Grand MS-DOS Gaming General MIDI Showdown
a day ago
- The article compares Roland SC-55, Yamaha MU80, and their software emulations (SCVA and S-YXG50) for DOS gaming MIDI music.
- High-quality lossless recordings of 46 DOS game soundtracks were made on 7 different MIDI modules, totaling 322 recordings.
- The Roland SC-55 was the industry standard for General MIDI in the mid-late 90s, but the Yamaha MU80 offers better build quality, samples, and effects.
- Sound Canvas VA (SCVA) is a good software substitute for SC-55, but not 100% authentic; it has minor sample and effect differences.
- Yamaha S-YXG50 is a faithful free software recreation of the MU80, but hardware MU80 has more vibrant sound due to analog output and possible digital sweetening.
- The author's subjective listening tests show the Yamaha MU80 wins 12 out of 21 games, favoring it for fuller bass, better reverb, and overall hi-fi sound.
- Despite differences, any single module provides enjoyable gaming; the SCVA and S-YXG50 are excellent affordable alternatives to expensive original hardware.
- Later Roland Sound Canvas models (SC-88, etc.) rarely improve over SC-55 for DOS games, as most music was composed for the SC-55.