You'll need to provide the MIDI files and recordings/videos of what it sounds like.

By the EM-10, you mean the Roland home keyboard, I presume? Basically a Sound Canvas.

I would presume MIDI is a binary state (either the data transmits or it doesn't), so if it's being transferred then that part is likely fine. My educated guess is that between files some states are not resetting, like pitch bend, but your explanation of "does not sound correct" is subjective and could mean many different things. Please provide more detail.

The playback issues I have had are missing instruments, too quiet instruments, corrupted and incorrect instruments. It seems to get worse the more MIDI files I play almost like it is not getting reset or something. I am using Windows Media player to play the files. I also have had the volume go to full even when I have turned it way down on the synth before playing a song (this happens without having played another song beforehand) I assume this may be normal as not all MIDI files do this.

Correct by the EM-10 I do mean the Roland home keyboard.

Also I have a 5 foot cable between the game port to MIDI circuit on the game port side. Not sure if that could be an issue or not.

Does Canyon.mid contain a GM or GS Reset message? A lot of MIDI files from that time period didn't. They just assume that your module is set to default instrument settings before playback. Manually reseting a module between different MIDI files is rather normal. If not done, then yes instrument mappings can get messed up.

Poot36 wrote on 2025-02-17, 17:24:

The playback issues I have had are missing instruments, too quiet instruments, corrupted and incorrect instruments. It seems to get worse the more MIDI files I play almost like it is not getting reset or something. I am using Windows Media player to play the files. I also have had the volume go to full even when I have turned it way down on the synth before playing a song (this happens without having played another song beforehand) I assume this may be normal as not all MIDI files do this.

Windows Media player does not send reset messages between Midi files on its playlist.
Try to play this Midi file between your tracks on the playlist. The file only contains a GS reset SysEx message.

I will try that and get back to you.

Ok, I tired running the GS reset midi file and it did not appear to do anything? I tried to run it multiple times and no change. I also noticed that the DirectX midi test sounds almost like it is playing to slow at parts. I am running this on a 486 system with a Intel DX4 running in 2x mode at 66Mhz with 32Mb of ram and a 1Gb CF card and a CT1740 SoundBaster 16 sound card under Windows 98 SE with drivers installed for the sound card.

Poot36 wrote on 2025-02-24, 03:29:

Ok, I tired running the GS reset midi file and it did not appear to do anything? I tried to run it multiple times and no change. I also noticed that the DirectX midi test sounds almost like it is playing to slow at parts. I am running this on a 486 system with a Intel DX4 running in 2x mode at 66Mhz with 32Mb of ram and a 1Gb CF card and a CT1740 SoundBaster 16 sound card under Windows 98 SE with drivers installed for the sound card.

Then try this instead:

This also adds a GM reset before the GS reset and also sends a very brief NoteOn/Off sequence on channel 1 since it seems WMP has a tendency to ignore tracks if no channel messages are included at all.

You can check if the attached Midi does anything or not on your synth the following way:
1. Load and play a Midi track that changes the instruments on channels to be different from Piano 1.
2. Pause or stop the playback.
3. With the help of your Midi keyboard check that you really hear an instrument that is different from Piano 1.
4. Load and play the attached Midi file.
5. With the help of your keyboard check the active instruments.You should hear Piano 1 again on all channels.

If you do not hear any changes then the most likely problem is that you made a cable that does not transfer SysEx messages properly.
Since I do not know your synth/keyboard I cannot be 100% sure that it supports GM/GS reset messages but according to Spikey it is a Sound Canvas internally so it should.

I will try this when I get a chance to.

Well the modified file works. Got any idea why Windows Media Player did not like the original file? Is there a better MIDI player that runs under Windows 98 that I should be using that would correctly play the GS reset file?

Poot36 wrote on 2025-02-26, 03:40:

Well the modified file works. Got any idea why Windows Media Player did not like the original file? Is there a better MIDI player that runs under Windows 98 that I should be using that would correctly play the GS reset file?

Hi,
1. I have an idea, and I have already told you:

WMP has a tendency to ignore tracks if no channel messages are included at all.

BTW, the 2nd attached file is not worse in any sense than the 1st one so you should not worry about this.

2. I have a Midi Player that supports Win98 but it is not optimized for 486 CPUs and it requires at least 16MB of RAM. It has the advantage that it sends GS reset (it can also send GM/GM2/XG if you want) between tracks automatically so you do not have to play back the attached reset Midi files manually. You can try it if you want. I pre-tuned the configuration file (midiplayer.ini) for minimal CPU usage so most advanced features are turned off by default but it still has the chance that your 486 will be too weak for it.

I will give the midi player a try and see if it maxes out the CPU. I can change it to a 3x multiplier to go to 100Mhz or I can increase the FSB to 50Mhz and leave it at 2x.

