Yamaha claim, via their European web site, that over 45 million people now have access to XG sounds. This is not surprising as the XG standard has much to recommend it beyond its compatibility with General Midi. In XG you can choose from many more sounds than in the GM format, and each has a low‑pass filter, amplifier, LFO and two envelope generators. Furthermore, XG modules provide the luxury of three global multi‑effects processors. However, many people who happen to own an XG sound source simply because it is built into their soundcard could be forgiven for being left feeling a little uninspired if they'd simply cycled through the basic sounds.
Which brings me to the subject of this review — the Mig Music XG Layered Dance Sounds Collection Volume 1. What Mig Music have done is to create a series of patches which layer two XG parts, with each given entirely different playback settings to create evolving electronic sounds which are much more interesting.
The 22 banks of 7 patches are provided in two forms: as System Exclusive data in MIDI files, or as files for Gary Gregson's popular XG Edit editing and librarian software. A list of the patch names is also provided, both as plain text and as an HTML document. These files can be ordered on either PC or Mac format floppy disk, or can be downloaded from Mig Music's web site. Each bank, once loaded, configures 14 XG parts to respond in pairs to information arriving on the first seven MIDI channels. To audition them you simply connect a MIDI keyboard and set it to the relevant channel.
The patches provide bass, lead, pad and arpeggiation sounds, which show a keen ear for dance‑style timbres. From the outset, I found the sounds rich and varied, not least because of the liberal use of effects. What was more impressive, however, was that many of the layered sounds remained extremely satisfying without effects — a testament to the imaginative use of the available synthesis facilities. The beefy bass sounds were a particular highlight and the clever manipulation of modulation sources also made many of the pads a treat. Some of the lead sounds were perhaps a little less immediately impressive until a little controller data had been added to the sequence, and a few patches seemed to offer little more than the traditional 'piano & strings' sound layering, but these small niggles hardly compromised the high quality of the set as a whole.
Many musicians hardly think twice about spending three times the price of XG Layered Dance Sounds on a sample CD, yet I found myself more inspired by this collection of patches than I ever have been by a set of samples. Not only do you get a great set of sounds here, but you also get the education of seeing how they were built, and the flexibility to tweak all elements of the sound to your exact requirements. Even if you're not interested in dance genres, this collection is great value for money — a comprehensive tutorial in using SysEx to access the hidden functionality of XG — but if you're interested in getting some great budget dance sounds as well, then it's practically unmissable. Mike Senior