Okay, I'm a huge fan of the Sound Canvas line of synths. I love the sound, I love the usability, and I love the concept. The Hyper Canvas is, in a word, awesome, and it stays true to the Sound Canvas name. This synth simply rocks if you're into oldschool rompler sounds usually found in video games.
User Interface:
It's just a simple rompler, so you shouldn't have any trouble getting around this thing. Some of the knob values can go into the negatives (they begin at 0), which is kind of awkward at first when you want to tweak vibrato or something, but I got used to it really quickly.
Sound:
BEAUTIFUL! Well... almost. First the bad news: the recorder patch goes out of tune when you adjust the attack, the shakuhachi goes out of tune when you hold a note down longer than 4 seconds, and the attacks of some of the woodwind instruments sound REALLY unnatural if you adjust their attacks, to the point where making adjustments is useless (I work around this through automation, which actually makes the sound more useful.)
Now the good news! This thing is truly a beauty. This is the Sound Canvas sound I love so much and grew up with as a kid... only it's been cleaned up and sounds... a lot better. Really, a lot of people will disagree with me on this, but the old Sound Canvases don't have anything on the new SD/Hyper Canvas models as far as overall sound quality goes. Now I say that never having used a hardware Sound Canvas itself, but having about two of them (SC55 and SC88) sampled and growing up hearing these sounds on the SNES, PSX and countless other systems. I love it, despite a few flaws (what rompler DOESN'T have issues?!) Oh yeah, and unlike most other romplers, these samples don't have vibrato in them (the recorder has SOME, but not enough to really be noticeable in a mix), so you won't run into any weird vibrato problems when you move from one note to the next. You have to apply the vibrato manually with the LFO. It doesn't sound super authentic, but again, no one will notice in a mix.
The Hyper Canvas uses a different engine than the SD/SC synths. The sounds are lighter and fluffier, and they mix together very, very well. Usually I don't need to even do any EQing when I'm done making a track!
Features:
It's a basic rompler. I gave this such a high score because the features it does have are all VERY useful, and what's even better is the ability to have 128 user drumkits and 512 user melodic instruments. That's... like... four times the amount of its sister Sound Canvases the SD80 and SD90. What's even better, is that by adjusting the various knobs and stuff, you can get very accurate emulations of most of the SD90/SD80's sounds out of this thing, except the church organ.
Documentation:
The manual is USELESS. Completely, utterly useless. This is by far the worst Roland manual I've ever come across, hehe. Typical.
Presets:
Awesome! Simply awesome! These are all the sounds my heroes use! 256 presets that all come from the old Sound Canvas synths! Some of these sounds come directly off of the SR-JV expansion boards (like the SC88), and Edirol made them even more usable than they already were. The brass is amazing for a rompler. Listen to the BriteBone preset and you'll hear what I'm talking about! There're a few duds here, like the shakuhachi, but when the hell would you ever need a shakuhachi? I write game music, and I've needed one all of... one time, that could've easily been replaced with a pan flute (which is TO DIE FOR) or a silver flute. The strings need work, and at first I really hated them, but once I figured out how to use them, I started to love them. 256 might not sound like much, but these sounds go a LONG way, especially once you get to tweaking them. Believe me.
Customer Support:
The Hyper Canvas, the SD90, SD20 and SD80 were all discontinued. Edirol no longer supports them. Can't get any worse than that. Thanks Edirol. :(
VFM:
American Musical is selling these for 50 bucks a piece. For ten bucks more than the VSC, you get yourself a professional GM module that's still being used today by pros in the game industry (listen to Tales of Symphonia or Castlevania: Lament of Innocence.) That's damn good value for the money if you ask me, especially when the $800 SD90 has these same sounds (well... most of them.)
Stability:
Rock solid and reliable. This is my main box and I rely on it for... well... everything.
Conclusion:
Best Sound Canvas ever! I know, I know, lots of people will want to shoot me for saying that, and I really shouldn't say that seeing as this is my first *real* Sound Canvas, but I really love this thing. I've become sooooo attached to the Hyper Canvas, it's unbelievable. For fifty bucks, how can you go wrong?!
I love it! :DRead more