Hello Everyone.

Long time reader, first time participant here on AudioSex.

Hoping someone can help me me out with a problem I am having with the Roland Cloud D-50 synthesizer and some presets I have downloaded off the Web.

The problem has been discussed in another thread with another primary purpose and it was in 2017, so I thought a new thread would be best. Kindly see this link to see the old mention of the problem: https://audiosex.pro/threads/massiv...bin-preset-banks-fantastic.30967/#post-288144

I will state the problem once again in here. I use Windows 10 and a various DAWs including: Ableton, FL Studio and Reaper and the problem seems unrelated to the DAW being used. I had a perfectly fine and functioning installation of the Roland D-50 and in my memory I had not made any recent updates to it specifically when the problem showed up. All presets (to my knowledge, there are many in there...) were working fine and showing up in the browser. Then, out of the blue the vast majority of them were missing from the preset browser and I had only presets preceded by a ~ (tilde). I recognized these as new presets that have arrived with various synths in the Roland Cloud suite.

Wondering where the rest were, I went into the directories to take a look in:
C:\ProgramData\Roland Cloud\D-50
And, behold, they are all in there, but their extentions have been changed to .BAK from the original .BIN. So I change them to BIN again. Next time I launch the D-50 none of them show up and they have been renamed as BAK again.

EDIT: Sorry, forgot to write the version of the D-50 VST, which is: 1.12 (0040 64-bit)

BTW. I am pretty sure these BIN presets files are all or mostly from https://www.cultofd50.org/

I seriously have no idea how this came about to happening. As I stated, I have no recollection of updating D-50. However, I have updated all Roland synths to the newer browser and ~ naming convention and no problems there. But that is probably mostly to do with the fact I only have factory presets in those other synthesizers.

I tried renaming them all (or just a few, in some trials) as BIN again and then using Windows Explorer to set their property value to "Read Only" with no effect. Perhaps some deeper user permission settings are needed as I can only suspect the VST is running with some system privileges and taking control of these files so set them as BAK each time D-50 is launched.

Help!

Any input is appreciated, as are questions that may probe my memory a bit as to what can possibly have changed to cause this. The linked AudioSex thread has a few post about the problem, but they seem to have resolved it and their solution is not working for me, but that was in 2017. It was literally "one day it was working. Didn't touch D-50 for quite a while. Next time I launched it I had this problem." And this happened...about...3 months ago...I think...

Thanks for reading and keep hammering those keys!

 

IIRC if you haven't imported them into the plugin, and instead just put the files there, the plugin will rename them so they don't show up in the preset browser.

Instead of copying the files there manually, import them using the plugin (which will put the file where it expects) and they should stay available.

 

Thanks for the reply. This sounded promising until I realized I am not sure how to import. I assume you mean Patch -> Load -> [select BIN preset file].
(Yes, the file had been renamed from "01-D50.BAK" to its original "01-D50.BIN" before trying to load.)
This did not work and threw a "The file could not be read" error. Hmmm. At least this is a step forward. It seems the file cannot be read. Perhaps something to do with the internal BIN checksum mentioned in the old thread.

But I still wonder: how did this behavior suddenly change when it was all fine for years before?

BTW, I love the new ~Presets, but I so very much want those old presets back because they are part of several projects.

 

I should have mentioned earlier that my Roland Cloud is from the Sister Site and courtesy of R2R Roland Cloud Emulator

 

Yes - once a bank has been loaded, it stays in the bank list in the menu.

 

If I may bother you some more while I seemingly have your attention:
Can you confirm that you have this same version of D-50 running with 3rd party presets functioning normally among the factory ones?

Or anyone? Can anyone confirm they are not having this problem? ie: you just dumped the presets in there and it just works.

 

Mine is working fine.
Maybe 2 years ago I DID have an issue with the renaming as you say, but i can not recall what I did to fix it, BUT I did NOT have to import anything.

OK I found something that might be useful:
https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8650803#p8650803
====================
Q: I have a problem with the D-50 plugin.

After a new installation of Windows 11 on my new SSD, the factory presets 1 Preset.bin - 6 Preset.bin are not installed with the D-50. I backed up the ProgramData/Roland Cloud folder before reinstalling.

If I now copy the saved Presets 1 Preset.bin - 6 Preset.bin to the new system and start the D-50, the files Presets 1 Preset.bin - 6 Preset.bin are renamed to Presets 1 Preset.bak - 6 Preset.bak.

Only when I set the files to read-only do the presets work again. That can't be right somehow, can it? The additional banks that I can download from the cloud work without problems.

A: Delete all banks, or back up them. Reinstall D50, open it first (it then install the factory banks) and then add 3rd party / addon banks.
============================

 

Last edited: Jan 8, 2025

Thanks for the input. I have been messing around, trying various things and one thought is stuck in my mind: that my presets have somehow become corrupted.

I have successfully appended a SYS preset bank to my D-50, so that tells me it *can* read and import patches.

I have not been able to find a BIN file to try with, to see if the problem is associated with the filetype. The Cult of D-50 website no longer carries that bundle of some 300 presets I had once used. I should have kept a copy of the ZIP file. Argh!

When I try my BINs - that don't work anymore and were renamed BAK - on a website driven BIN-SYS converter, it also throws an error, saying the file is not readable.

I shall keep trying things and post results here. I really want those presets back with their terrible bank names so that projects will load correctly. I don't even have Fantasia ...

 

The main preset banks are part of the plugin - if they are not in that location, the plugin will put them there. At least the Mac version does, the main preset banks are part of the application bundle.

