VOGONS


First post, by ZEKROM67

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Hey guys, so just recently, I got a copy of Casio SW-10 from here: http://erpman1.tripod.com/download.html. It is Casio's softsynth that came with some "communication karaoke" program that they called Lana Lite. And I believe this synth was only in Japan, so it's not that known in other places. This thing is "accordingly" based off GM, it has 128 voices (not sure about this since there is very few information about this, but since it's based off GM, it's definitely 128 voices) and they do sound quite fine as well. Really good for a Casio tbh 🤣. Heck, it even included an amazing MIDI of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, lmao. I wonder if some of you guys know about this synth and it would be nice to drop some information you know about this obscure softsynth.

edit: 128 voices, 8(?) drum kits

update: I just knew that Casio made a hardware GM module, the GZ-50M. I think this is possibly the SW-10's closest relative, or idk. Here is the service manual for it, and this can be possibly used as reference for this softsynth: http://warningwillrobinson.com.au/manuals/Cas … ce%20manual.pdf

Last edited by ZEKROM67 on 2018-05-17, 07:09. Edited 2 times in total.

http://www.youtube.com/itszk67

Reply 1 of 43, by SuperDeadite

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Haven't used it, but from youtube sounds very similar to the GZ-50M and GZ-70SP.
I like my GZ-50M. It's a nice simple module that generally sounds decent with all GM stuff. Good all arounder,
but it lacks the character of the more popular modules. The modules do contain the additional GS drumsets as well,
so stuff like Duke 3D will use the power kit, though it doesn't understand true GS.

Modules: CM-64, CM-500, SC-55MkII, SC-88 Pro, SY22, TG100, MU2000EX, PLG100-SG, PLG150-DR, PLG150-AN, SG01k, NS5R, GZ-50M, SN-U110-07, SN-U110-10, Pocket Studio 5, DreamBlaster S2, X2, McFly, E-Wave, QWave, CrystalBlaster C2, Yucatan FX, BeepBlaster

Reply 2 of 43, by Jo22

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Thanks for the information, ZEKROM67! That site linked to the original Casio site of Japan, but the link is sadly gone.
Luckily, the archive has a backup copy of it. I think it's okay to mention that, since it was freely available from the Casio site.

PS: Welcome to the forum! 😀

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Reply 4 of 43, by appiah4

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Out of curiosity, how good is the Roland VSC-88H Sound Canvas utility on the same page? Is it a good choice for running MT-32 DOS games under Win9x?

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 5 of 43, by ZEKROM67

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SuperDeadite wrote:
Haven't used it, but from youtube sounds very similar to the GZ-50M and GZ-70SP. I like my GZ-50M. It's a nice simple module th […]
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Haven't used it, but from youtube sounds very similar to the GZ-50M and GZ-70SP.
I like my GZ-50M. It's a nice simple module that generally sounds decent with all GM stuff. Good all arounder,
but it lacks the character of the more popular modules. The modules do contain the additional GS drumsets as well,
so stuff like Duke 3D will use the power kit, though it doesn't understand true GS.

@SuperDeadite ooo, never knew casio made a hardware module. that's actually pretty nice, and yes, the casio is actually good, if you only want some fine music for your games, or maybe just for listening purposes.

Jo22 wrote:

Thanks for the information, ZEKROM67! That site linked to the original Casio site of Japan, but the link is sadly gone.
Luckily, the archive has a backup copy of it. I think it's okay to mention that, since it was freely available from the Casio site.

PS: Welcome to the forum! 😀

@Jo22 you're welcome man! and about the link, never noticed it linked to an archive.org link. hahaha. and i really hope there will be some more information about this, that's why I made this thread as a way to actually reveal some stuff about this obscure synth.

leileilol wrote:
ZEKROM67 wrote:

Really good for a Casio tbh 🤣

*turns around assuming this isn't a SA-based sw synth*

@leileilol hahaha don't worry, this isn't based in the SA series hahaha. have a look at my demo of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCd4WSiY53s&t=142s 😁

appiah4 wrote:

Out of curiosity, how good is the Roland VSC-88H Sound Canvas utility on the same page? Is it a good choice for running MT-32 DOS games under Win9x?

@appiah4 i think you cannot really use that as your alternative MT-32 sound source since the newer Canvases can't receive special MT-32 messages, and many games took advantage of this, like Monkey Island 2, which heavily used those special messages. Your choice is to get a real MT-32, or you can use DosBox and the Munt MT-32 emulator in a modern PC.

http://www.youtube.com/itszk67

Reply 6 of 43, by appiah4

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Not sure I follow; the SC-88 has an MT-32 emulation mode no? Is it bad or does it just not work with games at all? Or is it just absent in the VSC?

