Well, I have an SC55mkII,and I could probably do a recording for you... how do I go about playing the correct samples?

I'm not actually sure how you can control the SC-55 Mk. II to sample the Distortion Guitar. But when you sample the instrument, I think it'd be best if you sample everything for the Distortion Guitar from the lowest sound pitch up to the highest sound pitch in one long WAV file(play the samples for at least 2 seconds each). I will pick out the sounds based off the Sound Canvas soundfont I found that's an exact copy of Microsoft's software wavetable(I'm currently that soundfont's Distortion Guitar until I get a proper sample from a real Roland Sound Canvas).

If, as I use the soundfont, I find more instruments which are messed up, would you mind sampling any messed up instrument I find?

I'd be happy to do it if I knew how 😀 I'm assuming I will need to craft a MIDI file to play these samples, which I haven't actually done before...

Is there some kind of software you can use to play the MIDI instruments without having to craft a MIDI file? I know you can do that in AWE Control under Windows 95 with SoundBlaster AWE32/64 sound cards where the program gives you a virtual keyboard and you can play the instruments one by one. Would something like that exist for any Roland Sound Canvas module?

How would one even go about crafting a MIDI file? If it isn't too complicated, I might give it a shot myself since I know where the Distortion Guitar is placed in the soundfont(instrument 30 in bank 0). Here's a list of General MIDI instruments you can use as reference: http://www.midi.org/techspecs/gm1sound.php

Well I just downloaded a program called Anvil Studio, and it has a nice musical stave and keyboard interface, so I just picked the distortion guitar, set time to 4/4 and played a whole note for each key on the keyboard.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9151127/distortionguitar.mid
Does this sound like what you need?

I'm not at home at the moment but if this sounds ok, I should be able to make this recording off my SC55 tonight or tomorrow night.

also, it appears that instrument 30 is overdriven guitar while 31 is distortion guitar, I used 31 for this file, is that the one you want?

I think Ace wants you to record the actual audio output from the Sound Canvas while doing that 😀

megatron-uk wrote:

I think Ace wants you to record the actual audio output from the Sound Canvas while doing that 😀

Uh.

DonutKing wrote:

I'm not at home at the moment but if this sounds ok, I should be able to make this recording off my SC55 tonight or tomorrow night.

🤣

Yeah I just want him to confirm that the MIDI file is playing the correct instruments before I make the recording 😀

DonutKing wrote:

Well I just downloaded a program called Anvil Studio, and it has a nice musical stave and keyboard interface, so I just picked t […]
Show full quote

Well I just downloaded a program called Anvil Studio, and it has a nice musical stave and keyboard interface, so I just picked the distortion guitar, set time to 4/4 and played a whole note for each key on the keyboard.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9151127/distortionguitar.mid
Does this sound like what you need?

I'm not at home at the moment but if this sounds ok, I should be able to make this recording off my SC55 tonight or tomorrow night.

also, it appears that instrument 30 is overdriven guitar while 31 is distortion guitar, I used 31 for this file, is that the one you want?

Yep, that's the one. I'll be waiting for the actual sample from the SC-55.

Although I still have to wait at least until the weekend to get my AWE32. 😜 My two AWE64s don't have enough RAM to load the soundfont, which is close to 10MB, and I don't have anything to fit in a spare 16MB 72-pin SIMM onto the AWE64. I sure hope the AWE32 comes with enough RAM to load the soundfont, otherwise, I might just have to figure out how to use the 16MB SIMM on one of my SoundBlaster AWE64s.

But right now, I'm gonna use my SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 to test out the soundfont as it's being modified.

No prob, I won't be home for another 12 hours at least but I'll try to get something done for you asap. Let me know if you want any other instruments as well.

Sure thing. As I test the soundfont, if I find some messed up instruments, I'll let you know which ones to sample.