Well it did run at 66Mhz but the cpu usage was between 50 and 75 percent when running a file and when I attempted to run a sysex command it basically maxed out and got very laggy. I changed to 100Mhz when 50Mhz FSB because for some reason I could not get the 3x multiplier working and it responded much better.
I did find some of my files that I have been attempting to play are made for a SC88 according to the program so that would explain why it sounded not right.
I also tried to put my synth into MT-32 mode but that did not work at all (not like I expected it to though).
Thanks for the help and the MIDI player program.
I am going to guess I will need to get a real sound canvas to properly play some of the files I have unless there is a way to mod my current hardware to work with that.
I wonder how hard it would be to upgrade it to a EM-20 keyboard with a ROM swap and a wave ROM swap?
Not sure if those ROMS are even online or not.

The other thing I learned the hard was was the volume on the program was set to max and I almost blew out my headphones and my ears with that given the synth can put out 3 watts per channel.
That was me being dumb though.

Poot36 wrote on 2025-02-28, 04:12:

Well it did run at 66Mhz but the cpu usage was between 50 and 75 percent when running a file and when I attempted to run a sysex […]
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Well it did run at 66Mhz but the cpu usage was between 50 and 75 percent when running a file and when I attempted to run a sysex command it basically maxed out and got very laggy. I changed to 100Mhz when 50Mhz FSB because for some reason I could not get the 3x multiplier working and it responded much better.
I did find some of my files that I have been attempting to play are made for a SC88 according to the program so that would explain why it sounded not right.
I also tried to put my synth into MT-32 mode but that did not work at all (not like I expected it to though).
Thanks for the help and the MIDI player program.
I am going to guess I will need to get a real sound canvas to properly play some of the files I have unless there is a way to mod my current hardware to work with that.
I wonder how hard it would be to upgrade it to a EM-20 keyboard with a ROM swap and a wave ROM swap?
Not sure if those ROMS are even online or not.

1. Be aware that after running GS_MT32_Mode.syx you have to disable the sending of GS reset otherwise your synth resets to default at the moment you try to play a new track. You can also select GS_MT32_Mode.syx to be the default reset SysEy. Then you should try some MT-32 tracks that do not use custom instruments since only such kind of tracks work with the MT-32 emulation mode of Sound Canvas devices.
Monkey Island 1 is a good candidate.
You can also set the player to show MT-32 instrument names by selecting Main menu ->Instruments -> Custom Patch definitions and selecting Roland_MT-32.ins.

2. If your synth is based on the mk1 version of SC-55 then it should play tracks made for the SC-88 without major problems (except polyphony related issues) since the mk1 supports Capital Tone Fallback (CTF) so even in case of missing variation tones you should hear at least the capital ones.
If your synth is based on SC-55 mkII then you should enable the software CTF feature of the Midi player by enabling Main menu ->Instruments -> Use Patch Info for Capital Tone Fallback and make sure that Roland SC-VA 55 is selected as patch.

3. I pre-set the volume and balance sliders to send GS specific master volume/balance SysEx messages so the sliders should work with your synth. Yep, the volume was set to max by default , I'm sorry for that 😀

I will try those settings and see what happens.
I know my synth schematic wise is more like the SC-55 MKII as it has TC6116-GP4 main chip that is connected directly to the wave rom and a HD6415108F10 CPU in it.
It only supports 24 VOICES POLYPHONY 16 MULTITIMBRAL PARTS 226 TONES AND 9 DRUM KITS (1 MB PCM Samples) GM-GS COMPATIBLE.
Where as the EM-20 supports 24 VOICES POLYPHONY 16 MULTITIMBRAL PARTS 354 TONES AND 12 DRUM KITS (New Tones - 8 MB PCM Samples) GM-GS COMPATIBLE.
The service manual for my unit is here: https://synfo.nl/servicemanuals/Roland/ROLAND … RVICE_NOTES.pdf
Not really sure how it compares to the SC-55 MKII wave rom wise though.

Based on the service notes, the EM-10 is a weird hybrid of the mkI and II. It uses the patch list and wave ROM of the SC-50 (which itself is a SC-55mkII minus MT-32 tones and that relevant Wave ROM), but uses the DAC of the original SC-55 (i.e. the least good one in the SC line).

As far as the remaining 226 sounds, the wave ROM should be the 1MB (2MB uncompressed) same set the SC-50 uses (also the same as the mkII for that part). The DAC is not as good as previously mentioned however.

The EM-20 for reference would appear to be something entirely different, utilising some SC-88 tech and some MC-303 as well!

It looks like the only really big difference between the EM-10 and EM-20 is the CPU ROM and the wave ROM? I could be wrong on this though. The service manual is for both units.