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Average rating:
3.9 out of 5
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I picked one up for $50 mainly because it was too cheap not to. I had no idea what it would sound like, but was very pleasntly surprised indeed. It is highly capable of some wonderful techno style sounds and is a fairly good analogue emulator. The "real" sounds are totally shit.
There is a program floating around (i found it via the links page here, bur cannot remember which link it was) that allows you to edit it on a PC as opposed to the 2x16LCD screen. Although still difficult, it is much better. The best thing is the 2000 or so voices that are bundled with it. These should keep you busy for a while.
On the downside, editing I've already covered and they're fairly noisy. On the up, they are 8 voice multitimbral with a ninth rhythm too, each of which can have a separate out. bad news is the partials structure, which would limit you to just one or two notes if you use the full complement of voices.
These are turning up more and more frequently these days and as such can be found much more cheaply. I doubt I'll ever part with mine though.
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I have had this module since it was released. It's strength is dirty analog sounds, great for techno etc. It can also do great synth basses (I have also a Minimoog so I know where to compare), although I have had sometimes problems with phase cancelling. It's quite noisy. The PCM samples are only 8-bit. Generally the sound is dull and harsh. Great for dirty analog and weird sounds. I have even managed to get out a funny distortion guitar (from harpsichord wave) and "applause" sound from it, and many other effects.
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This machine has great wierd synth sounds. Just by layering the presets you can get really thick lead, pad and bass sounds. The pre-set organs are great. The acoustic pianos are weak, but real sounds are boring anyway. The solo and pad strings are good. Programming it is a pain right now, but I've only had it a few days and haven't had the time to get into it. If anyone can recommend or pass on a good editor I would appereaciate it greatly.
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Based on reviews from this site, I picked one up used for pretty cheap (under $150). I found a couple of places that sold patches for this box for cheap, go those too. Wicked! The D110, when properly processed (BBE 462 and some reverb) sounds pretty cool, very useful for bed tracks and such. As most say, don't bother with acoustic stuff, hack the patches and presets and make sick and wonderful noise! I'm using a freeware D110 editor to muck about with, and it makes life waay easier (no front-panel hell).
Beats the cost of a new synth any day...
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I've had a D-110 for a couple of years, but barely used it, because I ended up so frustrated every time I tried to do anything with it. The Operating system is a pure bitch. However, as part of my resolution to use what I have, and stop lusting after more gear, I recently spent most of my spare time for a couple of days really hacking at it, with some success. Here are some observations:
Unlike my first multi-timbral synth (TX81Z - a paragon of clarity by comparison), there is no single-sound mode on the D-110. To do this, you need to go into PART EDIT, and set the MIDI Channel of parts 2-R to OFF, and/or reduce their PARTIAL RESERVE to 0. Make the PARTIAL RESERVE of Part 1=4. Now, you've got one voice to play with, polyphony of 8. When editing your one voice, use PARTIAL MUTE to isolate components of the sound.
The biggest confusion about the D-110 may be the layers of a sound/multi-setup. The lowest is a TONE = the single voice described above. Next is TIMBRE, then PART, then PATCH. The trouble is there are only buttons for 3 of the 4 - to get to TONE EDIT, go TIMBRE-EDIT-EDIT. Also, you can only directly save 3 of the 4 - PART EDITs seem to be saved as part of PATCH save. Only TONEs and PATCHes seem to have names, too.
So, maybe there's a more efficient way of doing it, but what works for me: 1) - Set up the single-voice PART as above, edit the TONE and save it, with name. 2) - Edit TIMBRE and save it. 3) - Edit PATCH name and save it. If you want a multi-timbral PATCH, repeat the above for each different voice.
Despite the hassles, I'm really starting to appreciate this box (I need to tackle the Rhythm setups next). As others have observed, the samples are not great, it's a bit noisy, and it's obtuse. But you can get great noises out of it, with patience. I'd be happy to trade notes with others.....
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