Roland SC-55ST: $400 MIDI Music Powerhouse from 1993 

This video made me realise two things: 1. I think I actually prefer the General Midi rendition of Canyon 2. You seem to effortlessly produce beautiful shots. Even the shortest cutaway is always beautifully composed. You've gotten to the point where I as a viewer don't even notice just how well composed and put together every video really is, because you've found your "look" and everything just melds together seamlessly. Your videos are always a joy to watch and a high-point of the week.

Having something like this would have blown my mind as a kid back then lmao

I just love the absence of yellowing on these devices. Usually mixing a bunch diferent retro computer hardware results in a discordant mish-mash of beiges, yellows and tans. But in this setup of yours, it all just looks pristine.

I need a vid on that Synth setup, LGR

4:46 Please open that musical can of worms :D (maybe on blerbs)

Even though modern PCs are far more pleasant to build and use, I have a soft spot for 90s PCs. Thumbing through Computer Shopper with it's adverts for clip art, dragging the crt monitor to LAN parties, the deafening sound of a dot matrix printer, the whooomp-click of de-gausing a monitor, cleaning mouse balls, memory managers, fan fold printer paper.....! Aaaaahhh! Those were the days!

I had captions turned on, and the first thing I see is [thoroughly appropriate jazz]. Keep up the good work, Clint.

3:18 = that "WOODGRAIN" wipe....XD Of course, the rest of the video is awesome as well. Kudos for yet another job well done!

*2020, still playing DooM2 with the D-buttons and Ctrl* ...This man is incorruptible...

Dang that cowbell hits harddd!!!

Just wanted to say thanks, Clint! Your MIDI tower video actually inspired me to hunt down an SC-88 for gaming and I've actually been using it a lot for music production. Wouldn't have done that without your videos!

4:43 HOLY SHIT PLEASE COVER THIS ON LGR! Fellow music maker here and would love to see what these old midi devices can do as far as music creation.

It's weird to say, but whenever I hear music from this era being played through a Roland, it always sounds wrong to me--because whenever I was hearing that music back in the day it would be through the FM synthesis on a Soundblaster card!

8:56 What Clint says matches perfectly with how Max's mouth moves

I played the hell out of Raptor as a child. Loved to hear the music in this setup. Thanks for that. 😊

"The fact that my impulse control is dangerously close to zero when it comes to retro Roland hardware from Japan" Priceless. Good one Clint 🤣🤣🤣

Clint! Greetings from Osaka. I'll let you know if I spot any more Japanese Roland stuff :D

8:16 Yes! Descent II! That game has some of my favourite music in it. Both the MIDI and the Redbook music are phenomenal.

My my, marvelous MIDI music makes me merry!

Swedish fan from 92. You are THE Best. I Love watching your vidios. Make me warm inside when i see all thes nice things from before and some things that i played when i whas a kid :)

Ahh the sweet soothing Roland sounds from the 90s. How comforting.

5:35 been laughing at that all day now " MMM. THAT SOUNDED GOOOD"

The best part of my more-than-tedious workday is taking a moment to relax and get a nice dose of LGR. Thanks for the quality content, Clint. I need to get off of my butt, hunt down a Roland module and tracker my little heart out.

I just wanted to say thank you, LGR. For making these videos and for educating everyone on these otherwise forgotten devices! It's nice to come home from a long night shift in the ER and watch some of your videos to relax and learn. Again, thank you so much, keep doing what you're doing!

You made my day with this video. Other than sam and max i knew and played through every game you demonstrated today. thank you LGR.

When I see "MIDI" in the title of an LGR video, I am instantly preparing myself to listen to canyon.mid.

Overall great video, Clint! I can't help but notice all the detail you've put into it. There's so much love and care in the way you present everything. I've often wondered if the fully featured models got any real use in studios--they are certainly presented that way.

The montage of different games proving once again that you have impeccable taste!

AHHHHGGGG, THAT'S THE NEW MINILOGUE! I'm freaking jelly man, with the new digital oscillator and sequencer and all.

8:56 I like how your voice syncs up with Sam's mouth.

Great video again Clint! Gained additional info on MIDI equipment thru this video! Looking forward to the next one! More power and God bless from the Philippines!

