This virtual synthesizer can be embedded in a host application and used as the main or additional MIDI device in Windows, thus also in DOSBox.
There is also a trial version on the web site.
Vocaroo uses pretty heavy compression, here are higher-quality samples (I added more reverb than the tracks normally use): As such, aside of getting some version of SC-55, this is the best way to play MIDI music in most games released from the early to mid 90s, as Roland's hardware was often what contemporary composers used or aimed at supporting. The compatibility maps do not produce results that match each original hardware exactly, but they are of very high quality and are better-balanced than any amateur soundfonts out there.
In December of 2015 Roland released a software MIDI synthesizer that is equivalent to Sound Canvas 8820, which in turn includes compatibility modes for SC-55, 88, and 88 Pro. I haven't found any mention of this in other threads, so here I go. Never mind the name of the archive, lol.At the risk of being branded an advertising plant, I thought I could start a thread about this piece of software as it should be of interest to quite a few people here. When everything is overwritten folder by folder, just put it into the GZDoom font folder (or whatever port you use) and try it out.Įdit: here's a shot of my folder after it was all done. If I can figure it out, you should have no problem setting it up.
You don't need to use the install programs, just take the instruments and replace the old ones, it's pretty much the same as updating it.
Using this post it's incredibly easy- the poster has all of the files in one download, ready to be used, you just have to overwrite some of the instruments with each update manually, because the fully updated folder link is broken. It's slow as hell for anything interactive though - like playing midi piano through it though :( My other finding was that timidity for background music I liked much more than windows builds of qsynths I could find, so I ended up using it is soundfont synth, including for SoundCanvas fonts I tried out. Do you mind PM-ing your CFG, so that I could have a look? I'm actually interested - I have timidity set up to play GUS patches, but I never bothered actually figuring out the syntax for pathes in cfg, so just put something a person put up on a forums somewhere - and it basically sounded ok. If I know the composer used a certain synth or soundfont, I'll almost always use what they used, or try to get as close as I can to it for playback. I'm not really big on Soundfonts in general, there's one OP元 that I like to use with Heretic, but most MIDI files sound (subjectively) most appropriate with either the SC-VA set to SC-55, a real Sound Canvas or the stock wavetable synth (which I actually really like in a lot of cases). If I'm not using that I'm perfectly happy with good ol' Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth. In most cases I like the VA better than the real Sound Canvas. It even runs just fine in Dosbox once you configure it. It's a slight hassle to set up initially, but I've never encountered a source port that can't run it one way or another and I really like the sound for most games of that era (Doom, Hexen 1 and 2, Duke, Blood, and even Dark Forces). I use Sound Canvas VA almost exclusively using VSTHost, Loopmidi and VirtualMIDISynth. Roland Cloud is a nightmare that never ends so I would definitely just buy the vst outright if you think it's worth it.