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All the MIDIs at this site were set up to play on a Roland SCB-55 daughtercard (and compatibles). Now that's also called the Roland SCD-15, which has a PCMCIA equivalent, and this is also like the older Roland SCC-1b module, and the newer Roland SC-55mkII module, and the latest Roland SC-88 Pro (in SC-55 mode).

 
         

  Generally, it's very frustrating to set up a MIDI to sound just right on certain equipment, the instruments and blends all perfectly balanced, the chorus and reverb just right, just like a studio guy might do, and then have someone play it back and it sounds all wrong; and I mean wrong like your new Tchiakovsky CD sounding like a cross between a Sousa march and some guy revving a leaf blower. As a novice, someone new to computers and MIDI, they may not even realize something's wrong, but that this is actually how MIDIs are supposed to sound. It's all because a MIDI file, passed around on 'the net', isn't like the studio guy's finely polished audio recording only because one cannot guarantee what equipment is used to play back the MIDI (well . . . not only that, but . . ).

  If the MIDI is like a roll that fits in a player piano, then imagine the studio guy wants to remember the various things he's done, very specifically, and so carefully whittles at notches to get the right note overlap, punches the effects notches (we'll say) into the roll just when needed, and uses that particular piano he has in the studio because he thinks it's the best for the job. But then, when all is ready, instead of shipping the carefully mixed studio recording of the song, he ships the piano roll, instead. You would sort of need the same piano; because even if you had a player zither, or something, and as 'interesting' as the roll might sound playing on your zither, it wouldn't really be what he (or she) intended.

  The reason for this odd state of affairs is simply due to GM - General MIDI. It's a standard format for MIDI files which allows synths from all manufacturers, and all sort of software MIDI players, to trigger sounds with the same MIDI. GM allows for playback of a GM compatible MIDI (including GS) on any GM compatible device. The problem, of course, is that GM never standardized how the sounds were supposed to . . . sound. In a sense, then, the previous state of affairs, where proprietary formats were saved for particular synths might almost be thought of as an improvement over the current state of affairs - except: as you can see below, I recommend simply revoicing, even resequencing where necessary, a MIDI which sounds awful on your equipment, to make it sound good (if not better).

  Therefore, I would say that MIDI playback quality depends, among other things, on:

  • The synthesizer you have, even just if it's a PC card,
  • instruments/patches used for each channel, of course,
  • the settings like reverb, chorus and the like used for each channel,
  • and, of course, the quality and acoustics of the equipment used to listen to it.

  The stuff which depends on the synthesizer might be expected. But as with audio, say as played on an AM radio, or off a CD on your stereo, the equipment and acoustics can easily change the 'tone' or character of the MIDI, and of each instrument, even the perceived strength or loudness of each, which can alter the whole mix or blend of the song. If played back through cheap speakers, like those little $5 computer speakers, at the least the bass is missing altogether. When played back through the stereo equipment I have, which is not very good, some of these MIDIs just don't sound well mixed. For example, the guitars might sound like they're in another room, the drums might drown out everything else, some layering or blend of instruments might sound waay too 'synthy', and so on. And 'wavetable' synths, but particularly FM, can generate sounds (at least wide volume changes) that a studio engineer would typically smooth out for a commercial recording, so it would sound good on your home stereo - just for example (though, one could get much of the same 'smoothing' by using SysEx to change the character of the patches for particular synths). ).

  Similarly, a lot of MIDIs sound very different depending on whether headphones are used. And I tend to prefer headphones because they don't 'round out' the sound the way some cheaper stereo equipment might - you get a sharper, crisper (more FM, if you will) kind of sound. And the particular headphone I like is a walkman-type from Sony, Model MDR-15. Everything on these pages will sound fine through a MDR-15 plugged directly into an SCB-55 (SCD-15) Roland sound card; more specifically, to the speaker port on the sound card to which the Roland was attached. (Now Sony also has an MDR-007, a cheaper model, which tends not to pick up so much bass, by the way, as the MDR-15 (with its bass boost), or as high a highs; and they have even more expensive models, too, such as the Digital Reference series, like the CD 250 which I use for final mix).

  And but for a wee bit o soapbox, here, if it were possible to produce a sort of one-size-fitz-all MIDI arrangement (paralleling, perhaps, the unreasonable demands of certain other 'purists' in the context of HTML and web design), that would be fine. But there are really only two ways to do so.

  • find a synth that most people use, that's become kind of a standard particularly for novice computerists,
  • do like the studio engineer and record the thing to audio, adding whatever else you would.