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 7 of 43, by ZEKROM67

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appiah4 wrote:

Not sure I follow; the SC-88 has an MT-32 emulation mode no? Is it bad or does it just not work with games at all? Or is it just absent in the VSC?

I have never really used the VSC to it's full potential so I am not really sure about MT-32 emulation in it, but according to the SC-88 manual, you can select the CM-64 instrument map, so I believe the VSC can do that as well. But if you managed to get MT-32 emulation working, depending on the game you're playing, it can sound good or bad. For example, Sierra's SQ3 sounds horrible with the emulation. Same thing with Monkey Island 2. If the game you're playing doesn't take too much advantage of the MT-32's magic, then it should sound just fine.

Short answer: It should work, but your mileage may vary.

http://www.youtube.com/itszk67

Reply 8 of 43, by appiah4

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ZEKROM67 wrote:
appiah4 wrote:

Not sure I follow; the SC-88 has an MT-32 emulation mode no? Is it bad or does it just not work with games at all? Or is it just absent in the VSC?

I have never really used the VSC to it's full potential so I am not really sure about MT-32 emulation in it, but according to the SC-88 manual, you can select the CM-64 instrument map, so I believe the VSC can do that as well. But if you managed to get MT-32 emulation working, depending on the game you're playing, it can sound good or bad. For example, Sierra's SQ3 sounds horrible with the emulation. Same thing with Monkey Island 2. If the game you're playing doesn't take too much advantage of the MT-32's magic, then it should sound just fine.

Short answer: It should work, but your mileage may vary.

I was going to try the different Yamaha soft synth versions when I get around to finishing my Optiplex GX110 build, now I can add the Casio and Rolan VSC to my list. I will make recordings of these and share my opinions on all of them.

Sometime this summer 😢

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 9 of 43, by ZEKROM67

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appiah4 wrote:
ZEKROM67 wrote:
appiah4 wrote:

Not sure I follow; the SC-88 has an MT-32 emulation mode no? Is it bad or does it just not work with games at all? Or is it just absent in the VSC?

I have never really used the VSC to it's full potential so I am not really sure about MT-32 emulation in it, but according to the SC-88 manual, you can select the CM-64 instrument map, so I believe the VSC can do that as well. But if you managed to get MT-32 emulation working, depending on the game you're playing, it can sound good or bad. For example, Sierra's SQ3 sounds horrible with the emulation. Same thing with Monkey Island 2. If the game you're playing doesn't take too much advantage of the MT-32's magic, then it should sound just fine.

Short answer: It should work, but your mileage may vary.

I was going to try the different Yamaha soft synth versions when I get around to finishing my Optiplex GX110 build, now I can add the Casio and Rolan VSC to my list. I will make recordings of these and share my opinions on all of them.

Sometime this summer 😢

Great stuff! I'm also planning to do the same thing as well. About the Yamahas, I think they actually made a lot of softsynths, well in fact they also made a GM synth (iirc, gonna be getting my hands on that GM synth in the future). But I think the S-YXG50 is so far the best softsynth they made. Many gamers really prefer it, as alternative to the very common Sound Canvases. But they also made the S-YXG2006LE, which has better sounds but not full XG support, sadly. The 2006LE sounds very close to the Yamaha PSR keyboards. And if i'm not mistaken, it's only in Japan (the Japanese always gets the best stuff tbh lmao) and it's only in VSTi, which is fine, imo.

Btw, where will you upload those recordings?

http://www.youtube.com/itszk67

Reply 10 of 43, by RichB93

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I nabbed a copy of this and extracted out the SoftSynth so you don't have to install everything else. I was curious as to why the setup was using the old OEMSETUP.INF format... Gave it a go and...

Screen Shot 2018-05-17 at 23.56.41.png
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Sadly the VLSG.VXD driver simply doesn't load, so I guess its 32-bit, but it does make me wonder if there's an older version that has 16-bit support.

As mentioned, it doesn't actually sound half bad! 2MB sample set, but yeah, works well 😀

Reply 11 of 43, by ZEKROM67

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RichB93 wrote:
I nabbed a copy of this and extracted out the SoftSynth so you don't have to install everything else. I was curious as to why th […]
Show full quote

I nabbed a copy of this and extracted out the SoftSynth so you don't have to install everything else. I was curious as to why the setup was using the old OEMSETUP.INF format... Gave it a go and...

