Rolan pc-80 Driver help

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So I recently got a second hand Edirol(Roland) PC-80, and because Roland has been releasing updated drivers I assumed they'd have one for this model. Turns out I was wrong, and the latest updated driver is for Windows 7 32 bit. On the website it states that they have no intentions of creating a driver for the windows 8 64 bit version. Is there a workaround for this? Or has anyone else come up with a driver for this? Any help would be appreciated!
 
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Timothy

You might want to post your question in the "Other Roland Gear" sub-forum of the Roland Clan Forums:

http://forums.rolandclan.com/

to see if anyone there has a workaround. In the early days of the 64 bit systems, someone had modified an Edirol 64 bit sound module driver that could be kludged to work with just about anything.

Just don't let anyone talk you into wasting time and effort trying to run or install drivers "in Compatibility Mode". That can NOT be done. To put it in the words of Microsoft Engineering some years ago: "The bit depth of the driver MUST match the bit depth of the operating system, PERIOD".

The PC-80 was designed to draw its power from the USB connection, but it does have a DC-IN connection, so if yours came with an AC adapter, or you can come up with one, you can do that to use its standalone GM synth capabilities. It also has a 5-pin-DIN MIDI OUT connection, so you could use a USB-MIDI adapter to connect that to a USB port on your computer and play PC based VST instruments and for making MIDI recordings of your performances with DAW software, but you would still need the AC adapter, as the USB-MIDI adapter would not provide power to the PC-80. Most recent adapters are Class Compliant, and do not need drivers. The adapter acts as the interface to the PC-80, so you would not need PC-80 drivers for that connection. You just would not be able to play MIDI files FROM the PC TO the PC-80, since the PC-80 does not have a 5-pin-DIN MIDI-IN connection, but you really should not need that. The Microsoft Wavetable Synth in Windows and the GM sound engine in the PC-80 are essentially the same (Edirol designed the Wavetable Synth for Microsoft). So just play your MIDI files back on the PC. If you want the sound to come out of the PC-80's speakers, just patch the PC's audio-out connection to the PC-80's audio-in connection.

https://www.amazon.com/iConnectivit...cal-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1467223631&sr=1-5

The are less expensive adapters, but most of them do not operate reliably. Just connect the adapter's MIDI-IN connector to the PC-80's MIDI-OUT connector for one-way connectivity.

BUT . . . BUT . . . BUT . . . . before investing any more funds in the PC-80, you might want to check on the cost of just purchasing an up-to-date USB controller keyboard that is Class Compliant and will work with the drivers that are built into the recent Windows and MAC-OS versions.

Good luck !
 
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Timothy

If you are still following this thread, check the edits I was making to my post while you were replying.
 

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