First post, by Cerendir
- Rank
- Newbie
Hi all, longtime non-registered lurker here.
Long story short, I'm a musician and game music composer who's been bitten by the retro MIDI bug in recent years. While I did use this kind of stuff exclusively in the late 90's/early 00's (up until software instruments and fx became a thing, basically), it wasn't until a couple of years ago that I really found myself longing back to simpler and more lo-fi times. So to that end, I've put together a be-all and end-all computer build that a) allows me to use a variety of old ISA and PCI sound cards from decades past, and b) has the right connectivity and outboard gear for hooking up various sound modules and making everything fit nicely together. Basically, it's the MIDI home studio I always dreamed of back in the day but couldn't afford.
PC
Pentium III 600MHz
Abit BX6
512 MB RAM
Ensoniq Soundscape Elite
Yamaha Waveforce 192XG
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
E-MU APS
Windows 98 SE
OUTBOARD GEAR
Yamaha TG100
Roland M-GS64
MOTU MIDI Express
Lexicon Alex
Alesis MidiVerb III
Digitech DSP 256XL
Behringer Virtualizer Pro 1000p
Rane ME-15
Behringer MX 802A
Behringer UB1202
Some examples of this setup in action:
Twist of Fate
Road to Adventure
Hidden Secrets
Also, here's a forum thread detailing how this project began and how it has developed. As you can probably tell, this is music-oriented rather than gaming-oriented. As such I have more forgiving attitude towards hardware that is not considered the ultimate in GM music reproduction (like the TG100).