TrashPanda wrote on 2022-01-01, 13:31:

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-01-01, 12:00:

The major difference comes from the following revisions (excluding firmware versions): […]
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The major difference comes from the following revisions (excluding firmware versions):

MT-32
SC-55
SC-55MK2
SC-88

The MT-32 is pre-General Midi so games which support it will only sound correct on this model. All of the later Sound Canvas models (SC prefix) are General Midi compatible but have a unique sound. A common goal of those who collect vintage synthesizers is to try and pair the model that most closely matches original composer's intent. And because of the wildly different variations of sound generated by different synthesizers, some things can sound either off or just plain wrong.

The CM and ST models are special in that they have no front panel LCD or array of buttons. If I'm going to pull out a synthesizer for general use I prefer one of these simply because there is less of a light show in my face and it's easier to hook up.

The SC-55MK2 is in my opinion the black sheep of the lot and can be skipped. I think Roland compositions of the time sound best on the SC-55 and the SC-88 has a mode that emulates the MK2 anyways. The SC-88 itself also has a unique set of sounds that may sound better in some instances but comes down to personal taste.

I do prefer the sound of the Yamaha for certain games such as Duke Nukem 3D. It has a very distinctive electric guitar that I think has a bit more punch than any of the Roland models. It also supports XG which is used by some games such as Final Fantasy 7 to great effect.

So in my opinion, a short list of synthesizers worth owning is the MT-32, SC-55, and Yamaha MU50.

The MT-32 has a wonderful sound but, because it is not General Midi compatible, can be skipped entirely if you don't play any of the games which utilize it. This leaves just two synthesizers, the SC-55 and the MU-50, both of which I would recommend. But if you had to choose only one then it should be the SC-55.

Could you say have a DOS PC setup with all three and switch between them as required ? Im guessing the two Roland ones are essentially external boxes .. not idea about the Yammy.

I think Clint from LGR has a Midi stack, I might watch a few of his videos about it.

I use an A/V switch box (powered switch box) that I can switch between my Tandy 3-voice, Yamaha FB-01, Roland MT-32 (old), and Yamaha DB50XG (externally via the CHiLL board).

It usually depends on the scenario and LGR's videos are good to watch so you can set it up similar to his and it'll be a cool thing to do. Watched his videos a long time ago and if I had room in my room/home office/computer lab, I'd set up one similar to his as well.

cyclone3d wrote on 2022-01-01, 19:26:

Oh yeah, I also use a scanner to take good pictures of the disk labels.

I haven't scanned any disks for a while but I think 600 DPI is recommended but 300 DPI is good too. But either of these would be too large to attach here.

I always appreciate even a low resolution photo over nothing at all.

Here are the contents of the (3) ATI Mach32 disks.

I also have disks for the Diamond SPeedstar Pro, Paradise Super VGA and STB Horizon if those are of interest.

.info wrote on 2022-01-02, 06:44:

Here are the contents of the (3) ATI Mach32 disks.

I also have disks for the Diamond SPeedstar Pro, Paradise Super VGA and STB Horizon if those are of interest.

Everything is of interest.
Post them.

I thought uploads were limited to 2 MB but his is larger?

Two items for my Amiga 1200....
Tsunami 1230 Accelerator (going to test against my TF-1230) and an Indivision AGA MK3 Scandoubler.
If I like the Tsunami 1230 better, then I will probably sell my TF-1230 and my TF-530.

brostenen wrote on 2022-01-02, 19:56:

Two items for my Amiga 1200....
Tsunami 1230 Accelerator (going to test against my TF-1230) and an Indivision AGA MK3 Scandoubler.
If I like the Tsunami 1230 better, then I will probably sell my TF-1230 and my TF-530.

I do not like the TF cards, at least in my experience they have some quirks about them. They can be great for a quick solution if that's all you are looking for but the more other upgrades or pieces you want to add to the Amiga the more likely you will see problems from the TF. In my case I can't use the TF with any of my HDD controller cards or RAM expansions in my A2000. So it was pretty much use the TF to host all the storage or don't use the TF at all. Ended up with an 040 accelerator combo card that was a much better solution for me. Also had problems running WHDLOAD had to disable some of the options, forget which, or it wouldn't work.

Granted the 040 combo is also a single solution but it supports far more storage and ram and allows me to run 2 SCSI controllers for HDDs and CDROM.

Could just be my personal experience or the specific TF board I had but I'm not left with a good feeling about them at all.

Shagittarius wrote on 2022-01-03, 16:17:

I do not like the TF cards, at least in my experience they have some quirks about them. They can be great for a quick solution […]
Show full quote

brostenen wrote on 2022-01-02, 19:56:

Two items for my Amiga 1200....
Tsunami 1230 Accelerator (going to test against my TF-1230) and an Indivision AGA MK3 Scandoubler.
If I like the Tsunami 1230 better, then I will probably sell my TF-1230 and my TF-530.

I do not like the TF cards, at least in my experience they have some quirks about them. They can be great for a quick solution if that's all you are looking for but the more other upgrades or pieces you want to add to the Amiga the more likely you will see problems from the TF. In my case I can't use the TF with any of my HDD controller cards or RAM expansions in my A2000. So it was pretty much use the TF to host all the storage or don't use the TF at all. Ended up with an 040 accelerator combo card that was a much better solution for me. Also had problems running WHDLOAD had to disable some of the options, forget which, or it wouldn't work.

Granted the 040 combo is also a single solution but it supports far more storage and ram and allows me to run 2 SCSI controllers for HDDs and CDROM.

