If you are reading this, your browser probably fetched all data it required to display the page directly from my VPS hosted by ConoHa.

Mirror in Japan

(No pun intended)

I set up my own git server half a year ago. Now I've found (https://cgit.chrisoft.org/web.git/)[the perfect use for it]. I create the git repository right in /var/www/html on my local server. The remote server has a post-receive hook that automatically pulls in the document root. Any volatile large files are moved to a new virtual host filestorage.chrisoft.org and kept in sync with rsync.

The site also underwent a major cleanup. Many legacy stuff got either removed or relocated.

Generally this means you should experience major speedup visiting this site. If, however, you are exeriencing problems, please do not hesitate to contact me.

The reverse proxy is now moved to rp.chrisoft.org. It's not yet accessible at the time of writing because my local server is hidden super stealthily under multiple layers of NAT.

An Eruditus from Waseda and An Illiterate in China

Everyone except me has made significant progress.

I was actually shocked to learn that he's now majoring in something related to aviation machinery.

Shame on me, I guess.

A world in which everyone can program

I shall probably quit programming and move on by then.

Googlephobia

Shit. They are probably also watching me writing this.

Thanks to (?) the GrandeFreakWitless, my reliance on Google is not that strong -- nope. It's actually my general fear and distrust of those tech giants.

My fear was magnified by my recent findings of just how much Google knows about me -- they probably know me better than myself; and again by Louis Rossmann [1].

When those Google fanboys are still enjoying the great convenience they provide, I'm already planning to flee from Google. It's probably just me being hyperallergic, but it also could be Google doing something really unfair to their users.

Software Subscription Model Sucks

Reading through Roland Cloud's product page triggers me everytime: I sincerely cannot figure out why they make it a subscription service rather than a one-time purchase (with a fee for each upgrade).

Usually people subscribe for:

Publication or media services, e.g. television, newspapers and magazines. These services provide frequently updated information to the subscriber.
Physically consumable material, such as dairy product.

Roland Cloud falls into neither of these two categories. It's not updated as frequent, and it's certainly not physically consumable. The most triggering detail is that if you end your subscription, you will not be able to use any of the products you previously owned, which is ridiculous because you can always keep older issues of a newspaper even you unsubscribed from it.

Supporters of the subscription model may reject me saying 'if you can get access to everything when you join and keep it after unsubscribing, you are essentially purchasing it with ultra-low price', which brings up my next point: Roland Cloud's subscription model is flawed from the beginning:

Get everything on subscribe: this differs from traditional subscription a lot, which seems a great bounty to the customer. But it causes problems such as ...
Lose everything on unsubscribe: this is very unfair to the subscriber and makes short-term subscription worth almost nothing. For example if I just want Sound Canvas VA really badly, I would imagine subscribing shortly before its release and unsubscribe after I'm eligible for keeping the product permanently. But this is simply not possible.
Weird pricing. To be honest the current pricing is pretty fair for long-term subscribers. But if Roland somehow decided to fix the 'lose everything on unsubscribe' problem (which is very unlikely to happen), the pricing would become super complex: they probably do not want people to keep a virtual TB-303 for just $19.99.
Potentially unsustainable. Every good thing must come to an end. The most attractive products in Roland Cloud is the software models of Roland's synthesizers from its golden years. But Roland will run out of models to recreate one day. What would Roland do by then? Release everything as a one-time purchase so that every long-term subscriber feels ripped off?

I'm an absolute supporter of Roland releasing authentic-sounding digitialized version of their legendary synthesizer models. But their subscription model pisses me off so hard. I know it's not a big deal for a professional producer. However this is a real deal-breaker for amateurs such as me.

Unfortunately there's no real competitors out there when things come to reproducing their own synthesizers. Also a little bit off-topic: the music producing industry deserves more high quality free (as in freedom) software.

Now let's move on and talk about Office 365 by Microsoft and Creative Cloud from Adobe. They bundles software with value-add services such as e-mail service and (optinal) creativity material. IMHO these products they are trying to turn into a service resemble a tool, such as a screwdriver, rather than an apartment that people actually go for renting instead of purchasing.

Paying a monthly fee for a screwdriver makes absolutely no sense. That said, I would stick with my plain old screwdriver, rather than that shiny gold-plated screwdriver with 10 heads which I will lose whenever I stop paying them. Green is my pepper.

The purpose of this entire rant is to remind the reader of just how many ways proprietary software vendors could come up with to screw their users up. What they care the most has always been money and this will simply not change any time soon. Get ready for more!

This article is about my hands on of the EDIROL STUDIO Canvas SD-80. Even though I'm a newcomer to the STUDIO Canvas owners community, veterans may still find something interesting here.

