Retronerd878 wrote on 2026-01-22, 15:07:

Hello!
I intend to buy the Roland SC55 (ST) and connect it to my windows 95 socket 7 machine for that sweet MIDI goodness. Right now I have an AWE64 Gold sound card. Will it be as simple as hooking up the Roland interface via the joystick port?
Anything I should be aware of?

yep, it's that simple: you need a gameport midi cable/adapter , you connect the MIDI OUT from cable to MIDI IN of SC-55 and that's it

I've read things abut bugs and stuff. Will it work fine with the AWE64 Gold? Or maybe should I look for another sound card?

AWE64 is hanging note free.

Retronerd878 wrote on 2026-01-23, 05:53:

I've read things abut bugs and stuff. Will it work fine with the AWE64 Gold? Or maybe should I look for another sound card?

Just be sure you get a quality Gameport MIDI cable. Most of the cheap generic ones are garbage. If you don't need joystick ports and MIDI at the same time, I'd recommend the adapter from Serdaco.

Retronerd878 wrote on 2026-01-23, 05:53:

I've read things abut bugs and stuff. Will it work fine with the AWE64 Gold? Or maybe should I look for another sound card?

The only issue the AWE64 Gold has related to MIDI is the slowdown bug, where MIDI playback can slow down if simultanouely using high quality digtital audio (e.g. in BUILD engine games). If you are not going to run into that scenario it will be pretty much perfect.

I finally received the Roland SC-55 MKII, but I can’t get it to work. I have the Serdaco MIDI adapter connected to the gameport of my AWE64 Gold, and a MIDI-to-MIDI cable from the adapter going into the MIDI IN port of the Roland. I also connected the RCA outputs of the Roland directly to my speakers (the speakers support two simultaneous inputs), but I still get no sound.

I installed Duke Nukem 3D and in the sound setup I selected General MIDI at port 330, but there is still no sound and nothing shows any activity on the Roland display.

If I play the built-in demo sounds on the Roland, everything works fine, so the unit itself seems OK.

Are there any settings I need to configure on the Roland interface?

Actually now I selected general midi and it plays the MIDI wavetable of the AWE64. What am I doing wrong?

Make sure the switch on the rear of the SC-55 is set to 'MIDI'. If you're running Duke Nukem from Windows 95, I recall there's a setting somewhere in the AWE Control Panel to select internal/external MIDI.

"Just plug it in and it works" is overselling the simplicity just a bit. For windows applications you need to go into multimedia settings and select "External MIDI" as the MIDI device. For DOS applications, you need to use the AWE configuration utility to disable MPU-401 emulation (which is the setting that directs MIDI data to the onboard wavetable). And make sure the games are configured for the same MIDI port that the card is set to use.

Finally got it to work. Indeed you need to go to Control panel -> Multimedia -> MIDI -> External MIDI device checked. Also you need to go to AWE64 control and select devices and then disable the MPU401.
Just as a side note, normally you would wire the RCA outputs of the Roland interface to the Line-in of the sound card. However, when wiring the Roland directly to the speakers (my speakers accepts 2 inputs simultaneously), the sound quality is greatly improved

Sure, because you've avoided a round of noise and unnecessary conversions. The headphone jack would be the same.