S-YXG50 Update

[epguy-65]

as far as playback is concerned you can use foobar2000

though versions 0.9.5 and greater of the foobar2000 program have dropped win2k support in favor of supporting only XP, Vista and Win7.

for those win2k users looking for the last w2k-compatible foobar2000 program, get it here.

[epguy-65]

1. Copy the sxgmacpl.cpl and Sxgtkbar.exe files to %WINDIR%\system32
2. On command prompt, type "regsvr32 sxgmacpl.cpl"
3. You may need to restart your computer.

this is a BIG NO-NO, MaliceX!
attempting to "register" the sxgmacpl.cpl file with the regsvr32.exe file results in error message...always guaranteed!
you can only "register" .OCX & .DLL files with regsvr32.

if the sxgmacpl.cpl does not open the XG Synth Control panel window on your computer, try another version of the CPL file (ask me for help on this or which version of the sxgmacpl.cpl file to use)

Another note about S-YXG50 v4.23.14 WDM; that specific version may seem to be the "latest" one but it DOES NOT HAVE THE LATEST DRIVER! Versions 4.21.03 & higher have NEWER SYXG50 WDM drivers released in 2002.

Also, I've seem to have found the only version of SYXG50 WDM software (4.01.25 Legacy/WDM - 2002 japanese release only) that DOES bundle v5.03.2195.40 WDM drivers for Win98se/WinME. check this pic out:

sxgxgwdm-v503driver-winme.jpg

(28.41 KiB) Not downloaded yet

I have SYXG50 v4.01.25 Legacy/WDM on my computer on the D drive that has Windows ME. Driver version of this is 5.03.2195.40 dated 6/5/2002 for 98se/ME.

[epguy-65]

Whaaaa, I don't have that. If I'm looking at the right number then my driver version is 4.23.14.WDM

no Blitz Lunar. That's the "program" version of the S-YXG50 softsynth, which actually is NOT the latest version. the "driver" version number of S-YXG50 (Yamaha XG Softsynthesizer) is different than the "program" version and should be 5.13.2600.n if you view the version info in Device Manager. that I know for sure.

Ver. 4.23.14 WDM of S-YXG50 was released in late 2001 to address XP compatiblity issues. if you run this version on a non-XP OS like Win2000, its setup program will tell you that it requires XP and setup will quit. here's another shocker: if you run the S-YXG50 v4.23.14 WDM setup program in XP compatibility mode under Vista/Win7, the S-YXG50 setup window will display a completely different version number - "Ver.4.01.10 Legacy" instead of "Ver.4.23.14 WDM"! shock, horror!

You can check this by viewing the contents of the setup.inx file in Notepad or Wordpad. I've ran that s-yxg50 4.23.14 wdm setup program in xp compatiblity mode on my mom's vista laptop to verify this and it shows a totally different version number than the usual one. weird.

UPDATE: Much of my suspicions of the S-YXG50 softsynth have been confirmed of it not working well on XP machines with "multi core" [ex. dual-core/core duo, quad-core, etc.] AMD/Intel processors. If you're going to use the S-YXG50 WDM softsynth under XP, be sure to use it only under "single core" CPUs (Intel Pentium 3s/4s, AMD-K7 or perhaps Intel Core Solos). I think it's because the softsynth relies heavily on the cpu type and speed and will not work on certain processor types.

The VSTi version of S-YXG50 [released in mid-2003 and bundled in SOL2 and XGWorks ST softwares], however, doesn't depend on cpu type/speed.

btw, there is a way to use S-YXG50 VST through a 3rd party MIDI Player in Vista / Win7. check this page out (page is in French):
http://www.blueman.name/S-YXG50.php
[requires the following programs: VSTHost, S-YXG50 VSTi, Maple Virtual MIDI Cable and a MIDI Player]
You can translate the page to English using Google Translator.

[MaliceX]

Whaaaa, I don't have that. If I'm looking at the right number then my driver version is 4.23.14.WDM

no Blitz Lunar. That's the "program" version of the S-YXG50 softsynth, which actually is NOT the latest version. the "driver" version number of S-YXG50 (Yamaha XG Softsynthesizer) is different than the "program" version and should be 5.13.2600.n if you view the version info in Device Manager. that I know for sure.

Ver. 4.23.14 WDM of S-YXG50 was released in late 2001 to address XP compatiblity issues. if you run this version on a non-XP OS like Win2000, its setup program will tell you that it requires XP and setup will quit. here's another shocker: if you run the S-YXG50 v4.23.14 WDM setup program in XP compatibility mode under Vista/Win7, the S-YXG50 setup window will display a completely different version number - "Ver.4.01.10 Legacy" instead of "Ver.4.23.14 WDM"! shock, horror!

You can check this by viewing the contents of the setup.inx file in Notepad or Wordpad. I've ran that s-yxg50 4.23.14 wdm setup program in xp compatiblity mode on my mom's vista laptop to verify this and it shows a totally different version number than the usual one. weird.

