Roland D-05 Editor Now Available

by Chadwick Wood
October 16th, 2017

Today, Patch Base 2.8.4 is available, and it adds an editor for the Roland D-05. You have access to all of the D-05's parameters, and you can import existing D-05 (or D-50, D-550) patches as well.

This update also includes a rewrite of the Nord Lead 2 and Nord Lead 2X editors, making them look a little cleaner, and fixing a few important bugs with them!

Why a Roland D-05 Editor?

Some people who are more intimately familiar with the D-05 and the D-50 have asked why I'm releasing a D-05 editor, when the D-50 editor works with the D-05? There is a couple of reasons why:

  1. Support. My approach with Patch Base is a "one synth, one editor" approach, meaning that even though some synthesizers have identical, or nearly identical, MIDI implementations as others, I plan to release a separate editor for each synth. I take this approach because sometimes there are small differences between synthesizers that can make supporting both of them in one editor a hassle. Also, this way adding new features to one editor later doesn't have to cause potential bugs with the other. It just keeps things simpler.
  2. To make it clear that Patch Base supports the D-05. Even though the D-50 editor will work with the D-05, the majority of people don't know this. Offering a D-05-specific editor makes this clear. 

This approach is not about charging someone twice for the same thing. If you have the D-50 editor, feel free to use it with the D-05 editor! Just know that I'm not going to officially support that. Down the road, it might turn out that there are hidden features in the D-05, or Roland releases newer firmware that adds features, you never know. And I want to make it easy for me to add support for those changes, without affecting D-50 editor users. Thanks for your understanding!