DreamBlaster X16GS Review

[@Serdaco]

Thanks Phil for showing off X16GS ! Great video, it makes me proud 🙂

[@jbinary82]

You should! I have proudly shown opl3lpt in my videos😊 great one

[@philscomputerlab]

Any time!

[@PlatinumGamingg]

Would be cool to see this in action with midi karaoke files Korean karaoke brands use dream for midi playback

[@AR-ff8th]

Hello Seraco. I have oredered PicoGUS in November. Today is 05.01.2025 and ... where is my PicoGUS? I have no my mony and i have no my money.

[@zuldanfpv4634]

I’m really happy Serdaco is making this hardware. Our retro midi gear won’t last forever. I can’t imagine the amount of effort it would have taken to make this stuff (including reaching out to Dream/Roland to make a license deal). Well done Serdaco!

[@ambirbtruckdriver]

Hey Phil - I used to go by RolandsRecycling. Just wanted to thank you for making all of these videos, you reached and inspired me during a very difficult time a few years back. I hit another difficult spot, where I’m living in an 18 wheeler after completely hitting the reset button on my life, but I’m still messing with old computers, thanks in part to you and your website, forum posts, and videos. The community is lucky you’re a part of it. 🥰

[@philscomputerlab]

@@ambirbtruckdriver Thank you for the kind words and loyal viewership. If you ever need someone to listen to you, you're always welcome to reach out 🙂 This hobby also helps me when life gets challenging. I always seem to go back into the past and have a good time. A great hobby.

[@T3hBeowulf]

This is an epic breakdown of my favorite modern wavetable synth. Deep dive, technical with music samples and yet still clear, understandable and timeless.

[@philscomputerlab]

Thank you 🙏

[@cesaru3619]

Well done, I'm getting one, I was waiting for a real review, thanks. Btw, you did a superb review and not getting paid? I've seen other channels paid review products, and they are awful.

[@chameleon8]

Excellent overview! I recently picked one of these up. This video was super helpful and taught me a few things!

[@philscomputerlab]

Thank you 😊

[@samsmall3801]

Thanks again Phil! I was on the fence about buying one for a long time but i couldn't resist after seeing your video and bought one. P.S its Sam who lent you the Arc A770. Ive pre ordered the B580 :D

[@philscomputerlab]

@@samsmall3801 Hey, great to hear from you ❤️ I'm looking forward to seeing reviews on that new GPU ☺️ I hope Intel can deliver something with great value...

[@samsmall3801]

@@philscomputerlab me too! Really keen to find out. Hoping for the B770 also hopefully its just delayed and not canned

[@SOLIDNecro]

Not a sound guy, but I always enjoy your videos no matter the topic...I always learn alot. Your a "Digital Treasure"! Edit: It also occurred to me you are also a modern age Bob Ross! Your video archives will be enjoyed by future generations...mark my words!

[@philscomputerlab]

@@SOLIDNecro Thank you ☺️

[@BadBunny]

Awesome, i've been watching you look at the Serdaco products for some time now and finally bit the bullet and bought one of these. Thanks Phil :)

[@philscomputerlab]

Congratulations 🎉

[@bauerns5er]

Wow, nice! Thanks for those lovely System Shock tunes! I never liked the pure dry sound. MIDI can really shine with some chorus and reverb. This DreamBlaster really sounds nice. But I am still in love with my Roland SC 8820.

[@rogiervanl]

And another great product just added to my wishlist 😊

[@Dukefazon]

14:40 - Music starts on the right channel. A regular left-right test suggests that it my laptop is configured correctly. Are you sure the text is right here? Or are you demonstrating the wrong setup here?

[@cj6332-o4n]

I second that, tested on several perfectly configured setups and music starts on the right. An audio check on the waveform also shows it plays from the right

[@kathleendelcourt8136]

Same, when it started on the right I immediately went to my sound control pannel to check if my left and right channels were properly configured, and they were. So either the text in the video or the capture is wrong.

[@philscomputerlab]

I'm demonstrating wrong setup on my Audician sound card 🙂

[@integerofdoom69]

I want one!

[@kindzadza134]

Hi, Phil. I have dig out of my closet few days ago two ancient AGP cards in some box, which I don't know what to do any more, since my desktop PCs with AGP slots are long gone. I believe one of the cards is something like Radeon 9000 (maybe 9250 ???) and the other one is nVidia FX5700 if my memory does not play tricks on me. I have no idea if they still work (probably would need some repaste), but if you want some cheeky old PC parts for future channel content I can send them over to you for free (I live in Bulgaria, so probably no problem with customs, etc.)