Could just be my personal experience or the specific TF board I had but I'm not left with a good feeling about them at all.

The TF-530 is indeed a lesser solution. The TF-1230 that I have, might prove to have some issues down the road. I have run into two demo's so far that WHD-Loader terminates during run, and throws an memmory error. I will see if that is related to the accelerator it self when I get the Tsunami. But so far everything else that I have loaded, have run without any issues. I have tried around 10 games and been using ProTracker to play some music.

All in all I can really not complain about the TF-1230. Sure it is no Blizzard 1230 MK4 or GVP-TurboJaws-II, because those are like +600 euro compared to TF-1230 at around 168/170 euro. I would rather take the solution that are around 90% compatible at around 1/3 of the price. If I must be honest, then I think it is stupid to complain about any compatibility issues on TF-1230 when we look at the price. It is not you, but people elsewere on the internet that are this way. Sure one can complain about Vampire-1200 and issues, because that cost what? 535 Euro or something.

...

Nice haul of supporting characters, the stars don't got a show without them.

I got these four Plextor PX-760A PATA drives today. One needed a lens cleaning. All work fine and are flashed to the latest RPC1 firmware now. This and the SATA version PX-760SA are the last drives made by Plextor. (The successors were made by various OEMs like Pioneer.)

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-01-01, 13:31:

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-01-01, 12:00:

The major difference comes from the following revisions (excluding firmware versions): […]
Show full quote

The major difference comes from the following revisions (excluding firmware versions):

MT-32
SC-55
SC-55MK2
SC-88

The MT-32 is pre-General Midi so games which support it will only sound correct on this model. All of the later Sound Canvas models (SC prefix) are General Midi compatible but have a unique sound. A common goal of those who collect vintage synthesizers is to try and pair the model that most closely matches original composer's intent. And because of the wildly different variations of sound generated by different synthesizers, some things can sound either off or just plain wrong.

The CM and ST models are special in that they have no front panel LCD or array of buttons. If I'm going to pull out a synthesizer for general use I prefer one of these simply because there is less of a light show in my face and it's easier to hook up.

The SC-55MK2 is in my opinion the black sheep of the lot and can be skipped. I think Roland compositions of the time sound best on the SC-55 and the SC-88 has a mode that emulates the MK2 anyways. The SC-88 itself also has a unique set of sounds that may sound better in some instances but comes down to personal taste.

I do prefer the sound of the Yamaha for certain games such as Duke Nukem 3D. It has a very distinctive electric guitar that I think has a bit more punch than any of the Roland models. It also supports XG which is used by some games such as Final Fantasy 7 to great effect.

So in my opinion, a short list of synthesizers worth owning is the MT-32, SC-55, and Yamaha MU50.

The MT-32 has a wonderful sound but, because it is not General Midi compatible, can be skipped entirely if you don't play any of the games which utilize it. This leaves just two synthesizers, the SC-55 and the MU-50, both of which I would recommend. But if you had to choose only one then it should be the SC-55.

Could you say have a DOS PC setup with all three and switch between them as required ? Im guessing the two Roland ones are essentially external boxes .. not idea about the Yammy.

I think Clint from LGR has a Midi stack, I might watch a few of his videos about it.

I absolutely agree with this list, the SC-55 is essential for mid-late 90's General MIDI titles, the MT-32 (old)for 80's and early 90's titles... and the Yamaha MU-50 is a cheap honorable mention for adding XG and a different GM/GS sound than the Roland. I did add a Roland SC-8820 to the mix and it does have a unique, higher fidelity sound than the SC-55 and more convenient connection options since it includes serial + USB interface options.

I would add the Serdaco MP-32L as the best "swiss army knife" option as it can run any of the MT-32 variants with the proper ROM/control files in addition to .SF2 soundfonts for general MIDI, with the Pi and enclosure it costs around $100.

Found a complete system that looked like a nice K6 build, till I got to the motherboard which has both built inYamaha Opl3 + wave table and ATI rage pro gpu.

I’ve seen ati built in before but never a full Olp3 and wave table, doesn’t have agp but I have a x1300 pci that woul fit well.

Can’t wait to tinker with it.

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-01-05, 09:12:

Found a complete system that looked like a nice K6 build, till I got to the motherboard which has both built inYamaha Opl3 + wave table and ATI rage pro gpu.

I’ve seen ati built in before but never a full Olp3 and wave table, doesn’t have agp but I have a x1300 pci that woul fit well.

Can’t wait to tinker with it.

What model mobo?

Had a chat with the seller since I had doubts about the wavetable.

Turns out it was listed as a K6 but it’s a PII 450 Dell system, so board model will be some Dell integrated number.

It’s a Yamaha DS XG sound system so that would be PCI bus, seller didn’t answer my question about the wavetable on board but the picture has ic.s next to the XG chip that appear to be a good match for wavetable rom and memory.

I’ll post more specifics when it arrives here, not sure now if I should just assume it’s got no wavetable.

Comes setup with 98se and assorted games.

The said wavetable is (most probably) nothing other than Yamaha's XG softsynth.

Bought at the weekend from the local classifieds for €25:
Highscreen InduS Tower DX 2-66VL:
Intel 486DX2 66Mhz
20MB RAM
250MB HDD
1MB VLB graphics card
Battery damage
CD-Rom broken

New keyboard, don't know what system is for. Has serial (?) connector.

Has some back serial numbers:
- AK/W2
- M61
- RF63
- P68
- 97801-131
- S26381-K49-V380

Mode key smells unix terminal-ish

...