Re: Best Daughter Board-- WHICH ONE?

From: suntzu@deltanet.com (Sun Tzu)
Date: 1995/10/03

references: <1995Sep30.035918.28523@galileo.cc.rochester.edu> <44ijnd$b5s@newsbf02.news.aol.com>
organization: Delta Internet Services, Anaheim, CA
newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.games

rdclark@aol.com (RDClark) wrote:


>Wavetable synths all sound different from one another. Here's how you
>decide: 

>Question: Which one sounds exactly like the synths used by the
>professional composers who create General MIDI scores for games.

>Answer: the Roland. The Sound Canvas is the industry-standard General MIDI
>synth. Roland daughterboards use the same General MIDI patches as the
>standalone GS synths.

Well Richard - all I can say (as a professional composer who creates
General MIDI scores myself) is that the Roland Sound Canvas is what we
used to use - I for one (and quite a few of my associates) have
switched over to the Yamaha MU80 and DB50XG.  

As far as the Roland Daughterboards are concerned they are extremly
similiar to the the professional synthes that Roland makes - but not
exactly - there are differences which drove me up the wall!  That's
what makes the new XG standard from Yamaha so appealing - the voice
sets are identical up and down their product line - yes, the higher
you go ($$) you get more voices and larger wave rom, but the base
voicing is the same - unlike the SCD15, and SC88.  I can write on the
MU80 and as long as I follow a few simple rules - the song will
playback on the DB50XG just as good!

>Conclusion: For gamers, it's irrelevant which daughterboard sounds "best."
>It only matters which one provides sound as close to what the composer was
>hearing as possible. Get the Roland.

Not quite - most consumers can't afford to own ALL the products that I
hear during the composition process,  not only couldn't they afford
it, the wireing <s> alone would drive most people to drink :-) But if
the composer is worth his salt - then ANY good GM device i.e. the
Ensoniq, the Roland or the Yamaha will reproduce the music with all of
the original sound quality that the budget minded enduser really
needs!

- ST


BTW: Please remember I said - ANY GOOD GM device.  There are alot of
GM devices out there that I wouldn't use if you payed me to!
Always

Sun Tzu
Disorder arises from order, cowardices arises from courage, 
weakness arises from strength