Loosely based on the SC8820 module, Sound Canvas is 16-part multitimbral and provides just over 1600 sounds with 63 drum kits. Twenty-four years and many Sound Canvas modules later, Roland have now brought the Sound Canvas sound set to iOS in the form of a universal app aptly named Sound Canvas For iOS, available from the App Store for £14.99 $19.99. The SC55 also took things a step further by supporting Roland’s extended GS sound-mapping, which specified how sounds should be mapped beyond the 128 available program changes using banks.

This meant you could take a MIDI file created for one GM module and know that when you played it back on another you would indeed hear the intended sound of an electric guitar rather than a bassoon. While the SC55 wasn’t revolutionary in its sound or functionality, it had the distinction of being the first module that supported General MIDI (GM), which standardised, amongst other things, what instruments should be mapped to the 128 program-change slots. It was ideal for those who couldn’t afford the more professional U220 or D110 modules, and I remember being very jealous when I got the chance to play with a school friend’s SC55. Aimed at the enthusiast market, the SC55 offered pared-down functionality from Roland’s RS-PCM and LA synthesis engines in a neat little box.

In 1991 Roland introduced the company’s first Sound Canvas module, the SC55. The Roland Sound Canvas app: orange LCD screen still intact.

Roland sound canvas midi player