Screen Shot 2018-05-17 at 23.56.41.png

Sadly the VLSG.VXD driver simply doesn't load, so I guess its 32-bit, but it does make me wonder if there's an older version that has 16-bit support.

As mentioned, it doesn't actually sound half bad! 2MB sample set, but yeah, works well 😀

Wait, it works with Win 3.1? Didn't know that though. And yes, the SW-10 is fully 32 bit IMO so that probably explains why the VLSG.VXD driver wasn't working.

Nice discovery you got there though, can't wait to try this out in either DOSBox or VMWare. And if possible, I could try it out in Win 3.0 as well.

http://www.youtube.com/itszk67

Reply 13 of 43, by RichB93

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ZEKROM67 wrote:

Wait, it works with Win 3.1? Didn't know that though. And yes, the SW-10 is fully 32 bit IMO so that probably explains why the VLSG.VXD driver wasn't working.

Nice discovery you got there though, can't wait to try this out in either DOSBox or VMWare. And if possible, I could try it out in Win 3.0 as well.

appiah4 wrote:

My understanding is that it installs but fails to work?

Correct, it doesn't work - I just found it very odd that the setup DLL and OEMSETUP.INF approach are both 16-bit, so I wonder if perhaps an older version exists out there somewhere (may not even be called SW-10!) that does support 16-bit.

Reply 14 of 43, by ZEKROM67

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RichB93 wrote:
ZEKROM67 wrote:

Wait, it works with Win 3.1? Didn't know that though. And yes, the SW-10 is fully 32 bit IMO so that probably explains why the VLSG.VXD driver wasn't working.

Nice discovery you got there though, can't wait to try this out in either DOSBox or VMWare. And if possible, I could try it out in Win 3.0 as well.

appiah4 wrote:

My understanding is that it installs but fails to work?

Correct, it doesn't work - I just found it very odd that the setup DLL and OEMSETUP.INF approach are both 16-bit, so I wonder if perhaps an older version exists out there somewhere (may not even be called SW-10!) that does support 16-bit.

Ohh, I get it now. It installs but doesn’t work. Well, it could be a possibility that a 16-bit version exists, or maybe they written the DLL and the INF in a 16-bit format. But maybe someday, we can get this to work in 3.1, maybe with some hacks. Anyway, let’s keep this thread active as much as possible and I hope we can find more discoveries about this super obscure synth. 😁

http://www.youtube.com/itszk67

Reply 15 of 43, by appiah4

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I've listened to some recording of this Synth for some classic Doom songs and I must say I am quite fond of it, it compares fairly well with my Diamond MX300's Aureal soundbank and S-YXG50. I only recently discovered the VSC-88H software synth through Vogons so I can't really compare to that, but I really hope to do a comparison between the four of them over the weekend.

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 16 of 43, by ZEKROM67

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So guys, quick update, I found this very interesting video in NicoVideo explaining the SW-10 but it's in Japanese so it's quite hard to understand some things there. The video seemed to mention about some SysEx messages it can receive, but i'm not sure about it since I'm just guessing at this point hahaha. Anyway here's the video: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm13681200

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Reply 17 of 43, by Montgomery

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I stumbled upon this thread searching for softsynth options for a Win95 PC build. While I'm very satisfied with the Yamaha S-YXG50 and the Roland VSC-88H I also want to give a try to the Casio SW-10. I already installed it - alongside with LANA - on my retro machine and it sounds interesting. It certainly has a more retro feel to it than the other two mayor synths.

I would like to be able to install it without the LANA software (which is nonfunctional on a non-japanese Windows) as you did, RichB93:

RichB93 wrote:

I nabbed a copy of this and extracted out the SoftSynth so you don't have to install everything else.

Please describe me the procedure to extract the softsynth part from the installation files! So far I can identify the ROM sample romsxgm.bin (2MB) in the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory but I cannot find other relevant files either in the installation or Windows folders. I also made a raw (Google) translation of the pcmsw10.txt (sorry I don't speak japanese) which I attached to this post. It calls the softsynth part "PCM sound source CASIO SW-10" however Google knows not such a thing. 🙁

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Reply 18 of 43, by Montgomery

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OK guys, I was impatient so I solved the problem myself. 😀

I had to fumble around the Windows, System and Inf directories for a couple of turns (installs, uninstalls, reboots) but in the end managed to find all the necessary files for the installation of the standalone softsynth. (Thank you RichB93 for directing me to oemsetup.inf!) If any one of you are interested I attached the installer below. Since it installs via oemsetup.inf you have to start "add new hardware wizard" choose "sound video and game controllers" and select the "have a disk" option.

Good luck and have nice music!

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