Contrary to the SC-55, I believe the SC-88Pro doesn't have any demo songs in its ROM. It might have shipped with demo songs on a floppy disk, you can easily find these online with some googling.

yeah, no built-in demo songs for SC-88 ... I am attaching the Roland Demo Songs for the SC-88 Pro, I believe these are the ones that the unit came with 😎

Thanks guys!

What do you recommend to use for playing those songs on a modern PC?

I have Windows 10 and Dosbox, with the SC-88P connected via a USB adapter.

this: http://www.grandgent.com/tom/projects/tmidi/ , works wonders

Thanks keropi, that seems to work well for most of my songs.

most? why not all? what gave you trouble?

I have some midi files of the music from Conquests of Camelot, downloaded from Quest Studios, I think. They come both in a GM and an MT variant. At least the MT variants also come with an extra Sysex file, that I have no idea if it is needed.

When I play the Black Knight theme through my MT-32 I get some weird instrument sounds at some points in the song, which are not there in the Youtube version nor the Ogg version I have.

I haven't tried the game itself in Dosbox, it might simply be the midi file that is incorrect.

For these MT-32 midi you need to load the SysEx files first and then play the midi - else like you found playback is wrong. TMIDI only works with SysEx messages integrated to the midi files, not sure about mt-32 ones though.
For these I use DOS, dump.exe to load the SysEx to MT-32 and then MFPLAY to play them. Not sure about windows though, maybe someone else has a solution.

For windows I can recommend Midi-OX - use it to send a SysEx file to your MT-32 and then use TMIDI to play your Quest Studios midifile, which should now sound correct because the custom instruments will have been loaded into your MT-32.

http://www.midiox.com/

Unfortunately, when I load the sysex file in Midi-OX it seems to clog down the USB to midi adapter or something. Trying to play the song afterwards, either in the built in midi player in Midi-OX or TMIDI, only gives an error message about the USB midi interface not being available.

I might have configured it wrong, but I'm not sure.

Here is the complete Sound Canvas (55, 55MKII, 88, 88Pro, 8820, 8850) demo collection, including the complete SC User Groups archives.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/ylluildl9q18mil … Canvas_Demos.7z

c0keb0ttle wrote:

Unfortunately, when I load the sysex file in Midi-OX it seems to clog down the USB to midi adapter or something. Trying to play the song afterwards, either in the built in midi player in Midi-OX or TMIDI, only gives an error message about the USB midi interface not being available.

I might have configured it wrong, but I'm not sure.

I think I might have come across a similar issue a few years ago, although I don't remember if it was with an MT-32 or a D-550 - maybe MIDI-OX is transferring the Sysex too quickly for the MT-32 to be able to deal with it. You can try to adjust the speed of the transfer by reducing the buffers in MIDI-OX, see if it helps.

Neither the SC-88 or SC-88Pro have built-in demos.
The rest of the Sound Canvas line do.

MMaximus wrote:

c0keb0ttle wrote:

Unfortunately, when I load the sysex file in Midi-OX it seems to clog down the USB to midi adapter or something. Trying to play the song afterwards, either in the built in midi player in Midi-OX or TMIDI, only gives an error message about the USB midi interface not being available.

I might have configured it wrong, but I'm not sure.

I think I might have come across a similar issue a few years ago, although I don't remember if it was with an MT-32 or a D-550 - maybe MIDI-OX is transferring the Sysex too quickly for the MT-32 to be able to deal with it. You can try to adjust the speed of the transfer by reducing the buffers in MIDI-OX, see if it helps.

Thanks for the tip, but I can't get it to work properly.

I'll keep fiddling with it. Maybe I should borrow a Roland UM-ONE USB midi adapter from a friend just to make sure my cheap Ebay junk is not the cause.

If you're using either of these, or something similar...
http://i.imgur.com/8f5slma.jpg - http://i.imgur.com/KcfXYme.jpg

These cables are unable to transmit sysex.

Incorrect. These cables are very often built without proper impedance and/or optical isolation which is generally what causes the problem.

From the point of view of the UART, SYSEX messages are just serial data.

Yeah, my model looks very much like those. The thing is, they seem to work fine for games etc. I haven't had any problems with Sierra games, for instance.

Potentially some sequences might get chopped, but it will all be because of what I mentioned.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction! Got hold of a Roland USB interface, and can now transfer Sysex without a problem.

The midi file sek has a weird instrument in it, but I'm starting to think that is the fault of the file...