Roland D 110 & U220 for £120 - is that reasonable?

[xanderbeanz]

Great price as they sell for £100 each usually.

I did this video with the Roland mt32 which is basically the same thing, in a little box with worse converters, so the D110 sounds slightly better, the patches are compatible so it'll give you a good idea, nice digital synths.

[Llitsor]

I had a U110 which is very similar to the U220. It sounded pretty good, but was limited in what you could really do with it. As I remember it, it was good for all the bread and butter type typical 'band' sounds. But I wouldn't think it would be that useful for electronic music.

I still have a D110, but i've not used it in many years. It can sound genuinely good. Perhaps even great. But it's such a major pain in the rear to program, that it left me feeling cold and uninspired. I didn't have the patience to persist with it. That said, I never did try it with the matching hardware programmer (Roland PG10). And I expect some software programmers must exist that would make it rather easier to program too. But without a more intuitive way to program it, I think it is about the most dull bit of kit I have ever owned.

[ROLAND RAZZ]

Originally Posted by Llitsor

I had a U110 which is very similar to the U220. It sounded pretty good, but was limited in what you could really do with it. As I remember it, it was good for all the bread and butter type typical 'band' sounds. But I wouldn't think it would be that useful for electronic music.

I still have a D110, but i've not used it in many years. It can sound genuinely good. Perhaps even great. But it's such a major pain in the rear to program, that it left me feeling cold and uninspired. I didn't have the patience to persist with it. That said, I never did try it with the matching hardware programmer (Roland PG10). And I expect some software programmers must exist that would make it rather easier to program too. But without a more intuitive way to program it, I think it is about the most dull bit of kit I have ever owned.

I have to respectfully disagree the U110 and 220 are very different. The 110 had cool expansion cards but no reverb and was very noisy. The 220 was cleaner and more polished and still to this day has a workable piano, gorgeous strings, and one of the best sax's of all times. Plus 2 expansion slots I think, maybe just one; can't remember.

The D110 is a great piece but no dedicated performance mode which means you have to layer sounds by putting the tones on the same midi channel instead of having a dedicated layer mode. FYI, my D-20 was one of my most beloved synths and provides many fond memories.

I am real picky about condition so if the units are mint by them now! They are still very good.

[jachin boaz]

i have the u220 here which covers alot of ground and does some really nice typical roland pad sounds etc , i think the d110 is loaded with weird waveform/ loops ? like the stuff in the d50.Worth that price.

[Looping Loddar]

80-100 Pounds would be a fair price for both. In Germany the D110 or U220 don't cost more than 50 Euro.

[totty]

I got a perfect condition D110 for £45 about 4 years ago. I know everything has gone up though. Don't pay more than a 100