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Now that's what I call SC-55 music

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First post, by MaverickUK

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I had the pleasure of obtaining a Roland SC-55 Sound Canvas a few years ago (https://www.strifestreams.com/post/1888903177 … lications-i-can) which was a revelation after growing up wondering what the "Sound Canvas" I kept seeing in game setup programs was.

For whatever reason, I've always really enjoying electronic music and get a real kick out of knowing my hardware is playing back MIDI in real-time.

Something pushed me over the edge yesterday and I created some sound hardware comparison videos for Duke 3D and Doom

I've since been thinking, although there are lots of videos using SC-55 to capture game sound tracks. There aren't many that actually have a video capture of the display on the SC-55 whilst it's playing the music.

Typically such videos feature a static image or game play footage from the game, which isn't related to the actual music being played.

My plan was to put together such a video

It would start with a few seconds of me connecting up the SC-55 and turning it on, then switch to a front view of the SC-55 whilst a series of classic gaming soundtracks play. Such as:

  • Age of Empires 2
  • Little Big Adventure
  • Doom
  • Duke 3D
  • Theme Hospital
  • Command & Conquer
  • Descent
  • Terra Nova
  • Monkey Island
  • Day of the Tentacle
  • X-COM
  • Jazz Jackrabbit

It will be a larger undertaking than the more basic videos I produced yesterday. So I wanted to see if there was any appetite for such a video before I put the effort in or if it's just me that would like such a thing?

http://www.strifestreams.com // Regular nuggets of retro gaming

Reply 1 of 1, by auron

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first, command & conquer and jazz jackrabbit never used MIDI in the first place.

second, not to discourage you, but i've definitely seen videos around with capture footage from synths, and there's nothing too special about that imo... all you're seeing is some moving bars and one of the instruments. that display can be useful for troubleshooting at times though. speaking of which, your duke3d SC-55 capture sounds off at around 0:55, so make sure to send GM/GS resets before playback. in the case of aoe2, those MIDIs have some strange instrument patches meaning that the SC-55 will only play them back properly in GM mode.

finally, if you want to hear some music that actually takes full advantage of the SC-55, this is a good recent effort: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtMciVcDme0

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