Hunting The Muse

Try eBay. Then go get yourself some new hardware. :)

eBay. I could probably get all of twenty bucks from eBay.

Yeah, that card is still the best midi card I have heard, IMHO. Still have it? I'll buy it for 30 bucks for my old system, that way you can at least get closure without hurting your feet.

-Dan

Hello,
Since the Roland SCC-1 is a complete Sound Canvas on a card, it may be possible to use it as a stand-alone tone module by connecting power alone to the card edge fingers and communicating to the synth circuitry using the MIDI in/out. The manual says that the SCC-1 card uses +5 volts at 200 milliamps and +12 volts at 20 milliamps. That's a bit much for an average 'wall-wart' power convertor but well within the range of the surplus power supply 'bricks' from the late 1980's. These 'bricks' have +5v and + and -12v usually with a DIN 5 (180 degree) connector. I've seen them at Wacky Willies in Portland Oregon and Halted Supply in Sunnyvale California.
I just got a SCC-1 card from EBay last week and I've just started to explore its capabilities. So far I've been able to get it to play demo songs using 'Band-In-A-Box' and the MID files sent on the install diskette. This is in Windows 98 only, I could not get the card to respond at all using Windows 2000. Probably due to the inability of Win2000 to write data directly to input/output ports.
I have also gotten the SCC-1 to play its internal voices by sending MIDI off/on messages from an external Casio CZ-101 that is connected to the SCC-1 MIDI in connector. I will next try to remove the SCC-1 from the PC and connect the correct voltages directly to the card, then try to get sounds again by connecting the CZ-101 to the SCC-1's MIDI in.
If this works then most likely all of the internal parameters of the SCC-1 can be accessed by sending sys-ex messages from an external source to a SCC-1 that is out of the PC and externally powered. In that case the SCC-1 can be used as a tone module like the SoundCanvas.
I will keep you posted.
Please don't step on your SCC-1!

alan_probandt@yahoo.com

Just buy a used Roland Sound Canvas off ebay, the SC-55 model should have the exact sound set as your SCC-1, and connect it to your sound card through a MIDI port (which you'll likely need a seperate adaptor for).

I own an SCC-1 card too. And I really enjoyed the tones from it. I have it in an old 386 that my wife wants me to throw out. I came to this site hoping someone would know how to use it with my P3 800mhz but it looks like I'll just have to fire up the 'ol 386.

I also own an scc-1 card. My solution : Buy yourself an USB midi controller for about $ 50,-
Then disable all IRQ channels on the SCC-1 card. Put it in your computer and connect the midi in to the midi out of the usb midi controller.
It is as simple as that.

Hrm, I've got the midi interface - a usb midisport 2x2. I'm not sure how to disable the IRQs though. How would one do that? I guess it will still require the hosting pc to run win98?

It's be nicer if I could just fine a mini motherboard with one usb slot, tiny processor, so it could be for the card only...

Here how to make a Roland SCC-1 work on a Windows 2000 Pro box (provided that your motherboard has an ISA slot) and using the standard Windows 2000 MPU401 driver. It was included, but unfortunately Microsoft didn't include the .INF file needed to conveniently install the driver.

Afer downloading the INF and after the new hardware installation, I ended up with two MPU drivers, ie:

MPU-401
MPU-401(2)

All you need is this INF file...
"msmpu401.inf"

Get it here:
http://www.borg.com/~jglatt/midi/msmpu401.inf

Enter into CONTROL PANEL. Launh the ADD NEW HARDWARE icon. Just tell that thing that you have a generic music device, and that you have the "disk" neeed and then browse to the INF file. Windows2000 will do the rest.

VOILA!

Your SCC-1 is saved and will see another day.

The mighty SCC-1.
Is there any way to use it with XP?

Any suggestions would be greatly welcomed...

Yes, you have to manually install the driver "MPU 401" on Windows XP, and you will get working the SCC-1.

I own it and I would be interested in converting this ISA card on a standalone MIDI module (like SC-55), because I can't find the module from ebay or similar.

