Do you want to upload the compiled version, and we can check it out?

From the page itself:
"EmuSC is currently in an early development stage and is not able to reproduce sounds anywhere near the quality of the original synths..."

In other words, SCVA is currently a better choice, most likely, unless the author is downplaying their own progress.

Here is the latest Win x64 build of EmuSC, if you want to try it.
Of course it's missing the SC-55 ROM files, those you have to get on your own.

Trelokk wrote on 2023-01-13, 16:16:

Here is the latest Win x64 build of EmuSC, if you want to try it.
Of course it's missing the SC-55 ROM files, those you have to get on your own.

I checked the provided EmuSc. I get sound, even though there are still a lot of issues.
Of course you also have to push the virtual power button of the Sound canvas device of EmuSC.
I only placed the Roms and I added a new midi port via loopMidi. That is it.
By the way, is your audio device also selected correctly?

Trelokk wrote on 2023-01-13, 16:16:

Here is the latest Win x64 build of EmuSC, if you want to try it.
Of course it's missing the SC-55 ROM files, those you have to get on your own.

I tried it, but it says "Unable to read control ROM".

Trelokk wrote on 2023-01-13, 16:16:

Here is the latest Win x64 build of EmuSC, if you want to try it.

here are the results from my very brief test:
1. the "power-button" is not visible to me, at least not on my old CRT - I am not sure if that's brightness issue with my particular CRT or what, but it caused huge confusion, I was clicking around in hope the button is there. I guess it needs some white border lines or be made in similar style as for example the "level" buttons to avoid such problems.

2. single click on what I presume is the "power-button" (as I cannot see it, see 1.) causes immediate crash with Windows 7 x64 saying "emusc.exe has stopped working correctly". other than that "Dump MIDI files to disk" - works and the 2 demo songs from the ROM were saved to my disk, "View control ROM data" also seems to work fine.

[EDIT] BTW, for those of you who missed or even forgot (yes, I forgot myself, it was couple of years ago after all), Roland Sound Canvas VA VSTi by itself includes few SC88XY ROMs in its SCCore.dll:
Re: About Roland Virtual Sound Canvas 3

and SC-88 descrambling code is here:
Re: About Roland Virtual Sound Canvas 3

as well how I figure it our here:
Re: About Roland Virtual Sound Canvas 3

So, I think list of currently known ROMs is a good idea, even EmuSC doesn't support SC88 at the moment (as far as I can tell).

If I push that power button, the whole thing just closes. My assumption was it's turned on by default when you launch it. I am using the same MIDI port in loopMIDI as the S-YXG50 I normally use, but ofc if I launch EmuSC, I make sure I don't have FSMP open which I use for the Yamaha plugin.

The ROM files I used are these:

Control ROM:
roland_r15209363.ic23

PCM files:
roland-gss.a_r15209276.ic28
roland-gss.b_r15209277.ic27
roland-gss.c_r15209281.ic26

Update:
Managed to get it working. It was really about pressing the "Power" button in the end. Facepalm. Now that it works, boy I can say there's a long road ahead of the dev team. It sounds absolutely piss-poor. Instruments get interrupted while playing frequently, nothing sounds anywhere near the SC-55 right now. Whatever you are using right now for MIDI playback - it's better than this.

Trelokk wrote on 2023-01-17, 09:22:

...nothing sounds anywhere near the SC-55 right now...

I still have my same old question about the RIAA IIR filtering:

Re: About Roland Virtual Sound Canvas 3

and it's not applied just once, but twice. IMHO, it still needs serious investigation than be taken as a proven fact.

Hi guys, just a quick comment: You can press spacebar to power on/off the synth (or start emusc with the "--power-on" or "-p" option if ROMs has already been selected).

Also, I have been wanting to improve the main GUI for a while, but it never reaches top priority with the time I have.

Cheers,
Håkon

Well, the whole thing is still far from really being usable, ofc. However, the general concept seems to be heading in the right direction. Any idea how far we are away from a full implementation? My subjective estimation/impression would be another 1-2 years, assuming development continues in a similar manner compared to now.