  As for the first, Beatnik and others have been trying to establish such a position on the internet for a while, so that one could be reasonably certain of a quality sound heard on various platforms and by a large number of listeners. As for the second, I myself provide a number of remixed and enhanced mp3s of the MIDIs you find here. If restricted entirely to playback on any unknown synth, however, if one even could skip back and forth between XG, GS, WinGroove, a GM module and keyboard or two, and even a couple of versions of FM on the PC, and reach a happy mean, it might not be a pleasing compromise if entirely substituted for specific renditions. What you'd likely have is a lowest mean, stripped down GM version that might sound sort of nice on FM, but which couldn't use your synth in the way it was literally designed to be used. So I went with a GM version, an FM, of course a Roland GS, maybe one for speakers if a low-end stereo might not pick up certain stuff, maybe an XG-specific version, in time, or to just leave open the suggestion that, if the MIDI sounds odd or weird on whatever equipment you're using for playback, you could remix these, yourself, for whatever equipment you have - might even be fun.

  And some MIDIs just sound good, regardless; just a fortunate and even carefully designed blend of instruments and effects, and sometimes regardless of how much the MIDI uses GS instruments or SysEx. It's just that some MIDIs are funny that way, or that certain instruments and certain styles of music lend themselves better to more consistent sound on various GM compatible synths. Arranging is thought by many the most time consuming aspect of studio production, and that's when they are recording out to audio, with generally complete control over the resulting sound and cut, and with thousands of dollars of studio gear to support them. It is that the MIDI files are the player piano roll, and you just don't know what kind of keyboard it's getting rolled into. So you can produce for a particular card, or module, or synth, with certain acoustics, and then hope it's even audible on very different 'pianos' which can also play the scroll.
 

          
 

 
 

Omagawd! -- FM!
 

 
 

If all you have is a G(eneral) M(IDI) patch-set on a cheap 20-30 dollar F(requency) M(odulation), Soundblaster-clone PC card, all is not necessarily lost. The sound won't even approach that of a 'wavetable' sythesizer, but you might be able to get some sound out of a MIDI; even those carefully tuned for a GS wavetable, such as those at this site.
 
[And a comment on just this. The sound of even a good FM synth compares with the Ensoniq, Korg, Roland, Yamaha or whatever decent 'wavetables' in the same way someone coughing in rush-hour traffic off on the shoulder compares with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir rigged with a state of the art recording system. Frankly, it's not possible to exaggerate the difference.]
 
On the Windows platform, and for FM in particular, Windows supplies a Windows Sound System, which is not always activated. When it is, however, this invariably provides a much smoother, rounder sound than playing in what is typically called - 'Soundblaster mode' (which is truly a curse for MIDI). There are features on the generic sound cards for '3-D' sound, which is an echo or reverb, I think. This can round out and richen an FM sound, as well (when it doesn't otherwise just get in the way). In addition, the Windows drivers or apps may send out the signals to the synth somewhat slower (or something, I don't know), but at any rate giving a harsher or more grating sound that, say, a sequencer which tends to bypass a lot of the higher level Windows MIDI junk.

Some things to know about FM synthesizers.

  1. It does not really pick up many parts of the drum kit; lousy drums! That's why a lot of classical and jazz demos sound nice on FM, with the strings and harps, flutes and synth pads, but you won't really hear any heavy metal or hard rock; not that you can't get a very percussive sound going, but FM is not even on the same page compared with 'wavetable' for CD quality sound.

  2. Given the much smaller set of instruments, and the somewhat cheesy way the sounds are generated, sometimes there's just no comparable GM sound for a GS or XG instrument.

  3. For somewhat the same reason, FM has real difficulty with notes in the low octaves. Try a guitar with low, growling notes, and it might just sound like mush in FM.

  4. While FM does not allow for a full surround kind of sound, if the GM patches more or less work, a fuller sound is often had if the card's manufacturer provided such (like the Windows Sound System, or others a '3D Surround' sound, or whatever). This can get you closer to 'wavetable', in a sense; not much closer, but . . .

Having said all that, nonetheless, here are a few guidelines if you must remix any of these for GM/FM.

First, the GS picked bass might have to be changed to the GM picked or fingered bass. It might not be automatic. Fretless bass shouldn't be a problem. An overdrive guitar playing high note lead should be changed to GM distortion guitar, which is louder. Vocal, choir leads should be made into GM accordian, or again something brassier and louder in order to be heard. There's nothing much you can do with the drums. They're just going to be muffled and mushy. And if the rhythm is a driving distortion guitar, it may be difficult to find a GM substitute. In some cases, a bass & lead, or cello, or sawtooth, or something 'buzzy' might work, in others, it might need to be transposed up an octave, in others, just selecting the fingered bass (or maybe a contrabass) might quiet it down if need be, particularly if it has a lot of low notes one wants to keep as is. Or even the overdrive guitar might do the trick, here; though you can't just as a rule swap overdrive for distortion and vice versa. Then again, for the rhythm guitar, there may be nothing satisfactory.

