quick answer - no 😀

if you're interested in XG, you have several options:
- MU expanders (MU80 and MU50 should be relatively easy to find)
- DB50XG Waveblaster board (more rare, I believe)
- SW60XG ISA card (never seen one myself)

Probably other devices. So yeah, I'd recommend hunting a MU80 or MU50, they are both fine options for a PC MIDI expander, depending on what you find and at what price.

The Korg NS5R has some XG support, and the NX5R/N1R have full XG support.

The Roland SC-8820/50 have XG support, also.

Really, it depends what level XG you need.

Spikey wrote on 2021-02-08, 01:58:

The Korg NS5R has some XG support, and the NX5R/N1R have full XG support.

the NX5R is just a black colored NS5R with an internal XG wavetable board (DB51-XG) preinstalled btw :3

Spikey wrote on 2021-02-08, 01:58:

The Korg NS5R has some XG support, and the NX5R/N1R have full XG support.

The Roland SC-8820/50 have XG support, also.

Really, it depends what level XG you need.

Would the SC-D70, being based on the SC-8820 AFAIK, have XG compatibility as well ? The manual for the SC-D70 does not mention it, AFAICT .

what about this: Roland SC-88(Pro) and XG compatibility

also, as someone that knows almost nothing about synths and who tries to learn, I want to use the opportunity and ask - why would anyone need old hardware module for XG, when there is VST SoftSynth:

Yamaha Sequence Object Linking (SOL) 2

as well as Yamaha SW1000XG cards sell for next to nothing?

mattw wrote on 2021-02-08, 02:59:

as well as Yamaha SW1000XG cards sell for next to nothing?

That's a new one to me. Prices must have dropped . Until I found an affordable MU500, I wanted one of those .

EDIT : They do seem to have gone down in price quite a bit . They were like 500 CAN$ last time that I checked .

darry wrote on 2021-02-08, 03:15:

That's a new one to me. Prices must have dropped .

I bought SW1000XG few months ago for less than 40 bucks. In general I saw many SW1000XG for average price of 50 bucks in the last year. I put mine in a small thin client and it's like those external units you're discussing here.

However, with Yamaha S-YXG50 VSTi hacking community and those DIY Sotf-Synths based on it, that are available online, which add massive wavetables, I think they exceed XG quality of almost anything hardware that costs less than 5 figures.

SW1000XG has no 64bit drivers afaik. VSTis are ok, but limited still. MU1000/2000/500 have modern win10x64 driver support, way more sounds and options, works on all your MIDI ready systems, has digital toslink output, and supports up to 3 plgs for the hardcore.

Internal cards and limited softsynths are a waste of time imo.

I didn't expect so much feedback. I am new to these sound modules I have always just used SB for midi. I just got a sc-55 and sadly have found that many ff7 songs just can't be played on the 55 about 30 percent of the songs have too many voices for the sc-55. I want to go sc-88 pro which I have seen around does support xg in a very unofficial way. So I thought the st may support it as well as I can find a st for about 100 dollars less and as far as I have read the st only looses the display and some of the music creation functions. But I have decided I need an 88 to add to my setup and I guess at this point be starting a small collection. Thanks!!!

If your main goal is to get XG, you can always grab a Yamaha YMF 724 card.

Those support XG just fine and work great with FF7.