VOGONS


About Roland Virtual Sound Canvas 3

Topic actions

First post, by mattw

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Hi All,

something like 15 years before Roland released "Sound Canvas VA":

Heads Up: Roland Sound Canvas VA VSTi Plugin!

they did release "Edirol (Roland) Virtual Sound Canvas 3.x" :

https://web.archive.org/web/20120302180655/ht … ts/en/VSC-88H3/

I cannot find any discussion about it - here or elsewhere and that's why I am posting this topic.

Actually, I am surprised why is that, because I've just tried it and it works both in Win9x and WinXP. it uses (virtual) driver, same like Yamaha S-YXG50 Soft-Synth, which makes it work with everything as it is system-wide.

It seems there is VST version included in what is called VSC-MP (Virtual Sound Canvas Multi-pack).

So, it's very light-weight compared to the new "Sound Canvas VA", but most interesting (at least to me) is that like Yamaha S-YXG50 the sound banks are separate files - that gives potentially an advantage like Yamaha the format to be reverse-engineered and they be replaced with dumps from the real hardware. After all it's amazing how (I believe some Russian guys) reverse-engineered S-YXG50 sound banks format and based on that made Soft-Synth of Yamaha TyRUS using the same S-YXG50 software synth engine just with replacing the sound banks. I guess my hope is some day someone will do that with Roland Virtual Sound Canvas 3.x and based on real hardware dumps will recreate perfect software copy of the real hardware (because current sound banks are deliberately lower quality than the one inside the real hardware). Anyway, let me put few screenshots (most of them from WinXP and one from Win98SE) including one that shows the files, i.e. the separate sound banks for SC-55, SC-88 and SC-88Pro .

Attachments

  • mymy.png
    Filename
    mymy.png
    File size
    43.21 KiB
    Views
    13045 views
    File license
    Public domain
  • vsc_xp_files.PNG
    Filename
    vsc_xp_files.PNG
    File size
    41.78 KiB
    Views
    13045 views
    File license
    Public domain
  • vsc_xp_dev.PNG
    Filename
    vsc_xp_dev.PNG
    File size
    14.87 KiB
    Views
    13045 views
    File license
    Public domain
  • vsc_xp_01.PNG
    Filename
    vsc_xp_01.PNG
    File size
    46.95 KiB
    Views
    13045 views
    File license
    Public domain
  • vsc_xp.PNG
    Filename
    vsc_xp.PNG
    File size
    50.46 KiB
    Views
    13045 views
    File license
    Public domain

Reply 1 of 375, by mattw

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Actually, the VST from Roland VSC-MP1 is even more interesting in terms of reverse-engineering potential, because it has 3 files:

* RVI01.dat : identical to 'vsc88pro.dat' from "Edirol (Roland) Virtual Sound Canvas 3.x", i.e. that's the sound bank. Also, that means the VST defaults to SC-88Pro mode. Interesting to try replace that file with SC-55 or SC-88 bank from "Edirol (Roland) Virtual Sound Canvas 3.x" - if that will work and changing the sound bank is enough to change the VST mode from SC-88Pro to SC-55/88

* VSC.dll : that I guess is more or less just the GUI of the VST

* RVIEg01VST.sys : which file description is "Roland VSC Synthesizer Engine" - see the attached screenshot

So, definitively, someone much smarter than me, reading disassembler code of 'RVIEg01VST.sys' should be able to figure out the format of the external sound bank and most likely be able to ultimately replace that bank with the ROM dumps from real SC-55, SC-88/Pro.

Attachments

Reply 2 of 375, by mattw

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

OK, I dig up Release/Update History mainly from the old Edirol brand website of Roland, it's interesting so to sum it up here:

* first release was VSC-55, i.e. Virtual version of SC-55
* then there was VSC-88 2.1a, i.e. the second release was Virtual version of SC-88: I guess it was supporting SC-55 mode as well
* then the 3rd release that started this thread "Virtual Sound Canvas 3" - supports virtual SC-55, SC-88 and SC-88Pro
* 3rd release has several versions: 3.0/3.2/3.21, 3.22, 3.23
* there is update (still online on the official Roland website) from any 3.x version to the latest 3.23 - it makes sense that's the last version, because the only fixes it introduces are support for Hyper-threading and Multi-core CPUs, i.e. modern CPU architecture

* Next was the best release (and what luckily I had on my hard disk): VSC-MP1 Virtual Sound Canvas Multi Pack - that just packs in a single installation "Virtual Sound Canvas 3.23" and the newly introduced v1.00 of the VST variant of the soft synthesizer. It's the best, because you're getting the latest VSC 3.23 and the first version of the VST, which is the last with external "Roland VSC Synthesizer Engine" and sound bank files - good for initial reverse-engineering. Having that version also allows you to update the VST to any of the newer versions (1.01 or 1.60).

