Roland Sound Canvas SC-55: Leading a Computer Music Revolution! - Sound Profile

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When it comes to the early days of computer music, there are few pieces of hardware that define it better than the original Roland Sound Canvas. Since 1991, the SC-55 has served as the de facto General MIDI and Roland GS sound module. With three major revisions in the Sound Canvas series and nearly three decades of time later though, does the SC-55 still hold up or is it yet another piece of outdated tech? Watch and find out!
Listen to the full POWER! SC-55 album here! • POWER! SC-55 (Full Album)
And join the Desktop MIDI Central chat server on Discord! / discord
Huge thanks to MovieMovies1 for contributing to this video with his voice over! / moviemovies1
And thanks to Spoofer for helping us verify any discrepancies between the SC-55s! / @spoofersdomain9185
SC-55 "MT-32 Map" Spreadsheet: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Special thanks to these content creators for providing video to use:
SynthMania - Roland U-220 sound demos
• Roland U-220 sound demos
Floyd Steinberg - KAWAI GMega MIDI Expander Synthesizer Demo, Review, sound programming
• KAWAI GMega MIDI Expan...
LGR - Roland Sound Canvas: '90s MIDI Greatness
• Roland Sound Canvas SC...
Woody Piano Shack - Roland SOUND CANVAS virtual vs vintage SHOOTOUT!
• Roland SOUND CANVAS vi...
Woody Piano Shack - Almost in tears | Roland D50 demo | Factory sounds [01]
• Almost in tears | Rola...
PhilsComputerLab - Roland MT-32 CM-32L CM-64 CM-500 Ultimate Tutorial
• Roland MT-32 CM-32L CM...
#SC-55 #DTM #SoundCanvas

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15 фев 2019

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Комментарии : 44

@SpeedySPCFan 5 лет назад

Here's a few post video corrections: 21:12 - Secret of Monkey Island was released in 1990, not 1988. 21:39 - DOOM II was released in 1994, not 1996. 34:56 - Descent was released in 1994, not 1995. 17:55 - Blood was released in 1997, not 1996. 36:05 - Halo was released in 2001, not 2000. You might be wondering why these weren't fixed before rendering - the answer is that I was in a rush to get this video out by the end of today and didn't have time to check these placeholder dates against the real dates. Hopefully this comment makes up for that, and I've learned my lesson: don't ever put dates in videos because I'll forget to check them. Sorry folks!

@disparity-bit 3 месяца назад

Fantastic video, friend! I inherited an SC-55 from a friend and I'm looking forward to jamming with it.

@XavierRadix 5 лет назад

Yet another great video, that I really enjoyed watching! I just find these units fascinating, and especially love watching videos about it like these. To me, playing Doom 1 or 2 is NOT complete without the sounds of the SC-55 blasting through my headphones... Every time I play the game, I have to turn up the music volume, and turn down the game volume... It's so cheesy and I love it! I'm going to listen to that album you guys created now... :)

@nneeerrrd 5 лет назад

That's one great work you did in this video - from both musical and historian standpoints. Thank you Speedy!

@SpeedySPCFan 5 лет назад

Thank you!

@knyshov 3 года назад

Got a Kurzweil EG Mark 3 digital piano and it came with a PR-100 with two QD floppies and the SC-55. It’s like a time capsule of early 90s MIDI studio. I even have the original SC-55 remote and manuals for all this stuff. Thought of selling the extra equipment, but will keep it for now. If you’re looking for these things, look at older digital pianos as they may sometimes come with extra gear.

@EgoShredder 2 года назад

The thing to remember with any of these XG or GS synths, is to learn how to send System Exclusive data to them to access the settings not on the front panel buttons, e.g. FX. That along with extensive use of controller data like volume, filters and sustain etc will bring the sounds to life like nothing else. I used to have a Roland SC-33 Sound Canvas and that was very nice, and then I upgraded massively to a Yamaha MU100R x4 with six different PLG boards.

@TheExaminedLifeofGaming 5 лет назад

I love these videos, Speeby.

@SpeedySPCFan 5 лет назад

Thanks, Rolanb.