I love your Roland MIDI equipment, my cousin had made custom ringtones for his Motorola phone from a Roland MIDI back in the early to mid-2000s!

That Descent II music is pure MIDI awesomeness.

Everyone of these things I've ever seen was so yellowy-brown with smoke and or UV damage. That thing is extremely pristine!

Roland.. Best 90s music hardware period!.. Love these and how they sound.. I could no way ever afford these back then... Thanks for taking me back Clint! .

For those of you that are looking for an SC-55, you can also try for the SC-155.This is the tabletop version, which occasionally is dirt cheap.

Oh my god when i saw Raptor, i cried. I played that masterpiece so much back in the day...

Clint!!!!!! We need a tour of yr synth station. My goodness.

I didn't know Roland MT-32 or SC-55 exists, despite seen them quite a few times in setup of a few FPS game like Doom, Doom2, Duke of Nukem, Rise of Triad, Hexen, Heretic and Shadow Warrior. I've never seen them in any PC stores in my country or city, otherwise I'd have bought both despite its obnoxious high price. I did, however bought a SB16/Waveblaster that changed the whole PC game sound scenario for me, after listening to a PC compudex expo with Doom game that blew me away, right after that bought Sound Blaster AWE32, and filled it out with optional RAM. Those were the days of pure hardware/software innovation in the early PC gaming days. I did spend quite some big bucks with SLI Voodoo2 video card configuration and Sound Blaster AWE 64 sound cards using top of the line Intel Pentium II CPU in 1998.

Beautiful video. Midi music still fascinates me. These are classic music tracks and great Sound Canvas instruments. Thanks to you in a few minutes great nostalgia and return to younger years.

LGR: Where canon.mid is heard more Than it was in the 90s. And also in better quality than most of us ever heard it to begin with.

1. Retro Man Cave interview: "The Voice of Duke Nukem, Jon St. John - Retro Tea Break" 2. Why there was no Monkey Island Theme?????

I was following your channel for 2 years and now you're telling me you also into synths! Now I love you twice as more! Cheers!

No lie, I was just earlier today thinking about how much I always enjoy your videos about MIDI, and - lo and behold - a new one get thrown up! Perfect!

I had a Roland XP-60 workstation to start off on. In terms of pre set sounds, Roland can't be beat.

I’d love to know how many people actually owned these MIDI devices back in the day... In my circle of friends that had PC’s in the early 90’s, (about 5 of us...) it was a big enough spend to finally get a Sound Blaster. I don’t think any of us even knew what these Roland MIDI devices were! I never fully understood what they were until recently. I don’t remember them advertised or seeing them in stores... And at those prices, nobody I knew would have been buying them if we did.

Always love your content Clint!

Im a proud owner of the same SC-55ST except it's dark grey, it's still pristine and working infact it's hooked up to my Sound Blaster Xi-Fi Fatal1TY with the breakout box. It's quite the little machine.

Beside missing the opening theme of Monkey Island, this is a neat video indeed.

4:49 ... that looks interesting. Why haven'T we seen this yet?

Man, hearing the MT-32 difference for the first time is what made me want to build a DOS machine. I either heard Monkey Island 1 or Police Quest 2. Being from a small Eastern European country I had no hope of finding such a device locally, but after some serious asking around second hand music equipment stores, a guy connected me with a friend of his, who had an MT-32. A year or so later I was lucky again, when a similar situation occurred and I got an SC-55. I've been using them for about 6 years now and couldn't be happier.

Oh my God, I love Raptor so friggin' much. I grew up with it as a kid and have so many fond memories of me and my cousins staying up late trying different weapons and trying to beat it in general. The music and gameplay were so amazing.

4:50 wait you have a synth setup?

I'd be really interested in a video on your synth setup.

I never had any MIDI equipment back in the day, but I always did love that sound. You really have some awesome retro equipment.

Always great seeing you geek out over anything Midi!

7:18 ROTT has the best OST ever.

Gonna humbly and sincerely request you make an in-depth video about your updated MIDI setup, it looks amazing! P.S. 8850s are indeed big!

As it was cheap and available in my country I went for a Casio GZ-50M which does very much the same thing but in a package that looks like an external amiga drive case, which I like. A lot. Thanks for the midi love Clint.

