The SC-55 is the original Sound Canvas. It is a 16-part General MIDI/GS sound module with up to 24-note polyphony. It's mostly a sample playback unit, but some aspects of the samples (such as filtering and the envelope) can be altered to produce new sounds. There is no capability to add totally different sounds. The SC-55 has built-in reverb and chorus. It has a MT-32 compatibility mode (although the sounds aren't exact and there are some limitations, such as that MT-32 sys ex is not supported). It's rack-mountable (taking half a rack space).
As a sample playback unit, it does a better job with some "typical" instrument sounds (including pianos and guitars) than a true synthesizer would.
Some of the "synth" sounds are interesting and useful.
It is what it is--a rather non-programmable sample player. You either like the sounds or you don't.
I don't use the SC-55 too much anymore because I've moved away from using the type of instrument sounds it produces. I'll probably continue to use the "Overdrive Gt" (overdrive guitar) sound for MIDI guitar. The SC-55 is also the de facto standard for playing standard MIDI files.
My download page features a (hopefully) interesting sequence I did entirely on the SC-55 (in standard MIDI file format) of an excerpt from Blade Runner End Titles by Vangelis.
Last Updated: May 12, 1996 (Original Creation)