Roland D5 sounding weird...

[Jrichter]

Thank you Treygreer, your advice worked for me.
Here’s how to load factory sounds thru laptop connected with midi. you’ll find the Roland SYS file at Rolands website here: https://www.roland.com/us/support/by_product/all/general_apps_tools/eac42271-4aef-4eed-ab46-d6b6ee6df208/

Next you’ll need to download midi-ox here: https://m-audio.com/kb/article/2060

Follow the loading directions for midi ox and also prepare the D-5 to receive the system exclusive dump. I assume you have done that before but here’s directions anyway: press Data Transfer then ‘display right’ to get ‘bulk load’ , press upper arrow to select then enter, remove write protect with write and enter.

[glennonjd]

Motivated by this thread and a reach out via a DM, I'll re-do my fix and try the capacitor.

Jritcher -thanks so much for the instructions on how to load the presets. I'll followed these to the letter but when I start that One-way Bulk Load and try to send the data:

- On MidiOX, it shows the data is being sent fine
- On the synth, it just stays on "Waiting" and never changes to "Loading"

Suspect it may be my midi interface - though midi seems to be working fine and the midi-self test on the synth say "OK" too. I'm on a PC with Windows 10 and a low-cost USB to midi interface - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07CC4B9L4/

USB plugged into the PC and the midi-out connector from this midi interface plugged directly into the mid-in of the synth. I can also connect the midi-in of the midi interface to the midi-in of the synth. I'm NOT using any midi cables between the midi interface and the synth - just plugging it in direct. All "looks" to be working fine - but something is wrong with my set-up.

Great to see people still taking the time to respond to the thread after all these years - thanks from a appreciating guy in Corona lockdown in Liverpool, UK.

Cheers
John

[StormLord11]

Had the exact same problem with garbled/underwatery output due to pitch bend/mod wheel behaving erraticly, can confirm Treygreer's method worked perfectly.

[matrix12x]

@glennonjd try a different MIDI interface or slow down the MIDI transmit speed of the sysex.

I've had an issue sending patches to this synth with cheap USB to MIDI interfaces.


I don't know if anyone's had this problem before, but I just swapped out my battery with a known good battery (I measured 3.5VDC) and I get the check battery warning. Any ideas? I wonder if one of the cables or something was left loose when I reassembled.

[timler]

@glennonjd, I'll second what @matrix12x said. I've read online that the inexpensive USB-to-MIDI interface cables do not actually transmit Sysex MIDI messages, although they work fine with regular MIDI messages. I bought the Roland UM-ONE mk2 interface for about $50, I've read there are others around that price that work too. There are other cheaper interfaces out there for $20 that mostly work fine, just not for Sysex.


I recently discovered this post, and I have the same problem with the D-5 warbly sound. I'm looking forward to trying the fixes posted here - thanks everyone!

[timler]

Just like everyone else, I pulled my old D-5 out of storage after 20 years, and got the same Check Internal Battery error, and warbly underwater sound. But thanks to everyone’s great advice, I was able to fix the D-5, and now it plays perfectly normally. I opened up the case, soldered a 1-uF capacitor to the yellow and brown leads on the bender, changed out the battery with a CR-2032. And the bender and modulation work like they should.

But it was definitely not trivial. I’ll describe my experience a bit here, to hopefully help others in the future who find this discussion.

First of all, getting to the bender is not easy. I started by flipping the case over (onto pillows) and removing the 19 screws on the bottom, to expose the inside. As you go along, keep track of the groups of screws by putting them in paper cups with labels, and take photos! Also it’s helpful to download the D-5 service manual which shows what all the parts are. The boards inside are upside down and connectors are hard to get to. You can remove the screws holding the main board so it’s loose, but I left the cables attached. I was able to reach under it and disconnect the cable leading to the bender, definitely awkward. I wanted to remove the bender from the D-5 so it’d be easier to solder by itself. I removed the four screws holding the bender assembly to the case, but there’s a big flat plate that blocks one corner. I remove the screw on that plate that’s holding that corner down, and was able to gently lift it high enough to allow the bender to escape.

At this point I had the bender assembly all by itself, but the yellow and brown leads were still hard to access. I remove two more screws and the spring, so that the two bender pieces could be pried apart loosely. Space is tight there, and I really didn’t see a way to solder a capacitor between the leads, so I ended up just soldering regular wires from those leads, and running them along with the other colored wires a few inches. Then I had plenty of room, so I soldered a 1-uF capacitor between them. I will say my soldering skills aren’t great, so I was really careful, but it worked. Then I screwed the bender assembly back together, keeping the new wires aligned with the others. I covered the new wires and capacitor with shrink tubing so they wouldn’t be exposed and short out something.

One problem I had is that in 2022, there aren’t any Radio Shacks or hobby stores that carry electronics anymore. Fortunately where I work I could borrow a soldering iron, solder, clamps, wire strippers, swabs and isopropanol for cleaning, and the right capacitor. But otherwise you’ll have to buy everything online. I’m sure everything's available, but I find it harder to order online.

Now, while the case was open, I replaced the old battery. It was around 25 years old and had some white corrosion on it. Unfortunately the battery is mounted on the bottom side of the main board - why wasn’t the D-5 built with maintainence in mind? The connectors were all tight and hard to remove, so I never did, but with a friend’s help, one person was able to lift the board carefully without stressing the connectors, and the other reached under and slid out the battery and replaced it. We used a CR-2032, like it says in the service manual.

Finally I reversed all our steps to put the D5 back together, and it worked! It will say that changing the battery did not erase all the sounds, they were still there just fine. I had been careful anyway though: beforehand I had installed MIDI-OX on my (Windows 10) computer, attached a MIDI-to-USB cable, and copied the existing sounds from the D-5 into my computer in case they got lost. I also downloaded the Roland factory sounds to have just in case, as mentioned earlier in this thread. By the way, for the MIDI cable, I bought the Roland UM-ONE mk2 for $50 because cheaper ones are rumored to not be capable of transmitting sysex messages, which you need for transferring patches etc to and from the D-5.

Overall, this took me a while! If you are good at soldering and dissembling electronics in general, I bet it will be easier for you.
Hope this is useful.