1. RC is required for the DRM/encryption. Older Roland VSTs used online verification, so it's nothing new. The old ones have been stripped and turned into plain ole VSTi libraries that are portable and apparently some have also stripped the new one you are using, though I haven't seen that for myself.

2. Yes, you have to get the Lifetime Key or monthly membership, whichever you prefer. The LK is just worth it, IMO.

I dug as far as I could into shopvst and found it to be as illegitimate as they come. The company does business through offshore entities and is shielded through foreign registries that provide anonymity.

You get replies by a Russian in bad English over at shopvst.com, so you know how "official" it really is. There might be ways to make this copy they are selling functional, but I have had my share of unwanted warez and am just glad I obviously managed to get away without catching any keylogger or worse, in spite of my naivity/stupidity.

In general, I have no problems with paying for a good product, but I'd prefer to have it rather in a "lightweight" form like the S-YXG50 (just one file, no installation). I understand that Roland wants to do all they can do prevent piracy or at least make it harder, but the requirement of additional software to keep a purchased product authenticated is not particularly appealing.

@Falcosoft:
"Infinite Trial"? You mean clicking on a message box every 15min or using a tool to fake a date? That is hardly a usable condition for a plugin...

Trelokk wrote on 2022-02-07, 15:23:

In general, I have no problems with paying for a good product, but I'd prefer to have it rather in a "lightweight" form like the S-YXG50 (just one file, no installation).

Once you buy the lifetime license, you can then find a portable version of SCVA that had its DRM removed. Of course you can do that anyway, but paying for it gives you plausible deniability when it comes to warez. You already paid for it.

Yeah, that's probably the way to go about it. Then again, the trick is to find a version which doesn't install malware along with it. xD But well, for now I have one month of free trial and I'll use it wisely first - even if it means that I have to keep the RCM installed for the time being. At least I can deactivate the startup services - there's no need to have that app booting up automatically, especially considering I just needed it for SCVA installation. It easily eats up 500 MB RAM or more in the background when running, which is also insane.

*UPDATE*
Proper, official purchase done. This time it's legit for sure since it went through the Roland Cloud Manager (and it wasn't cheap, 🤣). I still think there should be a solution that only requires you to have the Sound Canvas VA folder and nothing else. All these Roland service programs running in the background are the horror for me.

Is there a way to make the plugin remember the SC-55 mode? I know it's possible via FSMP, but I am wondering about VSTDriver usage in combination with games. It keeps resetting itself to default (SC-8820).

Then again: I wonder if it makes any significant difference whether or not you are in SC-55 mode when using this primarily for gaming purposes?

Trelokk wrote on 2022-02-09, 15:38:

Is there a way to make the plugin remember the SC-55 mode? I know it's possible via FSMP, but I am wondering about VSTDriver usage in combination with games. It keeps resetting itself to default (SC-8820).

Remembering settings is the responsibility of the VST host. It was always that way. When you load a VST in a DAW, it would be annoying if the plugin was remembering settings from another DAW project.

Then again: I wonder if it makes any significant difference whether or not you are in SC-55 mode when using this primarily for gaming purposes?

It makes a huge difference. It doesn't sound like an SC-55 then. The instruments sound very different.

Seems the only way to make sure the SCVA stays in SC-55 mode with the new VSTDriver currently is to set up the plugin for SC-55 mode and then keep the VSTDriver config window open (SCVA panel can be closed). As soon as you close the VSTDriver config window, the settings return to default since when you open it again, it's back in SC-8820 mode. However, I am not sure if the reset happens when opening config again or already when closing it. Does anybody know how that works on a technical level?

Maybe this could work like in FSMP (create .fxb preset which is loaded automatically with the plugin). Will make a feature request on the VSTDriver Github.

Trelokk wrote on 2022-02-10, 07:10:

Seems the only way to make sure the SCVA stays in SC-55 mode with the new VSTDriver currently is to set up the plugin for SC-55 mode and then keep the VSTDriver config window open (SCVA panel can be closed). As soon as you close the VSTDriver config window, the settings return to default since when you open it again, it's back in SC-8820 mode. However, I am not sure if the reset happens when opening config again or already when closing it. Does anybody know how that works on a technical level?

