Roland MT-32 vs SC-55 vs DreamBlaster X2GS (The Secret of Monkey Island theme)

This is a short comparison of The Secret of Monkey Island (DOS) between a Roland MT-32, and general midi played by an SC-155 (desktop version of the SC-55) and a DreamBlaster X2GS with its built in Roland sound font.
Which do you prefer?
It's amazing how close the DreamBlaster is to the SC-55, but personally the presence of the MT-32 wins it for me! I captured the audio and video from my retro Windows 98 PC using an OSSC and capture card. My SC-155 and MT-32 are hooked up to a PCI based Yamaha sound card using the game port.
- 0:00 MT-32 vs SC-55
- 1:39 DreamBlaster vs SC-55

[@zuldanfpv4634]

This is how you do a sound comparison. Quick back and forth between the different audio’s. Other KZbinrs should take note. Well done!

[@MikeJolley]

Thanks! Was fun to put together.

[@railsrust]

I think the MT-32 really steals the show here. Games from the period of Monkey Island were just built with the MT-32 in mind more than anything. Later on the SC-55 would have been better. I will say the differences between the X2GS are mostly just down to stuff like reverb and chorus which can be adjusted through software that Serdaco provides. Personally I see no reason for most people to get an SC-55 at this point unless they just have a nostalgic yearning for a real midi box. Great comparison video, by the way!

[@MikeJolley]

Yup, agree with that. X2GS surprised me how accurate it was. I have not played with the reverb settings too much as I had some issues with some games (Transport Tycoon) when adjusting those settings, but yeah, for most users it seems to be a much better choice than SC-55. I'll do some more comparisons in the future with games that have better MIDI soundtracks. Thank you!

[@4dxl]

Definitely. I prefer the MT-32 here

[@ygorgomes5202]

If MIDI is an consortium and standard, why one sound, sounds better than others? MT-32 looks more brighter sounds than any other, like SB, Yamaha or even this dreamblaster?? Thanks for the video btw.

[@MikeJolley]

This game had support for MT-32 and general midi, so you're hearing Roland MT-32 vs General Midi from the SC-55. I agree the Roland is much nicer in this case! As for general midi, yeah its a standard but I think there are differences in how instruments sound depending on sound font. SC-55 in this comparison is an external sound module and those things are hefty and can be expensive, so the fact that the DreamBlaster is almost identical is really cool. If you run dxdiag you can compare the other software midi options as well. They pale in comparison.

[@djpirtu2]

I have the X2GS but seems that it doesnt sound nothing like this with either sound bank.

[@MikeJolley]

Strange. I was using the built in roland sound font for this video (not the user bank). Perhaps you didn't run Monkey Island with the correct parameters? It has options for soundblaster, adlib, or roland.

[@djpirtu2]

@@MikeJolley I was using r option. I have the original version, not the later talkie with general midi music.

[@MikeJolley]

I remember now, I patched my DOS version with the talkie edition. So I was still running on DOS but `r` was general midi, and `r1` was roland. Thats gonna be the reason why!

[@djpirtu2]

@@MikeJolley Great! Good to know, thanks!