The Roland Sound Canvas VSTi

Composers wrote and mixed many General MIDI soundtracks of the middle 1990s on the Sound Canvas. The MIDI music of a game is a score, and not a recording. The instrument that plays the score controls the sound. The sound agrees with the sound that the composer heard only on the same instrument. The Roland Sound Canvas VA plug-in is that instrument. You can put it at the end of the P330 MIDI route, for SC-55 and SC-88 class playback from an unmodified game.

This page is the general procedure in How to use your own MIDI player, with one part specified. The plug-in is not an application. It is a VSTi, and it needs a host program to load it. That host program takes the MIDI input and makes the audio output. Read the general recipe first for the port connections. This page does not repeat them.

The chain

guest game  ->  P330 (MPU-401, 0x330)  ->  IzarraVM P330 MIDI receiver
            ->  loopMIDI port
            ->  VST host  ->  Sound Canvas VSTi  ->  host audio device

Procedure

  1. Make the loopMIDI port, and select it as the P330 MIDI receiver. See How to use your own MIDI player. Make sure that the status line shows Ready.
  2. Install a VST host. The host must accept MIDI input from a system port, and it must load a VSTi. Falcosoft MIDI Player 6 is one such host, and this recipe uses it. Other unrelated programs have the name "MIDI Player", thus take this one from its own site. A DAW or a small plug-in rack is also sufficient, because the procedure uses two functions only.
  3. Install the Sound Canvas VSTi. Let the host scan its plug-in folder for it.
  4. In the host, set the MIDI input to the loopMIDI port. Use the same port that IzarraVM sends to, and not a second port.
  5. Load the Sound Canvas VSTi as the instrument for that input.
  6. Set the audio output of the host to your sound device. Then increase the level of the plug-in.
  7. Start the game, and select General MIDI, MPU-401, or MIDI at port 330. If the game has Roland Sound Canvas, SC-55, or GS, select that option instead. Those settings send the GS system-exclusive messages that the plug-in understands, and the port is the same.

Notes

  • The map. The Sound Canvas VA can operate as an SC-55, an SC-88, or a later model. A composer almost certainly heard a game from 1994 or 1995 on an SC-55. A later game can have an SC-88 mix. If an instrument in a soundtrack is incorrect, try the earlier map before you examine the route.
  • Latency. The buffer of the plug-in host controls the moment of the sound. The delay is in the host, and not in the emulator. Decrease the buffer size of the host if the music is late against the picture. The delay does not change the digital audio and the FM from the emulated card. Thus a large buffer makes the music late against the sound effects.
  • Two audio streams. The output of the machine and the output of the plug-in host are two streams into the same device. Set the balance between them in the host mixer. The volume control of the machine and SNDMIXER do not change it.

Next