Maybe this could work like in FSMP (create .fxb preset which is loaded automatically with the plugin). Will make a feature request on the VSTDriver Github.

Realnc is right. The VST host has to save the settings of the plugin. So yes, you should report this problem at github.
BTW you can test when the settings are lost with Munt VSTi plugin since without loaded ROM files it cannot produce any sounds and ROM file paths have to be preserved/loaded by the host.

Falcosoft wrote on 2022-02-10, 08:14:

[...]
BTW you can test when the settings are lost with Munt VSTi plugin since without loaded ROM files it cannot produce any sounds and ROM file paths have to be preserved/loaded by the host.

Yeah, actually I had noticed that already. Somehow I hoped it would be different outside of FSMP, but when thinking about it again - why should it? Anyway, feature request is made. Until then I'll keep the VSTDriver config window open during gaming sessions, just to be on the safe side.

Otherwise: Should the "All" button be checked when switching to SC-55 mode?

Trelokk wrote on 2022-02-10, 08:23:

Otherwise: Should the "All" button be checked when switching to SC-55 mode?

No. Don't touch anything up there other than the volume knob (which should be set to max for unattenuated output.)

Yes sir! So it's really just about setting SC-55 mode and forget about all the rest.

Was browsing through the old posts here and noticed the mention of a SAVIhost replacement called "midiport" back in 2017. Did anybody save or mirror this by any chance? Looks like the original website is gone and WaybackMachine fails, too.

Another question:
Are all files from the SCVA folder required or is it enough to have "SCCore.dll" and "SOUND Canvas VA.dll"? What are the other files needed for, anyway?

Trelokk wrote on 2022-02-16, 18:07:

Another question:
Are all files from the SCVA folder required or is it enough to have "SCCore.dll" and "SOUND Canvas VA.dll"? What are the other files needed for, anyway?

If I open them in a hex editor, I see instrument names there and bank names, etc. So I would say they're very much needed.

Trelokk wrote on 2022-02-16, 18:07:

Another question:
Are all files from the SCVA folder required or is it enough to have "SCCore.dll" and "SOUND Canvas VA.dll"? What are the other files needed for, anyway?

I do not have the cloud version but the offline one definitely does not work without the auxiliary files in SC-VA's folder (GM*.*, parameter*.*, SCVSC.*).

Yeah, I realized yesterday. I wonder if it was possible to embed those files into the dlls like it was done for the S-YXG50. Then again, wouldn't change anything about functionality, just less files to handle.

Side note: Already tried with ResHacker, but it's apparently a bit more complicated than just to include the external resource files as RCDATA.

Trelokk wrote on 2022-02-17, 17:26:

Yeah, I realized yesterday. I wonder if it was possible to embed those files into the dlls like it was done for the S-YXG50. Then again, wouldn't change anything about functionality, just less files to handle.

Side note: Already tried with ResHacker, but it's apparently a bit more complicated than just to include the external resource files as RCDATA.

Yeah, it cannot work automatically. You need supporting code in the executable to find/load resources (Win32 FindResource and LoadResource API functions).

And for that I think you have to decompile the dll. Evgeny who edited the S-YXG50 plugin said he uses Ghidra. And afterwards, you still have to recompile everything.

I already wanted to do this with the two TBL files that come with the S-YXG2006LE, but it's the same issue.

Maybe Evgeny could tackle the S-YXG100-PVL. We could get some great sound out of that, on today's computers, though I don't think it has ever been attached to any game soundtracks.

He already wrote a few years ago he'd look into it. It's apparently not that high on his agenda. Then again, the XG50 is the far more interesting module for gaming, and with full XG support. Even though that's only relevant for MIDIs specifically made for it.

The XG100 is supposedly the XG50 + PVL, so it's as relevant as the stand-alone XG50, and it's a more refined version of the XG50 to boot, as it was released several years after the XG50 was out and has improvements beyond the PVL.