@Cloudschatze 5 лет назад

There is a difference between the voice-stealing behavior of the SC-55 and SC-55mkII, despite them having the same reserve settings. When playing-back certain sequences that grossly exceed the polyphony count of either unit, noticeable note dropouts can occur with the latter that aren't as glaring with the former. I'd looked into this a few years ago, and found at least one related discrepancy in the operation of the voice assigner. Specifically, there is a nearly-undocumented parameter that relates to a separation, or "wall," between groups of parts, across which voices for retriggered notes can't be "stolen" from the opposite grouping. In the SC-55, the default setting for this parameter creates a separation between parts 1 - 10, and 11 - 16. In the SC-55mkII (and despite it having the same parameter value), the behavior is such that there appears to be no separation at all. I'm unclear as to which behavior is architecturally correct. In any event, specifying an alternate value for this parameter on the SC-55mkII results in behavior that is closer to that of the SC-55; the problem being that the temporary value won't survive a GS Reset. In my opinion though, and concerning reasonable use-cases besides, the whole subject is something of a non-issue - neither the SC-55 nor SC-55mkII are the ideal target devices for the few problematic examples that have, thus-far, ever been mentioned.

@SpeedySPCFan 5 лет назад

Thanks for the clarification! I wasn't sure about that little detail so I left it out of the video... good to know it's nothing big though, I think most people would be (or at least *should* be) using a module with better polyphony like an SC-88 or MU80 for music like that. ...not like using the wrong device for the wrong purpose has ever led to odd complaints before *cough* SC-8850 compatibility *cough*

@MovieMovies1 5 лет назад

Honestly having a "wall" like that seems really odd. As you said, it's not really an issue for music made for the units. The more I look into the original 55 the more confusing it becomes to me, concerning that only the units with sinewave and breathnoise have 317 total tones and various other quite honestly bizarre things like retroactive GS incompatibility, so overall I'm glad I purchased a mkII over an OG 55. Having a complete set of GS patches is quite nice.

@orincat10 4 месяца назад

if you ever wanted to hear the microsoft gs wavetable synth but in significantly higher quality then the sc55 might be fun.

@YuutaTogashi0707 2 месяца назад

The touhou 2 MIDIs were made for the SC-88 and not 55

@NeoTeAika 5 лет назад

Awesome video! This helped me figure out some neat tricks involving my SC-55 (v2.00 mk1). What did you use for the visualizations that could be seen at 14:70 for example? Cheers.

@SpeedySPCFan 5 лет назад

I used the power of matter and time manipulation to display amazing tricks at 14:70. Unfortunately, no one can see them because you mortals don't use 70 second time. Jokes aside, what're you referring to? If you're talking about the graphics like in STARGAME.MID, try out SC-88Pro LCD SysEx Generator by Robbi985. robbi-985.homeip.net/blog/?p=1352 All Sound Canvas units respond to the same text and graphics SysEx, so this will work on any model from the SC-55 to the SC-8850 so as long as it has a full display.

@user-lh8px9cx4r 5 лет назад

Interestingly the GS sound set on the Genos contains 226 instruments + 9 drum kits just like the SC-55mkII's native map.

@SpeedySPCFan 5 лет назад

It's because that's what the official GS spec is.

@TiberianFiend 2 года назад

You mentioned some kind of General MIDI forum in the video, but I don't see a link in the comments. Which website were you referring to?

@shookstylez 4 года назад

in which program was this midi visualiser created? 24:01 ?

@enilenis 4 года назад

Bought SD-35 not long ago to rip MIDI tracks out of DOS games. First unit got stolen in the mail. Had to buy it twice. Nice machine though. Didn't even know it was SC-50 underneath. Assumed it was SC-55. Just missed out on an MT-300S. Now that would be nice to have, as I'm tired of having to hook up speakers each time I simply want to play SC sounds off a keyboard.

@LittleRichard1988 11 месяцев назад

I tihnk the SD-35 is more like the SC-7, growing up the SC-55 and SD-35 were the first sound modules I even had any knoledge of mainly because an acquaintence had both an SC-55 and an SD-35 ( which he said he felt like throwing at the wall many times! ). I was allowed to borrow the SD-35 to use with my Yamaha PSS-790 and Casio CT-700 and was allowed to keep the SD-35 in the end, the SC-55 was sold to buy a Yamaha MU50 and Roland SC-88vl and the rest is history. My Dad and my brothers also borrowed my SD-35 back in the day to record midi files onto cassette. I bought another SC-55 at the end of last year as the SD-35 does have buffer overloading issues and it's sound set is slightly cut down as well as the effects. Back in the late 90s and early 2000s it was a treat to hear midi files played through the Roland SD-35 as long as they had a compatible timebase and didn't have any more than 16 channels.