STUDIO Canvas acquired

Ever since I learned that ZUN uses a SD-90 as one of his major synthesizers here, I've always been dreaming to get my hands on one of those. But these things are not particularly easy to find in China. There are plenty of deals on ebay though. However, after a failed purchase attempt made in 2016 which also led to the ridiculous suspension of my ebay account, I left the idea alone for multiple years. Things changed earlier this month, when owner203 helped me acquire my very own SD-80 and kindly delivered it from Japan.

I did not go for a SD-90 since they are all ridiculously priced in 2019. The deal I tried to make back in 2016 would cost me around $300 (shipping included). Now they are all way beyond $400. This forced me to resort to lower-end models, namely the SD-80 and SD-20. There's also the SD-50 which I almost bought back in 2014, before I found out it is essentially a stripped-down version of Roland SonicCell without the SRX expandability. Therefore although the SD-50 retains the compatibility with the synth engine found in SD-90 (both are from models supporting SRX, namely the XV-5080 and SonicCell), it comes with a complete new set of waveforms and patches which makes it sounds totally different. So the SD-50 is definitely a no go.

The only choices left are SD-80 and SD-20. SD-20 can be found very cheap online (from $59). However SD-20 does have half of the polyphony and most editability of other STUDIO Canvas' axed. Also gone are 3 entire sound banks (and presumably some waveforms). On the other hand, SD-80 costs a lot more (starting from ~$200), but is capable of generating everything the SD-90 can (the only missing part in SD-80 compared to SD-90 is the audio interface). After deciding no more compromise should be made, I went straight for the SD-80.

The module arrived two weeks after the order was placed. It certainly wasn't the happiest SD-80 in the world: the chassis bears quite a lot of scratches all around. The value knob takes a lot of force to turn and has a good amount of friction on it, to which I found a quick solution by simply pushing the knob downwards a little bit while turning it. Aside from the looks, the module itself is in perfect working order. It came with a power cord and its rack mount ears, but without any of its original paperwork or the CD-ROM. As most of the documentation and drivers can be found online, the only things I've lost are the demo midi files, which is still a shame.

+ + Top cover + +	+ + Label with S/N removed. Visible on top left corner is a foot pad that seems to be a slice of cork. + +
+ + Left half of the front panel. Buttons yellowed out, showing the module's age. Scratches and dents are visible. + +	+ + Wow! Such Optical! Much MIDI! + +

+	+SD-80 +	+TTS-1 +
+Piano +	+ +	+ +
+Marimba +	+ +	+ +
+Nylon Guitar +	+ +	+ +
+Fingered Bass +	+ +	+ +
+Soprano Sax +	+ +	+ +
+Sweep Pad +	+ +	+ +
+Drums +	+ +	+ +

+ +	+ +
+ +	+ +
+ +	+ +

Model	Tone Generator	CPU	Storage	# of parts	# of polyphony ('voices')
SC-55	TC24SC201AF-002 (PCM Custom)	H8/532	256K SRAM2, Wave ROM3, EPROM, CPU has RAM and ROM built-in	16	24
SC-88	MBCS30109 (Custom Sound Generator) 'XP'	H8/510	EPROM/Mask ROM, SRAM2, Wave ROM4, DRAM*2	32	64
SC-88Pro	RA01-005 (Custom Sound Generator) 'XP3'	H8/510	EPROM, SRAM2, Wave ROM5, DRAM*3	32	64
SC-8850	2*RA09-002 (Custom) 'XP6'	SH7017	64KB System ROM, 8M System Flash, 256K SRAM (USB controller), 24M DRAM (EFX effects + System), 16M Data ROM or Flash, 2128Mbit Wave ROM, 2*4M DRAM (XP effects), 256k SRAM (framebuffer)	64	128
SC-8820	RA09-002 (Custom) 'XP6'	SH7017	64KB System ROM, 256K SRAM (USB controller), 16M Data ROM or Flash, 2*4M DRAM (EFX effects + System), 128Mbit+164Mbit Wave Rom, 4M DRAM (XP effects)	32	64
JV-1080	MBCS30109B (XP Chip) 'XP'	SH7034	CPU has 64KB Program Flash + 4KB SRAM built-in, 512kbit SRAM, 1Mbit DRAM, 8Mbit Data ROM, 21M DRAM (XP effects), 4Wave ROM	16	64
JV-2080	TC170C200AF-005 (TG) 'XP'	SH7034	CPU has 64KB Program Flash + 4KB SRAM built-in, 2*DRAM, DRAM (XP effects), DRAM (LCD framebuffer), DRAM, SRAM, ROM or Flash	16	64
XV-5080	2*TC223C660CF-503 (RA08-503) 'XV'	SH7042	21Mbit SRAM, 256kbit (LCD framebuffer), 216Mbit (DRAM), 16Mbit Flash, 216Mbit DRAM (XV effects), 2128Mbit Wave ROM	32	128
XV-5050	TC223C660CF-503 (RA08-503) 'XV'	SH7016	8Kbit EEPROM, 32Mbit Flash, 16Mbit DRAM, 16Mbit DRAM (XV effects), 2*128Mbit Wave ROM	16	64
MC-909	TC223C660CF-503 (RA08-503) 'XV'	SH7706 @ 128MHz	264Mbit SDRAM (system), 16Mbit Flash (program), 256Mbit Flash (program, user), 16Mbit DRAM (external effects RAM), 4Mbit DRAM (XV effects), 264Mbit Wave SDRAM, 128Mbit Wave ROM	16	64
SD-80	2*TC223C660CF-503 (RA08-503) 'XV'	SH7706	16Mbit Flash, 216Mbit SDRAM, 216Mbit EDO DRAM, 2*Wave ROM	32	128

