Since I upgraded my MU2000 to the EX firmware, I lost the TG-300 mode. This was a few years ago, but I remember it sounded different to my actual TG-300. However it may very well be that the MU2000's audio out via TOSLink was so clean, it made it sound different. I've often wished that I had spent a few months comparing the two.

I can say that the TG-100 and 300 are great little midi boxes, and I haven't heard any game sound bad with them. However, I find X68000 games that have a GM option (instead of Roland SC-55), to sound the best with either module. I can only guess that on an original MU2000 via TOSLink they would truly shine.

Kodai wrote:

I can say that the TG-100 and 300 are great little midi boxes, and I haven't heard any game sound bad with them.

That's good to hear! I'll add the TG-300 to my list of modules to find.

The 100 will have the same sounds as the 300 as far as default GM is concerned. The 300 has extra stuff for making music. If you're only concerned with games, consider the 100 as an option since its often cheaper and easier to find. It's also very small and cute.

Some real info here.

the real tg300 has two different "GM" modes. GM A and GM B. GM B is the "pretend to be a sound canvas" mode, which most of the xg tone modules have.

The original one has four modes. the native mode with non gm stuff, GM A (yamaha's vision of GM with their extensions at the time), GM B (fake sound canvas), and CM (fake mt-32)

GM A ended up evolving into XG i think.

Just to expand upon zaphod77's comment, the TG300B mode that you see on various YAMAHA devices is basically a GS compatible mode without advertising that fact. It wasn't until late models of MU that YAMAHA officially licensed GS compatibility and could therefore advertise GS compatibility and use the GS logo.

TG300B mode on later devices is literally GS compatible without saying that - the sounds are not the same as a TG300.

The TG300 has the following modes:

GM-A - GM compatible
GM-B - GS compatible (but this is mentioned nowhere in the manual!) - it does contain GS specific sounds and effects
C/M - CM-32L compatible mode
Single - Single channel only, for use with a keyboard.

I like the sound of the TG300 a lot - it's very much its own thing and decidedly different to the later sound sets that YAMAHA used in the MUxx series and later MUxxx/MUxxxx tone generators.

I think that the TG300 is possibly where XG came from - the TG300 has a bunch of effects that would later find their way into the XG standard. Whilst it sounds a bit cheesy and dated now, the Dance demo has a nice wah guitar and some other effects going on. It's a cool little box for sure, but unless you specifically want to get one, it's not a must have. If you want to have a nice selection of MIDI devices and want to add some YAMAHA flavour, the MU100 is a good bet as it offers both MU 80 sounds in the 'MU basic' mode, as well as the slightly upgraded and tweaked MU100 sounds.