When it comes to playing PC games from the late 80s to the mid 90s,
your choice of sound device is one of the single biggest decisions to make.
Most old-school PC gamers experienced the Creative Labs Sound Blaster back in the day, or one of its endless
variants and clones, which is still a fine choice for the majority of DOS games.
They not only provided digitized PCM sound effects, but
also a Yamaha based FM synthesis chip for twangy Ad-Lib Music.
As enjoyably nostalgic as that can be, though, there were more impressive options, like the Roland MT-32.
As discussed previously here on LGR, this was introduced in 1987
as a cost-effective MIDI Synthesizer module for musicians.
But its library of Linear Arithmetic instruments made it Ideal for computer game soundtracks.
It sounds great for games that utilize it, no doubt,
but things were changing rapidly in the world of MIDI back then.
The General MIDI Standard was introduced in 1991 by
The American MIDI Manufacturers Association and The Japan MIDI Standards Committee,
providing a standardized method of reproducing sounds across MIDI devices.
From this point forward, PC games with MIDI soundtracks were frequently tailored to the General MIDI Standard,
leaving the MT-32 in need of a replacement.
Enter the Roland Sound Canvas, and more specifically, the SC-55, released in
'91 to launch with the new General MIDI Standard. While it features some backwards compatibility for the
MT-32, it's pretty much an entirely new General MIDI system, with Roland's own GS MIDI Extension on top of that.
So, the Sound Canvas went beyond General MIDIs 128 melodic tones
and boosted the number of unique sounds up to 317.
This meant that game setup programs often featured a General MIDI option, alongside
a Sound Canvas Mode, where the latter could take advantage of more voices.
The SC-55 also featured eight drum sets for percussive elements,
and could play 16 parts at once with 24-voice polyphony, and even had
a battery backed memory that saved dozens of settings when it's not plugged in.
Alright, well that's a lot of specs, but what it all means is that
you get games that sound like this.
That SC-55 sound was so impressive at the time that Victor released an entire album of MIDI tracks under their Computer Music series,
so you could enjoy it on CD without shelling out so much cash for the real thing.
Back to the real hardware itself though, and you may have noticed that the model I'm showcasing is the
SC-55 Mark II, a minor upgrade introduced in 1993.
This not only increased the polyphony to 28 voices, but the Roland GS extension was extended to provide 354 instruments.
Audio output quality was also increased from 16-bit to 18-bit,
and a built-in computer interface was added to connect to a PC through a serial port.
In fact, Roland was embracing computer users wholeheartedly with the SC-55 Mark II,
releasing the module in kits like this Desktop Music System from Japan.
This was designed to work with Windows and DOS software
across a variety of personal computers; from NEC and Epson models, to generic IBM PC Compatibles.
And, being aimed at musicians, it came with all sorts of software from music composition and audio manipulation
along with plenty of colourful documentation alongside.
I won't be showing this stuff, though,
since it is largely designed for musicians using an NEC PC-9800,
and also since my main interest is using it with my favorite IBM PC Compatible DOS games.
Still, I do think that Roland's family of SC-55 music creation items are fascinating;
like the Sound Brush module that allowed writing and playback of MIDI files through a 3 1/2" floppy disk drive,
but stuff like that is all a bit beyond the scope of this video.
Setting up the SC-55 with a DOS PC is pretty much the same as it was with an MT-32,
at least when used in conjunction with an MPU-401.
All you need is a MIDI cable to go from the 55 to the 401, and an
audio cable to go between the 55 and your sound card,
with various Line In and Out options available so you can mix the audio outputs together.
And on the Mark II and beyond, you can
instead use the built-in serial connection to connect to a computer directly,
without having to bother with MIDI interfaces at all.
This only works with specific programs that support it, though, like the PC-9800 applications in the Desktop Music System package.
So, unless you have the rather rare and expensive MPU-401,
you'll probably be connecting it to a sound card with MIDI support that allows you to use a 15-pin breakout cable like this.
Just keep in mind that UART interfaces may not work with games that
demand Intelligent Mode. So, in that case, you can usually use a program like Soft MPU to correct this.
And lastly, the Sound Canvas can easily be used on a modern computer using a USB MIDI Adapter,
which has the added benefit of working nicely with emulators like DOSBox and ScummVM.
Whichever method you use, though, once it's powered on and looking fancy, it's quite the enjoyable experience.
There are all these buttons and lights and LCD
panels that you can Interact with and they all make me happy!
There's also this optional remote control which just pleases me to no end. I don't know what it is about controlling retro computery things
wirelessly, but any time I have the option I am going to take advantage.
There are plenty of settings here that go beyond what most users will need, but suffice to say
it's full of options to play with including Reverb,
Panning, Chorus and Instrument Manipulation.
There are also built-in MIDI demos as well, letting you show off its capabilities with no computer required.
The main options you'll need to fuss with as a gamer though is the Instrument Layout Swapping which lets you switch between
SC-55 Mode and Legacy Support.
Pressing Instrument Left with the Power Button puts the unit into MT-32 Mode, which attempts to emulate the older device.
While this works reasonably well in some games, it sounds like crap in others due to
differences in how the MT-32 and the SC-55 generate sound.
Games like Space Quest III relied on the programmability of the MT-32's
LA Synthesis which the SC-55 lacks, leading to music that just doesn't sound right at all.
Still, there's plenty of other games that sound amazing with it, and I find myself enjoying the dookie out of the SC-55
and subsequent iterations, for example the SC-88 here, which is an upgrade to the
Sound Canvas with SC-55 Map support and a host of expanded options.
It was released in 1994, and while there aren't a ton of games that make use of its additional abilities,
I still like having it, if only due to its beefy size and extra Happiness Buttons.
There's also the Roland SCC-1, an ISA card version of the SC-55
that forgoes the hassle of any external hardware.
But you'll have a much easier time finding a classic SC-55 unit since cards like the SCC-1 and
its sibling the RAP-10 are stupidly rare and expensive these days.
Also elusive are daughter board versions of the SC-55, like the SCB-55,
which can be plugged into Wave Table headers on sound cards to grant them magical Roland powers.
There are plenty of other variants as well, from USB versions
like the SC-8820, to VST plug-in versions like the SC-VA released in 2015.
Even Microsoft got in on the action and built Roland Sound Samples
into the GS Wavetable Synth included with Windows 98 and beyond.
But personally,
I'm quite satisfied with the SC-55 Mark II. It looks great, it sounds great, and for classic PC games from about
1991 to '97, it's a no-brainer if you want to play soundtracks the way they were written.
Composers frequently used the Roland Sound Canvas as the de-facto reference device when writing General MIDI music,
so using one is going to get to you about as close as possible to the way certain games
sounded at their inception.
Whether or not that sounds the best to you is subjective of course, but for tons of 90s games, the SC-55
replicates the artist's intentions wonderfully.
I only wish it had 100% MT-32
compatibility for the games that need it, but that's okay. I'm fortunate enough to just be able to set up
an MT-32 and SC-55 at the same time.
Daisy-Chaining or switching between the two is needed.
It's a bit of a pain, but I think that getting that original Roland sound is worth it.
The SC-55 is one of the most excellent things you can add to any retro PC setup in my opinion,
so keep an eye out and maybe pick one up while they're still pretty affordable.
And I've got to give a huge 'Thank You' to Anders Inger Jensen,
Sean Hamilton and the LGR Patreon backers for donating the items and funding that helped make this video possible.
These Roland devices are getting harder to come by all the time so I
deeply appreciate your generosity and help and, as always, thank you very much for watching LGR!