Hi everyone
I appreciate some help if anyone has tackled connecting the DT to the Roland SC-88 midi sound module. The DT only seems to play the first piano instrument but nothing I do can change it. Whether I change the midi channel on the DT or the SC-88. Even if I change the instrument on the SC-88 to another, the DT will always play the first piano instrument.
Anyone got experience or can give some suggestions? Going through the SC-88 manual has been a pain. I cant find the issue.
I’m using DT with my SK88-Pro which I assume is pretty similar. It works very nicely.
On the soundcanvas you have “Parts”, each Part is assigned a midi channel and an Instrument, so say your DT MIDI A track is set to midi channel 2, and you set the SC’s Part 1 to channel 2 and Instrument 03 when you trigger the DT MIDI A track it should play instrument 3 on the SC on Part 1. Multiple Parts (I think you get 16 or 32 depending on the model) can use the same midi channel if you want to stack sounds (which can sound amazing).
I mean, I feel this is what I did. If I have Track A set to channel 1 on DT, I have part 1 on channel 1 and on Piano1 on the SC88. Pretty straightforward right? Well, my DT only plays the Piano1 instrument so that even if I change the instrument on part 1 on SC88 the DT can only play that first Piano1 instrument. Whereas the sc-88 can play different instruments on part A if I trigger the sound from the machine itself.
Im a bit stumped.
I have the back of the sc88 set to MIDI. Isnt that correct?
Yes that’s correct, to be sure are you using MIDI A and not MIDI B?
When you play via the DT can you see on the SC88 display which part is being triggered? is it the one you expect?
DT Midi out syncA to SC88 Midi in A.
When I play on the DT it only produces the one piano sound. I can scroll through all instruments on sc88 to which they display and I can play a preview from the machine, but the DT only plays the one piano sound.
but when you trigger the midi via DT, on the SC88’s display you should be able to see which part it’s playing on via the mixer style display. does the meter on part 1 go up, or some other part?
No. I dont see the meter go up on the SC when i play the DT. But I do hear the sound. I can also sequence this sound
The meter doesnt go up when I play from DT but it does when I play it on the SC. The SC displays the instrument name I play on the SC, but when I change the instrument it makes no changes to DT.
I just cycled through all the DT channels and only channel 10 plays a drum set; every key plays a drum part: kick, snare, hihat etc
Ok, sounds like its not triggering the correct parts then. Maybe try a factory reset on the SC88, theres a lot of menus and who knows what stuff people have changed over the years.
Which is the logical thing to do, and I did. Still the same result. So the DT can play a sound but not trigger the sc88?
Hmm there are some odd menus to check that you get to through some button combos it’s possible someone one did something in there, try changing an instrument in the B side of things and see if that changes what is played even if you are using port A.
I just got this machine, so not sure how to play the B side. Currently it displays Im in part A01, so I assume I have to get to B01 right? How do I do that? Im embarrassed but I did just get this machine yesterday 
I pulled the midi port from MIDI IN A and put into MIDI IN B on the SC. OK! So it’s showing me the volumes on the SC display. Im also able to set different channels to different tracks and they all read!
I think for now, it’s working. The midi ports were flipped??