I’ve been spending some time today having a listen to what the MIDI playback is like on the Xwave XG A301-J80 soundcard that I have just installed in my Compaq Evo Pentium III PC. (Yeah, its running Windows ME – I don’t care!)
This card uses the Yamaha YMF724F-V chip.
Yamaha XG is a software synthesizer technology developed by Yamaha Corporation. It is designed to provide high-quality sound on personal computers, and is used in a variety of music software, such as digital audio workstations, games, and other music-related applications. Yamaha XG includes a wide range of instruments and sounds, including keyboards, drums, basses, and other synthesized sounds, as well as sampled sounds of real instruments. It is designed to be compatible with a variety of computer platforms and operating systems.
I am amazed on how good the quality of the MIDI playback is on this device. The MIDI file that I played to make the recording below is only 236Kb in total. The resulting MP3 file below is just under 14MB.
I will be recording more audio from this card and will publish here later this week.
Here is a teaser for you…
You can download a copy of the XG MIDI file I used here. This is not my work – I do not have any musical talent at all.
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