First post, by BraveToaster
Updated May 28 with the suggestions from the thread
Hi,
I'm trying to get an overview of what the current options are to get MIDI that's as close to a real SC-55 as possible.
What I'm aware of at this point is:
- Roland Sound Canvas VA, about $70 for a lifetime key, needs a Windows machine or Mac (ideally with a Roland UM-ONE). As close to the real thing as it gets.
- Dreamblaster X2GS, a wavetable board for 85€ with a Roland license. It's quite close to an SC-88 from what I read, but I'm not sure what that means in how close it gets to a real SC-55.
- Some Dream-based Waveblaster boards were similar enough for Roland to sue them. Not a 100% copy though, e.g. Serdaco's Yucatan FX.
- There are several soundfonts that try to emulate the SC-55, such as the ones linked from the MT32-Pi Wiki, as well as some that ripped the samples from a real unit. All of them have their shortcomings from my understanding though.
- Roland SCC-1 / SCC-1A ISA sound card, although that is quite rare and thus usually quite expensive.
- The SC-55ST can often be picked up for less than the SC-55 itself. It lacks display and many buttons, but playback is identical to an SC-55 mk2.
- TTS-1 / Hypercanvas for Windows in Cakewalk. Free and very close to an SC-88. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIxQvwJO7kM
I am waiting for my order of the PI-MIDI to ship, so I already have a Raspberry Pi ready with MT32-PI, so being able to use a soundfont with that device would be really nice and put everything into a box. The X2GS would be another alternative, since that might allow me to switch to the "internal" wavetable (for GM) and the external MIDI (for MT-32) using the mixer settings in DOS.
And of course there's a 32 Bit Yamaha VSTi plugin S-YXG50 which is considered "Abandonware", which at best could mean that Yamaha doesn't really care enough anymore, but is certainly not legal to acquire. From what I can see, it is quite a nice module as well that sounds quite nice in several games, but of course it's not Roland, and not close to the SC-55. And there's tons of other SoundFonts as well, but that's not what I'm after.
Is that a complete overview or am I missing something?