* there are 2 subsequent updates of the VST:
- v1.01
- V1.60
both merge the 3 files from my 2nd post in a single DLL - less friendly from reverse-engineering. v1.60 adds Vista support, v1.01 has actual fixes:

http://static.roland.com/support_archive/en/V … _readme_en.html

that link contains not only information for the fixes, but download link to V1.60 update. download Link to V1.01 update I found in the archived version of Edirol website:

https://web.archive.org/web/20060503061456/ht … asp?id=12&la=UK

Please, not that those updates are only if you have the full version of "VSC-MP1 Virtual Sound Canvas Multi Pack" otherwise they are useless (i guess).

Last edited by mattw on 2020-09-21, 01:16. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 3 of 375, by mattw

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I didn't expect this - it took me no time to find Demo/Trial version of VSC-88 v2.1a using Google, the file is called: "TVSC8821.EXE" and even more surprising Roland released version of it for Macintosh as well: "vsc88-21-trial.sit". However, it seems "TVSC8821.EXE" is Win9X only, i.e. v2.x contrary to v3.x has no WinNT/XP support, but it has Mac support that no other version has.

I also found Demo/Trials of VSC-55: "VSC55T.EXE" and VSC 3.x "vsc32t.exe".

So, I guess now everyone can try them - don't know what are the limitations in the Free Demo/Trial though.

Reply 4 of 375, by Jo22

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Don't despair. In my full copy (XP compatible! Yay!) , the SC-88 Pro was messed up, anyway. SC-55 and SC-88 worked fine, though.

Edit: And my copy also had a Mac version included (OS8/9?).

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 5 of 375, by mattw

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

OK, in the next several posts, I will post version by version all the information I collect, starting here with:

Roland Virtual Sound Canvas VSC-55 (Official name)
Roland Virtual Sound Canvas 1.x (Unofficial name)
Year of Release: 1996
Features (from the Roland Help File):

Number of parts:	16
Maximum Polyphony: 128
Internal Tones:
Preset sounds: 226
Drum sound set: 9
Effects:
Reverb (8 types)
Chorus (8 types)
Audio Output: 16-bit stereo, 22.05 kHz/11.025 kHz sampling rates

Windows Compatibility

Roland itself states it's for Windows 95 only:

Windows 98 Users should install the VSC-88 rather than the VSC-55

However, I have successfully installed and used it in Win98SE.

A. Web Archives:
There are several available just to put a few:

https://web.archive.org/web/19980704002817/ht … /vsc/index.html

https://web.archive.org/web/19970629020958/ht … m/vsc/vscd.html

https://web.archive.org/web/19990203180716/ht … sc/vsc55ow.html

B. Trial Version: filename "VSC55T.EXE"
You can download it from the following web-archive link of the Roland website:

http://web.archive.org/web/19961105205705/htt … /vsc/VSC55T.EXE

That's version 1.00 of the software with 50 seconds playback time limitation.

C. Update to version 1.20: filename "v5up120e.exe"

While the update filename is easily obtained from the following web-archives links:

https://web.archive.org/web/19980704003005/ht … /vscupdate.html

the link to the file itself is dead. However, it's easy to find mirrors of it (still up and running in Sep 2020) using Google. V1.20 is the last version from 1.x generation.

D. Retail version 1.20
As of Sep 2020 it's possible to find it using very hard Google search, but posting more details I believe is against the forum rules (i.e. copyright concerns). So, it's not a big loss, because compared to what is in C. it contains only 2 extra files and those are 2 Demo songs "2ND_TIME.MID" and "ALLSTARS.MID" (EDIT: and those 2 songs plus 3 extra are included in Trial version of VSC-88 2.21 - see the next post for more details(

E. What's new in V1.20

In the version 1.20, the followings are modified.

VSC-55 now can work on monaural sound device, too.

VSC sound device now can play 16-bit monaural wave correctly.

