Opinions vary and what does "best" mean for you?

My recommendation is a Roland Sound Canvas module. There are many modules but the SC-55 and SC-55MK2 and ST-55 are quite popular, easy to find on ebay and auction sites.

Hows' you MT-100? What games are you into or have you tried?

Hey again! 😉 The MT-100 is great, I've tried the old Sierra adventures like Police Quest 2 and some of the old Space Quest games, although Space Quest 5 and 6 sound like crap because Sierra was lazy and just remapped the MT to GM instruments. It really sounds AWFUL! King's Quest 5 on the MT-100 sounds A M A Z I N G!! PQ2, SQ3, LSL3 and SQ4 sounded awesome! I'm about to try my old Lucasarts games too.

I've always loved Doom, the old Apogee platformers (BioMenace, Commander Keen), Wolf 3D, Stonekeep, Deathtrack, the Sierra games , Lucasarts games (esp Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max), Tex Murphy 3: Under a Killing Moon, even old Raptor and Wacky Wheels. I grew up with these when I was a kid and sadly I never had an MT-32, just the Sound Blaster's crappy FM synth. (and it was an old Sound Blaster 2.0 8-bit on my mum's 386). Many old games are more fun the crap you buy these days.

So yeah, when I said "best", I meant best for the majority of DOS games, like an "all-rounder" synth. I'm kind of tossing up between an SC-55mkII and an SC-88, maybe others.

SC-55mkII would get my vote. I'm a Roland fanboy 🤣

Sierra is likely the company with the best support for MT-32. Also Dynamix with games like Hearth of China and Willy Beamish. After Doom games started to use General Midi / Sound Canvas. While the sound are of high quality it doesn't support the custom sounds like on the MT-32.

Still not such a big deal as most games used Sound Blaster for sound effects and speech and Midi for music.

If you are into Lucasarts Games, MT-32 support starts early on with Loom, Monkey Island 1 and 2 and Fate of Atlantis. Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max I haven't played / tested yet so not sure if it's better with MT-32 or General Midi.

I'm not sure of your current PC specs/hardware/OS; but anyone who knows me here <grin> knows that I'm a fan of an el-cheapo (US$12) Sound Blaster Live with a decent SoundFont for MIDI music playback 😀

A cheap SBLive, a good SoundFont, and... wow 😀

Well in terms of "bang for your buck" nothing comes close to these cards 🤣

Though I never got my Live 5.1 Digital working. The machine locks up after it displays the PCI address and IRQ. Happens on 3 boards I tried before giving up...

But the AudioPCI (with creative sticker) works great, but the FM "emulation" is terrible.

I also got a NEC wavetable card underway (the seller claims it's identical to the Yamaha boards). 20 bucks shipped from China...

@Mau1wurf1977: yeah you getting a DB60-XG it is exactly the same as DB50-XG but without the analogue input (that is really of no importance/use to our needs whatsoever!) it is a great card!

Looking forward 😀

To cover all DOS games you need to have both SC-55 and Yamaha MU50. Try Descent2 on MU50, it kicks ass of SC55 by far.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Well in terms of "bang for your buck" nothing comes close to these cards 🤣

'Tis what I've always said, as well as with my AWE32s back in the day 😀

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Though I never got my Live 5.1 Digital working. The machine locks up after it displays the PCI address and IRQ. Happens on 3 boards I tried before giving up...

That sucks. What are the odds of three bad boards (on the other hand, I've ran into things such as that previously <grin>)? Maybe there's some incompatibility with them and your mobo, but I dunno.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

I also got a NEC wavetable card underway (the seller claims it's identical to the Yamaha boards). 20 bucks shipped from China...

Extremely cool 👍 Heh, I'm still pushing for an MU50 for Christmas... well, either that, or a female Samyoed puppy <grin> 😀

Menkau_ra wrote:

To cover all DOS games you need to have both SC-55 and Yamaha MU50. Try Descent2 on MU50, it kiss ass of SC55 by far.

Does the Decent 2 MIDIs have any of the special XG type of stuff embedded/sequenced into them? If so (or even, if not), I need to give them a whirl under the S-YXG50 😀

Menkau_ra wrote:

To cover all DOS games you need to have both SC-55 and Yamaha MU50. Try Descent2 on MU50, it kiss ass of SC55 by far.

You are right, it DOES kiss the ass of the sc-55 😀

So the machine I'm planning to use
"Project Nega"
* Intel Pentium D 3.2GHz
* 1GB DDR RAM
* 80GB HDD (will upgrade)
* Windows XP Pro
* Onboard Sound
* Roland MT-100 Synth/Sequencer for MT-32 optimised DOS games (works fine using USB to MIDI cable bought from Jaycar)
* DOSBox 0.74 with Windows 3.11
* Hoping to have a decent GM Synth for General MIDI optimised DOS games

So I take it the SC-55mkII is the go for GM DOS games?

wocko1 wrote:

So I take it the SC-55mkII is the go for GM DOS games?

It should make you very happy 🤣

The subject matter here is a little bit subjective, I think.

Although I think that DOSBOX with a Live/Audigy/X-Fi and a library of soundfonts is an excellent setup. But I do like to hear the old MIDI hardware occasionally.

I'm using SC-55 MKII for General MIDI supported games. Looks small but sounds great. Again, as swaaye said, it's subjective.

All I can say is this : As an example (repeated example, actually), when I play Heretic, I can hear the cymbals and drums like I'm in a studio! 😁 (and it's relatively cheaper too.)

So some of you reckon that a SC-55mkII or other proper MIDI synths are not much better than a sound card that supports soundfonts? Or moreso, a proper synth is just a waste of money?

I know I have an Audigy 2 ZS that still works lying around...

If you think an SF sound card is the way to do it, then what SF file do you all use?

BTW, not even a sound card that supports Soundfonts will work as an MT-32 substitute. Trust me on that one.

🤣 swaaye has planted a seed of doubt...

wocko1 wrote:

BTW, not even a sound card that supports Soundfonts will work as an MT-32 substitute. Trust me on that one.

Agreed on that one... anytihing coded specifically for an MT32 will always sound better with a real MT32. But, when I mention SoundFonts, I'm mostly refering to GM/GS type of MIDI stuff.

wocko1 wrote:

I know I have an Audigy 2 ZS that still works lying around... If you think an SF sound card is the way to do it, then what SF file do you all use?

Hehe, I'm sure many people here at Vogons are ALREADY thinking "UGGHH! HERE GOES RICH, AGAIN!" <ROTFL>!!

Weeds General MIDI SoundFont v3.0
http://www.richnagel.net/#soundfonts

You will always hear different opinions on which SoundFont is "best", but I think it's important to consider the application. For listening to MIDI music, anything that sounds good to you is alright. But for games, if you feel as I do that the music should be in the *background* and not in your face, instrument balance is important. I also have an Audigy 2 ZS, and I've never found a better balanced SoundFont for gaming than the good ol' CT4MGM.SF2 (based on EMU8000 instrument samples) that's included on the installation CD.

Like many others here, I would highly recommend an SC-55MkII for DOS games with GM/GS support, as it was the synth that set the standard (literally and figuratively). Personally I have an SC-88 instead, but it has an SC-55MkII 100% compatibility mode. Apparently the entire SC-88 series of synths has the SC-55 mode, so consider them as an option when shopping.