I, too, have an ancient SCC-1 and long to hear its great sounds but my Dell P4 has only PCI slots and plenty of USB ports but no ISA slot. There is a hint of hope in reading this board that maybe there is a way to use my card. Is there some sort of ISA to PCI adapter? How about an ISA to USB adapter? Any ideas appreciated.

I have a SCC-1 that has been used in:
>a Toshiba 5200/100 386 portable that has two ISA slots
>my main machine, a 700Mhz Athlon running Win2000
>as a stand-alone synth - I picked up an ancient laptop docking station that had two ISA slots. The docking station provided power to the ISA slots, so that resolved the power issue. The only tricky bit was the SCC-1 boots up into a locked mode, nothing in or out. To get it to function, I had to add a small pushbutton switch to momentarily connect pin B2 of the ISA slot to +5V through a 1K ohm resistor. I mounted the switch on a blank PC slot cover, the one I removed to plug the SCC-1 inot the docking station.
After I powered up the docking station, I pressed the pushbutton switch to reset the SCC-1. Voila! Total cost about $10.00. I picked up the docking station at the local Salvation Army.
> Right now I'm in the middle of modifying a defunct rackmount network hub so I can put the SCC-1 into a 19" rack al;ong with my other synths & mixers.

My main PC is old enough to have both ISA and PCI slots. Most of the newer machines only have PCI slots.

I finished my conversion of the network hub last night. It took me about 10 hours to modify the hub, and I'm a hardware tech. It involved gutting the hub, removing an ISA connector from an old motherboard, re-wiring the hub's power supply to match the ISA power connections, fabricating a bracket to support the SCC-1, adding DIN sockets and RCA sockets to connect to the SCC-1, and mounting the reset switch on the face of the rack cabinet.

A really quick and dirty way to use your card is to find an old "pizza-box" style PC - Dell, Acer, IBM, and Radio Shack all sold 286 and 386 machines in a small cabinet that mounted the ISA slots horizontally and had the VGA video built-in on the motherboard. These cases are usually only about 3"-4" high. The SCC-1 only needs power - it doesn't care whether the rest of the PC is doing anything. Get one of these machines, take out any extra ISA cards that may be in the machine. Install DOS on it. Put the SCC-1 in an open slot, run the Install program. Once you have the SCC-1 running, you can shut down the machine, disconnect the keyboard and display. Now you have the SCC-1 in a case. The PC will complain about not having a keyboard (multiple beeps when it is turned on), but the SCC-1 will work just fine.

Thanks

Sheldon

Wow!!! My SCC1 is reborn.

I bought a second hand SoundCanvas SCC1 at a time when I was almost skint. I paid 250 quid for it. At the time I thought I was being ripped off. How VERY, VERY wrong I was.

The SCC1 has been a part of my life since around 1990 and all other sound cards boasting MIDI can step aside.

Now, after following this thread, I am very pleased to have been able to configure Windows 2000 to work with the SCC1. Thank you Robert Kuhmann. What a wonderful solution.

I have just bought a used Yamaha SW1000XG for 170 quid. It's good, but now I'm going to go back to the SCC1. The SW1000XG is going to be up for sale.

Among all the hype about the SW1000XG (like the DB50XG) not much was said about the sound generation. The SW1000XG uses PCM whereas the SCC1 uses LA synthesis. I know LAsynth is based on a single sample of each instrument however the reproduction of the other notes are very good. I understand PCM uses wave table samples but not more is said.

The SW1000XG sounds good when replaying XG files. I'm yet to be convinced the sounds are as good when played on their own, as stated by Yamaha and their faithful critics.

How come if the SW1000XG is so good it requires add-on boards? The fact that all the processing is done on board is neither here nor there nowadays with P4s etc - which is why I favour the SCC1. The SCC1 does what it does well, while leaving the software to the PC.

My SCC1 sits side-by-side my SB64Gold. I'm happy with that.