Y2000: Which are the musical and
practical differences
between XG and panel voices?
Has it to do with MIDI?


Krix, the Swede

Practically they will have different patch and bank numbers for midi and may not follow the standard General Midi soundset, musically I would expect them to the better sounds on the keyboard while the XG will be the standard extended General Midi voice set which is renowned for being a bit thin on their own but with proper editing and layering can be really good.

I would just add that the XG sounds try to sound good no matter what sequencer program you used and no matter what sound card you have used. There is a protocal used which states how many notes polypony will be used, how much ROM will be available for sounds, etc. The panel voices on the other hand can have much more elaborate use of effects, sample rom (memory used for one sound), etc. One of the reasons musicians have always like the way Solton keyboards play standard midi files, is because Solton has used their panel voices as the GM sound bank, going against the Roland, Yamaha, Korg, etc., standard.
This is one of the reasons Yamaha has now included on the PSR2000 a set up page which allows you to quickly with one button, choose all their best panel voices for your midi song file which used GM or GS or XG sounds. A very cool, new feature.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene