I need some ff7 aid

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Is the response time (loading of song) speed with this S-YXG100 completely cpu dependant? I have a 866 p3 and it takes 1 whole second for a midi file to start playing. Anyone have any hunches or ideas (on how to fix it).
 
Not totally CPU dependant, though the CPU's speed may still be involved.

If you're letting it use DirectSound for playback, then its at the mercy of the level of hardware acceleration your card has for Dsound. Unfortunately, even with my card, I've noticed that a reponse time of one second is typical, because it has to initialize the Dsound routines first, then begin Synthesizing.  The upside to this, is that it allows for concurrent playback of Wave and MIDI, even though both are using your Wave device.

Try letting it play with Dsound off.  That way, it uses the Windows wave mapper, which also means that it takes control of the wave device, and in most cases, any other windows event sounds you've set up won't play back, when the softsynth is playing.  But, the reponse time should get faster.

If all else fails, there should be a Dsound Reponse Time slider in the XG softsynth's config.  Try setting it to the fastest time.
 
Well, one second isn't too bad, but it's kinda annoying when aerith's piano theme is supposed to start *RIGHT* when the holy materia hit the ground (in that certain cinematic, I don't want to ruin anything for anyone), and all you hear is a *ping*, then when the orb is in the middle of its second bounce, the music begins.

Well, I've tried fiddling around with the settings and I've finally gotten the fastest..and apparently directsound with fastest response time is my only option. Ah well.
 
Well, the S-YXG70's response time, especially on a 233mhz system like I had at the time when I actually used it for the game, was one of the reasons I decided to start looking for a sound card that had XG playback featured in a hardware synth.

After I found one such card (which isn't incidental that it is my current sound card), the response time issue went away, obviously. :P
 
If you listen to the final fantasy VII theme midi with the S-YXG100 or 50, it sounds really cool. It sounds all technological, like how I expected ff7's main theme to sound like. The theme on the OST sounds semi-techno, but the yamaha instruments really brings this song to life. Go ahead and listen, unless you have already...
 
I think in some respects Yamaha instruments and the like can improve stuff...
 
The S-YXG100 in theory will understand the more of the more advanced SysEx messages (they seem to have a few more Variation Effect parameters than the S-YXG50), but for FF7 purposes that is a moot point, the since the game's XG soundtrack will play back correctly on even the S-YXG50.

However, I'll say it again, when I tested the performance FF7 had when using the S-YXG100 in comparison to its previous performance using the S-YXG70, I did notice the S-YXG100 did respond faster than the S-YXG70.

And, yes, I totally agree that the XG soundtrack really does bring FF7's music to a new level.  My only gripes, though, are the fact that it doesn't have a French horn sample that sounds like the traditional Squaresoft one (the one found in the Soundfonts), and the fact that when using the XG soundtrack, OWA is only an Instrumental, which means no lyrics for me. :(

Oh, and one more thing.  In case some of you are envying the fact that I can use my XG hardware synth in-game, let me tell you, that compared to the softsynths, my hardware doesn't have any bass emphasis.  However, I suppose that that 2.1 subwoofer system I got for free a few month's back could make up for it, but still, I would have prefered the enhanced bass that the Softsynths seem to have.
 
The first time I played FF7, I used the XGLite of XG70. It sounded cool, but when I changed to XGSoft it was even better. Then I changed to the FF7 SoundFonts, vocals but crappy sounding. Then I got the XG Soundfont by one of you lot (sorry, I can't remember your name!).
The Audigy cards are so quiet on FF7. What causes this and how can I fix it?
 
Oh, and one more thing.  In case some of you are envying the fact that I can use my XG hardware synth in-game, let me tell you, that compared to the softsynths, my hardware doesn't have any bass emphasis.  However, I suppose that that 2.1 subwoofer system I got for free a few month's back could make up for it, but still, I would have prefered the enhanced bass that the Softsynths seem to have.
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Heh, get a real DB50XG, it has even the bass emphasis (apparently S-YXG70 is meant to be a software counterpart for one of those). :P In addition you'll get twice as large sample set (4MB instead of 2 MB carried by the softsynth).

