There is definitely a certain lack of high-end sparkle to many of the voices, but (as always) in a performance situation this is not that noticeable. Many of the voices use more than one partial, cutting the 24-note polyphony down.Ī common complaint is that the sounds seem “dull”. Since this is in fact the first GM device, the specifications are spot-on. I do still have mine, not through any particular care on my part but because I duct-taped it to the bottom of the unit. Regardless of the intended function, the primary purpose of the remote seems to have been to get lost. I have yet to run across anyone who actual used it. It duplicated the major front panel controls of the SC-55 and could also control the transport functions of the SB-55. Rear interface consists of RCA L/R audio in & out, MIDI in, out, and thru, and the power jack.Īlso included was a credit-card size remote control. In addition to the various part controls, the front panel includes a headphone jack with volume control and a very handy front-panel MIDI-In jack. The two units could be rack mounted together as a complete composition and playback unit. It is 16-part multitimbral with 24-voice polyphony, and built-in reverb and chorus, individually selectable for each MIDI channel.Īlong with the SC-55, Roland released the SB-55 Sound Brush, a basic MIDI sequencer/playback unit the same size and style as Sound Canvas. There are 317 instrument patches and 9 drum kits. For compatibility with existing games and other applications, there are also a bank of MT-32 voices. The SC-55 module generates sound using both PCM and a variation of Roland’s own LA (linear/additive) synthesis. Not surprisingly, as Roland was one of the more vocal proponents of GM. The Roland SC-55 Sound Canvas was the first GM compatible device, released within hours of the official adoption of the GM standard. There were also specifications for number of voices, polyphony, and many other items. The MIDI Manufacturer’s association and the Japan MIDI Standards committee decided upon a specific set of voices that would be mapped to specific program locations on any keyboard or module that met the GM standard. In 1991, the General MIDI standard changed that. There were, however, no standards that described what should be done with that data. The initial MIDI standard described how data would be transmitted and received between devices. Sounds were arranged differently, banks were numbered in different orders, and voice allocation was handled as each manufacturer decided. But…Īlthough the concept was the same, these boxes were not interchangeable. With limited editing capability, they provided the user with a large assortment of good-quality sounds. In 1987 the actual FB-01 module, along with the Roland MT-32, were among the first dedicated stand-alone MIDI modules. Early soundcards were primarily focused on gamers, and the IBM card was one of the few that you could actually make real music on. Basically, it was a Yamaha FB-01 on a chip. I mentioned my experience with the IBM PC Music Feature in the K1000 post. This particular piece is one of my all-time favorites. Finally, since I’m a hardware geek I like to relate my own experiences and perspective with some of this gear. Since you can pick many of these up for a few dollars, a quick overview and assessment by someone who’s actually got one sitting in their lap might be of use. I tend to run across various oddball models and think it’s worth getting the pictures and demos out there as a resource. Given that there are plenty of resources available for most of the sound-generating gadgets discussed on this blog, one may wonder why I even bother.
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