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Heads Up: Roland Sound Canvas VA VSTi Plugin!

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First post, by James-F

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FINALLY !!!
http://www.roland.com/products/sound_canvas_va/

Roland came up (Dec 24th 2015) with a proper SC-8820, SC-88 Pro, SC-88, and SC-55, VST plugin I've been waiting for for 20 years.

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Last edited by James-F on 2016-04-30, 09:19. Edited 1 time in total.


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Reply 3 of 740, by James-F

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Yes, it works with any midi input.
I use a small software called loopMIDI to rout all midi playback to an input which I use in my DAW (Sonar) with the Sound Canvas.

I have the old Edirol Virtual Sound Canvas and the newer Editrol HyperCanvas, but none of them comes remotely close to the the new Roland Sound Canvas VA in terms of balance, accuracy and authenticity.
It took Roland a long time to make a proper software of sound canvas but it finally happened.
I'm still testing it, and found a few bugs here and there, but I'm sure Roland will iron them out in time.

Last edited by James-F on 2015-12-29, 08:56. Edited 1 time in total.


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Reply 4 of 740, by HighTreason

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Does this thing read SysEx messages and SysEx files properly? I've seen a lot of VST plugins which have no idea how to read such things either making existing MIDIs useless or rendering an entire patch library useless as examples... Don't believe the latter applies to the SoundCanvas, can't remember as I got shot of mine years back and have no plans to use this plugin, I'm just curious and more info is always better.

Also, what the heck is a DAW? People keep saying that and I'm starting to think my terminology must be out of date or something. Probably is, given I don't use a single VST* and I still rely on software from two decades ago to get things done.

* Technically this is not true as I use Virtual CZ to make programming my Casio easier. This does understand SysEx messages fairly well, but has no feature to make the keyboard dump its patch bank which is mildly irritating as I have to switch back to CZLIB to do this. It is, however, the only VST I ever use and even then I rarely use it, never use it to its full extent and do not have anything beyond its own dedicated host to load it in.

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Reply 5 of 740, by James-F

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DAW - Digital Audio Workstation.
Basically a fancy recording software for studios.

Yes the SC-VA reads sysex data and all the sliders move in real time.
Just try it, it's the closest thing to the real hardware we'll ever get.


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Reply 6 of 740, by HighTreason

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Credit where credit is due then, finally it seems people are starting to get on the ball with this... It's only taken, what? TOO DAMN LONG! That's how long. Well done Roland, Casio beat you to it again, but well done for getting there.

Ah, so that's what DAW stands for. Not sure I'd class my setup as that so I won't start using the term - I will stick to my clunky "Sequencing Rig" as it better suits the complete shambles I have set up - but at least I'll know what people mean when they say it in future. I don't know if it's improved since, but I could never get into this Reason and Fruit Loops stuff, it was never very good at controlling any of my hardware and suffered terrible latency issues - not to mention issues with SysEx as I mentioned previously. This was all a long time ago though, I don't plan on changing this as Cakewalk 9 supports my stuff pretty much out of the box and is from the correct era, so logically it would be the best option for me.

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Reply 9 of 740, by alexanrs

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U$125? Thanks but no thanks. I can see this as being useful for musicians with a library of MIDIs composed using the original modules - but for a retro gamer whithout a lot of money to spare VirtualMIDISynth/Fluidsynth with a good, balanced soundfont will do fine, and its free.

Reply 10 of 740, by MMaximus

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Kudos to Roland for developing this VST... when they made the Ipad Sound Canvas app I thought they would just stop there but they actually went the extra mile. Maybe in the future we will see other legacy synths like the D-50 in a VST version?

However, I agree that the price is a bit crazy... $75 would already be on the expensive side but $125?? Come on guys... 😕

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Reply 13 of 740, by DX7_EP

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Whoa, this is definitely some sweet news, and I will no doubt be giving this a try! I may not be needing that SC-8850 anymore...:U

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Reply 14 of 740, by James-F

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DX7_EP wrote:

Whoa, this is definitely some sweet news, and I will no doubt be giving this a try! I may not be needing that SC-8850 anymore...:U

From what I hear and compare with youtube, neither do I ! 😀

Besides, the Sound Canvas defined the General Midi standard more so than any other company.
I've been using the crappy Microsoft GS Midi or Edirol Hyper Canvas for years to compose drums and bass tracks before recording real guitar on top.
The irony is, I didn't know it was based on the Sound Canvas hardware before I got into Dosbox and Vogons, thankfully I did and discovered it just last month.
I always thought the Microsoft GS Midi IS what General Midi sounds like and the VST plugins are just samples that use the midi notes to improve the basic crappy midi sound...
To my amazement, knowledge of the truth, and Sound Canvas VA VSTi came just in time... synchronicity I tell you... 😲


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Reply 15 of 740, by PhilsComputerLab

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Great news!

Now, how to use it?

Seeing this is a plugin, it what is a good host to use this with? It will need to appear as a MIDI device to Windows, so we can use DOSBox or ScummVM with it.

What free programs are recommended?

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Reply 16 of 740, by PhilsComputerLab

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Ok it seems to work now.

I used these two programs:

- loopMIDI
- SAVIHost

Here is a screenshot with Doom 2 in DOSBox 😀

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Reply 17 of 740, by James-F

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I was wondering when you'll show up phil.
Seems that with VSTHost sc-va stuck on the 8820 without being able to switch maps.
SAVIHost has the same bug?
Try the reset button or GM2 under system in scva, and see if you can change to sc-55.

Oh and hows the sound phil?


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Reply 18 of 740, by PhilsComputerLab

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I have to play around a bit more. Currently I'm in AWE at the sound this thing generates 😊

This deserves a video tutorial I think 😀

EDIT: In Privateer, the SC-88 Pro mode appears to sound more "epic". I can certainly change the mode, reset it, that seems to work fine.

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Reply 19 of 740, by James-F

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PhilsComputerLab wrote:

I have to play around a bit more. Currently I'm in AWE at the sound this thing generates 😊

This deserves a video tutorial I think 😀

EDIT: In Privateer, the SC-88 Pro mode appears to sound more "epic". I can certainly change the mode, reset it, that seems to work fine.

Well folks, Phil is in AWE. All the proof I need.
Vogons comunity will be very greatful for a tutorial video!
From what I've seen till now, you'll definitely be comparing SC-VA to the real SC-55. 😉


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