Uploaded December 2020 | Updated September 2026, 4 hours ago
Another interesting vintage gear from the 80s to my collection. This time the Roland RA-50 Realtime Arranger from the 1988, which is the module version of the Roland E-20 Keyboard that uses the same type of synthesis as found in the legendary Roland D-50, Linear Arithmetic synthesis. I have yet to wait for my MIDI cable to arrive to use the synthesizer capabilities of this RA-50, in the meantime I'm using it as a Drum Machine; It has really punchy yet dated 1980s drum sounds although doesn't feature plethora of drum sounds like the R-8 or the R-70. It is the only drum machine that uses Linear Arithmetic synthesis, other drum machines from Roland that came just before and after it uses PCM. It also has 6 built-in Reverb and 2 Delay types that are all very nice sounding. The RA-50 has kind of "soothing" quality to its' sounds, there's some kind of unique harmonics going on in the upper register that is quite pleasing. The Linear Arithmetic synth sounds from it also kind of remind me of certain PS1 games from my childhood in the early 2000s, although I might be wrong. It definitely has its' own character. I also noticed on Ebay the RA-50 is becoming more rare, this might be due to the popularity of the MT-32 and the legendary status of the D-50.
Another interesting vintage gear from the 80s to my collection. This time the Roland RA-50 Realtime Arranger from the 1988, which is the module version of the Roland E-20 Keyboard that uses the same type of synthesis as found in the legendary Roland D-50, Linear Arithmetic synthesis. I have yet to wait for my MIDI cable to arrive to use the synthesizer capabilities of this RA-50, in the meantime I'm using it as a Drum Machine; It has really punchy yet dated 1980s drum sounds although doesn't feature plethora of drum sounds like the R-8 or the R-70. It is the only drum machine that uses Linear Arithmetic synthesis, other drum machines from Roland that came just before and after it uses PCM. It also has 6 built-in Reverb and 2 Delay types that are all very nice sounding. The RA-50 has kind of "soothing" quality to its' sounds, there's some kind of unique harmonics going on in the upper register that is quite pleasing. The Linear Arithmetic synth sounds from it also kind of remind me of certain PS1 games from my childhood in the early 2000s, although I might be wrong. It definitely has its' own character. I also noticed on Ebay the RA-50 is becoming more rare, this might be due to the popularity of the MT-32 and the legendary status of the D-50.
