VOGONS


MT32 + USB = problem. Please read

Topic actions

Reply 20 of 37, by sergm

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Well, hardware solutions are always more robust 😀

Reply 21 of 37, by gdjacobs

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Personally, I think hardware mods are fun!

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder

Reply 22 of 37, by Dougal

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
gdjacobs wrote:

Personally, I think hardware mods are fun!

Gonne pop the thing open and mod it in the next hour. My brother has a better hand with soldering so he's gonna do the soldering for me.

Will post results 😁

Win 7 : Core2Quad 2.4Ghz, 4Gb Ram, Audigy 4 Pro
Win 98: Pentium III 600Mhz, 448MB Ram, Matrox Millenium DualHead 32MB, Sound Blaster 32, Roland MT-32
Win 98: Compaq Armada 7400 P2 333Mhz, 192MB Ram, ESS AudiDrive 1879 with Wavetable

Reply 24 of 37, by sergm

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I'm also worrying.. Hopefully nothing was occasionally burned... 😵
Well, software solutions are indeed safer.

Reply 25 of 37, by Dominus

User metadata
Rank DOSBox Moderator
Rank
DOSBox Moderator

Which reminds me, Dougal, install Munt (you will need the MT32 ROMS) and test how that works with native Dosbox on OS X.
(You will need to use the Dosbox SVN from my signature because that allows choosing the Coremidi port in the preference file)

Windows 3.1x guide for DOSBox
60 seconds guide to DOSBox
DOSBox SVN snapshot for macOS (10.4-11.x ppc/intel 32/64bit) notarized for gatekeeper

Reply 26 of 37, by Dougal

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Ok, the soldering is beyond my capability or else my soldering iron end is caput.

The issue is definetely beyond a doubt SYSEX not working. Its well documented that most cheap USB to Midi adapters have these issues.

Sooooo, I saw on a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqComjnBZZs this dude says to disable one of the ports. But he isnt using dosbox or gaming. How can I do this on Win7 and DosBox ?

Or maybe there is some custom driver ?

EDIT: MIXER /LISTMIDI gives these devices:

0 "Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth"
1 " USB A"
2 "Midiout 2 (USB A)"

Hence like the video, two devices (ports?) were added. So my guessing is that disabling one of them or whatever like that guy on the video did may fix it

Win 7 : Core2Quad 2.4Ghz, 4Gb Ram, Audigy 4 Pro
Win 98: Pentium III 600Mhz, 448MB Ram, Matrox Millenium DualHead 32MB, Sound Blaster 32, Roland MT-32
Win 98: Compaq Armada 7400 P2 333Mhz, 192MB Ram, ESS AudiDrive 1879 with Wavetable

Reply 27 of 37, by Dougal

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Here I made a short video showing the issue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2toTAlemvk - This video shows Space Quest. I dont know if that has SYSEX or not (forgot) but it sounds OK though still it is not sounding right.

EDIT: This shows the problem more as I think Space Quest was sounding right: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECos6aVlau4 - Notice no SYSEX and instruments all messed up

Practically every game I tried runs into some issue:

4D Sports Driving(Stunts) - Music is perfect but no sound when driving
Ski Or Die - Music and sound messed up
Lotus III - Title music sounds good - The rest not so good
Monkey Island II does not sound good and no SYSEX
Doom - Sound as it normally sounds without MT2GM (General Midi programming) But when I try to program the MT32 with Playmid MTGM it "hangs" while programing.

etc..

Win 7 : Core2Quad 2.4Ghz, 4Gb Ram, Audigy 4 Pro
Win 98: Pentium III 600Mhz, 448MB Ram, Matrox Millenium DualHead 32MB, Sound Blaster 32, Roland MT-32
Win 98: Compaq Armada 7400 P2 333Mhz, 192MB Ram, ESS AudiDrive 1879 with Wavetable

