All of these are top tier ones, personally I would not part with any unless there was great need - but if I had to I would start with the Diamond and then the terratec one.

Not really needed to sell. Just thinking what to do as I don't really use any of them... Much like the rest of my collection 🙁

I also have other sound cards with wavetables and Roland MIDI modules.

Will probably decide when I get my room finally in order with retro corner(s) 😁

The X2GS replaced all of my GM gear but I do sometimes regret selling my Yamaha DB50XG - that had quite a different sound to the Roland stuff, and sounded really nice with guitar heavy rock tracks.

My order from least to most important would be :
* SCB-7 - limited polyphony (only 28), no GS (not really a problem to majority of games)
* Terratec - inferior quality SC55 "clone" with much worse effects, but the saving grace is better polyphony (32). Worse reverb etc. is not as bad as missing or cut out notes here and there.
* SCB-55 - limited polyphony (28), but good otherwise
* Diamond - Much higher polyphony (up to 64), and it is a relatively close SC55 clone with good effects etc. and I wouldn't really miss a real SC(B)55 at all when having it. It does need setup as its defaults are insane (lots of soft-clipping).
* Yamaha - I just am not a fan of the Roland sound and find this simply sounds better in majority of the games, even the ones that were made for SC55 🤣

keropi wrote on 2023-12-02, 06:15:

All of these are top tier ones, personally I would not part with any unless there was great need - but if I had to I would start with the Diamond and then the terratec one.

That was my first thought, too.

We're at a point in time where we may never get things back.

I'm just thinking of my old Sharp PC, which now is being traded for almost a thousand € in some places.

Things like the MT-32, CM-64 or DB50XG are now quite rare.
That's why the next generation has so much interest in emulation or FPGAs, rather.

Anyway, these alternatives aren't necessarily bad ones.
It's just that we oldtimers may miss the real, physical thing more than them.

So let's better think twice before selling something.
A bad decision is not the end of the world, of course.
But in a few years we may think "oh, if only I had kept it".

PSb @Tiido Interesting, same here. I once bought the Roland VSC3, just to realize that I had spent more time using S-YXG50.. 🙂

Maybe a suggestion: get some Serda CHiLL adapters and turn these cards (or at least some of them) into standalone MIDI modules. Then (if you don't already have one) get a MIDI patchbay, hook them up and you can switch between them (or use multiple at the same time) without having to open up your computers.

Apart from that, agree with the above - basically everything except the Yamaha is trying to be an SC-55, with the SCB-55 actually being one for all intents and purposes and the Monster MIDI surpassing it. I'd say if you want to offload, choose one or two of those.

Nice feedbacks... I have focused too much on collecting than actually using 🤣

I also have Roland SC-55MKII, SC-88 PRO, MT-32 modules and SCC-1A, SW60XG cards - from the top tier cards.

I like wavetable cards as you can just swap them on the sound card - at least now as I don't have any complete builds - I only put misc motherboard on the desk and insert different cards and mess around 🤣

MIDI modules would be great (or will be) when I get the retro corner up and running so they get a fixed spot. Now they are just in the storage.

I think you should choose by not other peoples standards but by your own.
Lots of recordings around if you dont want to actually get up and test them, like
https://www.wavetable.nl/category/comparisons/, http://www.amoretro.de/soundkarten-und-wavetable-recordings, and Youtube is chock full of MIDI recordings https://www.youtube.com/@trizeptorx6566/videos

MIDI playback is incredibly hit and miss on a technical level AND even "good results" can be rather subjective. Yes, generally Roland and Yamaha will be top tier, and rarely if ever will they mess up a song, but sometimes they do get outclassed. And lot of times random other MIDI modules sound so different you would think its a completely new piece of music (the controller failed to interpret the instrument - volume - effects properly, or its samples were not proper for the intended use, still the output is suprisingly listenable, and the module fails successfully).

Like Reptile Paradise Cancun FX frequently out-Rolands Roland cards, Korg AI2 cards destroy competition in guitar and rock heavy music, Turtle Beach RIO sounds so psychedelic it plays completely different soundtracks, and Miditemp DOX-1 and Roland SD-50 that either sound bad because of missing a decent GM mode, or sound absolutely stunning, like a lightyear ahead AdvancedHD version of Korg and Roland modules, that make period correct stuff sound like childrens toys in comparison.

Personally i would keep the Roland SCB-55(since its a better version of the SCB-7), Yamaha DB50XG, and Diamond 4MB(since it should be basically a TB Cancun/Serdaco Yucatan FX), and would try to trade the others for a Korg, or something you find decent.

cskamacska wrote on 2023-12-04, 14:28:

Korg AI2 cards destroy competition in guitar and rock heavy music

hmm, isn't all Korg WaveBlaster boards, variants of Yamaha DB51XG, which is nothing more than highly integrated (almost everything put together in one big square chip) version of DB50XG? even several descriptions I found on the Internet state "KORG AI2 + YAMAHA DB51XG Daughterboard".

Bah, i have an SCC-1 but i find the Sound Blaster OPL is Way way better, one of the best example is DuneII.

mattw wrote on 2023-12-04, 14:56:

hmm, isn't all Korg WaveBlaster boards, variants of Yamaha DB51XG, which is nothing more than highly integrated (almost everything put together in one big square chip) version of DB50XG? even several descriptions I found on the Internet state "KORG AI2 + YAMAHA DB51XG Daughterboard".

Im not sure what kind of corporate politics were in play here but normally these guys (Roland, Yamaha, Korg, Akai, etc) competed against each other in the music synthetizer market, and to this end they all had their own MIDI synth chipsets with their respective instrument sound sets they could shove into PCs, leopards, and external modules alike.
Or into each others products for that matter which seems to have happened with the Korg NX5R which was a NS5R base model (that featured a late gen Korga Ai2 synth with 12MB of sample memory and 64 sound poliphony) PLUS a Yamaha DB51XG (that was a simplifed version of 4MB/32 polyphony DB50XG) added through an internal 26 pin Waveblaster header that made the Korg synth magically Yamaha XG compatible and expanded its instrument sets.

mod: its suprisingly hard to find a picture of the internals of the NX5R so this terrible image has to do i guess

taken from https://electro-music.com/forum/topic-39599.html 2003 vintage PHPBB forum that may or may not be up next week

Anyway the Yamaha module is at least somewhat visible above the Korg synth chips.
Oh yeah and this is completely off topic. 😁

I've played with different cards and it seems my Diamond Monster MIDI is dead. It's silent 🙁(

Also found attached to some sound card Turtle Beach CancunFX. By the looks of it, it seems very similar to Diamond Monster MIDI. What are the differences between the two?

Some difference in the analog side, which may be where the problem is if you are lucky. All the parts are off the shelf and easily found and replaced. In worst case it is actually dead SAM9xxx chip and then replacement may not be so straightforward.

stop hoarding. sell them all and sell them all now!

stanwebber wrote on 2023-12-26, 16:02:

stop hoarding. sell them all and sell them all now!

Sell them all so that someone else can do the hoarding. 😁