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D-2 At a Glance
	Released: 2001 \| Specifications User rating: 4.6/5 \| Read reviews (46) Roland News(754) Streaming Video (123)
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Bruce Satinover writes:

this is a groovebox, if you dig that kind of thing you will need to think a bit as it doesn't have the traditional groovebox interface although it works great with a controller, I like the D2 because it sounds good (same sample engine as the MC-505) and is a great scratch pad. It's good enough to use on it's own although the 2 RCA outputs are skimpy. You only have 8 total tracks, one dedicated drum track and 7 instrument tracks. You can use the instrument tracks for drum timbres, and there's plenty to choose from, but it may be limiting. This is my take on it, I use it as a glorified rhythm box. If you want to do full arrangements this isn't the right box for you. A couple of cool features are the RPS and in particular D-FIELD which is similar to a Kaoss Pad with a few differences. You can program the pad to 8 zones that can input notes, edit if you work in step mode and of course effect play. Some uses include assigning 8 RPS (phrases) which can be trigged as you like, Adlib which lets you select a sound in your sequence and play it off the pad in real time, Vinyl FX, 3 assignable buttons for the pad, Filter, effects, cross fading, scratching, tempo change, snare and rolls. The filters aren't anything to get thrilled about but they do work effectively. You can mute channels or eight individual drum tracks on the drum sequence- don't get your hopes up, it's assigned by instrument. Simple and non-intuitive editing of timbres, nowhere near a real synth but enough to make variations that sound different enough to be worth storing in one of the 256 patch memory slots. It's a Roland so there are lots of button sequences to learn although the manual is fairly well written.

Comments About the Sounds:
Sound quality is decent to very good with some less than interesting sounds....why do we need applause samples? High cheese factors on some sounds but cheese can be good when used creatively

(Thanks to Bruce Satinover for this info.)

Links for the Roland D-2

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	SX Productions MP3's which contain at least one (usually 3 or 4) tracks made with a D2.

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