A Fun Midi Box.

I have bought this Roland Midi Module for around 200 USD and i got to say, it sounds really great.

Between this or the Yamaha MU, I was making sort of a decision on which one I should buy and it was quite hard.

However, I did prefer the sound of the sound canvas more and it was a lot more common to find GS midi files.

However, it does not mean the Sound Canvas is better then the Yamaha MU series midi modules.

Since they are very different from each other, however, I will give my opinions on this device and share some pros and cons.

The Pros:

That you can use a lot of the older sounds from the previous SC models, like the original 88 and the SC-55 soundset, however there are details on how I feel about that in a few in the con section.

64 Voice Polyphony!

Some improved orchestral Sounds from the previous models, as I felt the woodwinds and brass sounded more expressive than before.

You can have around 32 midi channels and sadly that requires you to connect another midi in cable.

Still it is quite cool overall.

Regardless, in terms of general midi play and it actually plays very well, you can also make your own tunes obviously.

The compatibility from the previous models can help with certain midi files, there some stuff i will mention in cons later on.

The last note I can share is that there is a rackmount version which has 128 user patches which you can make your own sounds then in the 88 pro.

However the original 88 pro is easier to find than the SC-880 since they are getting a bit more rare these days.

This module was used by a lot of Japanese composers during the mid 90s to early 2000s, notably being used in video games like RPGs and certain Japanese related games, this or the original SC-88 are commonly used.

The Cons:

The XG mode is not the greatest, i recommend buying a Yamaha MU module if you want a better representation of it.

It really is not too great really in my opinion.

The SC 55 soundset does not include all of the GM presets from the original, some presets are replaced with SC-88 sounds like the strings and honky tonk piano, so far a few instruments have been changed.

If you want a more accurate representation of the SC-55 i recommend buying a SC-55 MK 2 which has improved polyphony and an improved dac. I heard a feature called Capital Tone Fallback was removed in the MK2.

Either way both SC-55s can be good enough if you want a more accurate soundset.

If you are expecting to make patches on this module sadly it's not that possible in this box, however its rackmount variant does have a patch mode which allows you to make new sounds and save them later on.

I think the last con i can say that the sounds are "dated" in today standards, if you are expecting very realistic sounds in a midi device like this one tough luck, stick with sample libraries or newer VSTs if you want those.

How ever it does not mean the 88 pro does not have it own use, since it perfect for old retro games or for pc midi based music for dos games like Doom and etc. Even through that will count as a pro but still.

I will mention, don't have high expectations if you want to get a modern sound out of the 88 Pro.

In my conclusion:

I been using and playing with this module since i got it around April 2021 before i moved to a new house and i do want to thank Speedy video for getting me into this module, it been a great device to use.

Preferred Settings + Usage:

Simple bread and butter soundmodule.

After switching from my CASIOs toward "PRO" gear in 1995 - it was my first "real" synthesizer. 8MB PCM ROM, 64 voice polyphony and 2 x 16 MIDI channels - 32 part MULTITIMBRAL. Was a nice tool for scratching Ideas. I drove it with Cakewalk Express sequencer and a CASIO MIDI keyboard.... I would say the SC88 sounds suite well to score pop/jazz/funky beats. Definitely poor for techno/electronica music, however I could squeeze out some very cool SFX: by setting loooong attack/decay/release for drums/hits/fx sound it results in some alien noize, white noise, which can be twisted further with resonance and cutoff paramters. At this point I strongly recommend an external limiter because high resonance can sound very loud. Sampling & processing its sound with an external sampler and external effect unit (I had E5000 and ZOOM 1204) can bring very promising results - nowadays these machines are totally inexpensive - good deal for collectors. You can hear heavily processed SC88 effects in my song: Aircraft part I and II - on my SoundCloud page.

Best desktop MIDI module

I've used pretty much every desktop MIDI module in some form - the Korg NS5R, Yamaha MU series, and all of the SC units besides the 55, and I have to say the 88 Pro is still my favorite. It's a collection of classic Roland sounds with lots of patches from SR-JV80 Session and other SR-JV80 boards, in... slightly lesser quality, but it adds to the charm. I highly recommend one of these if you can get it for under $150.