Ohhh, that looks great if I want to just play this through my speakers, but I also need to be able to record from this as well when I make videos for my YouTube channel, therefore I think I do need to use the sound card. 😒

I appreciate the advice though!

If you require the use of Line in, consider feeding it with a mixer or stereo selector box. It will simplify the task of changing between devices.

gdjacobs wrote:

If you require the use of Line in, consider feeding it with a mixer or stereo selector box. It will simplify the task of changing between devices.

Hey, if I did that, could I still use one USB interface cable along with the midi thru setup, or would each unit need its own USB interface?

As shown in the earlier diagram, you can daisy chain the midi cables and use one common midi output. This is a big reason to have an audio selector, as all the midi modules will be doing their best to interpret and play what's coming from your PC. They all have to be powered on to pass through midi data.

Veloxi wrote:

Ohhh, that looks great if I want to just play this through my speakers, but I also need to be able to record from this as well when I make videos for my YouTube channel, therefore I think I do need to use the sound card.

No problem, you have a "Control Room output" from the mixer which you connect to your Line-In and record your mix.

James-F wrote:

Veloxi wrote:

Ohhh, that looks great if I want to just play this through my speakers, but I also need to be able to record from this as well when I make videos for my YouTube channel, therefore I think I do need to use the sound card.

No problem, you have a "Control Room output" from the mixer which you connect to your Line-In and record your mix.

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Oh I see! That looks great! Do you have a mixer you could recommend?

I suggest Behringer 1002 (non FX, non USB), there is no need for a more expensive brand, they are all Chinese.
It's a very useful tool if you even plan to record with a professional microphone and mix various sources of sound to one output.

James-F wrote:

I suggest Behringer 1002 (non FX, non USB), there is no need for a more expensive brand, they are all Chinese.
It's a very useful tool if you even plan to record with a professional microphone and mix various sources of sound to one output.

Awesome! I'll definitely keep my eyes peeled for an affordable model (or maybe a black friday sale or some such), as that is definitely something I do wanna do in the future. Thanks!

To anyone who uses a modern PC with a DAW to record the audio of the retro PC:

Both the retro PC and the modern PC have a grounded power cable.
When you inter connect the computer using an audio cable (through mixer or not) you essentially creating a thing called ground loop.
This ground loop most often than not will create a buzz sound on the audio signal.
To eliminate this ground loop buzz while keeping the audio crystal clear I suggest using a thing called "ground loop isolator" from ebay.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trk … olator&_sacat=0

Any of them will do, they are basically two small 1:1 winding ratio audio transformers inside.
I have a couple when I'm interconnecting grounded audio equipment.

So folks, the SC-55 arrived a few days ago, and the Daisy chain method works perfectly. It's a tad inelegant, sure, but it's cheaper and takes up less room than a separate mixer for the time being. Thanks so much for your help!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZSI9FRYNx4

I'm trying to do the THRU method with my new SC-55 and I can't seem to get the THRU port to work with my MT32.

This is how it is connected:

Windows 10 PC -> Roland UM-ONE "To MIDI IN" cable -> SC55 MIDI IN -> SC55 MIDI THRU -> MT32 MIDI IN -> MT32 Output -> SC55 Input -> mixer\amp

I can hear the SC55 (it sounds beautiful!) but there is no activity on the MT32... it isn't showing any notes being triggered, and there is no sound. When I connect the UM-ONE directly to the MIDI IN on the MT32 it works perfectly fine with no other adjustments, running through the SC55's input to my amp.

Is there a way that the SC55 could be set to not use the THRU port right now? Are there any common problems with this method that I've missed? MIDI OUT on the SC55 doesn't seem to send anything to the MT32 either.

I think I've done a full reset on the SC55, so it shouldn't be an issue with old settings. I did the thing where you hold the instrument buttons while turning it on and it says "init all?", then hit ALL... I've also replaced the CR2032 battery and turned off the backup feature so that it resets on startup.

What could be happening here? I don't see anything at all in the manual about using the thru port, aside from the diagram showing that it exists.

EDIT: Oy... okay, so I thought I'd already tried this, but apparently only the REAR MIDI IN on the SC55 actually passes through the "THRU" port? That seems kind of lame. I had been using the front port to connect my UM ONE for use with my main PC (or with a midi instrument at some point), but intended to leave the rear MIDI IN connected to my DOS PC. What gives? Is this normal or is this something I can fix? I'd even be willing to modify the thing to make this work if that's possible.

If anyone who owns an SC-55 (non-MKII) could test to see if data sent to the front MIDI IN is passed to "THRU" on the rear, I'd appreciate it.

Ozzuneoj wrote:

...apparently only the REAR MIDI IN on the SC55 actually passes through the "THRU" port?

That's correct. Roland didn't make this point clear until the release of SC-55mkII though, where it's actually mentioned in the manual.

I would advise against attaching anything other than a keyboard controller to the MIDI IN 2 port on an SC-55. While the manual suggests that, "It makes no difference which connector you use when making MIDI IN connections," this has not been my experience at all. On the SC-55 models, the main CPU directly services the MIDI IN 1 port, whereas MIDI IN 2 goes through a separate, serial-to-parallel conversion process first. For some reason, this additional process results in the off-behavior of dropped and/or ignored MIDI messages in a congested MIDI data stream, and consequently results in off-sounding playback. With the later SC-55mkII, the MIDI IN 1 and 2 ports are both serviced by a separate sub-CPU, and behave equal to each other.

Cloudschatze wrote:

Ozzuneoj wrote:

...apparently only the REAR MIDI IN on the SC55 actually passes through the "THRU" port?

That's correct. Roland didn't make this point clear until the release of SC-55mkII though, where it's actually mentioned in the manual.

I would advise against attaching anything other than a keyboard controller to the MIDI IN 2 port on an SC-55. While the manual suggests that, "It makes no difference which connector you use when making MIDI IN connections," this has not been my experience at all. On the SC-55 models, the main CPU services both input ports, but for reasons unknown, MIDI IN 2 is handled "differently" than MIDI IN 1, and exhibits the off-behavior of dropping and/or ignoring MIDI messages in a congested MIDI data stream, consequently resulting in off-sounding playback. With the later SC-55mkII, the MIDI IN 2 port is serviced by a separate sub-CPU, and functions exactly the same as the rear, MIDI IN 1 port.

I see, this is good to know!

That's too bad though... I was really hoping this would eliminate my need for a switch box. Before hooking up the SC-55 I was using a simple KVM switch with DIN keyboard connectors to switch from my DOS PC to my UM-ONE. This never gave me any problems, its just more of a mess. The one I use is almost identical to this, just slightly smaller. I've opened it and it just uses direct wire connections to the switch, so there doesn't seem to be anything that would mess with the MIDI signal.