Roland D-70


The Roland D-70 is a 76 note Super LA synthesizer produced in Japan in 1990. it featured a pixel backlit LCD display and competed with the likes of the Korg M1 and T-series workstations and Yamaha SY77 workstation, although the D-70 was not itself a workstation because it lacked a sequencer. The D-70 can also split or layer the four tones that constitute a patch and has the same TVF filters used later in the JD-800. It has onboard drums sounds and is 6-part multi timbral. It has four left control faders that can be assigned in real time to the following paramemeters: Level, Pan, Tuning, Cutoff, Resonance, Attack, and Release. It has three modes of play: Mono, Polyphonic, Split. Despite being anticipated as a "Super D-50", it is in fact a different machine, a prototype of what would later become the JD-800 and the very successful JV series full-sample playback synths.

Expandability

The D-70 also can read U220 series PCM cards, and has two PCM card slots on the rear of the unit, and also a RAM slot.

Typical sounds

Typical sounds include: Rhodes, strings, pianos, organ patches and also synth sounds such as: Ghosties, Prologue and SpaceDream.

Effects

There are six reverbs, delay and cross-delay, and one effect from Chorus 1 & 2, FB-Chorus, Flanger and Short Delay in another effect. There are just three reverb / delay parameters: reverb/delay time and level and delay feedback. Chorus / flanger allows you to set level, delay, rate, depth and feedback.