Well, here is the file:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9151127/distortionguitar1.wav

Note the WAV file is 60MB so here is a 4MB MP3

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9151127/distortionguitar1.mp3

Let me know if you need anything else 😀

FWIW, the Microsoft GS Wavetable Software Synthesizer's "GM.DLS" is essentially a ROM dump of the 1990's Roland sample ROM (SC-55. etc...).

BTW, I'm not sure about the AWE32/64s under various OSs, but the SBLive with the last/final drivers under Windows XP can natively load DLS format sound banks. Then, a little SBLive EAX reverb and chorus effects... whammo, instant SC-55 😀

That's why the MSGS WT SW synth sounds so horrid... no reverb or chorus support.

DonutKing wrote:

🤣

Yeah I just want him to confirm that the MIDI file is playing the correct instruments before I make the recording 😀

Ah, my bad.

Thank you for the samples, DonutKing. Now to add them to the soundfont.

And by the way, even if GM.DLS is just a ROM dump of Roland's sample ROM, it still isn't correct. It seems some instruments are actually misplaced, as I've noticed in the sample DonutKing provided, the Distortion Guitar has two samples played at different times on an original Sound Canvas than on GM.DLS. I don't know if this affects other instruments, but the Microsoft GS Wavetable Software Synthesizer doesn't have the same sound as a real Roland Sound Canvas, not to mention the samples themselves are of a lower quality than on a real Sound Canvas.

Ace: Mind to share this soundfont when it's completed?

Ace wrote:

And by the way, even if GM.DLS is just a ROM dump of Roland's sample ROM, it still isn't correct. I don't know if this affects other instruments, but the Microsoft GS Wavetable Software Synthesizer doesn't have the same sound as a real Roland Sound Canvas

Agreed. It's never gonna be spot-on with a software synth, especially since the MS SW synth doesn't accurately model the samples like the real unit does (as well as not having any reverb or chorus, which is my boggest gripe with the MS synth).

Ace wrote:

not to mention the samples themselves are of a lower quality than on a real Sound Canvas.

Nope, they are the same. It's just that the MS synth doesn't manipulate them in the same way (a lot more basic than the synth engine of the SC).

Nevertheless, with some nice reverb added, it's OK to listen to. Hehe, I can play the WarCraft II MIDIs using the DLS loaded into my SBLive (or with the MS SW synth, although it doesn't sound quite as good vs loading the DLS into the SBLive), apply (quite a bit of) SBLive EAX reverb, and it sounds just like the Redbook audio tracks on the WC2 CD (supposedly originally recorded from an SC-55) 😀

IMO once you start playing with SoundFont, Sound Canvas isn't that important anymore. The SoundFont that rfnagel provided me a while ago (search for a Creative X-Fi thread) has a ton of recordings.

Instead of trying to be "as close to SoundCanvas" as possible, it clearly surpasses it.

RG100 did something similar with an AWE64, the only thing you can't get under DOS I believe is EAX (Reverb), but that should be possible if the game runs from within Windows.

Under DOSBox, this trick with SoundFont works even on realtek onboard chips. DonutKing demonstrated this...

Crap, this is becoming really tedious. Even with the samples DonutKing provided, I can't match the sound of the distortion guitar to At Doom's Gate from Doom(E1M1). It matches for a little bit, then it doesn't match at all. If someone else would like to take a stab at it, take a listen to the SC-55 Mk. II recording of Doom E1M1 at Swaaye's sound card recordings page and try to match the Distortion Guitar to that. I've been unsuccessful at making the Distortion Guitar match that, so if anyone wants to give it a shot, I'll provide an unedited SF2 of the Microsoft GS Wavetable Software Synthesizer for you to try to make the Distortion Guitar match the way it sounds in Doom.

Actually, scratch that. I'll provide my edited SF2 with the proper Overdrive Guitar and the one part of the Distortion Guitar I was able to make very close to the real Sound Canvas.

EDIT: It looks like I might dump this project of making a Sound Canvas soundfont, but I need confirmation of one thing. I found a Roland CM-300 for sale locally, and I would like to know if it would work just like an SC-55(it is GS compatible, I know that much). If it is, I'm gonna go pick it up.