Game Music's Secret Weapon - Roland Sound Canvas

video upload by SoundFontGuy

"Video game music from the 90's and 2000's is special. The limited tools that composers had to work with made for some creative applications of software and hardware of the time. One of the most commonly used pieces of music hardware in all of video game music was Roland's SoundCanvas line of MIDI Module synthesizers. Everything from The Legend of Zelda to Final Fantasy!

Roland’s Sound Canvas is a line of sample-based MIDI sound modules that became the de-facto General MIDI/GS standard in the ’90s. It’s basically a ROMpler box full of “bread and butter” instruments (piano, strings, brass, drums, etc.) with built-in effects, and it was used heavily in PC games, console dev, and MIDI playback as the reference sound for GM/GS music."

"Special thanks to the VGM & Other Instrument Sources Community

00:00:00 Intro
00:01:05 MIDI Module
00:02:10 SC-55 Explanation
00:03:52 SC-55 Examples
00:04:23 SC-88
00:05:26 SC-88Pro
00:05:47 SC-88Pro A/B Comparisons
00:07:15 More examples

This video was edited by the talented - https://x.com/rettraledits"