Trelokk wrote on 2023-01-29, 22:58:

Well, the whole thing is still far from really being usable, ofc. However, the general concept seems to be heading in the right direction. Any idea how far we are away from a full implementation? My subjective estimation/impression would be another 1-2 years, assuming development continues in a similar manner compared to now.

That depends a lot on whether other people join in on the development. If I have to do the entire synth myself from start to finish it will be years away - if ever. I have spent a lot of time on this project to get it up and running in a fairly ok state, but I expected others to complete it 😀

That being said, I think the progress has been OK for this first year. Especially considering the fact that 11 months ago I had absolutely -no- knowledge about synthesizers, and I had not done any serious programming for over 10 years.

James-F wrote on 2017-05-01, 08:30:

"Headroom.mid" will play a bunch of notes together to reach maximum volume where the SC-55 clips internally before the volume co […]
Show full quote

"Headroom.mid" will play a bunch of notes together to reach maximum volume where the SC-55 clips internally before the volume control.
I found that SC-VA and SC-55 have the exact same headroom amount when matched using "Sine Mono.mid", they both clip at the same volume.
SC-VA clips at -0.1dbFS which is the maximum volume of the digital domain, and SC-55 will clip at -0.5dB at the inputs of the audio interface (mixer) while not clipping the inputs.
So once again, Roland did a fantastic job with SC-VA.

Are you sure about all that? Headroom.mid doesn't clip anything "internally" for me on my SC-55 pre-volume control, but it's actually a useful way to calibrate the volume control to ensure there's no distortion in the analog output stage. I need to keep volume knob at about 11 hour, otherwise I can clearly hear some fuzz/crackling type distortion when playing headroom.mid.

Verified with this with some "loud" MIDI files, e.g. Shadow Warrior:

It's not really audible btw, even with max volume, but it definiltey shaves of the transients as you can see. I guess it sounds a bit "rounder" with the slight fuzz/overdrive, but I'll keep the volume at 11'o clock myself at all times.

I'm not sure about the clipping behaviour you've experienced with the SCVA either. I don't think it does any "analog modeling", it seem to be just doing float calculations, and I'm not able to overload / drive it into clipping or distortion however hard I'm trying (in REAPER, using a full 32-bit float mixing path). The weird dithering distortion (or lack of dithering, perhaps) on the reverb tails is definitely not there with the SCVA that is present on the SC-55 (although it's emulating the 8820, so probably that doesn't suffer from this low-level dithering problem).

In any case, thanks for the test tones, they're handy 😀

Hi everyone,

Just a quick bump for this thread as i'm currently looking into adding some nice MIDI to my W98 SE setup or even via DosBox on my W11 PC. It's quite confusing and overwhelming though with all the options. I'm thinking the easiest route would be just to buy a SC-55 for my W98 setup? (are there any hardware requirements?) As I understand, getting the software version SCVA is the easiest way to add Roland MIDI in a modern OS? Is it right that I can buy a lifetime key for 69USD?
Either way, the official route seems to be the easiest/most reliable way.

Thanks for your help.

Windows 10/11 has two options, one of the VSTIs (Sound Canvas VA or Virtual Sound Canvas) or a Studio Canvas MIDI sound module, which are the only Roland modules compatible with the modern OS.

Older PCs running Windows 3.1 - Windows XP can use the original Roland sound modules or soundcard-based MIDI wavetable add-on boards, where applicable.

Windows 98-XP can use all Roland hardware modules, Roland Sound Canvas soft-synths/VSTIs, soundcard-based MIDI wavetable add-on boards, and soundcards with Roland sound banks.

Another option is to use an external MIDI module like the Dreamblaster X2GS and X16GS, which has a Roland-certified GS sound bank. That connects with USB and works well on modern systems.

Using the sound canvas va, there is a sound that eludes me.

Duke 3D

Taking the death toll, 3:59

https://youtu.be/Vf33IOzWclQ

There is a constant background sound at the start and in between the drums. I can not describe it, but there is more then just the hits on the drums. That sound are just not there using the sound canvas va.

I've have confirmed with several recordings, claiming to be from the sc-55. They all have this

I've read about the VSTi's shortcomings when it comes to emulating the sc-55. Is this one of them?

I now realize that bot many has the vsti plugin. I shall return with a recoding.

