it working is another. To give concrete form to these ideas the Belgian initiative is backed up by Dutch programming experience. A decision was made to develop the editor (and librarian) solely for the Microsoft Windows platform. After that the right tools were gathered and the development began. An enormous number of functions were developed to be able to communicate with and to control the D-50. And ofcourse a lot of functions to be able to read, write and edit system exclusive files, because it's as much a librarian as an editor. And on top of it all there were extra functions to translate a comfortable interface to the harsh reality of the numeric interface of the D-50.

The ADSR-curve is a good example. On the D-50 the programmer has to input separate values for the times and the levels of the ADSR-curve (by the way, ADSR stands for Attack Decay Sustain and Release, the life cycle of a tone).In fact one only wants to tell the D-50 which form this curve has and is not interested in the concrete values. As a result of these reflections a function was developed to translate the situation of sliders on the screen to a MIDI message to the Roland D-50 to set the matching values for the TVF or TVA times and levels, as shown below (click on the image to hear the result or download the patch called One Filter Roll).

A powerful french library.
The D-50VE is a powerful editor for the D-50, but would be not complete, unless you add a library to it. A librairy wich can manage the patches and output to files or the D-50. For that we've found the right person ! Frédéric Jagneaux is a frenchman living nearby Lyon. He 's a 34 years old skilled programmer and created the D-50 Libris, a librarian for the D-50VE. the Libris will be fully integrated in the D-50ve project and make it even more functional ! You 'll have cut and past, drag and drop abilities all at your fingertips !