VST synth that does General Midi ?

ORIGINAL: Zelmoman

Greetings:

I need some advice, please !

I switched from "soundblaster" audio cards to an M-Audio 2496 a few years ago. The only thing I miss about the SB cards is the free built-in General Midi synth. U have racks of hardware synths, some of which do General Midi, but patching and configuring them just for a quick demo is a pain.

What I'd like to have is a free (or cheap) VST plugin General Midi synth for Sonar 5. I have plenty of computing horsepower.

I searched for a while, but didn't find anything. Is there such a thing? Again, I don't need any better sound quality than the SB had, just something more convenient than the external gear.

Thanks, direct replies welcomed.

First, if you have Sonar 5P, then you have TTS-1 DXI, which is essentially the same as Edirol Hypercanvas. It's not bad and it's included with Sonar.

My current personal favorite is Forte DXI. I'd like to see it in VSTI format as well, but DXI is certainly usable in most of my current hosts.

There are other romplers that offer some level of GM compatibility, but they have some issues (IMHO):
- Omnisyth is based on Sampletank 2 LE engine, and I don't believe it auto-loads patches in response to bank and program change
- Bandstand is expensive and has gotten mediocre reviews - in particular patch changes take a significant time.
- Purity is expensive and the reviews aren't much better.
- Edirol VSC (used to be bundled with Sonar until TTS-1 replaced it) is pretty lame for $50 when ForteDXI is $40.
- Colussus is VERY expensive.

Doug

ORIGINAL: pete carr

Is Forte DXI better then TTS-1?
Thanks.

Download the demo and compare for yourself (link in my post above). I prefer it myself.

Doug

Being a DXI and TTS-1 being a VST is one easier or more complex to setup?
Thanks.

ORIGINAL: pete carr

Being a DXI and TTS-1 being a VST is one easier or more complex to setup?

TTS-1 is a DXI, and I believe it's installed already (by default) in Sonar 5.

You just insert it into your project to use it.

BTW, I like Omnisynth (and am looking forward to Omnisoundz 2), but if you're expecting it to read the MIDI bank/program changes and automatically set up, I haven't found a way to do it with the ST2 engine.

Another possible is a GM soundfont (Papelmedia, Sonic Implants, Ntonyx, freebies, etc) + your choice of soundfont player (sfz for example). It's not as smooth as, say, TTS-1 or Forte, but it can be done for free or inexpensively.

Doug

ORIGINAL: maikii

I use Yamaha XG-50, which I bought years ago. It is not officially available any more, but I think there are places on the net you can download it.

How do you use it? Was there even such a thing as a VSTi or a DXi in 1997?

ORIGINAL: Phoenix

Microsoft GS Wavetable synth will not show up in Sonar if you use WDM drivers. It will with ASIO, though, or MME. XG-50 will work with WDM.
But if you have Sonar 5, why not just create a template with TTS-1 already set up? It sounds better anyway.

I find the XG-50 interesting because of the XG synth. About 15 computer generations ago I had an pre-PCI (I can't even remember the bus name, IDE?) soundcard that had XG for its GM soundset. I really liked the wierd things you could do wioth XGedit. I bought a CS1x because it supported the XG soundset and controls. I sold the CS1x, and have been XGless for over 5 years. When I saw the remarks in this thread, I thought that using it as a v-synth would be a neat way to get XG back. I don't doubt that the TTS-1 is probably a better sounding GM synth. I really don't care about that (I have a 5 GB GM set I put together in GigaStudio), I'd just like to play with an XG synth again.