[And just one last thing. If you use the little Voyetra mixer, if it's still shipping with various cards, be careful that you don't e-mail or send off your version after re-mixing. Old versions of this mixer, even perhaps current versions, liked to strip off text, copyright, and all sorts of identifying information in MIDI files, as soon as you saved it to disk. Better to get a sequencer (the Winjammer shareware is, I believe, still only $50).]

 

 

 
 
       GM and XG synths, and GM 'virtual/soft' synths     

 

  Just a further note, too, on any GM synth. Many of these MIDIs, particularly the original ones, are set up for a 'hard-rocking', full-on GS synthesizer. That is, the above note largely dealt with how GM instruments were generated - by FM. But GM can be generated by 'wavetable', as well. And these instruments or patches can be every bit as good as the GS Roland. Then the problem, as already noted, becomes not the means of generation, but the limited set of instruments, themselves.
 
  It may be that a 'wavetable' GM synth, as opposed to FM GM, can produce some very lush strings, some believable horns, some nice bass and acoustic guitars, harps, much else. But if Beatnik, is typical at least of GM 'virtual' synthesizers, then these MIDIs would have to be set up, voiced, for just the right GM instruments; and except for the few originals I remixed for FM, these are all pretty GS specific. Again, this may not be such the problem with some of the hardware GM 'wavetables', perhaps - but it seems to be with Beatnik, so I mention it, here. What sets Beatnik apart from mere synths, just to note, is that it can incorporate compressed audio files (supposedly mp3) along with the sound fonts (instrument samples), if one takes the time to tailor a Beatnik file (and just btw it is designed to be 'web friendly', run on slow dial-ups, and be very interactive).
 
  I should mention, too, that I have listened to the Yamaha XG, and found it was not really suited for hard rock or metal MIDIs. The instruments are nice, but the rock guitars are too nice, and where they are not too 'sweet', they're way too synthy sounding for a high-end synth. Some of the patches sound only like FM plus, in my humble opinion; while others, admittedly, are very realistic. Now, one could produce nice jazz MIDIs, nice 'new age' and mellow stuff, slow rock and blues. But from what I've heard, the XG patches tend to be sort of light, 'whiney', synthy, likely good for light, airy pieces, or synthy dance-pop stuff, but you just can't get the guitars to growl. It's entirely different than GS. It's almost like a super-FM, in a way, whereas GS is more flat out CD-quality with realistic instruments.
 
  As an example, there's a Voodoo Child MIDI going around, sequenced by UBIK, I think, which was supposed to be a demo for the XG. Even though the GS doesn't pick up some of the MIDI which is XG specific, I still think that Hendrix MIDI sounds better on GS, than on XG. Anyhow, I've got an XG card of my own, and after playing around with it some more, when I can, I'll see if my opinion changes much.
 
  This might be a good point to mention, WinGroove, as well, another software GM synth. WinGroove sounds/instruments seem to match in some cases with the higher end Roland and Yamaha instruments; deep bass, interesting overtones, and so on. The MIDIs still might need to be set up just for WinGroove, as especially if they otherwise use GS or XG specific instruments. But it's generally comparable - within certain octave ranges. For example, some of the original rock MIDIs, here, take the overdrive lead guitar through sometimes three octaves. The Roland handles the low with a growl and a pleasing sound (matter of taste, ultimately). The Yamaha has more difficulty. And Wingroove has real trouble. Similarly, you might get odd effects due to reverb and chorus in WinGroove not found with the Roland and Yamaha; sometimes a lot of 'flanging'. And WinGroove might get to sounding choppy, say for the overdrive guitar, if soft notes and loud notes tend to follow one another, as with a run of triplets (the XG can suffer, here, too). But since WinGroove is only a 20 dollar soft synth, all in all, in can't be faulted for not sounding like the hardware or even software synths from Roland and Yamaha. But for the right slow piece, light effects, long notes, in just the right octave, it comes surprizingly close (I like it).
 
  Ultimately then, as a last resort, or even first resort, you could try to remix these MIDIs for your 'wavetable' GM, as previously suggested for FM sound generation. It may not be easy, and it may take time. And you may find no instrument can be satisfactorily substituted.