Roland vs Yamaha General MIDI DOS Games Music Comparison

Mau1wurf1977 · 15th July 2012, 11:31 PM

I know not everyone is as much into PC gaming as I am, but even so you might find this little "Battle of General MIDI Titans" quite interesting

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MpnZlOJIqw

Embedded Video:

Back in the day of MS Dos and games such as Doom or Descent, General MIDI was all the rage. Almost every sound card company had a General MIDI capable product. But two companies stood out:

Roland and Yamaha.

Roland's Sound Canvas was really the main General MIDI standard and used my most game studios for testing and balancing their General MIDI soundtracks.

BUT this means that they aren't that easy to find these days, and if you do, be prepared to pay for it. On eBay however, you can find these fairly cheap NEC 385 wavetable boards. These are clones of the Yamaha DB60GX and fit on any sound card with a wavetable connector.

Some people swear by the General MIDI sound of these Yamaha boards, some stick with Roland. Now you can listen to both of them. I hope I made this comparison fair, interesting and fun to watch.

Personally I will stick to Roland. I had a Sound Canvas wavetable board when I was young so I am used to the way they sound. But if you have only experienced and grown up with Sound Blaster music then you might prefer the sound of Yamaha.

In the end it's all about the games and that we enjoy ourselves. So pick whatever you prefer and be happy!

Games featured in this video:

- Doom
- Doom 2
- Duke Nukem 3D
- Descent
- Raptor
- Warcraft
- Warcraft 2
- Space Quest 5
- Dark Forces
- Sam and Max

tompee · 10th August 2012, 4:36 PM

Interesting video.
I watched you intro, Doom, Doom2, fastforwarded to Warcraft (a game I loved to death) and Spacequest.

In general, the Roland seems to have stronger midrange, the Yamaha stronger top end? So in different situations they both sounded better. E.g. the heavy opening track for Doom sounds better on Yamaha.
BUT I just wonder if you ran each card through a mixer, if you couldn't get them sounding a lot closer to each other

dacow · 10th August 2012, 8:34 PM

Awesome video Mau!

mcandmar · 12th August 2012, 2:17 PM

Watching the into for these games gave me some serious flash backs, its funny how the smallest of details in the animation and music comes back to you as though you only played it yesterday

I was going to say i prefer the Yamaha, but some of the games sounded better on the Roland. I have to wonder if it depends on whatever the developers were using when they wrote the music in the first place.

Either way thanks for the trip down memory lane

elvis · 13th August 2012, 12:00 AM

Finally had the time to listen to this tonight. Great stuff.

I *love* your videos. I hope you keep making them forever.

NSanity · 13th August 2012, 9:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcandmar

I was going to say i prefer the Yamaha, but some of the games sounded better on the Roland. I have to wonder if it depends on whatever the developers were using when they wrote the music in the first place

The reasoning for that is probably nostalgia.

*most* people were playing with Sound Blaster cards, which sound pretty much identical to the Yamaha (at least for the Doom E1M1 music).

I still remember the first time i heard a Roland Midi synth on Doom (some 5-6 years after playing it non-stop), I didn't like it. Not because it was bad, but because it was unfamiliar.

Awww shit. Now I watched the rest of it. I have this raging hard on for nostalgia at this point. I wonder how hard it is to find a working 4:3 800x600 lcd monitor and the rest of the kit.

elvis · 13th August 2012, 9:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NSanity

Awww shit. Now I watched the rest of it. I have this raging hard on for nostalgia at this point. I wonder how hard it is to find a working 4:3 800x600 lcd monitor and the rest of the kit.

Compared to other retro gaming/collecting hobbies, finding retro x86 PC hardware is a walk in the park, and incredibly cheap.

Reaper · 14th August 2012, 6:55 PM

Much prefer Yamaha/nec. Especially in doom at the start.

Yamaha = cool rock.
Roland = Quack quack quack.

