VOGONS

Roland SC-55 info

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First post, by azlim16

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Hi
I just bought a Roland SC-55 to use in Dos with some DOS Game (it's the early one with only GS logo on the front)
I was able to make it working and it sound great, but i have no information or grafical spectrum on display when the game music plays
I'm using a Sound Blaster 16 PnP
using the midi/joystick cable (one with midi in/midi out connector and db 15 connector and passthrow for joystick)
and mixing sound from sound blaster speaker out to sc-55 input and from sc-55 output to an audio switch connected to the speackers

The games work fine with sound canvas configuaration with standard 330 address and the audio is mixing with the sc-55 (volume knob on sc-55 work)
but nothing on display, it says only 01 Piano, wich is the fist instrument on the sc-55

what i'm doing wrong?

I already try the "reset all" using button combination on sc-55 but nothing change

Reply 1 of 4, by azlim16

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Ok, i think i fugured out

there was two different issue:
first, the sound still was working great but only because in my sound blaster 16 i have also a dream blaster S2 Wavetable
this explain why the sounds work anyway and it was very similar to SC-55 and i does not spot the difference, thinking was the roland sound (so wrong XDXD)

Unplugged the wavetable card, and nothing... no sound from SC-55 at all.
...and this is the second issue, my midi cable for some strange reason has the midi input and output reversed, connecting the "out" side of the cable into SC-55 midi IN ... it works perfectly, but if I connect also the "input" side of the cable into the midi OUT on SC-55 at this poit it stops working and the game hang... I do not connect this part of the cable and problem solved

Now there is the last problem, using both SC-55 and the Dream blaster S2
in this case i resolved using a script from this thread
New DreamBlaster S2 !

Hope my mistake will useful for someone!

Reply 2 of 4, by badmojo

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azlim16 wrote on 2024-07-25, 21:02:

connecting the "out" side of the cable into SC-55 midi IN ... it works perfectly

This sounds right to me - OUT of the MPU-401 on the sound card, IN to the SC-55. Glad you got it working 👍

Life? Don't talk to me about life.

Reply 3 of 4, by azlim16

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badmojo wrote on 2024-07-25, 23:03:
azlim16 wrote on 2024-07-25, 21:02:

connecting the "out" side of the cable into SC-55 midi IN ... it works perfectly

This sounds right to me - OUT of the MPU-401 on the sound card, IN to the SC-55. Glad you got it working 👍

Yeah, teorically is correct, but since my midi cable has "in and out" write on the midi plug, to me was more logic to connect the midi cable signed "out" with midi OUT from SC-55...
instead it was the opposite ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Reply 4 of 4, by darry

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In most cases, in my experience, a text label describes what a port/connecteur does (its function), whereas something symbolic like a color code, pictogram, number or letter implies matching symbols together.

Look at it another way, if "out" and "out" were meant to be matched together, how would one determine in what direction the data flows ?

This is not meant as a criticism, just as a hopefully helpful observation. In this case nothing bad happened (MIDI is robust when using in-spec equipment), but had two audio outputs been connected together, for example, hardware damage might have resulted.

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