Here's one, complete with the manual and cd-rom: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2061733519 Another one, although without the extras and really high price tag: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=912918438

You'll need a compatible soundcard to use one of them, pretty much everything from Creative before Live! will do, and other manufacturers still make PCI-based cards with WaveBlaster connector.

There's another alternative; DB60XG. It's identical to 50, except that it's a stand alone card instead of a daughterboard. Unfortunately it's ISA-card, which kinda makes it difficult to use in modern motherboards.
Click to expand...

Believe me, the first thing I looked for was the DBXG50.  Couldn't find it in any stores, and I wasn't exactly able to order it online.

Then, I found this card, which was the only one on the store shelves that did XG in a hardware solution (I still had only a 233mhz at the time, so I  couldn't afford to get a new card and still wind up with software XG), and it was capable of EAX 1.0, 2.0, and A3D 1.0, and it claimed to have Hardware DLS (which it doesn't with the original drivers....took me a year and a half to find WDM drivers that let it do that, but then I lost the EAX/A3D capability), and then I saw the price tag (a mere $45 or so), and I basically jumped at the chance.

And besides, like I said, my subwoofer makes up for the missing bass emphasis. :P
 
Ah, so these cards hook up to your main sound board? Interesting...that explains the connector  dingy.
 
Aaron, can you still get me a copy of the synthesizer driver that was included with ff7? I enjoy the newer ones that you and goku7 have brought to my attention, but I would like to try the older one out too...

Thanks
 
Ah yeah, forgot about that.

Uploading now...

[Edit] Done, sending you a private message with the URL.
 
Thanks you guys for helping me out and giving me ideas about the yamaha XG synths. I have finall come to a conclusion on which is the best.
As far as instrument quality goes, I would rate XG-100plus the highest.

As far as compatibility with ff7, I would rate XG-50 and XG-70 highest.
With the XG-100plus combined with ff7's midis, some of the instruments are missing (organs on cait sith's theme, piano in aerith's theme). This can be somewhat annoying. I have also noticed a little bit better response time with the XG-50 overall.

Oh, and by the way "The man with the machine gun" (Laguna's battle theme) sounds wonderful with the yamaha softsynth drivers..of course with the right instruments  :)
 
That's odd.....what MIDI data setting did you use in the config?

If you tried to set it to "General MIDI" the way the XG70 prefers it, then that could be why.

When I used the XG100Plus on FF7, it preferred the "XG MIDI" setting, as if it was a hardware synth.  Perhaps that'll give you a little more compatibility.
 
XG70 prefers General?  I've used it on XG and it sounds five billion times better.  (Only if you go to the XG70 control panel and change it from "XG Lite" to "XG Soft")
 
Strangely enough, the XG70 appears to work on the config program with XG MIDI selected, but in-game all I get is silence, so I figured that that's what everyone else gets when they try to do that with the XG70.

Of course, I agree that the XG Data set is 5 billion times better... :P

Also, in case you didn't notice, there are two GM MIDI data sets.  When it detects that its using both the GM data and the XG70, it uses the second GM package, which is a slightly altered XG data package.
 
I only use XG Midi data when using the yamaha softsynths. I extracted all of the XG midi files from the lgp files, and cait sith's theme and aeris's piano theme were missing instruments. You think they would work in-game?
 
Well, all I can say is that according to the manuel, the XG70 should be used with the GM data setting.

But, there is a noticeable difference between the XG MIDI data version of "Fighting", and the GM MIDI version the game uses when you select the XG70.  The latter version doesn't have the gong, but the former one does.

And, I'm a little surprised that the XG package is missing some instruments, since I use the XG MIDI data setting with my XG hardware, and I haven't noticed any missing instruments on those two themes.

Yes, I have heard the SF2 Data packages version of those themes, so I do have something to compare it against.  However, I've only heard the SF2 being used with the 512k SF provided by Squaresoft, so I don't know how much I'm missing, sample-wise.
 
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