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Roland Sound Canvas IOS
I don't know if this is a wind up on Roland's part?.... But....... I have just seen on YouTube that Roland is bringing out its Sound Canvas for IOS soon. I really, really hope so. Korg does need completion from the big boys.
Comments
link?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGTMOL_gkqI
Was what i could find
Big news indeed!
Let's just hope it's more than a glorified 'Midi File Player'.
Each Midi-channel should have it's own dedicated AudioBus/IAA-Generator Output as well as a 'Master Mix' and good DAW integration.
Also this demo of sounds:
Can't wait to see more of these little machines as retro app. MT-32 would be even cooler. Yamaha: How about FB-01?
Oh and this one...
From what I could make of this, it won't be strictly a midi file player. It would support midi - core, virtual, an wifi.
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.dtmstation.com/archives/51919880.html&prev=search
I don't remember the sound canvas sounding this good (except for lo if dance, that was pretty awful). Interesting times ahead.
Fifteen year old software redesigned to ios is just a big deal why exactly? Could it be even bigger than sound font players then?
I'm not as excited for sound canvas in particular, just that it's looking like sampletank won't be the only option anymore.
It's Rolands's answer to Gagdet ...lol...
Having access to 'original' Roland sounds is quite nice.
I'm more comparing this to having say Korg M1 in software taking few megs of space instead of having all the M1 sounds sampled as 'SoundFonts' taking Gigs of space...
Access to a wide palette of sounds, including original Roland sounds, even if some are a little retro sounding.
And also it marks Roland's entry into the ios music space (apart from editors for their hardware). As one of the "big three" (together with Korg and Yamaha, who already have a presence), it is a significant move.
Mmhhh... i'm also not too excited about this yet. It still feels more to try to get a bit "extra" money and bring up old and dated sounds again. Yep, that's retro and if it's not 50 bucks it might be O.K. But Korg is really the only "big" company with interesting iOS apps today. I also don't care much about big companies in general because iOS, OSX or windows or something else, all the most great new things are from small companies or independent developers. Well, that's of course just my experience but i don't think big companies will bring more great things.... they just earn the money which the real genius should get because the crowd will buy it because of the name.
We had a Roland U-220 and a D-110 in one of my old bands for creating some pretty meaty beats and orchestral accompaniment for our guitars. Let's hope this sees the start of some of the classic sound modules in iOS
As both of these predate the Sound Canvas, I think that a number of the Canvas sounds were based on these earlier keyboards and modules, so I am hoping that these sonic grounds will be pretty well covered. I once owned the keyboard versions of both of these!
I think a tool like this can be pretty useful at the right price and with right functionality like midi, ab, etc.
Bit disappointing, all these sounds can already be achieved on iOS. I would much rather see them release a Juno emulation or two.
The Sound Canvas sounded like cheesy crap. Why would anyone want it in 2015??? The only benifit of owning it in 1995 was that it was cheap.
I admit to having no idea what the original Sound Canvas was, so my opinion is not colored by that impression from the early 90's. So is this thing like a glorified GM SoundFont bank, basically? Do you just assign MIDI tracks to specific instruments?
We have things like this already on iOS that basically sketch out the basic idea of a MIDI file:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/midi-file-player/id658197221?mt=8
Or there are things like bs-16i, SampleTank, and MultiTrackStudio that can import MIDI and play higher quality instruments with larger size SoundFont files or internal instruments.
This Roland app sounds somewhere in between those two things, in terms of sound quality. I'm not sure it has tons of value in actually producing/recording iOS music. But as a guitarist, if I could load MIDI files off the web as backing tracks to play along with, that could be pretty useful.
Really like the interface, and Roland's hardware reputation is excellent. It will just depend on file size and price point.
@richardyot said:
Isn't a Juno a pretty basic single oscillator polysynth through a chorus (admittedly I remember the chorus sounding nice). I think it would be pretty easy to copy the sound with any number of ios synths.
@PhilW said:
The strength of the Juno was in its excellent low pass filter and resonance. Unfortunately, no iOS synth I've heard can emulate this feature of a Juno.
Haha. Who the hell approved the music in the 30 second spot?
I'm with the meh crowd. What an amazingly boring sound collection. I mean, I like the idea of Roland going for it but why not actually go for it?
I totally agree that something like this could be useful. The video has an SC-88 Pro in it which was much better than the original mt-32. They still sell for $300-$400. That's actually 32 part multitimbral! It's just that it sounds like 32 parts of yawn.
@mrufino1 said:
Thumbjam is a current viable alternative. Offers 8 channels and 100 other features too!
@Coloobar was going to say the same. The filter is special on those beasts. And no one has really nailed the roland chorus effect(s) yet. The Juno also had that somewhat bizarre/awesome sounding (to me) stacked mono mode.
Presumably the Sound Canvas for IOS will have a Roland chorus at least!
I'm thinking this is for nostagia primarily. ...and that's okay.
Based on the spec given, it looks like the sound set will be based on the SC-8850 with 1640 sounds and 63 drum sets. So I had a look at the manual online which contains a voice list, and it is clear this goes way beyond a bland set of GM sounds. Included are voices such as:
Juno Strings, Brass, Sub Osc, Bell
Various voices labelled for Jupiters, OB, P5, etc
A huge range of organs, guitars, basses
Tron strings and flute
VP330 Choir and a wide range of other choir/voice sounds
Lots of percussion and World instruments
I could go on, but this looks to be a goldmine of useful sounds (assuming the quality matches what it shoukd do). Have a look for yourself:
http://www.roland.com/support/article/?q=manuals&p=SC-8850&id=1811334
Provided it is reasonably priced and has good integration (midi, AB, IAA), I think it could be rather a wonderful addition to the IOS sound palette.
GM: BS-16i has a better gm set than the original from the MT-32. Plus it is not limited to that set.
I have been really enjoying BS16i. Do hope the Roland stuff is priced reasonably.