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 November 1 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.

[Bass Guitar]

Back to the OP who asked a question and seemed to have visited the forum a few days ago but didn’t respond. 
But for others asking this question I spent a few day scouring the internet and Heres my conclusion 

 

[Bass Guitar]

Another thing that I forgot to mention is that as you install VST SynthFont it asks you if you want to enable the screen reader function. I do believe that this is of  importance to the OP. 
 

The other thing I learned this morning is that the Coolsoft Virtual MIDI Synth is not available for New Sonar users. It doesn’t show up on the list of Midi output options. 
Only Platinum,  Mixcraft and Waveform. 
It doesn’t show up in S1 either. 
 

Edited November 4 by Bass Guitar

[mettelus]

On 8/13/2025 at 9:12 PM, Annabelle said:

I'm specifically trying to find ones that support MIDI controllers like "Portamento Control" (CC84), and Cakewalk TTS1 seems to assign that to a different parameter.

Annabelle still using SONAR 8.5 (so VST3 options are out) and has TTS-1. Her question is regarding specific functionality TTS-1 doesn't have available. Mark's post above has the best focus on that specific question, but options for visually challenged folks seem to only exist for modern formats in Reaper. There is an entire subset of users in that community dedicated to keeping that up to date for folks who need it (plus Alexey is a great resource for information and bridging the gap there). Barring that, her options are limited to what will work for her with visual assistance on a 16 year old DAW.

[Bass Guitar]

VST SynthFont is both VST 2 and 3 . It’s been around since Windows XP! 
I will test on 8.5 because I still have it installed. 


I think it blows away the TTS-1 in many ways.
 

1- Better sound which is also something that you have 100% control over due to the millions of sound fonts available free. 

2- it’s a VST both 2 and 3 so future proof 

3- It is still maintained by the developers. 
4- 16 track audio output available 

5- There is very deep midi control down to the smaller details of what midi is capable of 

6. It has a screen reader mode for the GUI

6- Not only does it support GM midi but you can create 16 instruments and choose which channels feed that. It can be as few as 1. Talk about layered sound! 

 

[sjoens]

If hardware is an option, according to a post on the Yamaha forum, Yamaha XG/GM keyboards (like the PSR series) will all respond to cc84 Portamento Control.  Their synthesizers handle it differently, tho.

Edited November 5 by sjoens

[Byron Dickens]

On 10/28/2025 at 11:45 AM, Bass Guitar said:

SynthFont is rock solid and is maintained and updated. They have a few different versions at different price points. 
 

I got mine free as it is included with Band in a Box. You also get Coyote which I like the sounds better but it is DX so not a great idea for the future 

How did you get it to work? I have BIAB as well and I had to hunt it down in the weird place they stashed it. I moved it to where it should be - program files/Steinberg/vstplugins - and it works just fine in BIAB but wants me to put in activation  codes if I open it in Sonar.

[Bass Guitar]

@Byron Dickens    
I’ll contact Kenneth the developer and ask about this. They might have recently locked it to BiaB. 
In the past it just showed up in Cakewalk. 
Coyote definitely is working but it is free. 
 

I have the 14.90 Euro version of VST SynthFont because I wanted the VST 3 version. I also like supporting these small developers. 
Kenneth has been working with me to sort out a few issues I had with the Midi Sound Synth. 

Midi files saved from Sonar are not working properly. 

[Bass Guitar]

@Byron Dickens

I was just in the process of redoing my back up Laptop so I did fresh installation of Band in a Box and Sonar Platinum. 
 

The VST SynthFont did not show up in Sonar just as expected. And ya the plug in is most certainly hidden deep in the bowels of the BB folder. I had to use Search to find it. 

So I copied and then pasted it into the Steinberg VST folder. So there’s still the original where BB wants it to be. 

Sonar found it and it opens and yes it is showing a Trial 15 day period.But then I found out I had not authorized BiaB.

So I registered BiaB and now the VST synthfont is not in demo mode. 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by Bass Guitar