Malik wrote:

Anyone have any experience with both the SC-55 and a DB50/60XG General MIDI music comparison for games and playing MIDI files? […]
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Anyone have any experience with both the SC-55 and a DB50/60XG General MIDI music comparison for games and playing MIDI files?

How does the XG format fare against GS?

I'm having the MKII, and wondering if I should get a DB60XG being sold locally which comes with a Vortex2 card.

Any ideas? Thanks!

I would recommend keeping the SC-55 since most GM games were composed on this hardware and sound best on it and you can use it with games that support "Roland Sound Canvas"
No games except Final Fantasy VII support XG midi.
The DB/SW XG boards are GM compatible though

Amigaz wrote:

I would recommend keeping the SC-55 since most GM games were composed on this hardware and sound best on it and you can use it with games that support "Roland Sound Canvas"

That's good to hear! Thanks! Yeah I really like the SC's sounds!

This link was posted on one of the forums here (I forget which) - it has recordings of games music using various cards. From what I heard on it, SC-55 was best synthesizer, but MT-32 and DB50XG were both very good too.

http://www.dosforum.de/soundcards/

Amigaz wrote:

No games except Final Fantasy VII support XG midi.

IMO this game is worth getting the Yamaha 😀

GL1zdA wrote:

Amigaz wrote:

No games except Final Fantasy VII support XG midi.

IMO this game is worth getting the Yamaha 😀

Yep 😀

And people back then thought the music on the PC port of FF VII sucked but they never heard it with XG midi ,)

I believe FFVII did some with a Yamaha software synthesizer that came close to the sound of the hardware.

rumbadumba wrote:

This link was posted on one of the forums here (I forget which) - it has recordings of games music using various cards. From what I heard on it, SC-55 was best synthesizer, but MT-32 and DB50XG were both very good too.

http://www.dosforum.de/soundcards/

Thanks for the Link!

in XG mode, the DB50/60XG daughterboards are way better than any other. the problem is that expect FFVII and maybe some shareware games, no other game uses the enhanced XG mode. Basically in GM mode both DB50/60 and SC55 sound excellent... if you don't have a real MT32ish synth, keep the SC55

I'm having both MT-32 and SC-55. Just wanted to know how XG fares when it comes to General MIDI in the later generation of DOS games, where the GM standard started appearing.
I guess both these synths are more than enough! 😀
Thanks!

yes they are both of the same quality more or less...

XG has better reverb but this is only exploited in XG mode.

Malik: Anyone have any experience with both the SC-55 and a DB50/60XG General MIDI music comparison for games and playing MIDI files?
How does the XG format fare against GS?
I'm having the MKII, and wondering if I should get a DB60XG being sold locally which comes with a Vortex2 card.

Can equip my soundcard with either a Yamaha DB50XG or a Roland SCD-10/SCB-7 (GM only). I would rate them about the same, though I slightly prefer the DB50XG. Both cards rarely give sounds that seem out of balance, as other wavetables tend to do, when playing 1993 to 1996 game midi's.
I had the DB50XG earlier, so I am afraid that kinda created a personal reference point. It seems a bit more agressive on drums and on synthy waveforms then the Roland wavetable.
I do not have many game midi's with GS, and none with XG commands. Almost half of them do not use chorus/reverb.

I see that the XG has very limited native support. And only one game so far from your posts. Maybe some XG enthusiasts may create midi files specifically written for it.

Other than that, not much of differences in terms of GM sounds, with few exceptions as you all have mentioned.

Thanks a lot for all your good experience sharing!
I will stick with my SC-55 and MT-32.

Yeah, VGMusic.com has a lot of midis written with the XG set in mind.

I have a small collection of Roland and Yamaha midi stuff.
SC-88VL
SCD-15 x2
SCD-10
SCC-1
DB50XG x2
MU90

The Roland sounds better than Yamaha IMO on most games. Yamaha percussion samples are better, but if the game was composed on the Roland then the drums are much more pronounced and sort of ruin the balance of the song. If composed on the Yamaha though, it sounds great.

Overall, if you only want one, get the Roland.

Edit: He he. I picked up another SCD-15

valnar wrote:

I have a small collection of Roland and Yamaha midi stuff. SC-88VL SCD-15 SCD-10 SCC-1 DB50XG x2 MU90 […]
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I have a small collection of Roland and Yamaha midi stuff.
SC-88VL
SCD-15
SCD-10
SCC-1
DB50XG x2
MU90

The Roland sounds better than Yamaha IMO on most games. Yamaha percussion samples are better, but if the game was composed on the Roland then the drums are much more pronounced and sort of ruin the balance of the song. If composed on the Yamaha though, it sounds great.

Overall, if you only want one, get the Roland.

Whoa! 😳 Those are all not a small collection! 😀

I was playing Heretic last night and turned up the volume in my SC-55. The cymbals sounds were so real, i could have sworn I was in an audio studio! 😁

I have found the GK1 sounds really good on the db60xg even though it was composed on the sound canvas.

Malik wrote:

I was playing Heretic last night and turned up the volume in my SC-55. The cymbals sounds were so real, i could have sworn I was in an audio studio! 😁

Arghh! I am jealous! I have been using Heretic to test my DOS sound is working... I have an SB16 + DB50XG, and a GUS ACE.

On the GUS ACE, the cymbals sound like cymbals. On the DB50XG (General MIDI in sound setup) they sound like someone using a comb and a piece of paper. Using the SB for music they sound like someone fanning paper. Kind of weird I never noticed this when I played the game before on different hardware. I guess I am just getting more attuned to the differences in hardware.

What did you think of the lead guitar differences between the DB50 and ACE?