Well then, far be it from me to disagree with the honorable veterans of this forum. Since I work in a recording studio every day of my life, I thought I'd recognize a mono sound when I heard it. I guess not. I recant. It's stereo everybody; no matter what you hear.

What comes out loud and clear from this thread is the fact that the same SMF played on different manufacturers products is going to sound different......... BRILLIANT!!

What is the REALLY salient point is that, no matter what keyboard you have, an SMF, unless played on the specific keyboard it was produced on, is going to sound COMPLETELY different and will require editing. Now, just how quick and friendly is your keyboard at editing SMFs??

Roland had an edge in the compatibility stakes for quite a while, because firstly, all of their arrangers were based on the Sound Canvas engines (probably what the SMF was originally programmed for) and the change from RA90 to G800 to G1000 was fairly incremental. All you generally had to do was replace the program change for the old sax sound (for instance) with the new one, and the volumes would be consistent, and the reverb amounts and velocity responses of the drumkits remained pretty consistent, no matter which kit you used.

All this started to change with the VA series, and has completely changed with the G70. The voicing is now a combination of older Sound Canvas (and SC88, SC880Pro etc.) sounds, along with newer samples from the Fantom line and V-Drum series, and the reverb and effects architecture has been heavily changed. It is no longer a gimme to play a Roland SMF (or style) into the G70 and hear consistent results. This has been a large cause of the complaints about the G70s 'sound'. It now is necessary to edit your older SMFs and Styles before they sound their best on the G70 - EXTENSIVELY!

However............

Roland appear to be one of the few manufacturers to understand this and provide a method to quickly edit Styles and SMFs without having to resort to using a sequencer (hard or soft). The Makeup Tools section allows you to easily adjust not only the choice of sound for a Part, but it's reverb and effect sends, volume, pan, voice editing (cutoff, attack release etc.), but here's the important part - velocity offsets and compression! THIS is where, when using today's more elaborate, multi-velocity samples, it is ESSENTIAL to set the velocity of the part where it hits the vel-xover points at a musically sensible place.

Drum Kits can be adjusted the same way, allowing you a choice of different drums, editable reverb and effect send and the EXTREMELY important velocity offsets, especially in light of the multi-velocity V-Drum kits.

Finally, you have a Common Page where song tempo, key, global reverb and effect parameters, and, most importantly, an overall Song Volume parameter (you REALLY want to go back and adjust every part because the song is too loud??)..........

Now most of you are probably saying 'I can do this in my XYZ arranger' and it's true, you probably can. But spend a little time on a G70 (or E80) and you will probably find out how much easier Roland have made this critical function. And the easier something is, the more likely you are to USE IT!

As manufacturers have continued to one-up each other in the realism stakes, simple compatibility with GM files has mostly gone out the window. What is most important now is, how easy do they make it to fix the problem? Easy enough that you a willing to edit the hundreds of files you use?............. If your keyboard doesn't make this task easy enough that it is an utter chore, first take a look at the G70s system, then yell at YOUR keyboard's maker until they make it as easy for you.............

Maybe the SMF was created without extreme panning...Does your ears tell you if my G1000 was also recorded in mono?
Or AJ's work?

What's with the Veteran comment?

Why don't you record the tune is stereo, I would be glad to send the file to you...I am sure you are a Tyros owner..

The G1000 was definitely stereo. As was the SGM180 soundfont. Those were the only other in addition to DNJ's that i downloaded. No, I do not own a Tyros. I have listened to many a tyros demo though, and I can still tell mono sound when i hear it. DNJ's impromptu demos and his upload of this smf definitely sound mono.
As for the veteran comment, maybe it was uncalled for....maybe. It just seems odd to me that so many threads regarding mono versus stereo have been had here if nobody other than myself has noticed that DNJ's tyros II mp3 most definitely sounds mono.
Also, You'd asked that he do no tweaking to the smf before he recorded it. Now tell me, is my sense of pitch off too, or is your version in E and DNJ's version in D?

I think we are taking this a bit too seriously maybe ?.... Two quick points

One: All of the files were recorded on my equipment with the exception of the original G1000 and Tyros files. They were all given a minor bit of mastering as well, using very similar settings for each file, including the G1000 and Tyros. As far as stereo adjustment and panning, I changed nothing from any of them.

Two: It was just for the fun of it and wasn't really a competition in my mind in the first place, because if it were, I could have modified every voice on every board / module I have, and in the end, despite all the disdain I sometimes have for it, I can pretty much guarantee that the Motif ES would have sounded as good if not better than any of the others. All this really told us is how each board sounds playing a particular midifile. For someone like Fran, who I believe has said he sometimes uses midfiles in his live act though, this might be pretty important. I know speaking for myself, I wouldn't want to have to modify every midifile I've ever used for my own live act, nor do I want to modify every style I use with OMB to suit my particular synths or modules.

I could have also customized my own soft sounds / samples and modules, and I'm pretty certain that would have sounded better than at least any of the other ones I produced. I simply "let it fly" by playing the file as is on each of my sound generators and did nothing to modify any of them, with the exception of changing channel 10 on the ES to it's GM drums since it was not recognizing the drums and playing ac piano instead.

AJ



[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 05-16-2006).]

I checked all the recordings signal lines..they are all recorded in stereo...except Donny's Tyros2 and AJ's master of Donny's recording..

You were right..but you still need an attitude adjustment!!

I actually had no attitude my first post. And even my second, I'd asked if you heard it was stereo or just knew it was because the file properties said so? Rather than checking my assumption to be correct, you and I played the back and forth game until this most recent post. OK, maybe I need an ever so slight attitude adjustment, but I don't like to be told twice and thrice that i'm wrong before bothering to check that I'm right.

I rely on the one that did the recording. He thought he recorded in stereo from his Tyros2 into his laptop..besides I don't work in a recording studio every day of my life , like you..I did test on my own, and agreed with you..

This post sort of got out of context..but I still think it interesting,,I look forward to Tridents recordings of softsynths I am considering..

The postings also showed me the old can hang with the new...both sounds and people.

Well, my only reason for bringing it up in the first place was to put forth that a mono recording of tyros 2 might not suffice to make an opinion against stereo versions of other synths, be they newer or older. Also, (and please everybody don't take this the wrong way) but maybe that's why some people like the newer boards and some people don't. If mono sound and stereo sound isn't immediately apparent to some people, or maybe even most people, then it would make sense why they are not necessarily impressed with the new stereo sampled sounds on keyboards. For me though, and for others too, they make all the difference.

In many of the stores I've seen very capable arrangers plugged into mono keyboard amplifiers, utterly ruining the sound........

I admit, many of today's stereo whizz-bang arrangers have not had their samples checked for excellent mono compatibility, and most of their effects sections make use of phase differences to 'widen' the apparent soundstage when in stereo, resulting in an apparent change in effects depth when heard in mono.........

It just leads me to NEVER play in mono if I can possibly help it. If they are designed that way, that's the way they should be played. Only if we scream in a loud enough voice at the manufacturers to double check their mono compatibility will they pay attention, and then it won't matter what you are plugged into.........