@Spikey: I'd love something along the lines of a Sound Canvas. It's kinda the definitive GM/GS sound. I've also explored soundfonts, and have yet to find an easily available Sound Canvas font that doesn't completely screw up something. I've seen decently cheap little 55ST units, like that one... but what of the sound? I've only heard them be kinda... bashed on. I'm really hoping to pay less than 75$, which is seemingly hard to do.

I really haven't seen a Yamaha board in the states. Even when I went to a store that carried a ton of old ISA/PCI expansion cards, I saw Creative Labs cards, and the cheap cards that were thrown into OEM computers.

The SC-55ST should be nothing more than a SC-55 without the control buttons...

atariangamer wrote:

@Spikey: I'd love something along the lines of a Sound Canvas. It's kinda the definitive GM/GS sound. I've also explored soundfonts, and have yet to find an easily available Sound Canvas font that doesn't completely screw up something. I've seen decently cheap little 55ST units, like that one... but what of the sound? I've only heard them be kinda... bashed on. I'm really hoping to pay less than 75$, which is seemingly hard to do.

I really haven't seen a Yamaha board in the states. Even when I went to a store that carried a ton of old ISA/PCI expansion cards, I saw Creative Labs cards, and the cheap cards that were thrown into OEM computers.

I'm curious about your feedback on any of the soundfonts you've tried. Any thoughts on helping Deemster by providing feedback for his soundfont?

gdjacobs wrote:

I'm curious about your feedback on any of the soundfonts you've tried. Any thoughts on helping Deemster by providing feedback for his soundfont?

Doom has always been my go to test. "The Demons from Adrian's Pen" is a great example of what sets the SC55 apart from others. The swoop on the background synth, the slight echo on the 'whistle' throughout, and the drum samples being very sharp and present. Mix in any song that uses the two electric guitar patches (Overdriven/Distorted) to determine whether they have the correct sustain, tuning, and style. Another good test is any of Descent's music, with it's complicated electronic drum kit and deep bass sounds. The SC55 has a pretty nice 808-alike kit.

I haven't actually heard/seen Deemster's sf... any links?

atariangamer wrote:

gdjacobs wrote:

I'm curious about your feedback on any of the soundfonts you've tried. Any thoughts on helping Deemster by providing feedback for his soundfont?

Doom has always been my go to test. "The Demons from Adrian's Pen" is a great example of what sets the SC55 apart from others. The swoop on the background synth, the slight echo on the 'whistle' throughout, and the drum samples being very sharp and present. Mix in any song that uses the two electric guitar patches (Overdriven/Distorted) to determine whether they have the correct sustain, tuning, and style. Another good test is any of Descent's music, with it's complicated electronic drum kit and deep bass sounds. The SC55 has a pretty nice 808-alike kit.

I haven't actually heard/seen Deemster's sf... any links?

I generally test with Sierra games.

Anyway, here's Deemster's stuff:
Soundfonts that mimic old hardware (SC-55, DX50XG, AWE64 Gold)
Release: Wave Blaster soundfont

Really depends where you are in the world, but I got my NS5R off yahoo auctions for 5,000yen.
Due to the huge amount of samples in this thing (over 1000 patches), there is some noise due to the compression.
But, it is quite the all-arounder.

It's Native GM, 05R/W GM modes are great.
GS mode is actually fully SC-88 compatible (quite rare for non-Roland modules)
XG mode is also a solid performer
MT-32 maps are there and sound on par with the real SC units
Waveblaster header for expansion

Also has a LOT of weird options to play with. You can turn Effect follow on and off, and this makes some games like Descent sound amazing, while other games sound terrible. You can even tell the system to ignore GS/XG reset messages if you want to play around with different instruments. You can even mix Korg/Roland/Yamaha instrument banks all at the same time. For example, Korg guitars with Yamaha drums and Roland everything else.

Probably a lot more pricey outside of Japan though...

Phreeze wrote:

in Europe the yamaha cards are expensive imho. better of with some sb16 with a midi-extension and a dreamblaster Midi-board. I think it's the cheapest. You could argue about the hanging note bug, but at least nearly every game is compatible 😀

They are dirt cheap in Ukraine...mind you, this place is a treasure trove of retro hardware, anything from 286's to old commodore 64's floating around here. about $3 for a yamaha card.