Author Topic: GM/XG/GS sound cards for the Mac  (Read 4312 times)

Offline SnakeCoils

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GM/XG/GS sound cards for the Mac
« on: June 23, 2014, 02:07:37 PM »
A quick question: was the Yamaha SW-1000XG the only PCI card available for the Mac platform with onboard General Midi (or forks like the XG and GS) sound engine? Only OS9 drivers existed for it while for OSX were never developed, right?
Until now I used various Midi Expanders for playing midifiles but a good sound card with onboard samples would be a space saver for my crowded desktop :-)

supernova777

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Re: GM/XG/GS sound cards for the Mac
« Reply #1 on: June 23, 2014, 07:38:26 PM »
ive been checking for one of those to come up for sale for awhile they are like rare as hell or noone want to part with them

Offline DieHard

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Re: GM/XG/GS sound cards for the Mac
« Reply #2 on: June 23, 2014, 11:33:29 PM »
We posted some very good software alternatives (although I uderstand the yearning for a Hardware solution)

1) Edirol Hypercanvas

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=830.0

2) Roland Virtual Sound Canvas v3.0

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=875.0

Also, I have a Reason GM module for NNTX…

http://www.esoundz.com/sounds/sonic-refills-vol-06-omnisoundz-gm/1712.html


Offline SnakeCoils

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Re: GM/XG/GS sound cards for the Mac
« Reply #3 on: June 24, 2014, 10:09:17 AM »
Thank you very much for the replies. I am going to give a try to Virtual Sound Canvas: I had a SC-88Pro in the past so I am really curious to compare the playback quality between the virtual tone generator and the real hardware.

Update: The comparison against my Roland E-60 is embarrassing :-) VSC is a nice app (at zero cost) but a true tone generator in hardware is all another planet for a serious GM/GS/XG playback, in detail the panning effects were really poor, I have used some J.M.Jarre midi songs for testing where synthesizers voices and special effects are half of the listening pleasure. The results are believable but far from the dynamic and presence of the E-60 sound engine.
I will look forward for purchasing a second-hand tone generator, more compact than my actual Roland keyboard.
« Last Edit: June 25, 2014, 11:47:05 AM by SnakeCoils »