"So what software synth would you suggest? I think it's a toss up between Roland Virtual Sound Canvas and Yamaha S-YXG50."

timidity++?

When it comes to system stability on WinXP, I would have to say that the Roland Virtual Sound Canvas v3.23 will lead to the occasional BSOD when running under WinXP due to some deficiency in the device driver coding. It might be stable under Win9x, however.

better that the Microsoft GM/GS soft-synth which licensed Roland Sound Set digital samples.

I believe that the VSTi or DXi plug-in versions included in the VSC-MP1 package do not use a device driver and appear stable for now

To gain system stability under WinXP, it is possible to use the Roland VSC v3.23 included VSTi plug-in version of the Roland VSC sound set with the following tools:

1.) The SAVIHost single VSTi by Herman Seib
2.) The Maple Virtual Midi Cable by Jeff Hurchalla

Basically you have to install the complete Roland VSC v3.23 package, just to install the v1.00 VSTi VSC.DLL file. There is a Roland update to VSC.DLL version 1.01 available. Use the Maple Virtual Midi cables to redirect the WinXP MIDI stream to the SAVIHost instance of the Roland VSTi and you are in business without the WinXP BSODs. This does mean manually starting (or a batch/script file) the SAVIHost Roland VSTi instance and redirecting the Windows MIDI output before starting said Dosbox hosted game. Remember that the VSTi implementation does default to the SC-88pro waveRom sound set.

The Roland Virtual Sound Canvas Multi-pack (VSC-MP1) CD-ROM is still sold by music instrument/device re-sellers such as Sweetwater. The VSC-MP1 does not appear to be available as a pay download.

As to the Yamaha S-YXG50 v4.23.14S WDM 2MB WaveRom version, it seems to be available sometimes on eBay,

or as VOGONS member Zup indicated in the game Final Fantasy VII. The typical version has Yamaha 2MB compressed WaveROM files. Unless an update is performed to bring the Yamaha SXGXGWDM.SYS driver to version 5.13.2600.3 you will have BSODs under WinXP.

OK, here are the direct links to the Microsoft CAB files which update the Yamaha S-YXG50 v4.23.14S WDM soft-synth to be stable under Windows XP (SP2/SP3). One links to the CAB update for a 2MB WaveROM/driver/DLL update. The other links to the CAB update for a 4MB WaveROM/driver/DLL update. I would recommend downloading these fairly soon as Microsoft probably does not realize that these two Yamaha update CAB files are still available on their servers.


Microsoft download CAB update files for Yamaha S-YXG50:

Yamaha S-YXG50 v4.23.14S WDM 2MB WaveROM update: MU50 2MB V2.0
Yamaha S-YXG50 v4.23.14S WDM 4MB WaveROM update: MU50 4MB V2.0


You might wish to use extraction software such as Universal Extractor to extract the update files from the CAB files. There is a SXGXGWDM.INF file for installation of the updated files.

Now for how the two soft-synths, Roland and Yamaha sound in game as compared to hardware synths, real and emulated SoundBlaster audio cards and real and emulated Gravis Ultrasound audio cards. For your listening pleasure here are seventeen audio/audio-video examples of the possible selections for 'music cards' in the audio configuration of the 1994 DOS game SYSTEM SHOCK, to include both soft-synths under discussion. The example XMIDI file is the Introduction theme to SYSTEM SHOCK. Many of these audio files were graciously provided by forum member 5u3 The audio/AVI samples are to be found in links contained in this post at the QuestStudios forum.

Best of luck,

dvwjr

Hmm I have ff VII I thought that it was only a special mode to use a soft synth, not that it was included on the discs. I do believe you though, So I've had a nice soft synth on my shelves for all those years and never used it...

S-YXG100 Sondius XG SoftwareSynthesizer combines the S-YXG50 software XG engine with the SVA physical modeling techniques used by Yamaha's VL1, VL7 and VL70m tone generators. Sondius XG takes the existing S-YXG50 engine and adds 256 preset VL voices conforming to the VL/XG spec of the VL70m. It also combines the Voice mode programmability and parameters of the VL70m.

Well, I recommended Yamaha synths for old computers (Win95, Win98). Any computer capable of running XP will be happy with timidity++.

Was S-YXG70 the synth in FF VII?

I thought it was 50... I didn't install it, that time I had a Sound Blaster AWE64. FF VII had generic MIDI files, and two special sets of MIDI files: one for Yamaha synths, and one for Sound Blaster AWE (it included some soundfonts to enhace the music... at least it had chocobo sounds).

Okay.

The s-yxg70 that comes with final fantasy is literally the s-yxg20 and the s-yxg50 in te saem program.

And yes, it only works on 98.

But buried in windows update is an update that works on xp. an dguess what? it doesnt' need a serial. just extract the cab manually, then install the driver manually. sure, you won't have the control panel, but it's not really needed, and you can tweak settings inside the registry directly.

AS for VSC, roland is blocking direct downloads from ftp now. I WAS able to find a later upgrade though. it's a bit harder to extract the DLL from the file, but it works just as well with savihost.

Now S-YXG50 doesn't work on vista. at all.