VST Plugins That Have General MIDI 2 Sound Sets?

[Bass Guitar]

@Amberwolf  the repair tech first thought that it was probably just the first stages of the power system but as he found they had taken a few shortcuts and the power went directly to a circuit board and fried a bunch of IC. 

In those days it would have cost more than it was worth to repair. I bought an MT32 and a Roland PS 200 controller. The Korg probably was disposed of quickly. 
The MT32 to me was a huge upgrade because back then synths like the Poly 800 didn’t sound “right “ to us. Example the Piano patch didn't sound at all like a piano. And the bass I had used was a classic synth bass that also sounded very different from a normal bass. 
So the MT-32 was considered top notch sound back then. As it is those are the same sounds of the MSWavetable and the TTS-1. 
I still have the MT-32 at the bottom of a box of junk somewhere. I also have the original Sound Canvas. But my favourite is the Korg 05R/W. That replaced the MT-32 and was my “band “for a long time.
There’s no point in using the MT-32 but the stupid thing refuses to die. 
At least the Poly 800 would still have some value. 
Later someone gave me a Korg D5000? which was a lot like the Poly 800 i had it for a while but I gave it to a guy who liked that stuff. By then I had lots of great VST Poly synths. I’d rather have the smaller rack versions. Keyboards take up a lot of space. 
 

[msmcleod]

2 hours ago, Bass Guitar said:

@Amberwolf  the repair tech first thought that it was probably just the first stages of the power system but as he found they had taken a few shortcuts and the power went directly to a circuit board and fried a bunch of IC. 

In those days it would have cost more than it was worth to repair. I bought an MT32 and a Roland PS 200 controller. The Korg probably was disposed of quickly. 
The MT32 to me was a huge upgrade because back then synths like the Poly 800 didn’t sound “right “ to us. Example the Piano patch didn't sound at all like a piano. And the bass I had used was a classic synth bass that also sounded very different from a normal bass. 
So the MT-32 was considered top notch sound back then. As it is those are the same sounds of the MSWavetable and the TTS-1. 
I still have the MT-32 at the bottom of a box of junk somewhere. I also have the original Sound Canvas. But my favourite is the Korg 05R/W. That replaced the MT-32 and was my “band “for a long time.
There’s no point in using the MT-32 but the stupid thing refuses to die. 
At least the Poly 800 would still have some value. 
Later someone gave me a Korg D5000? which was a lot like the Poly 800 i had it for a while but I gave it to a guy who liked that stuff. By then I had lots of great VST Poly synths. I’d rather have the smaller rack versions. Keyboards take up a lot of space. 
 

I used an MT-32 for decades - still got one.  I "crossgraded" to the CM-32L (basically the same with double the drum sounds,  no display, but higher quality DAC's), and later the CM-64, which is a CM-32L + a CM-32P (a cutdown U110) in one box.

The D-110 sounds much better to my ears,  and the D-50 is in a different ball park for quality.

The MT-32 is still a great sounding unit, but:

1.  It's not GM, although with some sysex you can remap the patchmap to get it close. 
2.  It doesn't do portamento at all, never mind respond to the CC's for it.

The only LA synth that supported portamento was the D50/D550 (and their later copies -i.e. the DC-01 card /D-05 boutique module).   None of the other variants ( MT-32, D-110, D10, D20, D5, CM-32L, CM-64) did portamento.

The CM-300 (essentially an SC-7 sound canvas) and the CM-500 (a CM-32L + a sound canvas instead of a U110) do portamento as part of the GS implementation - but they're basically the same as the TTS-1.

+1 to the Korg 05R/W -  I have the Korg X5DR  (the updated version of the 05R/w), and the X5D keyboard.  Awesome sounding synths, and incredibly easy to program.

I've also got the Korg NX5R, which is an NS5R with a Yamaha XG daughterboard built in.   The XG sounds are top notch, but the "N" series sounds are sub-par to my ears - basically the same as the X5DR / 05R/W, but in "mp3" quality.  I also much prefer the X series implementation of Combo sounds too, as you can assign different MIDI channels to each part, which you can't do on the N series.
 

[Bass Guitar]

Getting back to the OP question. 
 

I did a little more research and it seems like the concept of GM VST player has almost vanished from the face of the earth. 

Roland- they removed the TTS-1 and the Virtual Sound Canvas last year in the fall. A strange coincidence?  
All they offer now as software is a none GM Synths like Zenology. It’s free but you will need to load 16 instances of it to access all midi channels. 
GM playback is included in the majority of Roland hardware pianos and synths. 
 

I used the Search  Googling “ Multi Timbral -GM –VST - Sound Font player     and it comes up with a zillion dead ends. The dead ends are mostly super funky super outdated, supper flaky, 32 bit and so on solutions. Seems sound font players are always None GM and only one instrument at a time. 

That's why I question staff directing people at Sfonando? It's not multitimbral and it is not GM by default. It's about the most convoluted instrument to use on the planet.  

This is it folks, after 6 hours of looking--   the one I already mentioned. VST SynthFont 64.    https://www.synthfont.com/      it is 15 euros.  free to try.  VST 2 and 3 versions. I have used it in Cakewalk for about 2 years now instead of the TTS-1 to avoid TTS-1 crashes. 

There is also Coyote  https://coyotemidi.com/     is free and works flawlessly in Sonar. But only Sonar, Reaper and Band in a Box support DXi. ( for now)  but I also use this a lot and it doesn't crash either.  I only use it sparingly because it's Dxi. 

Worth a mention is Airs Xpand 2  https://www.airmusictech.com/virtual-instruments/xpand-2/     Pro Tool free version  https://www.avid.com/pro-tools/intro      includes a free license to Air’s Xpand2.  Xpand2 is one of my favorite multi channel synths. It’s only 4 channels which is good enough for me! Best Horn section on the planet! Between Xxpand2 and the SI instruments you've got a lot of instruments! 

Here's a list of the  Daw's   that include  instant GM playback.  The rest require manually adding instruments. Like Sonar is now. 

Ardour and Harrison using Fluid synth

Cakewalk Next but many sounds are not GM. 

Cubase using Halion ( terrible ) 

FL studio using Fruity LSD 

Mixcraft using Acoustica instruments

Studio One using Presence XT

I finally got an answer regarding the MS Wavetable synth. Cakewalk was absolutely correct about it's removal.  According to a Microsoft article it is being fazed out and they have sort of archived it and this made it unavailable to major Daw's. It still works with other none professional software like Media player.  I noticed it still is working with a few Midi players, JjazzLab and Chord Pulse. 

 

 

Edited 19 hours ago by Bass Guitar

[sjoens]

Almost any Yamaha synth new or old  -  and this: https://veg.by/en/projects/syxg50/  - a very basic 32 bit GM VSTi software synth plugin.

[Bass Guitar]

18 hours ago, sjoens said:

Almost any Yamaha synth new or old  -  and this: https://veg.by/en/projects/syxg50/  - a very basic 32 bit GM VSTi software synth plugin.

Yet another example of what you will dig up in the GM midi graveyard. 

[sjoens]

I  use them and they work.  Not much choice anymore.