A Canvas of Sound

This is a Roland SoundCanvas SK-88 Pro.

It belongs to a class of instruments known as "romplers", a portmanteau of "ROM" (for read-only memory) and "sampler", which is quite descriptive of its functioning: it plays back recorded samples from ROM. This is as opposed to synthesizing the sounds from algorithms (either implemented in digital code or expressed as analog circuitry), or being able to record and play back arbitrary samples; what you get in the box is all there is.

Of all the romplers out there, the SK-88 stands alone as the rompliest of romplers. Its sound set conforms to the General MIDI standard, augmented by Roland's own GS extensions. This system was built around the concept of having a uniform list of instruments that a synthesizer could play back when presented with MIDI data, such that any foreseeable genre of music could be accurately reproduced. Its success in achieving that goal was, somewhat predictably, rather limited.

The main beneficiary of this standardization was music playback on computers, and game music in particular. The idea was that you could plug a SoundCanvas (or similar General MIDI device) into the MIDI port on your sound card, and have your ears filled with music that far exceeded the quality that could be generated by the primitive synthesis engines available on the sound cards themselves. The General MIDI standardization ensured that if a piece of music called for a guitar, piano, harp or accordion, the playback device would be able to produce a reasonable rendition thereof.

Of course, most of these playback devices didn't come equipped with a keyboard, but were instead a relatively compact desktop box with just a few controls on the front panel. The SK-88 Pro that I have here is actually identical in its sound engine to the SC-88 Pro sound module, but with the keyboard form factor it was intended to be an all-in-one device for composers of video game music, or just Gemeral MIDI enthusiasts, to compose their sound tracks on.

This peculiar product positioning is why the connectivity provided on the side panel is so peculiar.

The 1/4" jacks for the sustain and expression pedals are straight out of synthesizer-land, while the RCA jacks and 1/8 headphone output were intended to hook up to consumer grade PC speakers or headphones.

And in case you're wondering, the MIDI ports are on the back.

As you might imagine, the overly ambitious aspirations inherent in General MIDI combined with the limitations of the technology of the time did, quite naturally, lead to an instrument with what I will charitably call "character". But, of course, the quirks of the past quickly become the nostalgia of the present, and so that character has come full circle to being desirable somehow, which is the reason behind this particular unit landing in my hands, shipped straight to my door from the far off lands of Japan.

And speaking of desirable, I should mention that it has Tyler's favourite MIDI instrument.

As we all know, this is the perfect instrument to use to play back the theme song for Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Anyway, this shot also introduces us to the first issue that this particular keyboard has, though it's not exactly apparent just from a visual inspection: the volume slider is scratchy as all hell.

Also, just out of frame below this, the pitch/mod wheel has become quite sticky and sluggish.

So, let's crack this thing open and see what's inside.

And what's inside is dust. Lots of dust, and some mysterious, sticky goo, because what piece of vintage electronics would be complete without sticky mystery goo?

So that'll need cleaning, but let's concentrate on fixing the volume slider first, which luckily isn't buried under too many screws.

Giving it a bath in contact cleaner flushes all the gunk out, and then a little bit of friction grease restores its silky smooth action.

Next up is the pitch/mod wheel, which likewise is pretty easy to disassemble. Hitting it with the same contact cleaner loosens it up nicely and gets it back to its original functioning.

We don't want the friction grease here, because that'll just make it sticky and sluggish again.

With that done, everything can get reassembled, taking special note of the screws for the bottom cover of the keyboard: while they all look identical at first glance, the ones that thread into the metal brackets have a much finer thread pitch than the ones that go into the plastic case.

Then with everything cleaned and back together, things are looking fresh and performing perfectly.

Though admittedly the before and after shots aren't especially dramatic, since it wasn't outwardly all that dirty to begin with. But it is cleaner now, which is nice.