I'll start with 2 midi files, one is from Final Fantasy 7 and the other from Ultima Online. These are 2 current games that support midi and also soundfonts. Final Fantasy 7 supports XG midi as well. The clips are all done in mp3 format 56kbits 24khz 26 bit stereo. I didn't do 128kbits mp3s for several reasons. They sound about the same with 56kbits, they take up less space that way, and I'm using the Windows 98 sound recorder and codecs to do this which can only do mp3 up to 56kbits (I'm lazy and didn't feel like getting the other converter that does 128kbits. ^_^ ). Also, to keep the file size down, I only sampled about the first 10 second of each midi, this way all of the files are just under 70k, which shouldn't take long to download even for us people with slow modems. :) I'll place of the midi running whichever synth specified first, and then the original midi file used just below it.

The first midi is the chocobo tune from FF7, fiddle version.

The first seven samples use the GM version of the tune fiddle.mid.

For reference sake, this is how the tune sounds on the Playstation version of FF7:
chococd.mp3 (thanks to Trevor N. for this sample)

Here it is running under Microsoft's Roland based GS softsynth:
chocoms.mp3

Here it is running under Aureal Vortex midi: (note that this is the original Vortex and Vortex 2 will not neccessarily use the same midi)
chocovtx.mp3

Here it is running under an interwave card using the Utopia soundbank:
chocouts.mp3 (thanks to Trevor N. for this sample)

Here it is running under The Diamond MX200:
chocomx2.mp3 (thanks to Greg Hart from Diamond Multimedia for this sample)

Here it is running under an SCD-15 Roland daughtercard
chocoscd.mp3(thanks to Robert Holmes for this sample)

Here it is running under a Soundblaster Live! With it's default 8mb EMU soundfont:
choco8mb.mp3 (thanks to Kevin Duffey for this sample)

Here it is running under a Soundblaster Live! With the 12mb Chaos soundfont:
choco12m.mp3 (thanks to Kevin Duffey for this sample)

Here it is running with the 4mb soundfont included with FF7 on an AWE32 (It should sound the same on an AWE64 or Live! using these same soundfonts, though you may be able to play around with the reverbs a little more on the Live!)
chocosf.mp3
(This sample was recorded using the AWE version of the midi, fiddleaw.mid, though the GM version run under this same soundfont didn't sound any different to me. Note that it will not play under a card that is not running the FF7 soundfont.)

Here it is running under a Yamaha DB50XG daughtercard
chocoxg.mp3
(This sample was recorded with the XG midi version of the tune, fiddlexg.mid. This version will also play on a GM or GS synth, but it may not sound right played that way.)

The second midi file is the Trinsic theme from Ultima Online

There's only one midi file for this one, a GM version, so all of the synths ran under this same midi
trinsic.mid

Here it is running under Microsoft's Roland based GS softsynth:
trinmsgs.mp3

Here it is running under Aureal Vortex midi: (note that this is the original Vortex and Vortex 2 will not neccessarily use the same midi)
trinvrtx.mp3

Here it is running under an interwave card using the Utopia soundbank:
trinuts.mp3 (thanks to Trevor N. for this sample)

Here it is running under The Diamond MX200:
trinmx2.mp3 (thanks to Greg Hart from Diamond Multimedia for this sample)

Here it is running under an SCD-15 Roland daughtercard
trinscd.mp3(thanks to Robert Holmes for this sample)

Here it is running with the 4mb soundfont included with UO on an AWE32 (It should sound the same on an AWE64 or Live! using these same soundfonts, though you may be able to play around with the reverbs a little more on the Live!)
trinsf.mp3

Here it is running under a Yamaha DB50XG daughtercard
trinxg.mp3

Some notes about the tests. The files were all recorded on a SBAWE32, so there may have been some noise introduced due to that, but I didn't notice much if any. I tried to record them on my DCS $25 Vortex card but they just sounded awful and muffled and did not record well at all. I don't think the DCS is a very good card for recording, I know I'd be better off with a Montego, but my DCS Vortex is just a cheap interm card until the Vortex 2's come out.

I recorded the AWE files with reverb and chorus, I used room1 & chorus1 on the chocobo tune and hall1 and chorus3 on the Trinsic tune. It didn't seem to do much for the choco tune, but it made a nice difference for the Trinsic one.

The Microsoft GS softsynth files were recorded on an Aztech 2320 ISA card with WDM drivers. I also did run them with SRS on which does add a bit to the sound of the midi files. Not all midi cards running this softsynth will have SRS though.

On the Vortex I had the reverb and chorus up to about the 3rd notch on the chocobo tune. I tried reverb and chorus on the Trinsic tune, but it just sounded too dreamy, spacey and echoey, even turned all the way down, so I just switched them off. For both I used the 64 for voice pro quality, though I've run them under 32 voice game quality and noticed no real difference.

The Yamaha I had on board the AWE32, though in the past I've also run it from the Aztech and when it's on that I can turn the SRS sound on which adds some to the sound of some midi files, but is just reverb overkill for others. Note the Yamaha DB50XG also uses an 18-bit DAC, while the SB16 only uses a 16-bit DAC so it's output on the SBAWE32 may possibly be a little degraded because of this. I'm not sure what kind of DAC the Aztech has, but I can't imagine it's more than 16-bit.

Next time I'm going to pick a sample each from FF7 and UO that utilize drums and percussions.

Links
The Bard's Library at the Mysterious Sosaria site have an extensive collection of Ultima midis, including those from Ultima Online: Shattered Legacy
http://www.surfing.net/ultima/bardidx.html

Jeff D. has some mp3s samples of midis running under his ultimate soundfont at this site:
ftp:/ftp.daewoo.co.kr/incoming

Utopia Sound Division have a couple of mp3s of FF7 midis running under the Utopia soundfont with the ff7 patch.
http://sdc.wtm.tudelft.nl/utopia/utopiasoundbank_mp3_audio_files.html

Anyone have any more links to add?

Again, I can be reached at mailto:motoki@dhp.com