In other games, was pretty much the same. The roland sounded either like a duck, or if someone put cloth over the speakers.

elvis · 14th August 2012, 7:07 PM

I'm going to bust out the good headphones and have another listen to this tonight.

I only had an AWE64, which was as far as my MIDI appreciation went. Since then I've mucked around with Timidity and various soundfont packs, but I'd love to get a hold of some real MIDI gear one day.

Reaper · 14th August 2012, 7:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elvis

I'm going to bust out the good headphones and have another listen to this tonight.

I only had an AWE64, which was as far as my MIDI appreciation went. Since then I've mucked around with Timidity and various soundfont packs, but I'd love to get a hold of some real MIDI gear one day.

I bought the memory upgrade for my awe64 gold and have 32mb soundbanks loaded.

How real you want to get over that?

Here you go then; http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/251028179...84.m1423.l2649

elvis · 14th August 2012, 7:30 PM

I did have a $20 Yamaha PCI sound card I bought in the Win2K days that did wavetable capabilities, although they were some sort of weird hybrid hardware/software solution that were driver dependent.

I actually bought the thing purely for it's optical in/out (to go with my Minidisc player, because clearly Minidisc was the next big thing and going to take over the world... idiot!). So the wavetable capabilities were a nice surprise.

Reaper · 14th August 2012, 8:09 PM

Cool story bro. Just buy that one I linked you and plug it into a sb16 already.

DonutKing · 15th August 2012, 7:08 AM

Sb16's are a poor choice, because they all have the hanging note bug if you use the card for midi and digital sound at the same time, and they have noisy output/poor snr.

I use a yamaha YMF719 ISA sound card to run my midi, it has great sound output quality and the midi works flawlessly, although it's too small to fit the XR385 so I just wired up a 20 ribbon cable to connect it to the sound card, then just used rubber bands and plastic standoffs to keep it in place.

if that sound like too much effort you can get a Yamaha MU10XG and attach it externally, track diwn an SW60XG (standalone ISA version of the DB50XG)or if you have PCI slots, I believe the YMF724 and YMF744 have wavetable MIDI with almost the same samples as the DB50XG and the XR385 clone.

I personally much prefer the Yamaha synth sound, so much do that I sold my Roland SC 55mkII since I wasn't using it. The instruments sounded a lot more natural to me on the Yamaha particularly the bass guitar.

15th July 2012, 11:31 PM	#1
Mau1wurf1977 Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Country WA Posts: 12,949	Roland vs Yamaha General MIDI DOS Games Music Comparison I know not everyone is as much into PC gaming as I am, but even so you might find this little "Battle of General MIDI Titans" quite interesting Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MpnZlOJIqw Embedded Video: Back in the day of MS Dos and games such as Doom or Descent, General MIDI was all the rage. Almost every sound card company had a General MIDI capable product. But two companies stood out: Roland and Yamaha. Roland's Sound Canvas was really the main General MIDI standard and used my most game studios for testing and balancing their General MIDI soundtracks. BUT this means that they aren't that easy to find these days, and if you do, be prepared to pay for it. On eBay however, you can find these fairly cheap NEC 385 wavetable boards. These are clones of the Yamaha DB60GX and fit on any sound card with a wavetable connector. Some people swear by the General MIDI sound of these Yamaha boards, some stick with Roland. Now you can listen to both of them. I hope I made this comparison fair, interesting and fun to watch. Personally I will stick to Roland. I had a Sound Canvas wavetable board when I was young so I am used to the way they sound. But if you have only experienced and grown up with Sound Blaster music then you might prefer the sound of Yamaha. In the end it's all about the games and that we enjoy ourselves. So pick whatever you prefer and be happy! Games featured in this video: - Doom - Doom 2 - Duke Nukem 3D - Descent - Raptor - Warcraft - Warcraft 2 - Space Quest 5 - Dark Forces - Sam and Max __________________ Ultimate GOG.com DOSBox Tutorial, Roland vs Yamaha General MIDI DOS Games Music Comparison

