How come some MIDI files sound fantastic with Roland, others with AWE 64 Gold?

[Galahad]

How come some MIDI files sound fantastic with a Roland SC-55 equivalent, others moreso with a Creative AWE 64 Gold?  (I have several collections of purchased / licensed MIDI music files that I have compared against both of the above.)

For example, one MIDI file that might sound fantastic with an SC-55, might sound absolutely awful and tinny on the AWE 64 Gold.  And vice versa -- other MIDI files sound much richer and better, on my AWE-64.  The thing I don;'t quite understand though is, I thought the whole basis of the MIDI standard was that MIDI files could be played on any compatible synth and sound reasonably the same, at least in theory.

Is there reason one synth might sound better than the other perhaps be because the MIDI file in question may have been *composed*, on that particular synth?

[Mau1wurf1977]

It often also comes down to preference. For example I find that the game Descent sounds fantastic on AWE cards. Also there are sound-fonts for many cards which you can load before playing your MIDI files.

This can totally change how a song sounds.

But yea as you found out MIDI can be "all over the place" so to speak

[BlueMax]

Magic Carpet 2 used soundfonts from the get-go and sounded AMAZING!

[Ari]

It depends a lot on what MIDI device the file was composed for. For instance, if you take most of Sierra's games designed after 1992, they were generally composed to sound best on a Roland SC-55. Other games were designed to sound best on Yamaha XG devices, and others on the Sound Blaster AWE32.