My band presently uses the Yamaha MU100 sound module live on stage. We have a MS Surface with Bandlab Cakewalk installed and play MIDI files from Cakewalk through the MU100. The sound is pretty damn good especially the drums. I wondering how it stacks up against the Roland SC sound modules? Does anyone have any experience with this?
Thanks
If you like the MU100 drums for stage use, do yourself a favor and install a PLG150-DR. It's quite the significant upgrade.
Regarding Roland, they sound totally different and both have their strengths. This forum is mostly focused on PC games, and since the SC55 was often used to make game music on, it tends to be favored here as it's how the composer would have heard it. I enjoy both companies, but I find a lot of people will favor whatever module they owned first as it's what their ears expect.
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
My experience comes entirely from the PC games side, not the making music side. But I have always found the Yamaha units to have a very old-school synthwave sound, and the Rolands sound more like actual instruments. I've heard tracks on my SC88 where i'd swear it was a live band. But the Yamahas sound awesome if that old-school synth is the type of sound you want. Just my fairly uneducated opinion though from playing with them, im very much NOT an expert.
Also come from then gaming side rather then musician (who would have thought on a old gaming forum right?) but gaming soundtracks are still music so should translate.
It's generally considered that Yamaha is better at sounding more "rock" with strong emphasis on guitars and drums. The Duke Nukem 3D's theme tune "grabbag" often been said to sound better on Yamaha then Roland. You can compare that track with a bunch of other MIDI devices here.
https://youtu.be/qnbHsqnND08
Here is 2 more videos comparing SC55 and MU80 first been Doom which is more rock like, 2nd Decent and more Techno. Personally I cant pick a clear "better" unit 1 track may sound better on the SC55 then the very next track sounds better on the Yamaha.
https://youtu.be/tT_dUpSYwZU
https://youtu.be/DqLDSt-Jz_Q