13th August 2012, 12:00 AM	#5
elvis Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Brisbane Posts: 19,937	Finally had the time to listen to this tonight. Great stuff. I love your videos. I hope you keep making them forever. __________________ Child's Play Charity

14th August 2012, 6:55 PM	#8
Reaper Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Brisbane, Qld, Australia Posts: 9,104	Much prefer Yamaha/nec. Especially in doom at the start. Yamaha = cool rock. Roland = Quack quack quack. In other games, was pretty much the same. The roland sounded either like a duck, or if someone put cloth over the speakers. __________________ Code: ------ ------------------- / __ \ \|This space for rent\| _____\|__\|\|__\|_____ ---\|\|---------\|\|---

14th August 2012, 7:07 PM	#9
elvis Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Brisbane Posts: 19,937	I'm going to bust out the good headphones and have another listen to this tonight. I only had an AWE64, which was as far as my MIDI appreciation went. Since then I've mucked around with Timidity and various soundfont packs, but I'd love to get a hold of some real MIDI gear one day. __________________ Child's Play Charity

14th August 2012, 7:30 PM	#11
elvis Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Brisbane Posts: 19,937	I did have a $20 Yamaha PCI sound card I bought in the Win2K days that did wavetable capabilities, although they were some sort of weird hybrid hardware/software solution that were driver dependent. I actually bought the thing purely for it's optical in/out (to go with my Minidisc player, because clearly Minidisc was the next big thing and going to take over the world... idiot!). So the wavetable capabilities were a nice surprise. __________________ Child's Play Charity

10th August 2012, 4:36 PM	#2
tompee Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 1,205	Interesting video. I watched you intro, Doom, Doom2, fastforwarded to Warcraft (a game I loved to death) and Spacequest. In general, the Roland seems to have stronger midrange, the Yamaha stronger top end? So in different situations they both sounded better. E.g. the heavy opening track for Doom sounds better on Yamaha. BUT I just wonder if you ran each card through a mixer, if you couldn't get them sounding a lot closer to each other

10th August 2012, 8:34 PM	#3
dacow Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Sydney Posts: 149	Awesome video Mau!

12th August 2012, 2:17 PM	#4
mcandmar Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Ireland Posts: 17	Watching the into for these games gave me some serious flash backs, its funny how the smallest of details in the animation and music comes back to you as though you only played it yesterday I was going to say i prefer the Yamaha, but some of the games sounded better on the Roland. I have to wonder if it depends on whatever the developers were using when they wrote the music in the first place. Either way thanks for the trip down memory lane

14th August 2012, 8:09 PM	#12
Reaper Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Brisbane, Qld, Australia Posts: 9,104	Cool story bro. Just buy that one I linked you and plug it into a sb16 already. __________________ Code: ------ ------------------- / __ \ \|This space for rent\| _____\|__\|\|__\|_____ ---\|\|---------\|\|---

15th August 2012, 7:08 AM	#13
DonutKing Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Tweed/Gold Coast Posts: 499	Sb16's are a poor choice, because they all have the hanging note bug if you use the card for midi and digital sound at the same time, and they have noisy output/poor snr. I use a yamaha YMF719 ISA sound card to run my midi, it has great sound output quality and the midi works flawlessly, although it's too small to fit the XR385 so I just wired up a 20 ribbon cable to connect it to the sound card, then just used rubber bands and plastic standoffs to keep it in place. if that sound like too much effort you can get a Yamaha MU10XG and attach it externally, track diwn an SW60XG (standalone ISA version of the DB50XG)or if you have PCI slots, I believe the YMF724 and YMF744 have wavetable MIDI with almost the same samples as the DB50XG and the XR385 clone. I personally much prefer the Yamaha synth sound, so much do that I sold my Roland SC 55mkII since I wasn't using it. The instruments sounded a lot more natural to me on the Yamaha particularly the bass guitar. Last edited by DonutKing; 15th August 2012 at 7:14 PM.