"Dance" General MIDI: SB AWE32 vs. SB Live! vs. SB X-Fi vs. Microsoft GS SW Synth - Video
PUBLISHED:  Feb 27, 2013
DESCRIPTION:
MIDI:
https://www.deceifermedia.com/files/music/DANCE.MID

Voyetra MIDI Orchestrator Plus:
https://www.deceifermedia.com/files/applications/Voyetra_MIDI_Orchestrator_Plus.rar

Creative SoundFont Bank Manager (for compatible Creative soundcards with wavetables only) - probably only works with SF2 files:
http://files2.europe.creative.com/manualdn/Applications/AVP/11113/0xCA3D54C2/SFBM_PCAPP_LB_3_21_02.exe
or
http://support.creative.com/downloads/download.aspx?nDownloadId=11113

Virtual MIDI Synth (for those who want to run SoundFonts - SF2 and SFZ only - with any soundcard/onboard sound controller):
http://coolsoft.altervista.org/en/virtualmidisynth

Vienna SoundFont Studio 2.3:
http://files2.europe.creative.com/manualdn/Applications/Others/423/vienna23.zip
or
http://support.creative.com/downloads/download.aspx?nDownloadId=423
(converting old SoundFont 1 .sbk files to SoundFont 2 .sf2 files can be done in Vienna SoundFont Studio but it requires a real Creative soundcard, I believe, and a 32-bit or lower version Windows)

Sound Blaster 16/AWE32 Driver/Application Disks' Contents (including SoundFonts and sample MIDIs):
https://www.deceifermedia.com/files/applications/SB16.rar

Extra SoundFonts that I downloaded recently:
https://www.deceifermedia.com/files/applications/SoundFonts.rar

Dr. Sbaitso - runs in DOSBox (does anyone remember this gem from the Sound Blaster 2.0 and Pro circa 1992):
https://www.deceifermedia.com/files/applications/Sbaitso.rar

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The "Dance" diagnostic MIDI file from the Sound Blaster AWE32 driver/application disks (1994) is the weapon in the battle featuring the Sound Blaster AWE32 (1994), Sound Blaster Live! (1998), and the Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro (2008) SoundFonts, and for a complete round-up, the Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth also.

I owned all these cards once upon a time, but I no longer have the AWE32 or Live! - so I used my X-Fi with the old original SoundFonts to deliver the same MIDI experience as heard on the original cards. I threw the X-Fi SoundFont in there to show that despite the many years between it and the Live!, the SoundFont only received revisions/updates over the years and isn't majorly different after all this time - I honestly think it's worse. The MIDI program used in the video is "MIDI Orchestrator Plus" by Voyetra (1994), which was generously given as part of the Sound Blaster AWE32 applications package.

You should note that the AWE32 came with built-in memory to cache the SoundFont bank files; a whole 512KB of RAM! However, the Live! onward utilized the system RAM instead of solely depending on a small amount of built-in memory and limited expandable SIMM memory and the Live! itself came with three General MIDI SoundFont bank files of varying sizes; 2MB, 4MB, and 8MB, all burned onto the Live! installation CD. I used the latter in this video, to obtain optimal quality. Subsequent cards in the Audigy and X-Fi range only came with a 2MB SoundFont bank file, which obviously isn't going to pack as much data, meaning the quality suffers. It's very strange why Creative didn't deliver more, given the potential due to not relying on small amounts of built-in memory, thus forcing owners to source better SoundFonts elsewhere, if required.

The Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth, introduced in Windows 2000, is a means to play MIDI files without a genuine wavetable - it's software emulation and it contains an integrated 3MB wavetable bank file that's not of the SoundFont variety, and it's terrible - even when compared to the AWE32, despite the limitations of the AWE32's 512KB of built-in memory! I have not noticed any change in the bank since it was originally built into Windows 2000 all the way up to Windows 7 and 8, which is what I use now.
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