Roland Sound Canvas

Lore & Background

The Sound Canvas series began with the SC-55 and SB-55, the latter sold from winter 1991. In some cases, models are also sold as "Edirol" rather than "Roland" as the brand name, mainly with the SC-88VL. The series includes the Studio Canvas line, a series of PCM sound modules with built-in audio interfaces (some models only) sold under both Edirol and Roland branding; the samples in their ROMs do not in all cases mirror the original SC-7 / SC-55 GM/GS samples. GM2 is downward compatible with GM.

There is also the Virtual Sound Canvas (VSC) range of PC software providing GM and GS synthesis on Windows PCs. Many versions of Cakewalk's Sonar software came bundled with a copy of VSC, though from Sonar 4 onwards they ship with the improved TTS-1 softsynth, which Roland sold previously through its Edirol subsidiary as the HyperCanvas. In July 2024 Roland announced that it would no longer be supporting the Sound Canvas VA software from the Roland Cloud service, and the software would no longer be freely available starting September 1, 2024.

Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth, included in DirectX as part of DirectMusic and on Windows since Windows 98, incorporates sounds from the Sound Canvas series (including the picked bass from SC-88 and the steel-string acoustic guitar from SC-88 Pro; the remainder is from the SC-55) licensed by Microsoft from Roland on October 22, 1996. A four-megabyte file titled "GM.DLS" contains the sample set in DLS format. Under Windows 9x, it is available only if a WDM-capable sound driver is installed. In 1997, Apple licensed the complete Roland Sound Canvas instrument set and GS Format extensions for improved playback of MIDI music files in QuickTime 3.0.

Reader's Guide

The Sound Canvas series established a de facto standard for computer-based MIDI music playback in the 1990s, with its GM/GS sound set licensed by both Microsoft and Apple for inclusion in their operating systems and multimedia frameworks. Microsoft's GS Wavetable SW Synth, bundled with Windows from 98 onward, directly incorporated Roland's samples (the picked bass from SC-88, steel-string acoustic guitar from SC-88 Pro, and the remainder from SC-55), making the Sound Canvas sound ubiquitous on PCs. Apple's QuickTime 3.0 similarly adopted the complete Roland Sound Canvas instrument set and GS extensions, replacing the earlier limited set. The series also evolved into software form with the Virtual Sound Canvas and HyperCanvas/TTS-1, which were bundled with Cakewalk Sonar. Roland's July 2024 announcement of discontinuation of Sound Canvas VA support marked the end of an era for this long-running product line, which had influenced computer music production and playback for over three decades.

Did You Know?

• The first Sound Canvas units (SC-55 and SB-55) were pre-sold in December 1990 with the SC-55 only.
• Microsoft licensed Roland Sound Canvas sounds on October 22, 1996, for inclusion in DirectMusic and Windows.
• Apple licensed the complete Roland Sound Canvas instrument set for QuickTime 3.0 in 1997.
• Roland announced in July 2024 that Sound Canvas VA would no longer be supported from September 1, 2024.