https://l9000.net/w/index.php?title=Sound_Canvas_VA_and_DOSBox_under_Linux&feed=atom&action=historySound Canvas VA and DOSBox under Linux - Revision history2024-03-29T09:04:34ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.38.2https://l9000.net/w/index.php?title=Sound_Canvas_VA_and_DOSBox_under_Linux&diff=335&oldid=prevJu at 18:45, 25 January 20212021-01-25T18:45:17Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>[[File:Sound canvas va linux dosbox.png|thumb]]<br />
Sound Canvas VA is a proprietary plug-in for DAWs (digital audio workstation, software used in music production) developed by Roland. It's basically a MIDI synthesizer that should sound nearly identical to a real hardware Sound Canvas SC-55, SC-88, SC-88 Pro or SC-8820.<br />
It costs around as much as the real hardware, but a free trial version is available that works for 10 minutes before it needs to be restarted.<br />
<br />
What's nice about it is that you can run the plug-in standalone with the tiny tool Savihost in Wine, and have native DOSBox (or other programs) send MIDI data to it. That way you can achieve authentic Roland GM/GS sound in games.<br />
==How-to==<br />
<ol><br />
<li>Install Wine.</li><br />
<li>Setup Wine prefix like this: <pre>$ WINEPREFIX=~/.wine-soundcanvas WINEARCH=win32 winecfg</pre></li><br />
<li>Set Windows version in winecfg to Windows XP (if you don't there will be an avrt.dll error when you run the program)</li><br />
<li>Get winetricks and install mfc42.dll like this: <pre>$ WINEPREFIX=~/.wine-soundcanvas winetricks mfc42</pre></li><br />
<li>Run Sound Canvas VA's setup you downloaded from Roland's website and install it:<pre>$ WINEPREFIX=~/.wine-soundcanvas wine SOUND_Canvas_VA_Installer.exe</pre></li><br />
<li>Download the Savihost x86 version (savihostx86.zip) from [http://www.hermannseib.com/english/savihost.htm the author's website]</li><br />
<li>Extract the Savihost executable to <i>~/.wine-soundcanvas/drive_c/Program Files/Roland/Sound Canvas VA</i> and rename it to the same base name as Roland's .dll file: <i>Sound Canvas VA.exe</i></li><br />
<li>Run Savihost:<pre>$ WINEPREFIX=~/.wine-soundcanvas wine "c:/program files/roland/SOUND Canvas VA/SOUND Canvas VA.exe"</pre></li><br />
<li>In the menu go to Devices > Wave and setup like this:<br />
{|class="wikitable"<br />
!Option<br />
!<br />
|-<br />
|Input port<br />
|* No Wave *<br />
|-<br />
|Output port<br />
|DS: Pulseaudio<br />
|-<br />
|Sample rate<br />
|44100 (or 48000, going higher would be silly)<br />
|-<br />
|Buffer<br />
|As low as you can go without getting stutter (to reduce latency), ie. 1050 samples<br />
|}</li><br />
<li>In your DOSBox .conf file, setup MIDI (you can check the <i>Midi Through Port-0</i> with ALSA's <i>aconnect -l</i>):<pre>[midi]<br />
mpu401=uart<br />
mididevice=alsa<br />
midiconfig=14:0</pre></li><br />
<li>Launch your game's setup and configure it for GM/GS music. Run the game and enjoy.<br />
</ol><br />
==Example launcher script==<br />
You can launch DOSBox/Sound Canvas VA anyway you like, but I use a simple launcher script that I just slightly modify for each game.<br />
<syntaxhighlight lang="shell" line='line'><br />
#!/bin/sh<br />
<br />
if ! pgrep "SOUND Canvas VA.exe" > /dev/null<br />
then<br />
WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=~/.wine-soundcanvas wine "c:/program files/roland/SOUND Canvas VA/SOUND Canvas VA.exe" &<br />
killscva=true<br />
fi<br />
<br />
ROOTDIR="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd )"<br />
cd "$ROOTDIR"/wineprefix/drive_c/GOG\ Games/"Gabriel Knight - Sins of the Fathers"/DOSBOX<br />
/usr/bin/dosbox -conf "$ROOTDIR"/gknight.conf -conf ../dosboxGK.conf -conf "$ROOTDIR"/../generic.conf -noconsole -c exit<br />
<br />
if killscva==true; then killall "SOUND Canvas VA.exe"; fi<br />
</syntaxhighlight><br />
<br />
[[Category:Free Software]]<br />
[[Category:Gaming]]<br />
[[Category:Audio]]<br />
[[Category:MIDI]]</div>Ju