Unnecessary message, 'can not find wave device' is not displayed.

A utility function is added to avoid troubles on some applications (such as games)
which use MIDI performance and audio playback simultaneously.
To start up the utility software, please refer to the [About the Utility Software]
in the [Troubleshooting Q&A] in the VSC-55 Help, there click the [Starting the Utility].
me wrote:

Further more V1.20 seems to add MMX optimizations (or maybe option to disable MMX optimizations, because the "vsc.ini" configuration file includes extra field "MMX=on". There is another extra field compared to V1.00 called "TVF=on", but at the moment I don't know what that abbreviation "TVF" means - if I find out I will edit the post here

[EDIT] in Roland help files, I found what "TVF":

Time Variant Filter. TVF is a low pass filter that is supplied for each voice. Using TVF requires more CPU power

F. Manually Update Trial version V1.00 with V1.20 Update, i.e. point "B" manual update to point "C"
Side-effect of that is getting full retail 1.20 without the 2 demo songs (see point "D"). That's why I don't want to break any forum rules and I will make only general notes in the spirit of freedom of speech and not give detail instructions. So, if you run the update file "v5up120e.exe" it will extract the installation files to "C:\Windows\Temp" (at least in WinXP where I've done that). Those are InstallShield installation files with DATA.Z file that you can further unpacked using InstallShield I5Comp.exe unpacking tool. Then you can restart your Win9x to Dos mode and replace manually all V1.00 files in your system with those you unpacked from the 1.20 update. For the curious the 50 seconds playback time limitation protection is in VSC.DLL And for even more more curious - the same could be achieved with another approach - patch the InstallShield installation script ("setup.ins") not to check for previously installed retail version - it's more convenient, but harder to achieve.

G. Note for people interested in Reverse-Engineer the Sound Bank Format
V1.00 Trial and V1.20Update/Retail has the same "VSC.DAT" sound bank for SC-55 emulation except 2 bytes in its header - what those bytes indicate (version?!) currently is unknown, but the rest is byte-by-byte identical files.

H. Some Screenshots I made:

Attachments

  • vsc55_100_01.png
    Filename
    vsc55_100_01.png
    File size
    31.5 KiB
    Views
    12958 views
    File license
    Public domain
  • vsc55_100_02.png
    Filename
    vsc55_100_02.png
    File size
    31.12 KiB
    Views
    12958 views
    File license
    Public domain
  • vsc55_100_03.png
    Filename
    vsc55_100_03.png
    File size
    31.18 KiB
    Views
    12958 views
    File license
    Public domain
  • vsc55_120.png
    Filename
    vsc55_120.png
    File size
    32.17 KiB
    Views
    12958 views
    File license
    Public domain
Last edited by mattw on 2020-09-21, 13:11. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 6 of 375, by mattw

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Roland Virtual Sound Canvas VSC-88 (Official name)
Roland Virtual Sound Canvas 2.x (Unofficial name)
Year of Release: 1997 (I must say very impressive, because according to Roland Help files, it emulates Roland SC-88VL, which means that less than 1 years after they released the SC-88VL hardware, Roland made software emulation option available)
Features (from the Roland Help File):

Number of parts: 16
Maximum Polyphony: 128
Internal Tones:
Preset sounds: 546
Drum sound set: 15
Effects:
Reverb (8 types)
Chorus (8 types)
Delay (10 types)
Audio Output: 16-bit stereo, 44.1kHz/22.05 kHz/11.025 kHz sampling rates
Audio Input: 8-bit/16-bit stereo, 44.1kHz/22.05 kHz/11.025 kHz sampling rates

Windows Compatibility
According to Roland Win95/98, I tested it in Win98SE without problems.

A. Web Archives:
https://web.archive.org/web/19970607131210/ht … sc88/index.html

https://web.archive.org/web/19980519184714/ht … om/vsc88me.html

B. Trial Version: filename "TVSC8821.EXE"

the links on web-archives of Roland website are dead. However, it's easy to find mirrors of it (still up and running in Sep 2020) using Google. It has the 2 missing Demo songs from VSC-55 Trial (see section B. from the above post) plus 3 more Demo songs. (So, that allows also to fully recover retail of VCS-55 v1.20 as per the above post.)

That's version 2.10 (last one is 2.21a) of the software with 50 seconds playback time limitation plus it only includes "vsc55.dat" and not "vsc88.dat", i.e. the Trial provides only SC-55, but not SC-88 sound bank. The retail version has both and thus provides both SC-55 and SC-88 mode.

