Supposedly the SC-55MkII is a minor improvement over the original SC-55: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_SC-55

I would expect most Sound Canvas-specific games to work fine with the original SC-55, but later ones may take advantage to newer synths if they became more prevalent (no idea since I wasn't paying too much attention to synths back in the day because they were out of my price range).

On a related note, I have an SC-88 and it has an SC-55MkII compatibility mode.

HunterZ, i'd love to have an SC-88 (or SC-88VL), but does the SC-88 in SC-55(MkII) mode sound exactly like an SC-55MkII or does it sound different (better)?

RG100, you can add SC-55ST ('plain' version of 55MkII) and SC-55K (karaoke version) to the MkII list. I've seen some pics of them from a Thailand music website.

I wouldn't know how to compare, but the manual seems to indicate that it is supposed to sound exactly the same. I think the SC-55MkII instrument sounds are stored as non-default variations in the SC-88, and putting it in SC-55MkII mode makes the SC-55 variations be the defaults.

It also has an CM-64 mode that loads the default CM-64 patches as the default instrument mappings. Of course the CM-64 is a very different and reprogrammable synth, so any games that use non-default instruments (which is most of them) sound awful. Wizardry 7 (Crusaders of the Dark Savant) sounds exactly the same on my SC-88 in CM-64 mode as it does on my real MT-32.

retro games 100 wrote:

Finally, do all DOS games with the "Sound Canvas" music option expect mk 1 equipment only, thus making the SCB-55 (mk 2) and SC-55 mk 2 units not absolutely essential?

MKII is a superset, albeit a slight one, of vanilla SC-55. Games which claim support for "Sound Canvas" are aimed at SC-55, where a SC-55MKII can also play without any problems or alterations. Both these are able to support the GM and basic GS modes. Likewise, a SC-88 shouldn't have any problems running MIDI messages written for the SC-55, since it is a superset of these two.

I've been routing DOOM2 and Heretic games' midi messages to my MKII through AWE32's MIDI port, and selecting the Sound Canvas mode. All the instruments are played correctly and no glitches or absurd mixing heard.

On the other hand, MT-32 is another world of it's own. That and LAPC-I make up another complex topic.