 

Yeah, how big are those files? And how were they not backed up, as I imagine they would fit on a floppy disk... hmmm. I dunno, those are all third party ones you lost apparently? I have Roland Cloud, but I haven't even bothered to install the d50 as it was an anathema to me when I was younger...and whatever... but I get why some people like it, and all good...

If you have the name of that bank that no longer exists on that website for some reason, I would do a little deeper search, as I imagine it hasn't disappeared from the internet you know?

 

As @dkny mentioned, I thought those factory banks are created by the plugin.

But now I tested by deleting the factory presets in the ProgramData location (zipping them up as a backup) and reinstalling the plugin.
- I thought those factory presets would be created in: "C:\ProgramData\Roland Cloud\D-50\", but NO.
- They were recreated in "C:\Program Files\Roland Cloud\D-50\Patch\". I had forgotten that all the factory banks are created in the Program Files locations.

- While the factory banks are created in the Program Files location, the D-50 is NOT seeing them (?!).
- And no factory banks were created in ProgramData location (?!)

So it seems they must also be in the ProgramData location.
But the installer does not seem to create them in ProgramData location, so how did they get there?

All the instruments have factory banks in both locations.
Was there some change in location I did not realize?
Could it be from my own adding of collections?
I don't think so because I don't have extras for all the instruments ... yet factory banks are in ProgramData as well.

[Edit]: Looking at the R2R info, it says:
"
- All official preset banks are included.
- Names of preset bank files are formatted unlike original Roland Cloud installation.

- Our release does not have no-factory-presets-issue which exists in some of Roland Cloud plugins."

 

Last edited: Jan 9, 2025

OK I deleted the D-50 folders from both Program Files and ProgramData locations and reinstalled.
In the "Program Files\Roland CLoud\D-50\Patch\" location were placed the 6 Factory Preset .bin files.
In the ProgramData location were placed 6 3rd party .bin files that begin with a tilde (~).
Upon loading the D-50 plugin, the factory .bin files were copied to the ProgramData folder, and all are seen by the plugin.

I deleted the factory presets from the ProgramData location, and the plugin could no longer see the factory presets.
It seems the "InstalledBankNames.dat" is the key. It lists only the factory presets.
I deleted the "InstalledBankNames.dat", and it was recreated and then the factory presets were copied into the ProgramData location. (it took maybe 5 seconds for those Factory Banks to appear.)

 

Yeah, they are tiny files at 30KB a piece. I am laughing a bit, remembering the times when that was "data". Couldn't find that particular bundle in BIN format, but it's still available in SYS format. However, you cannot simply dump those SYS files in the presets folder and have them read in the VST plugin's browser. Given how many they are... I don't wanna come across as lazy, but I'd rather not go through that procedure. Apparently there are some SYS-to-BIN converters out there and as long as they batch convert I am probably going to test that out as I suspect (from the KVR thread, I believe) that this may be at the root of the problem (some checksum code that is incorrect in these pre-converted BIN files).

Much like the preset patches, the synth is lean and mean. I highy recommend it. I don't know what music you like to produce and I suppose it is not a critical synth for dubstep, but it does have a nice clean sound and you can run multiple instances on almost any ol' hardware without issues.
It is actually the fact that I don't always use this synth that has me confused in this situation. I simply don't open it often enough to know when the problem actually arose. I just remembering having some "retro moments" around 3 months ago and loading it up, liking it and putting it away again. Then, about a month ago I had a hankering for some D-50. Loaded it up and to my surprise I had only the six (or so) new preset banks.

 

Interesting findings DoubleTake. I will have to look into this more later in the day.

I am pretty sure those tilde banks are not third party, but new factory presets from Roland as that fits with their other products across Roland Cloud that also received these tilde banks in some updates, but I maybe I misunderstood the situation.

Your previous post about there being two locations got me looking and I was sure I had scanned this earlier, but there they are! In Program Files I have the 6 original (old) factory banks and they were not showing in the D-50 browser, but they can be imported and do then show up! Yay! I have Fantasia again!

Now to try to recover those 300+ other banks somehow... urgh...

 

I do have the Cult of D-50 collection and was organizing them, going through with a hash file checker to weed out the duplicates.
I got my collection from a KVR thread. This guy named Beely converted all the Cult stuff, and shared an online converter.
The newer plugins can now import sysex files too, he said.
Here is a link to the last post in that thread that links the .zip file:
https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6821569#p6821569

From 2017 but the link works, and a very interesting thread...i began to look at earlier posts and began to get sidetracked :D

 

You are a godsend! Not sure how I missed that link to the converted files. This is exactly what I downloaded ages ago and had in my presets folder that then went corrupt.

Copied the BIN files from the download link you provided and dumped straight into the ProgramData/Roland Cloud/D-50 folder... AND IT WORKS!

What a total mess of a patch/bank list, but it works!

You have resolved a problem I have been trying to fix on-and-off for a month and I am now madly in love with you!

PS. Already anxious about it suddenly not working again, but at least then I have a workable solution. Just have a thing about computers having their "own mind".

 

Just a heads up for anyone reading this and thinking about using these presets. There are lots and lots of duplicates in the CultOfD50 archive. It would make a lot of sense to purge these duplicates before starting to use them. I cannot do this now because I have probably used patches from various banks and need them to be recalled from that particular bank in existing projects.

But beware: 135 of the banks are duplicates out of a total of 368.

This may not be a problem storage-wise, but it is a whole lot of extra clutter in a browser interface that is calling out for an update that doesn't look, work, and feel like you are in the 1990s.

I'll see what I can do regarding purging the archive and re-uploading it. Maybe that is frowned upon.