Reply 28 of 37, by sergm

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I think that fixing video is just about getting rid of doubled notes. Indeed, when a sysex is sent via both MIDI ports, it turns into a mess from the device PoV and is confidently ignored.
From my experience, both of the ports are equally bad. We don't have to worry about that as DOSBox only opens one of them. Either one I choose, sysexes get lost (with original Windows class-compliant USB-MIDI driver).
The problem with my cable is that it is unbuffered and cannot send more than 3 bytes which is exactly the maximal length of a short MIDI message. Any sysex is screwed when I attempt to send it by the Windows class-compliant driver. In contrast, Linux driver sends long sysex messages by 3-byte packets and in perfect sync, so sysexes are transferred flawlessly.
Fun fact, but my custom driver also removes the second MIDI port as a side effect 😀

Reply 29 of 37, by sergm

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

BTW, you probably want to know how to debug this kind of issues. My way: I connect two MIDI cables to CM-64 using it as a precious MIDI-thru device. 😀 Luckily, my second MIDI cable has a buffer (though too short for usual MT-32 timbre sysex), so I can receive back the mess I send. MIDI-OX is an example of a tool that allows to send any byte sequence through such a MIDI chain and observe the changes. Obviously, having two quality USB-MIDI cables, you'll receive exactly what you send. But unfortunately these cheap cables are seemingly unbuffered, so (as philscomputerlab also noted) you cannot use them to get MIDI input. 🙁

Reply 30 of 37, by Dougal

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Would this solve all my issues ?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-Roland-UM-ONE-M … zn4AAOSwcdBWSac~

Win 7 : Core2Quad 2.4Ghz, 4Gb Ram, Audigy 4 Pro
Win 98: Pentium III 600Mhz, 448MB Ram, Matrox Millenium DualHead 32MB, Sound Blaster 32, Roland MT-32
Win 98: Compaq Armada 7400 P2 333Mhz, 192MB Ram, ESS AudiDrive 1879 with Wavetable

Reply 31 of 37, by gdjacobs

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

That's the one Phil recommended in his video.

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder

Reply 32 of 37, by sergm

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I'm a bit lost. Dougal, have you tried the "low-cost" cable with Linux? Or do you have more problems with it aside from sysex transmits?

Reply 33 of 37, by Dougal

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
sergm wrote:

I'm a bit lost. Dougal, have you tried the "low-cost" cable with Linux? Or do you have more problems with it aside from sysex transmits?

Not yet tried the Linux. I went on your link but I'm a noob on Linux. How do I install the driver on Ubuntu ?

Win 7 : Core2Quad 2.4Ghz, 4Gb Ram, Audigy 4 Pro
Win 98: Pentium III 600Mhz, 448MB Ram, Matrox Millenium DualHead 32MB, Sound Blaster 32, Roland MT-32
Win 98: Compaq Armada 7400 P2 333Mhz, 192MB Ram, ESS AudiDrive 1879 with Wavetable

Reply 34 of 37, by Solarstorm

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
Dougal wrote:

I have the UM-ONE no problems so far everything i tested with it just worked.
I bought it after the huge fail with the crap cheap adapter.

My YouTube Channel

Reply 35 of 37, by sergm

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Dougal, usually you do not have to install drivers for Linux. Either Linux supports a device out of the box or it doesn't support it at all. In case of USB-MIDI, you just look to the available ALSA MIDI ports after the cable gets recognised.

Reply 36 of 37, by Dougal

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I'm away on holiday now but when I get back I will try the cheap USB MIDI using Linux.

I also just ordered a brand new Roland UM-One MK2. This should definitely be one of the best I guess.

Win 7 : Core2Quad 2.4Ghz, 4Gb Ram, Audigy 4 Pro
Win 98: Pentium III 600Mhz, 448MB Ram, Matrox Millenium DualHead 32MB, Sound Blaster 32, Roland MT-32
Win 98: Compaq Armada 7400 P2 333Mhz, 192MB Ram, ESS AudiDrive 1879 with Wavetable

Reply 37 of 37, by Kaminari

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

For what it's worth, I've been using the M-Audio Uno for years without a single issue. It's a reliable and cheaper solution than the Roland cable.

Ryzen 2600X 4.2 GHz | Radeon RX 6650 XT 8 GB | DDR4 16 GB | Win10-64 Pro