UPDATE: Much of my suspicions of the S-YXG50 softsynth have been confirmed of it not working well on XP machines with "multi core" [ex. dual-core/core duo, quad-core, etc.] AMD/Intel processors. If you're going to use the S-YXG50 WDM softsynth under XP, be sure to use it only under "single core" CPUs (Intel Pentium 3s/4s, AMD-K7 or perhaps Intel Core Solos). I think it's because the softsynth relies heavily on the cpu type and speed and will not work on certain processor types.

The VSTi version of S-YXG50 [released in mid-2003 and bundled in SOL2 and XGWorks ST softwares], however, doesn't depend on cpu type/speed.

btw, there is a way to use S-YXG50 VST through a 3rd party MIDI Player in Vista / Win7. check this page out (page is in French):
http://www.blueman.name/S-YXG50.php
[requires the following programs: VSTHost, S-YXG50 VSTi, Maple Virtual MIDI Cable and a MIDI Player]
You can translate the page to English using Google Translator.

Fair enough, though I've tested the edited inf on a fresh install, it works anyway, but invalidates the driver to being signed/MS-approved.

As for the french page, yeah pretty handy to have instructions to rigging VSThost to wire up VST's and play back as a MIDI device using a virtual midi cable driver such as MIDI yoke. I've been doing that while experimenting with the S-YXG2006LE VST that came with MidRadio Player 7 and seeing if there was any way to use its soundset at driver level. (Also with help from a friend who owned a PSR keyboard, discovered its patch bank has PSR-keyboard-specific patches hidden inside its soundset)

Anyway, tl;dr, VSTHost + MIDI Yoke/Maple tools/other virtual midi cable driver = great alternative if you can't use the XG driver in your OS. (Yes it works in Ubuntu/Wine as well.) Just remember to enable System Exclusive passthru, it's disabled by default!

EDIT: I've got a trial installer of v4.21 packed away as well, but I notice that particular version has a lower number of maximum polyphony. But I can confirm the dualcore issues with XG driver, though it doesn't always happen. (Usually happens with laptops with something like SpeedStep enabled, but works with minimal issues on my Core2Quad)

[Bahamut X]

Greets,

found something very interesting on the MS Update server: An update for the Yamaha S-YXG50 SoftSynth.
It will update the driver to version 5.13.2600.3 and the stock 2 MB wavetable to a 4 MB one.
Seems to be exactly the same set as the one that is used by the VSTi version.

The update archive:
http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/m ... 403848.cab

For comparison I've recorded "Animate1" (animate.mid) from the S-YXG50 package with the two wavetables (and additionally with the SW1000XG):

S-YXG50 (2 MB) | S-YXG50 (4 MB) | SW1000XG

Cheers,
Sundog

I'm a newbie to read and post on this forum and I've been reading up all that is XG. I just installed this on my Netbook which still has XP and wow, it works! Now if only we could get this to work on Windows 7 64bit eh? I wonder if these files are able to be broken down and reprogrammed?

Well anyway, it's great, I've been listening to a few songs that Teck posted to YouTube the last few months and they sound *almost* exact. For example, http://www.vgmusic.com/new-files/Sonic3_AzureLake.mid it sounds like it's missing an instrument. Could that be due to my netbook to not being powerful enough to play all the tracks?

Edit 6/23: I've installed it at work which also has XP. It sounds a little better than my netbook at home but it still sounds different than Teck's video on Youtube. Are there settings that are causing it to be different? Still pretty good though, much better than the default midi

Edit 6/23-2: Does this work on the virtual XP machine in Windows 7? If so I might consider doing that for sequencing.

[Bahamut X]

Hum, having a little bit of trouble here...do I set this .CAB someplace, or extract it someplace, or do I just use the Add New Hardware feature in Windows...?

First create a new directory (wherever) and extract the .CAB file to it; remember where you leave this. Next, use the Add New Hardware wizard and direct it to the directory you just extracted those files to:

After You Hit "NEXT"
-> Wait For Auto-Detect to Finish (won't find anything)
-> Hardware Connected = YES
-> Select "Add New Hardware" (Bottom of List)
-> Install Manually (second choice)
-> Select "Sound, Video And Game Controllers"
-> Select "Yamaha Corporation" (Left Panel)
(DO NOT CLICK "NEXT" YET)
-> Click "Have Disk" on the Right Panel & Browse to Directory Where You Extracted the Files
(Note that the .INF should find itself when you're in the right directory.)
-> Select Your Yamaha Device & Hit Next Twice (first to confirm choice, second to finalize)

Now you can just sit back and watch the computer do the rest. Also, it won't tell you to restart your computer, but you might have to restart for it to actually take effect (I'm not sure if you have to or not).


PS I was confused too until I realized that the .CAB was actually extractable.

Is there a way to get this to work on XP 64-bit? I got up past Select "Sound, Video And Game Controllers, but Yamaha Corporation was not listed on the left side. The reason I have XP 64bit, is this is what I have at work now, I'd love to listen to XG at work again (we haven't upgraded to WIn7 yet...)

[MaliceX]

You may want to try the S-YXG50 VST version with mudlord's VST MIDI Driver synth in that situation. (There's already a few threads on that)

[Bahamut X]

Ah yes the same solution that worked on my Windows 7 64bit at home. Just tried it at work (XP 64bit) and yeah it works here too. Thanks MaliceX