Roland Soundcanvas SC-88
As annoying as it is that Windows 10 won’t drive my el-cheapo USB-MIDI interface adapter, I have to say that even loading Windows XP into VMWare Player, and then loading DOSBox is a pleasant enough experience when connecting to the Roland.
Pluses include the built in power supply, RCA jacks, and of course it just sounds snappier compared to the Yamaha MU-80.
I’ll have to capture samples from both, to compare and contrast.
I have to say that for a mere 2,400 Yen I’m really enjoying this fine piece of hardware!
I’m unsure of the difference between the SC-88, the SC-88 Pro, the SC-88VL and the SC-88ST, and of course the SC-88ST Pro.  I just know I’m lucky that mine arrived OK and in working order!  Thanks ps38152000, whomever you are.
A friend of mine owned one of these back in 1994 onwards and it was excellent. I myself had the lower end model the SC33 which had many of the samples and presets from its bigger brother. I think the difference between the Pro and VL models were just the amount of sample ROM, presets and possibly better effects processors.
Since 1997 I have been using Yamaha MU100R which at the time was the king of the GM devices, and I currently have four of those along with six different PLG100 / 150 expansion boards fitted inside them (VL, VH, DR, AP, AN, DX). So my music production studio setup is an even mix of the old and new ways of working. I have a special Yamaha plugin inside Steinberg Cubase SX that operates the MU100R and PLG as if they were installed VSTi plugins, expect no additional computer CPU power is needed…..its all done in the rack! If I felt like it, I could even route the audio tracks from the sequencer through the four MU100R (eight tracks), and add effects and then back into the computer to be recorded again. This is actually quite similar to how I did things between 1998 and 2000, when I used a Fostex DMT8 v2 digital multitrack recorder and a Atari 1040STE (4MB) with Cubase v2.0.
So yeah have fun with your Roland SC88 and see what you can do with it!
Wow that sounds like such an incredible setup! … And I’m just sitting here in the dark listening to DooM & Duke Nuke’em 3d..
The Roland ‘ST’ models were designed for computer/desktop use and had basically no physical knobs beyond a volume control, and also had no preset memory. They were meant to be fully driven by a PC/Mac with a sequencer. All the synth guts were identical.
There was SC-55ST, SC-88ST, and others. The CM-32L was the ‘ST’ version of the MT-32 from before they started calling those models ‘ST’.