[@philscomputerlab]

That would be awesome. Please send me an email, check the about section. I'm in Austria for a bit now...

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

Does it bring me audio that we could've only dreamt of?

[@nathanr7931]

It's so good you can't even dream of it

[@RealGengarTV]

If you dream about fancy sailingboats, it's going to blast them

[@guspaz]

Doing some comparisons, it doesn't sound as good as an SC-55 for Doom, but... it still sounds *right* somehow. Those Roland samples make a big difference.

[@daniella-k]

The original X2GS was a sweet spot for my setups with it's line out jack, sadly that's been replaced with the SE without any line out jack by looks of it. so glad I don't have to spend this kind of money to get that same option!

[@pvc988]

12:03 I haven't seen this icon in almost 2 decades

[@Cyklonus]

14:50 it starts on the right channel. But i am sure my setup i correctr :P i another test everything is ok ;)

[@philscomputerlab]

@@Cyklonus Yes it's to demonstrate the issue!

[@LeeNoble-j4h]

I always judge General MIDI by how good does the electric guitar sound? Not bad, in this case.

[@Z098]

A few of the audio examples of sound Bank 1, sounded likely the favored the left ear. Doom E1M1 sound like it was only in the left ear. the rest did have some sound in right. The spoken dialog of the video sounded fine through both ears, so wasn't my headset.

[@davidp4456]

I’ve got to say that even without checking it against my x2 GS the x16 GS sounds very, very good. However is it worth twice the price? It would be nice to hear a comparison between the two to see what we are buying. The humble S2 sounds really good too and can be all you need at a fraction of the cost.

[@VladoT]

For a split second I was thinking that this is for the Commander X16

[@jason3898]

For 13 minutes I was thinking that this is for the Commander X16, until I read this comment :)

[@RetroGirlAstrid]

I'm building a P166MMX for dos gaming based on your old video and I've been sitting and looking at this and the McCake for a couple of days now just having trouble deciding....

[@mpettengill1981]

Probably depends on what you plan on playing for games. In my observation the switch by games developers from MT-32 to General MIDI support was 1993 or so. So if you plan on playing a lot of games released prior to 1993, McCake might be the way to go. If you plan on playing a lot of windows games or DOS games released 1993 or later...General MIDI is well supported in my experience. Also, for what it's worth, Adlib sounds pretty good if you get a decent sound card (even a clone). There are probably very few games that only support MT-32 and not sound blaster / adlib as well. My Pentium machine has a sound blaster with the X2GS and I'm very happy with it. Just one guys thoughts...

[@philscomputerlab]

For that machine, the Dream Blaster makes more sense. If it's a 286 or 386, the McCake with Roland MT-32 would get my pick.

[@AngelDemonn]

​@@philscomputerlabBut McCake is not only about MT32 emulation, switching to FluidSynth mode and loading a good .sf2 makes it a great GM target for games! Not sure how X16GS is worth it if one already has WP32 McCake

[@philscomputerlab]

Yes you can try many SoundFonts, but IMO the Roland samples on the DreamBlaster GS sound most natural and balanced.​@@AngelDemonn

[@2tailedfox711]

Put 4 tires on it and it's theme song is 'Dream Machine' by Lazerhawk

[@FOIL_FRESH]

486 views :) very fitting

[@BadBunny]

Hah, mine shows 1234 views :)

[@SianaGearz]

To be kept in mind wp32-mccake comes out MUCH cheaper. In fact mt32pi is such a giant killer that i've been sort of tinkering on a waveblaster design of my own (not Dream based) but it doesn't even seem to make sense to finish and offer it...

[@retromuel]

I use a McCake also. I almost always prefer to use "real" hardware but it just works so so well and is so uncomplicated. I love the little OLED display on the front of my case also!

[@AngelDemonn]

Correct. Can't see much point in this one if you already have McCake

[@filipetmarcal]

Nice video

[@fradd182]

Looking at the title, i thought it was something for commander X16, or maybe apple IIGS

[@philscomputerlab]

@@fradd182 😄

[@kaiser76]

official GS for ten euro is a awesome deal

[@aspinx]

10 euro? More like 150.

[@bravo1111]

@@aspinx 18:55 now you understand

[@aspinx]

@@bravo1111 Yeah, 10 euro on top of 140. Of course it cost 10 and not 150 (marketing is cancer and causes brain rot).

[@blackIce504]

very sexy Bring back midi

[@logipilot]

my choice: my mx49 yamaha synthesizer via midi (listen to duke 3d and doom2 in GM on this!)

