Roland Virtual Sound Canvas (And Visual MT) - The best MIDI Software

I remember my first VSTi was Edirol Super Quartet Vsti. basically Sound canvas

Sounds like Jerry from Rick and Morty XD

How do you get this software to work on windows 10.

1. VSC doesn't support 32 channels, it only has 16.
2. The integrated MIDI player on VSC crashes a LOT on Windows XP, almost every single time. I can play any 16-channel MIDI file with Windows Media Player, XGPlayer and Falconsoft SoundFont Midi Player just fine, but not the integrated VSC MIDI player.
3. VSC doesn't support EFX.

Have you seen Roland's Vima Tunes Player program? It's basically Virtual Sound Canvas, but in a form of a karaoke machine.
Although VTP has some flaws and missing features that VSC previously had, it's an OK MIDI player so I kinda recommend to check it out since the program works on modern Windows OS(s).

Along with Vima Tunes Player, there's also a SMF/MIDI to WAV converter program made by Roland which also uses VSC sounds.

Use windows 98 SE and 256 MB - 512 MB and that will fix the crashes

You can probably pick me up for $15 for what that’s worth 😮

KITTY!

It was worth coming here for the cool cat!

Oh my. I'd love something like this for Windows 10 (and up)! Fantastic! This brings back such fond memories of playing Descent and Duke 3D, but with a Yamaha TG-300 instead of a Roland Sound Canvas. Good times!

This is cool. I tried the tutor and got it to work on my XP machine and micro korg synth/vocoder via midi cables to my sound blaster audigy 2 hub. The sound canvas on the other hand installed fine but I keep getting the error “VSC’s MIDI device or the audio device to be used for VSC’s audio output cannot be opened. Playback unavailable at this time.” Do you actually need to have a Roland product for it to recognize to use the VSC3?

has VSC-MP1 its the last one made virtual soundcanvas before Soundcanvas VA

Im using software from Yamaha S-YXG50

Thank you for show this solution, you save me to buy the original sc-88 :)

Why wontt work Windows 10?

I have VCS3 installed on my P4 win98 system and it plays midi files correctly using the VCS but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to route DOS game midi out to the VCS I have tried everything I can think of.

Thank you so much for archiving this software and doing a video on it! Much appreciated <3 x

Just found your channel now? Never too late I guess.

Better grab that archive before Roland finds out.

It’s Elise with E not elis 😂

I remember having the SoundBlaster AWE32, which actually had memory slots (RAM). You could load "Soundfonts" into this memory, in order for the Soundcard to use Wavetable Synthesis (modifying a recorded sound sample) for Midi instead of relying on FM-Synthesis (trying to generate a sound out of nothing). The larger SoundFont Files you had (and loaded), the better the output sound was. I think at the end I had 2x8 MB Modules installes in my Soundcard and loaded the corresponding Soundfonts.
The Midi Sounds, were just beyond any other Soundcard at that time.

It might be worth looking into that extraordinary card :)

I cannot get any midi sound from the VSC in games with Windows 98se. What am i doing wrong??, i have it selected as the midi output device. Specs are PIII 700 and Soundblaster 16 CT2910 etc.

I still have the Virtual Sound Canvas in my Virtual Machines to this day. I haven't been making videos from it from burn out after years of history on my Channel.

Not sure if you've made a dedicated video for your Windows XP setup, but I had the same Antec case back in the day complete with the LAN party carrying strap and that drawer of screws!

Seems like this was a precursor to Roland Sound Canvas VA, a software synthesizer and VSTi plugin Roland made several years ago. I use it with my DOSBox all the time and it's so good with old DOS games, it completely eliminates the need to buy the real Sound Canvas module, since it emulates it near perfectly.

Its a well known fact, nothing is compatible with Windows ME. Not even Windows updates.

Personally, I think the Cinco Midi Organizer was better.

I used to love this piece of software - so wish there was a Mac version as well….

Native Instruments used to make BANDSTAND - a GM2 "module" that had 2GB worth of streaming samples.. sadly they discontinued it aeons ago - and never went further - like to supporting XG or arranger type sound sets- which would have been cool

Two words: Yamaha XG. The peak of computer MIDI standards, nothing can touch it. There were software version of their flagship sound cards with XG midi, S-YXG50 and 100, the latter almost on par with SW1000XG hardware.
No, I didn't watch the video yet but I do know Roland MT and I stand by my comment :D

Yes order offers in over 3 hours

I have a problem of understanding here. If I can use a normal simple soundcard (SoundBlaster for example) plus the VSC software to get MIDI sound, why should I buy a hardware MIDI controller?

Similar VSC is included with Cakewalk Music Creator 2003 which in turn was included with the Edirol Hyper Canvas.

On my first computer I had a soundcard integrated (unusable for midi) I later bought a used SoundBlaster Awe32, and it was an incredible improvement (Then SoundBlaster Live, Audigy etc). I tried Midi with many programs on windows 95 and newer. I had a Yamaha XG 100 synthesizer sound emulator on windows XP. Thanks for the interesting video. It reminded me of the days of the midi era. Then I tried music in MOD, XM, S3M etc. But that was a different category and before PC it was music in those formats on the Amiga computer.

Hey i'm using the exact same speakers ! i'm missing the gray stands for them, but they sound really good

With this Winamp will actually interface with it. I have on my Laptop a PCem VM with Windows 98SE and it installed and Winamp v2.95, you have to adjust the Winamp Midi plugin to work with the Virtual Sound Canvas.

doom is love 😍😍😍😍

This is so awesome. I used to have a Roland Sound Canvas SC-55 back in the day. The default piano sound was really good (which prompted me to get it) back when it was introduced. Not bad for a lower priced sound module. The synth, bass and drum sounds were very good for putting ideas together. There was a game I had that featured mecha robot warriors from Japan and it was compatible with GM so it played the soundtrack like a dream. Good times.

I wanna pat the kitty!

This software is awesome! Just added it to my windows xp machine and even though it does have a good soundcard it's fun to play around with. Thank you very much :)

I'm having an issue installing VSC on WinXP. Erroring near the end of installation, referencing a temp directory and "quit the installation" prompt. Any ideas?

The hardware Soundcavas was one of my main midi playback modules for composing in the 1990s. I then also used Virtual Sound Canvas for playback in the 2000s. Not great for acoustic instruments (except percussion), but really great for electronic sounds.

Space Quest III and IV have my favourite game sound tracks when paired with a Roland MT-32

Great video. Thanks!

Edirol was Roland’s desktop media arm, I think they tried to sell music and video hardware to schools. That first demo sounds like Eric Persing (Spectrasonics) who did a lot of demo stuff for Roland back in the 90s.

Roland VS use 12bit sample depth, But real SC-55 have 16bit sample depth.