SRQ wrote:Does an SC-88 do GM with the same quality as an AWE64's default soundfont, or any better?
Oh and actually- for games with direct AWE32 support. Is that any better than the other options? I suppose I can just simply test but mreh why not ask the veterans.
Almost no games had music for the AWE. Games that let you select "AWE32" in the settings do so simply because it needs a special driver. The AWE cards are not MPU401 compatible. The "AWE32" option does NOT mean the music is made for the AWE32. It's still made for the SC-55, but the AWE32 option just uses a different driver to send the MIDI data to the card.
Most games used the SC-55 as the reference. As a result, the SC-55 sounds best with the majority of games, where "best" in this context means "as the composer intended."
I don't know if there's a list of games somewhere that used the AWE32 as the reference card (meaning the music was composed on an AWE.) I would be surprised if that list contained more than 2 or 3 games.
So for best results, if you have an SC-88, put it in SC-55 mode.