Do you know of good resources to get good at using GS / XG sound modules ?

[SeleDreams]

For context, I'm a music producer who started around 2017. I'm used to work on DAWs like Cubase with VSTs.
I recently got into old school GS and XG sound modules because I find them fascinating. I bought an Edirol SD-90 around 6 months ago, recently ordered a Yamaha MU50 and I also own the Sound Canvas VA VST.

I can work with them, as in, I can do the basics of setting them up routing wise to send notes to them and receive the audio on my pc, I can do program changes, adjust the attack, release of notes and stuff.

But my main issue is more a general workflow issue. I want to make music that sounds like it would have been produced in the early 2000s, when lots of game devs basically made their whole music on the module including the entire mixing process etc.
I'd want to learn more tricks whether it's in the efficient ways to sequence for those, the whole workflow (how to actually use the built in effect chains properly for mixing...), etc

for instance on the SD-90 there's a whole concept of AFX, BFX etc to apply effects that is very difficult for me to wrap my head around. And when i checked the SC-88 in the Sound Canvas, it has its own EFX system that's also confusing.

It's pretty difficult to find good resources. On Youtube you can in 2 seconds find tons of resources for modern daws etc, much less so for old school hardware like this (the only resources i'd find are just gamers setting up rigs to play old games. Not production related guides) so I was wondering if you had any recommendations ?

I'd be grateful.

[stefani ss]

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. The sequencing part is one thing, but the effects architecture is where these modules start getting really unintuitive.

A lot of old GS/XG gear makes more sense once you stop expecting modern DAW/plugin logic from it. What helped me was making tiny test MIDI files for specific things instead of trying to figure it all out in a real song.

And yeah, finding actual production-oriented info for this stuff is weirdly hard. Most of what’s out there is either manuals or retro gaming setup videos, not “how people actually wrote and mixed on these units”.

I’d probably pick one module and go deep on it first. Otherwise the different quirks/systems just blur together.

[Zeisner]

Have you tried ripping MIDI data from old games?

[tapper mike]

There's a lot of midi files especially centered around games from that era.
https://www.midiworld.com/search/?q=vid ... e%20themes

[lfm]

Midi CC#91 and CC#93 I think is reverb and chorus, or other way round. If CC#10 is pan.

Daws that have midi tracks often have those controls on panel as well.

When using effects on digital pianos is usually this XG and similar, and may have sysex sequences as well.
- I remember to have tremolo and phaser depth and frequency it's all sysex

There is a plugin Ctrlr where you can make you own panels to send any midi you need. Used a lot in StudioOne since not supporting sysex.
- quite cool, make knobs or buttons to send anything

https://github.com/RomanKubiak/ctrlr

[Zeisner]

When using effects on digital pianos is usually this XG and similar, and may have sysex sequences as well.
- I remember to have tremolo and phaser depth and frequency it's all sysex

I've seen the same. All the really interesting stuff is hidden in SysEx massages.