@enilenis 11 месяцев назад

@@LittleRichard1988 I wouldn't have sold the SC-55 even for the MU100 (that I do have), but that's just a personal preference. That being said, once I got myself an MC-80 sequencer with an internal SC-88, I switched to that as my primary recording/playback machine. To have all devices in one is great. Leaves more room on the desk. Did get the MT-300S after my last comment. To have a Roland synthesizer in a boombox form factor? Once I found out such things existed, just had to find one. I wish it came with a battery compartment, but it wasn't made to be portable. It was designed to sit on top of a digital piano and give keyboard lessons. SD-35 that I got, received virtually no use. All I did was test it, to make sure it ran, and then it went onto a shelf. Kept using the MC-80. Older Roland's are fine, except the Double Density floppies that they relied on, before switching to 1.44MB. I have a small ecosystem of 80's Roland's and I can't even move the files off diskettes, because none of my computers have a Commodore drive. It's both fun and a bit of a nightmare, to manage an old school recording infrastructure, knowing that pretty much all the things are one-offs that can fail at any time and cost months to years of waiting, before a replacement can be found. I'm more inclined to emulate, and not touch the physical devices. I have a real MT-32, but if I have to play MIDI's on it, I fire up MUNT emulator on a PC instead. My ears can't tell the difference.

@Synth_Dragon 2 года назад

I think it's safe to say the SC-55 is one of the best inventions ever. No, no I'm not bias where would you ever get that idea?

@neilallen529 2 года назад

I wanna' sound like "Campanile of Lane"!

@keithbeesting 5 лет назад

Great video can you recommend a good dos midi player and a good site to download midi tunes from?

@SpeedySPCFan 5 лет назад

GSPLAY from 1996 looks to be a nice MIDI player for MS-DOS. kefshokil.tripod.com/kprog.htm#GSP As for downloading tunes, I've found Mirsoft to be an excellent archive. I've gotten tons of MIDI music from there, and they have an extensive selection of 90s MIDI albums from Falcom, which is where much of the background music in Sound Profile comes from. The music their sound team made for games like Brandish and Ys is excellent whether it be FM or MIDI, and they have a very nice copyright policy that lets me use it without fear of a copyright strike.

@alexthejapanfan7905 4 года назад

@@SpeedySPCFan Can there be a link to the "Mirsoft" thing in question? (sorry for replying to this comment after 7 months.)

@SpeedySPCFan 4 года назад

@@alexthejapanfan7905 It's the first result if you Google search Mirsoft.

@alexthejapanfan7905 4 года назад

@@SpeedySPCFan Thank you for helping. i think i'll try it now. :)

@meeder78 5 лет назад

Planet X3, is it from the game that the 8-bit guy made?

@SpeedySPCFan 5 лет назад

That it is! The digital soundtrack has an additional SC-55 arrange of the in-game tunes that I did, since a few people were requesting it and I had some time before launch after finishing work on the game's music :)

@shookstylez 4 года назад

i wished Roland made a stand alone VST of the SC55..!

@knyshov 3 года назад

Apparently, the SST-1 in Free Cakewalk is exactly that. There’s a RU-vid video about it. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dIxQvwJO7kM.html

@eclipseaus 3 года назад

how the actuall shit do you play midi files from the pc to the sc55 without a sound brush module??? i bought my sc55 recently and im just stuck with playing the included demos and i really want to play music on my sc55

@SpeedySPCFan 3 года назад

I think I describe it in the video, but you need a MIDI to USB cable (Roland UM-ONEs are good) and a program that can output to a MIDI device, such as the sequencer Sekaiju or the freeware MIDI player, MIDITrail.

@eclipseaus 3 года назад

@@SpeedySPCFan thanks speedy i also wanted to know how you get custom graphics too (at 8:06 - 8:10) because that seems like it could have a lot of potential, btw keep up the good videos man you basically inspired me to get an sc55 and so i did and i eventually got it to play midi files with a piece of software called midi player (falcosoft.hu/softwares.html scroll down a bit and youll see midi player) and i didnt have my sc55 on midi mode on the back so i switched it to that and it worked, and i also hokked up my midi fighter 3D to my pc and used that as a controller and it worked just like a controller

@bogifokk 4 года назад

What happend to the discord server? ;(

@SpeedySPCFan 4 года назад

Link expired, sorry! A new one is in the description.

@jml7916 3 года назад

Who cares about Linux? Speedy does, when he finally reviews a Korg Kronos using an Android phone and broadcasts it on the internet. All powered by Linux.

@SpeedySPCFan 3 года назад

Only when I get a Kronos will we finally see "Speedy changes her views on Linux!" ...too bad I'm never going to buy a Kronos, because my Trinity and Radias already do everything I want from that thing. :p

@jml7916 3 года назад

Speedy DTM But one day the Kronos will be irresistible vintage gear and may even be cheap enough for both of us to afford. My only Korg gear is an N1R and an M3R. So when Krome’s and Kronos get cheap in the used market I’ll be looking.