The problem with GM is the number of instrument choices even if you have the very best GM sound bank in the world. Example, say you're doing a country tune and you want a nice steel string guitar. Your GM sound bank has one. Count em, one steel string guitar. It also has one electric one jazz and maybe another one. That it. Now that one steel string may be a very good one and it sounds great. But, my Sampletank using the Sonicsynth library has at least 25 different electric guitars to choose from, none which is GM. I've got distortion, amp modeling, one called Dark Prince, another one called Chet something, many different choices.

If you're happy with one good guitar patch great. GM is simple and easy.

As far as cost a decent but not the best, softsynth is about the same as a good hardware module, roughly $500 and there are good and bad points to each.

The biggest plus for software is no desk clutter with midi and audio cables running around plus the big one is fast rendering of your midi tracks to audio. When you look at your "save as" choices one is to render all DXi/VST tracks to audio. A typical 4 minute song will render in 15 seconds to a minute depending on how fast your computer is.

A hardware module can't render. You have to route the audio out from the module back into your computer record it in real time just like the old days with a live band. A 4 minute song takes 4 minutes to record.

Bob

Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.