I LOVE your reviews!

You should make a video over your synth setup! At least a blerb about it!

The synth bass is awsome on Vikings. Like your synth setup. Great to see its Y2K compliant.

This is just awesome, the kind of things that makes me want to buy EVERYTHING... Good job Clint, I totally love your "style" even the cup holder!

Man, you're set for the 90s! Great video as always.

I thought for sure your next video was going to be a Sims 20 year anniversary video.

please do a vid and your synth setup, from what i've seen on twitter, that rack is insane!

These videos are always so fun to watch-

I was doing something on my other screen but when that Descent 2 sample came on I had to stop and take notice. Hot *damn* that sounds amazing!

"In a world where people hate paying more than 300 for a GPU......there was......"

Step one: Upvote. Step two: Watch the video.

Your videos are comfy. And I'm sure it's a lot of work and experience. But damn, the result is perfect. Thanks !

That music is crystal clear. I wish I heard this when I was younger. So much better than my SoundBlaster 16 I had on my 486.

5:43 "digital ROM-based sampler, or Rompler" I can't believe this is an actual term

Well hello there, this little sucker is going to be my afternoon nap video.. Afternoon naps are good. Update: I went driving instead of napping. Driving is also good.

These videos are so chill

First time with the captions on and I really appreciate how thoroughly appropriate that thoroughly appropriate jazz is.

I didn't know MIDI was a porn category...

USB: „Midi what??“

Man the soundtracks were so awesome back then

Thank you for generously and patiently sharing these weird and wonderful retrotoys with us!

3:18 WOODGRAIN? :D

Haha! I remember this. These were THE sounds back then. I still have one.

I love that you included Lost Vikings. Childhood classic for me right there.

Awesome piece of kit! Enjoy!

Great to see stuff that I missed during my childhood.

I LOVE THIS CHANNEL. BEST on my LIST

LGR always uploads right when I'm sitting down to eat, it's great

I used an ST55! Owned an MT32 in the beginning too, that I sent away for modification to improve the audio SNR, along with my first synthesiser... The DX7! We even had the little sequencer the SC55 (Sound canvas 55) as a backup for our Atari 1040STe, originally the 520ST, then the 520STfm, running Notator SE. My analogue 24 channel mixing desk, also from Roland, was one of my pride and joys back in the day. Ahhhh the memories! Can't wait to set it all back up and get back into it!

Heh, I always wanted an SC-88, but had to settle for an SC-55mkII the school had, and the band teacher let me borrow for quite a while (like a couple of years). Never used it for games though, but rather for generally better midi synthesis. I was really into sequencing music from sheet music into midi and then playing it back. Ah the things I wasted my youth doing... When I actually had to return the SC-55mkII back to the school, I really missed it, but they were freakishly expensive back then, so I could never justify getting one (and high speed internet was just starting to be a thing - there was no e-bay yet). I used to stare at the pictures longingly in the Roland (later Edirol) catalog.

Amazing how decades old audio technology can hold up for such a long, it just feels so authentic in listening, also Waves of nostalgia all over the place for me

This reminds me of the old Pentium-166 we used to own. It had a sound card with Yamaha XG midi and soundblaster compatibility. It made every game I played sound wonderful, a huge leap forward from our previous card, an SB16.

serious nostalgia trip, thank u!

This thing sounds spectacular! 🎶🎧

I know lots of composers were working with Roland, but after seeing your previous MIDI synth shootout I realized I just really like the way Yamaha sounds. I have an MU80 now :)

Another great vid! As well as an MT-32 I also have the SC-8820 (basically a cut down SC-8850). The SC-8820 has MT-32, SC88/88 Pro and SC55 maps built in. Well worth getting one to add to the collection if you can as they're not expensive.

Friday's best moment. Love from France :)

OMG! Rise of the Triad! Most people I talk to have never even heard of this game.

I remember using quite a few lunch breaks back in high school just to go into the music rooms and play MIDI files on the 55ST, could only dream of getting one of my own back then. I'll keep an eye out for a good price on one now.

I was born in 2000 and I want a sound canvas and all the other og Roland gear

Seeing some of those game clips really brings me back.