I also still use the good old Virtual Sound Canvas quite a bit for everyday working with BiaB on my older laptop that still runs XP 32bit, anyway. I just find that it is good enough for everyday work, practice, etc. and is always there with the laptop as vs use of a hardware synth, maybe not the most high fidelity of synths these days, but having the full GM bank available and the fact that the VSC and Band in a Box "get along" with each other quite nicely, the ability to just load a song and hear it play without the need for fiddling with setting patches or assigning them before hitting Play.

As for the GM2, I set mine to that a long time ago and loaded the proper Patchmap file for GM2 mode and it is great. When set to GM2 mode you don't lose the "original" GM bank with the VSC, so all songs that use the GM bank will sound exactly the same. The value of the GM2 bank, however, is that you get access to many more Patches in addition.

Of course, if you are running later OS or 64 bit OS, then the venerable old VSC won't likely install and work there. So the Coyote is provided with BiaB and is what's there, still being GM compat anyway, making the "automatic" loading of Patches equally available for everyday work as described.

Having a GM synth as the default for Band in a Box also makes for the ability to Audition demo songs, other people's songfiles, etc. with the ability to basically hear what they heard from their GM synth. I like to hear those "basics" before attempting to change patches, synths, mix levels, etc.


--Mac

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