VOGONS


Yamaha XG emulation at last

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Reply 200 of 215, by hockinsk

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With RE FX, yes, without, in 2026 I hope

Reply 201 of 215, by silvally03@

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is it still in fx progress?

Reply 202 of 215, by stgiga

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I seriously think you should just release it when you're done, no matter if it's unapproved.

Also MAME MU2000 doesn't boot fully.

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Reply 203 of 215, by zaphod77

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I've done a bit of thinking.

Playback of existing XG/GS mid is something that yamaha and roland don't really seem to mind anymore. A release in bring your own rom format, with all effects implemented correctly, will do that. Should the project be capable of that, and no agreement made with yamaha, i think it should go forward that way. Yamaha can't possibly have missed that even XG-Central provides download links for abandonware yamaha softsynths.

They used to have considerably stricter opinions. For example, back when yamaha did care, and was willing to talk to me, i asked them about that DRM-free MS cab file, and they said that was being left alone, because xp is dead, and it's not going to be around forever, but that they did still care about piracy of s-yxg50. Roland did tell me in the past that converting gm.dls to sf2 was fine for personal use only, but that i wasn't allowed to upload it. Both current positions appear to now be "eh, old stuff, not worth the trouble." this seems to have changed sometime after they stopped making GS/XG tone modules.

What the project is really about is using the high quality samples in a DAW. This, i believe would likely require paying yamaha money to license the sampleset if the idea is to make some deal. Yamaha is only wiliing to provide their own DAW solution to people who buy their hardware synths. Any arrangement wodl likely involve yamaha makign modifications to the code, the software not beign fre,e and yamaha getting a cut, if nnot all of the moeny form sellig it. If the price range was similar to sound canvas VA, that owudl be a fair price.

Reply 204 of 215, by stgiga

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zaphod77 wrote on 2026-07-05, 16:41:
I've done a bit of thinking. […]
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I've done a bit of thinking.

Playback of existing XG/GS mid is something that yamaha and roland don't really seem to mind anymore. A release in bring your own rom format, with all effects implemented correctly, will do that. Should the project be capable of that, and no agreement made with yamaha, i think it should go forward that way. Yamaha can't possibly have missed that even XG-Central provides download links for abandonware yamaha softsynths.

They used to have considerably stricter opinions. For example, back when yamaha did care, and was willing to talk to me, i asked them about that DRM-free MS cab file, and they said that was being left alone, because xp is dead, and it's not going to be around forever, but that they did still care about piracy of s-yxg50. Roland did tell me in the past that converting gm.dls to sf2 was fine for personal use only, but that i wasn't allowed to upload it. Both current positions appear to now be "eh, old stuff, not worth the trouble." this seems to have changed sometime after they stopped making GS/XG tone modules.

What the project is really about is using the high quality samples in a DAW. This, i believe would likely require paying yamaha money to license the sampleset if the idea is to make some deal. Yamaha is only wiliing to provide their own DAW solution to people who buy their hardware synths. Any arrangement wodl likely involve yamaha makign modifications to the code, the software not beign fre,e and yamaha getting a cut, if nnot all of the moeny form sellig it. If the price range was similar to sound canvas VA, that owudl be a fair price.

But Roland killed VA.

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Reply 205 of 215, by RetroGamer4Ever

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Roland didn't kill VA. They simply couldn't do anything more with what they had and needed a, up-to-date replacement for it, due to the big gap between VST2 and VST3, which is what all of their offerings now use. They said they want to provide a future solution for the Sound Canvas line of products, but nothing has materialized thus far and we really don't know if anything will, despite their statement made when they sunsetted their SoundCanvas VA offering.

Reply 206 of 215, by stgiga

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RetroGamer4Ever wrote on 2026-07-05, 23:54:

Roland didn't kill VA. They simply couldn't do anything more with what they had and needed a, up-to-date replacement for it, due to the big gap between VST2 and VST3, which is what all of their offerings now use. They said they want to provide a future solution for the Sound Canvas line of products, but nothing has materialized thus far and we really don't know if anything will, despite their statement made when they sunsetted their SoundCanvas VA offering.

Undefined fate is still bad.

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Reply 207 of 215, by tcaud

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So yeah, relevant.

https://www.martinic.com/en/dev/tg100/

I'm thinking they based this on the SWP00 MAME project, rather than figuring it thru frequency analysis/tweaking alone. Thoughts?

EDIT: noticed the ROM binary linked to a Github repo. Could VampireFrog from VGMRips be the person behind "Martinic"?
https://github.com/vampirefrog/tg100

Reply 208 of 215, by zaphod77

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Interesting. the funny thing is they aren't selling it. i think they realize that they aren't allowed to.

That dev section is pretty well hidden.

But this isn't AWM2, it's AWM1. Which is not based on SWP00, but GEW8. so older tech that's not current.

Reply 209 of 215, by tcaud

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zaphod77 wrote on 2026-07-16, 03:31:

Interesting. the funny thing is they aren't selling it. i think they realize that they aren't allowed to.

That dev section is pretty well hidden.

But this isn't AWM2, it's AWM1. Which is not based on SWP00, but GEW8. so older tech that's not current.

They are selling the reverb emulation as standalone elsewhere on the site. It went on sale last month.

Reply 210 of 215, by zaphod77

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i noticed that. but it's still AWM1, not 2, which is probably why yamaha hasn't come after them.

Reply 211 of 215, by silvally03@

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MAME MU lacks PLG.

Reply 212 of 215, by stgiga

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silvally03@ wrote on 2026-07-21, 20:41:

MAME MU lacks PLG.

Actually they're working on it

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Reply 213 of 215, by stgiga

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silvally03@ wrote on 2026-07-21, 20:41:

MAME MU lacks PLG.

Actually they're working on it

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Reply 214 of 215, by zapbuzz

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when MAME is finished I hope the details are made known on this forum a lot of people remember Yamaha XG

Reply 215 of 215, by stgiga

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zapbuzz wrote on 2026-07-27, 02:01:

when MAME is finished I hope the details are made known on this forum a lot of people remember Yamaha XG

A lot of XG's special features are quite rare. Post-128 MUs such as MU1000, MU2000 and the EX versions, as well as MU500, are Japanese only. The PLG-SG only came out in Japan, but because it actually does expose synthesis over SysEx in a way that directly controls the Formant and noise, you can actually get English out of it if you don't use Yamaha's software. Oh and you can do this with any language. Also it has the ability to define custom voices. Someone ported Christina Aguilera to it. It's a lot like CSM mode on older FM chips (OPM, OPL1, OPL2, OPN1, OPN2, OPNA, OPNB, and YM2610B, but I can't rule out its existence on OPZ and OPZ2 due to their OPM origin) or the HV mode on newer MA chips (I think MA-5 and MA-7). The SG is apparently OPL-derived. My favorite voice on it is F-Boyish.

MAME could handle PLG-SG without a ROM sample table.

MAME supports DX7 and AN1x emulation so a PLG-DX and PLG-AN could be added via recycling but you'd need to account for the fact that the DX PLG is a DX7-II and the differences between AN1x and PLG-AN. MAME currently is working on PLG-VL and one of the piano PLGs, I think AP. A few other PLGs are very much ROMplers like the drum ones.

The PLG-DX is unique in that its factory patches are GM+XG. It's a shame you only can use it for one MIDI channel, because it would be cool for Sound Blaster lovers but I'd say my Jummbox bank due to it being better than ESFM would be a crude way to replicate its factory patches. All the other PLGs don't use GM ordering. The PLG-PF has some unfortunate patch names. The DX PLG requires SysEx tricks more than others due to it being a full DX7-II on a PLG.

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