I still remember the day when I started playing these cheesy midi files with "timidity" and a directory full of .pat patches files from a GUS IIRC.

Wow! It sounded great! (a Gravis Ultrasound or even a Soundblaster Wave32 were over my budget)

At that time I was enjoying mods and s3m, and usually found them better sounding, but timidity + high quality patches changed all that.

(I still listed to some midi, mods and s3m converted into .wav and burned then ripped in mp3. good old memories)