C. Update from Retail version 2.00 to 2.21a: filename "vsc8821a_updater.exe"

Again, the links on web-archives of Roland website are dead. However, it's easy to find mirrors of it (still up and running in Sep 2020) using Google.

D. Retail version 2.10 or 2.21a
I don't have access to one and so nothing to add as a comment here.

E. What's new in v2.21a compared to previous versions

me wrote:
I can find changelog only in Japanese, Google translation is awful and I am not sure if those changes are for 2.21a exactly, bu […]
Show full quote

I can find changelog only in Japanese, Google translation is awful
and I am not sure if those changes are for 2.21a exactly, but to list a few:
- fix the problem that noise may occur
- Enhancement of the MIDI player - the user can change the tempo (and keys??) of a song with a slider
- add monitor window

F. Manually Update Trial version V2.10 with V2.21a Update, i.e. section "B" manual update to section "C"
Side-effect of that is getting retail 2.21a, but without the SC-88 sound bank, i.e. retail 2.21a, but only with SC-55 mode. Again, I don't want to break any forum rules. So, everything said in the previous post section F. still applies, but this time you need to use "i5comp.exe" as they switched to InstallShield 5.x


G. Note for people interested in Reverse-Engineer the Sound Bank Format

Sound bank "vsc55.dat" Header is totally different than "vsc.dat" provided with VSC-55. Interestingly, "vsc55.dat" header has the same "magic" (first 14 bytes) as sound banks from "VSC 3.x", but the rest of the sound bank is totally different.

H. Some Screenshots I made: (I forgot to made screenshot of updated to 2.21a version, sorry)

Attachments

  • vsc88.png
    Filename
    vsc88.png
    File size
    57.62 KiB
    Views
    12939 views
    File license
    Public domain
  • vss88_210.png
    Filename
    vss88_210.png
    File size
    57.49 KiB
    Views
    12939 views
    File license
    Public domain

Reply 7 of 375, by mattw

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Roland Virtual Sound Canvas 3.x

I fully covered in the first 3 posts, as well as subsequent and last from the series Roland Virtual Sound Canvas MP1 (Multi-pack V1), which is VSC 3.23 + VST version of the soft-synth. So, I have nothing to add.

Now, we can only hope someone will reverse-engineer the sound-bank format...

Reply 9 of 375, by mattw

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Stretch wrote on 2020-09-22, 00:17:

mattw, there is code posted in vogons.org which decodes the bank format here: Virtual Canvas Sound Banks

@Stretch, big thank you! And even Bigger thank you to the person made that post with full details for the encryption algorithm almost 15 years ago!!

Wow, it's amazing that the Sound banks from VSC 3. contain even CM-64/32L ROM as well, after they are decrypted. Now, after the first step, the decryption, is done (actually it was done 15 years ago), we can even further and deeper analyze those Sound Banks structure.

Anyone, any information for the ROM Dump Structure of real SC-55, SC-88 or SC-88Pro hardware?

Reply 10 of 375, by mattw

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Guys, I've already moved several steps further from what 'sm0n' did, all those years ago, here :

Virtual Canvas Sound Banks

We're very lucky that in VSC 3.x Roland messed up the Sound Bank encryption big time (thank you, whoever Roland employee did that! BTW, when such thing happens I always wonder if the employee did that on purpose or by accident). So, instead using 32-bit encryption key, as I now found out they did in the previous version VSC 2.x (a.k.a. VSC-88 2.x), in VSC 3.x they used effectively 16-bit key (2 bytes of the 32-bit key set to 0).

That fact I guess helped 'sm0n' to figure out VSC 3.x encryption algo, making it actually much more obvious. In other words Sound Banks from VSC 3.x are like 65 536 times weakly encrypted than the previous version, i.e. VSC 2.x (a.k.a. VSC-88). That also helped me, now to break the "heavier" encryption of the Sound Banks from VSC 2.x (a.k.a. VSC-88).