+Label +	+Engravment +	+Remark +
+IC 1 +	+62292 361 +	+(8-pin) Unknown +
+IC 2 +	+6417706 SH3 BC13008 133 0413 +	+176-pin QFP, SH7706 CPU +
+IC 3 +	+LH28F 160BJE-BTL80 SHARP JAPAN 0428 7xN +	+Flash Memory (16Mbit) +
+IC 4, 6 +	+SANYO LC381616IET-70 KZA7G0CD1 0042 +	+SDRAM (16Mbit) +
+IC 5 +	+'H5' or '115' (illegible) +	+(5-pin) Unknown +
+IC 7 +	+4D46 LV 00A +	+NAND Gate +
+IC 8, 20, 22~25 +	+4C1Y LV 245A +	+Bus Transceiver +
+IC 9, 11 +	+F P42AB VT245A +	+8-bit Transceiver +
+IC 10, 12 +	+0431H LVXC3245 +	+Configurable 8-bit Transceiver +
+IC 13 +	+VHC T139A 4 23 +	+Dual 2/4 Decoder +
+IC 14 +	+'H12' or 'H2' (illegible) +	+(5-pin) Unknown +
+IC 15 +	+4D36 LV 04A +	+Hex Inverter +
+IC 16 +	+4D16 LV 14A +	+Hex Schmitt-Trigger Inverter +
+IC 17 +	+Roland R02902867 137 352B100 +	+I/O Processor? USB controller? +
+IC 18 +	+VH3 139 4 24 +	+Dual 2/4 Decoder +
+IC 19, 27 +	+Roland R01455956 RA08-503 JAPAN 0330EAI F0032ZAC +	+Voice Generator + LED & LCD Controller etc. ('XV') +
+IC 21 +	+7WU04 4.F +	+Inverter (CMOS) +
+IC 26, 30 +	+HYUNDAI GM71C18163CJ6 0040 AG1 KOREA +	+EDO DRAM (16Mbit) +
+IC 28 +	+Roland R02678601 23C128L-529J 0224E7007 +	+Wave ROM? +
+IC 29 +	+Roland R02678612 23C128L-535K 0222E7005 +	+Wave ROM? +
+IC 31, 35 +	+4570 431 +	+Regulator +
+IC 32, 34 +	+PCM1716E 27ZDHFM +	+DAC +
+IC 33 +	+04 16H TC9271FS +	+Digital Audio Modulator/Transmitter +
+IC 36 +	+A E +	+(3-pin) Unknown +

Chrisoft

Blog

Actively used devices

/dev/computer/srv0 -> ../comp7

/dev/computer/tio0 -> ../comp6

/dev/mobi/mob0 -> ../mobi7

/dev/mobi/ipod0 -> ../ipod0

/dev/input/kb0 -> ../uhid0

换掉令人我痛苦的 MIUI

终于，小米脱掉了……

Chrisoft

Blog

Site Revamp and Other Rants -- 2019 Edition

Site Revamp and Other Rants -- 2019 Edition

Mirror in Japan

An Eruditus from Waseda and An Illiterate in China

A world in which everyone can program

Googlephobia

Software Subscription Model Sucks

Chrisoft

Blog

EDIROL SD-80: A Trapped Beast

EDIROL SD-80: A Trapped Beast

STUDIO Canvas acquired

The configuration

Connection to the computer

Settings things up in Linux

Setting things up in Windows

What does it sound like?

Relation to EDIROL HyperCanvas and the Cakewalk TTS-1

Working with the SD-80

Fighting against latency

Recording

Editing the sounds

Impact on the workflow

Quirks

Beneath the chassis

What the manual doesn't tell

Testing mode

Messing around sans the chassis

Chart A

Chart B

Things to do besides imitating ZUN

Newer Roland sound modules?

If you want to learn more ...

换掉令人^我痛苦的 MIUI