Roland D-20 Linear Arithmetic Workstation

The Roland D-20 was the second tranche of Roland D-Series synthesisers to be released in 1988.  Three synthesisers were released in this year.

• Roland D-20 - Linear Arithmetic Workstation

• Roland D-10 - Linear Arithmetic Synthesiser

• Roland D110 - Linear Arithmetic rack mount Synthesiser

The Roland D-10 and Roland D-20 were released together in 1988, both were 61 note keyboards. The Roland D-110 followed shortly after as a 19" rackmount synthesiser based on the architecture of the D-10. The D-20 continued in production until 1992, a year after the D-10 and D-110 had been discontinued.

The keyboard had the same key bed as the Roland D-50, a 61-key velocity sensitive key bed.  It uses the same Linear Arithmetic (LA) method of synthesis generation as the D-50.  

In theory the two synthesisers have the same configurable parameters, but to perform this configuration requires extensive knowledge of multiple sub-menus and not all the parameters from the D-50 are available on the D-20.  These include parameters relating to filters and effects.  The result of this difference is that the synthesiser file structure of the D-50 and D-10 are different meaning you cannot load files created on one to the other.

The Roland D-20 was the full workstation of the Roland D-Series.  It also included: 

• a rhythm generater 

• an 8 part sequencer

• a 3.5" floppy disk drive for saving tones and sequences

The inclusion of a 3.5" floppy drive on this synthesiser / workstation made it very useable.  A pack of 10 floppy disks in 1988 would have cost the musician that owned it £10-£15 where as a Roland RAM card was nearly £100.  The RAM card could back up and load the workstation almost instantly, but for about a minute for each load cycle the disks gave you far more flexibility and for the same cost 100 different workstation setups.

In my view this keyboard was aimed at the mid[tier professional musician that wanted to create sequences that could be used will on the road to support the music being played.

As I mentioned above there was another keyboard released at the same time.  The D-10 Synthesiser.  (And there is other pages on this website relating to this keyboard.). However in my opinion if you want a D-Series keyboard that is not the D-50.  Get the D-20.  I assure you it is as fun to play.

I acquired my D-20 after acquiring the D-10.  I was actually looking for a D-20 when I acquired the D-10 as there wasn't at the time any good examples of the D-20 available to buy.  And then shortly after buying the D-10 a D-20 came up for sale.

Both my D-20 and D-10 now require some Tender Loving Care.  With the projects to progress this work scheduled for 2026.