Where I am currently:

* I wrote code (in C) that finds automatically the decryption key, which has 3 benefits:
1. do not publish any (Roland) keys (like 'sm0n' did, which is to say the least, a gray area)
2. be able to find the key of any Sound bank from both VSC 3.x and VSC 2.x (a.k.a. VSC-88) and successfully decrypt them
3. having VSC 2.x (a.k.a. VSC-88) SC-55 Sound Bank decrypted and compare it to the decrypted one from VSC 3.x gives immediate benefit of showing how sounds/instruments are added, because even between the first 2 two pianos in VSC 2.x version another one is added in VSC 3.x version

* What's next:
- check if my code can decrypt VSC 1.x (a.k.a. VSC-55) Sound banks, because more Sound banks we have, easier to fully understand their structure
- I don't have SC-88 bank from VSC 2.x (a.k.a. VSC-88), because the Trial version of VSC 2.x (a.k.a. VSC-88) includes only SC-55 bank. It would be good if someone here have it and it's willing to run my code on it
- at least Sound banks from VSC 2.x and VSC 3.x have unencrypted header, I mentioned that already few posts ago:

mattw wrote on 2020-09-21, 13:10:

G. Note for people interested in Reverse-Engineer the Sound Bank Format[/b]
Sound bank "vsc55.dat" Header is totally different than "vsc.dat" provided with VSC-55. Interestingly, "vsc55.dat" header has the same "magic" (first 14 bytes) as sound banks from "VSC 3.x", but the rest of the sound bank is totally different.

So, another next task is to try to pinpoint the exact length of the header, i.e. where the unencrypted data ends and the encrypted one starts.

- if other people are interested publish here, my source code, it has no any keys, no any copyrighted material, just public domain algorithms regarding XOR encryption algorithm.

OK, my next portion of spare time, I will check if my current code works with VSC 1.x (a.k.a. VSC-55) Sound banks...

Last edited by mattw on 2020-09-22, 11:41. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 11 of 375, by mattw

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

for completeness, i've just found this link in the web-archives:

https://web.archive.org/web/20050205022507/ht … ve/vsc88h3.html

indeed VSC 3.x was released for MacOS too. So, that's consistent with what 'Jo22' poster earlier in this forum thread:

Re: About Roland Virtual Sound Canvas 3

at that time I didn't fully understand his post, because I didn't know there is VSC 3.x for Mac.

[EDIT] found picture of how that retail package looked like...

Attachments

  • vsc3.jpg
    Filename
    vsc3.jpg
    File size
    334.89 KiB
    Views
    12847 views
    File license
    Public domain

Reply 12 of 375, by mattw

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Big news (at least to me, maybe it was done in the past, but I am not aware of it - if you know, let me know, to prevent me reinventing the wheel):

So, I was able to decrypt small portion of the Sound bank from ROM dump from real SC-55 hardware device! Yes, only "small portion" for the moment, because I still cannot figure out how the whole thing is encrypted, i.e. the bigger picture. It looks like small portions ("blocks") of the ROM are encrypted with different key and if that's true, then it will require many many keys to be calculated. In any way, at these point Hardware SC55 to Virtual SC55 looks like more than real possibility. Especially, if someone smarter than me gets involved! Probably, same applies for SC88 and SC88Pro - but I cannot find full ROM dumps of those devices (i.e. Sound bank included in the dump and not only the firmware itself).

[EDIT] or I am totally wrong and I just hit some lucky byte sequence, that looks like something decrypted...

Reply 13 of 375, by mattw

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I am releasing my decryption code - it's attached to this post. Contrary to the old 'sm0n' release:

Virtual Canvas Sound Banks

it doesn't use hard-coded decryption key, but rather it is able to find the key. That allows it to work not only with VSC 3.x as the old 'sm0n' release, but with VSC 2.x and VSC 1.x as well. In fact I tested it on the following sound banks:

VSC 1.00 Trial
VSC 1.20 Retail

VSC 2.1 Trial
VSC 2.1a Retail

VSC 3.2 Retail
VSC 3.23 Retail

VSC VST module 1.00 (1.01 and 1.60 have no separate Sound bank file)

So, basically the decryption code is tested on all possible versions. Let's hope more people will get excited about it and help in further reverse-engineering of the format.