I have returned, here is the sound using the vsti:
http://sndup.net/czn4

Karmeck wrote on 2023-05-29, 06:53:

Using the sound canvas va, there is a sound that eludes me. […]
Show full quote

Using the sound canvas va, there is a sound that eludes me.

Duke 3D

Taking the death toll, 3:59

https://youtu.be/Vf33IOzWclQ

There is a constant background sound at the start and in between the drums. I can not describe it, but there is more then just the hits on the drums. That sound are just not there using the sound canvas va.

I've have confirmed with several recordings, claiming to be from the sc-55. They all have this

I've read about the VSTi's shortcomings when it comes to emulating the sc-55. Is this one of them?

I now realize that bot many has the vsti plugin. I shall return with a recoding.

I have returned, here is the sound using the vsti:
http://sndup.net/czn4

It's not missing, but there is definitely less tremolo effect on SC-VA than on real SC-55. In case of DETHTOLL.MID the 1st channel uses Program 44 Tremolo Str rigth from the beginning and this instrument has much less default tremolo effect on SC-VA. So you can hear less wavy/vibrating effect but the string sound itself is there.
BTW, SC-VA emulates the SC-8820 and only indirectly the SC-55 (by the SC-55 map of SC-8820). Apparently the string instruments are rather different in this SC-55 map mode (even or real SC-8820) compared to a real SC-55. It was already mentioned here many times:
Re: Heads Up: Roland Sound Canvas VA VSTi Plugin!
Re: Heads Up: Roland Sound Canvas VA VSTi Plugin!
Re: Heads Up: Roland Sound Canvas VA VSTi Plugin!

Falcosoft wrote on 2023-05-29, 11:24:

It's not missing, but there is definitely less tremolo effect on SC-VA than on real SC-55. In case of DETHTOLL.MID the 1st chann […]
Show full quote

Karmeck wrote on 2023-05-29, 06:53:

Using the sound canvas va, there is a sound that eludes me. […]
Show full quote

Using the sound canvas va, there is a sound that eludes me.

Duke 3D

Taking the death toll, 3:59

https://youtu.be/Vf33IOzWclQ

There is a constant background sound at the start and in between the drums. I can not describe it, but there is more then just the hits on the drums. That sound are just not there using the sound canvas va.

I've have confirmed with several recordings, claiming to be from the sc-55. They all have this

I've read about the VSTi's shortcomings when it comes to emulating the sc-55. Is this one of them?

I now realize that bot many has the vsti plugin. I shall return with a recoding.

I have returned, here is the sound using the vsti:
http://sndup.net/czn4

It's not missing, but there is definitely less tremolo effect on SC-VA than on real SC-55. In case of DETHTOLL.MID the 1st channel uses Program 44 Tremolo Str rigth from the beginning and this instrument has much less default tremolo effect on SC-VA. So you can hear less wavy/vibrating effect but the string sound itself is there.
BTW, SC-VA emulates the SC-8820 and only indirectly the SC-55 (by the SC-55 map of SC-8820). Apparently the string instruments are rather different in this SC-55 map mode (even or real SC-8820) compared to a real SC-55. It was already mentioned here many times:
Re: Heads Up: Roland Sound Canvas VA VSTi Plugin!
Re: Heads Up: Roland Sound Canvas VA VSTi Plugin!
Re: Heads Up: Roland Sound Canvas VA VSTi Plugin!

Thank you. And thank you for the midi player.

Back to soundfonts it is.

Especially as a gamer, you are actually better off with the S-YXG50, as it is much closer to emulating its hardware counterpart than the SCVA is.

Indeed, Yamaha's XG soft-synth line was intended to be used for gaming, first and foremost, with MIDI file playback and creation being an obvious secondary benefit and purpose. Roland never intended their respective software offerings to be used with games and sold them strictly for MIDI playback and creation, as Apple's QuickTime and Microsoft's DirectMusic already incorporated their licensed Roland GS sounds for use with games and other software.

Trelokk wrote on 2023-05-29, 21:33:

Especially as a gamer, you are actually better off with the S-YXG50, as it is much closer to emulating its hardware counterpart than the SCVA is.

So here we have Doom E1M1

http://sndup.net/s2k7

S-YXG50

I don't know what that is but it should be criminal.