But does it have that sound? The 18-bit DACs. The gritty filter resonance. The way the reverb blooms into a digital haze? Yes.

By: Vintage Gear Desk

In the late 1990s, the world was caught in a sonic tug-of-war. On one side, you had the rise of the software sampler and the burgeoning Soundfont format—a promise that you could turn your Sound Blaster PC into a bottomless pit of custom sounds. On the other side, you had the established giants of hardware: Roland, Yamaha, and Korg, churning out silver boxes with LCD screens and tiny buttons.