Attachments

Reply 14 of 375, by Oetker

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
mattw wrote on 2020-09-22, 13:28:

Big news (at least to me, maybe it was done in the past, but I am not aware of it - if you know, let me know, to prevent me reinventing the wheel):

So, I was able to decrypt small portion of the Sound bank from ROM dump from real SC-55 hardware device! Yes, only "small portion" for the moment, because I still cannot figure out how the whole thing is encrypted, i.e. the bigger picture. It looks like small portions ("blocks") of the ROM are encrypted with different key and if that's true, then it will require many many keys to be calculated. In any way, at these point Hardware SC55 to Virtual SC55 looks like more than real possibility. Especially, if someone smarter than me gets involved! Probably, same applies for SC88 and SC88Pro - but I cannot find full ROM dumps of those devices (i.e. Sound bank included in the dump and not only the firmware itself).

[EDIT] or I am totally wrong and I just hit some lucky byte sequence, that looks like something decrypted...

I was wondering how you'd concluded it was decrypted, being that you don't know the format of the data?

Reply 15 of 375, by mattw

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Oetker wrote on 2020-09-22, 18:07:

I was wondering how you'd concluded it was decrypted, being that you don't know the format of the data?

by getting readable ASCII strings in the data. [EDIT] add screnshots to make it more clear - how Encrypted and Decrypted data block looks like.

it's the same with VSC Sound Banks - I am not sure if they are fully decrypted, i.e. if there is not some block inside them that uses different key. However, with VSC Sound banks it looks fully decrypted, because there are readable ASCII strings all over the whole decrypted file.

on hardware SC-55 ROM data - for the time being I gave up as I cannot get readable data all over the whole decrypted ones (in SC-55 hardware the Sound bank is spread over 3 ROMs with size of 1MB each - so it could be the way i am merging them is wrong too).

In any way, with "vscdec.c" in my previous post and VSC Sound Banks - it seems to work fine and everyone interested can try and see - even better find mistakes or prove me wrong.

Attachments

  • vscenc.png
    Filename
    vscenc.png
    File size
    45.16 KiB
    Views
    12795 views
    File license
    Public domain
  • vscdec.png
    Filename
    vscdec.png
    File size
    40.76 KiB
    Views
    12795 views
    File license
    Public domain

Reply 16 of 375, by mattw

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

BTW, the VSC decrypted Sound Banks contain information about "CM-64/32L", possible copy of its ROM (maybe Roland included their own "MUNT" in the VSC soft-synth, who knows?!) - to show the encrypted section and the one decrypted with "vscdec.c" i am attaching the corresponding screenshots.

Attachments

Reply 17 of 375, by mattw

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Also, Decrypted vs Encrypted data block about TR-808/909. So, VSC Decrypted Sound Banks are full of intriguing data.

Attachments

  • vscenc_tr808.png
    Filename
    vscenc_tr808.png
    File size
    42.82 KiB
    Views
    12784 views
    File license
    Public domain
  • vscdec_tr808.png
    Filename
    vscdec_tr808.png
    File size
    40.89 KiB
    Views
    12784 views
    File license
    Public domain

Reply 18 of 375, by mattw

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I figured out few bytes from the Sound Bank Header:

* there is text string "0.97" (VSC 1.x), "1.01" (VSC 2.x), etc, which obviously is the Version of the Sound Bank
* also the Sound Bank Size is very obvious, for example there is "A0 29 16 00", which written as 001629A0 in hex is 1452448 decimal number and that particular Sound Bank is exactly that number of bytes in size

Unfortunately, probably without significant effort other parts of the header will be very hard to understand. However, at the moment I am more interested in where the header ends, i.e. where the unencrypted header ends and the encrypted data begins.

Reply 19 of 375, by Falcosoft

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
mattw wrote on 2020-09-22, 18:55:

...maybe Roland included their own "MUNT" in the VSC soft-synth, who knows?!

Not likely since neither the real Sound Canvas series nor the virtual versions (SC-VA inlcuded) support real LA synthesis that defines MT-32 and CM-32/64 like synths (and thus MUNT). SC devices are only romplers that contain a CM-32/64 compatible sound bank at Bank MSB 127 and a CM-32/64 compatible drum set at channel 10/Program 127 ( most likely this is what you have found). But they only work somewhat with titles that only use the default instruments. Games/Midi files that try to reprogram/modify the sounds the same way as can be done on a real MT-32 compatible synth fail on the whole Sound Canvas series ( but work with MUNT).
MUNT emulates Roland MT-32 and similar synths incomparably much better than any Roland SC devices ever did.

Website, Facebook, Youtube
Falcosoft Soundfont Midi Player + Munt VSTi + BassMidi VSTi
VST Midi Driver Midi Mapper