[@Super123456789Kuba]

The only thing I would change is those Presets (Like not tweaking, just changing Preset files every now and then.) and SoundBanks from time to time, and nothing more... And I'm pretty I would be very happy about it.

[@smiljanicn]

I think for that price one can buy Roland JV1010 with GM and some awesome roland synth sound with Session card incouded,but then you need mixer.

[@philscomputerlab]

@@smiljanicn Im not familiar with that device, but thank you for showing another option.

[@RetroPcCupboard]

Whilst these products are great, back in the day I only had a basic SB16. So, for me, FM OPL3 music is the only thing that sounds "correct". It is nice to play around with different options though.

[@Beus38]

Yes, it's like that for most people, I'd say. But the fact is that the music for far too many games from that era was composed on an SC-55, so actually the GS sound bank is the closest thing to how the composer intended for the music to sound, apart from using the real Roland hardware. But as you said, it is nice to have the options - that's why I have an mt32-pi, the X2GS, PicoGUS, Orpheus II, an AdLib re-creation (a new PCB, using YM3812), and quite a few original soundcards, among others ;)

[@bzuidgeest]

I wonder if this really makes sense for dos gaming. This synth is much more capable than the original synths from way back then. 256 voices is useless if games don't use them. I think this is more for musicians than gamers. Those might find use for three USB midi devices, but for games it's meaningless. I think for retro games, most of the mentioned features don't matter much. Don't get me wrong, as a synth it's a very nice device, but worth the price I am not so sure. I think that should have been talked about more in the video. Otherwise you get dozens of gamers with a high end synth they only use 2% of its capabilities.

[@philscomputerlab]

It's a shame that DOS games can't take advantage of the GS features and high polyphony, so you make a good point.

[@bzuidgeest]

@philscomputerlab maybe you can do a small follow up. Where you check how complex dos game music really is and then match it up with a serda product. A true best bang for your buck.

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

But can it play at hells gate?😉

[@AngelDemonn]

If this one can't, nothing can! 😂

[@Romerco77]

IMHO the best wavetable and midi device is a Raspberry Pi with mt32-pi, oh, and also the cheapest.

[@MuffledMosquito]

The speech volume fluctuates a bit too much. Good demonstration otherwise. 👍

[@armorgeddon]

Looks like the software for this device is Windows-only. That's a no-go in this day and age. I wonder if the software will at least work on Windows 3/95/98/ME/2000/XP.

[@jeffdobbins7112]

USB MIDI support is not available in Win98 and this card doesn't work in WinME. Have not tried XP though. Why would you have a board in a old computer you cant doing anything with? Who wants to keep taking a board out and placing in another computer to upload files? Not me. Card is awesome. Its a Dreamblaster issue really. Honestly once you quit playing around with it you would have it on the default Roland sound bank anyway for dos games

[@Dedubya-]

I still think my DB50XG waveblaster is far far better sounding, maybe I'm just biased :D

[@samuelbanya]

More Linux videos

[@philscomputerlab]

Windows for life 😊

[@play_vintage_810]

What? No Monkey Island sound demo? Lol😂

[@philscomputerlab]

@@play_vintage_810 ??? Monkey Island released in 1990, General MIDI standard years later. It simply doesn't support it...

[@armorgeddon]

That game has no General Midi support.

[@kiba3x]

145 Euro ... bro wtf

[@philscomputerlab]

@@kiba3x How much is a Sound Canvas, Bro?

[@g4z-kb7ct]

Be careful playing Star Wars music for audio demos, you'll get a copyright strike....

[@spitalul2bad]

As much as I like retro PCs and Phil in general, this is way too much in the weeds for me. Way too niche.

[@bravo1111]

You don't need the software. Just plug the module on the sound card and off you go

[@samsmall3801]

Phils channel originally was more "in the weeds" niche reviews but his channel evolved to cater for more main stream greater audiences. It feels like a video from his grass roots which shows his true passion

[@armorgeddon]

@@samsmall3801 Exactly and the way it should be on this channel.

[@ruxandy]

I must be in a minority, but I couldn't care less about these modern solutions. To me it's all about the old hardware with its quirks and imperfections - no more, no less.

[@bzuidgeest]

At least this solution everyone can get for a fair price. Not so much vintage hardware these days.

[@PROSTO4Tabal]

first comment :)

[@lucasrem]

Wavetable on a 2024 PC, yeah, why not ? i need PCIe small slot, would like to do that over USB ! KORG here

[@AngelDemonn]

Korgs are great!! ❤ Unfortunately rare and expensive as hell