As far as I know, this it the breakdown:

Canadacow first started working on an MT-32 emulator that had both a Windows MIDI driver version and a version that was integrated into an experimental DOSBox build. Neither of those are still being maintained.

More recently, KingGuppy and Canadacow have joined forces to work on Munt. Munt is open-source, so it's available in a few forms, most notably:
- KingGuppy tends to release new Munt code into the SCUMMVM project before it getse anywhere else. SCUMMVM lets you play LucasArts adventure games (among other things) on modern computers
- Experimental CVS builds of DOSBox are floating around (and can be made by anyone) that have Munt's MT-32 emulation built in
- Munt is also available as a standalone Windows MIDI driver

An offical homepage for Munt is in the works. In the mean time you can find the standalone driver on Munt's sourceforge project page (go to http://www.sf.net and search for Munt). Look in the DOSBox Development forum for the CVS Builds thread for a list of publicly available experimental DOSBox builds, some of which have Munt built in. See SCUMMVM's home page at http://www.scummvm.org/ for the latest version(s) of SCUMMVM with Munt built in.

Having recently acquired some ROMs for the MT-32 and the CM-32L, I've been testing the various versions of the emulator that I could find. So far here are the ones I've tried:
- The old Munt Windows driver (2003)
- The Dosbox version of Munt (using Dosbox 0.62)
- MT32emu v0.1.3 Windows driver (2005), using the CM-32L ROM
- Daum Cafe CVS build of Dosbox (3-SEP-2007)
- Another CVS build from June 2007

While they all sound much better than running the MT-32 sounds through a normal General MIDI device, they all seem to have some problems as well. Now assuming that latest is best, the Daum Cafe CVS build should be the most accurate, but I've noticed that some instruments that sounded fine in the 0.62 CVS sound off in the newest build. Not having a real MT-32 to compare to I've had to go with comparing to General MIDI in those games that do support both MT-32 and GM, and none of the emulator versions sound the same as GM (then again I'm not even sure they're supposed to).

So, my question is: compared to a real MT-32, which version of the emulator is best? I'm naturally not expecting the emulation to sound as good as the real thing, but if I one emulation is superior to all the others then that's the one I want to stick to.

Many thanks!

Not having a real MT-32 to compare to I've had to go with comparing to General MIDI in those games that do support both MT-32 and GM, and none of the emulator versions sound the same as GM (then again I'm not even sure they're supposed to).

MT-32 Emulation is not in the slightest comparable to GM, if it were the whole emulation could be canceld since why emulate something we already have?
You can only compare it to GM to hear the beauty of MT-32 music compared to GM...
As for which emulator is the best, I *think* you can either take the 2005 driver or one of the recent Dosbox builds with munt integrated. AFAIK nothing changed in Munt code for a while and the driver is probably as recent as the munt stuff in the recent Dosbox CVS builds.
Just make sure it's a CVS build with Munt integrated, plain vanilla Dosbox CVS does not have it.

Thanks for the reply Dominus. I did try using the MT-32 in vanilla Dosbox just to be sure the CVS was working, and you can easily tell the difference 😀

On a completely unrelated topic... I've managed to locate a CM-32L, and got stupidly excited about it, before I noticed that, in the seller's words, "It does power on, but you can't get any midi information to it". Does this mean, as I suspect it does, that the thing will turn on and no sound will come out whatsoever? The seller also claims it should be easy to fix - is this true? I don't want to buy it, have it shipped from the other end of the world, only to find out that it doesn't work.

Listening to the MT-32 emulation has really made me excited about getting a real module... I'd love to get my hand on a CM-32L and listen to Ultima Underworld in its full glory, but considering how hard it is to find one that works I may have to settle for an MT-32.

On that device you found, no idea what the seller means or how hard it is to repair. You can also keep a look out to devices similar to the CM32. I bought a CM-64 which is also able to play Ultima Underworld in its full glory 😀

I hope this is not too far off topic, but could be interesting for anyone who cares about that Roland stuff:

Dominus, as you seem to rather proficient with the topic, could you give a quick rundown of which cards exist, and which are the "best" for gaming with DOSBox? I read about MT-32, CM-32, CM-64 etc., but i have no idea what exactly they are (didn't do a research until now). I'd prefer an external box, if that works allright with DOSBox (i presume a MIDI box is the most compatible solution, as it's independant of the soundcard). Pls forgive me if this has already been discussed.

There are already many threads on that stuff ADDiCT. Check the Great Hierophant's many posts.

you should really hunt down the Roland topic on Wikipedia. The cards are almost useless IMHO, since AFAIK (and I really don't know that much about this topic) these were all ISA cards and except for some special motherboards none have ISA slots nowadays, so the computers that can run Dosbox good enough can not hold an ISA card.
So that leaves the external boxes. The MT-32 is the best known, it's hooked up via midi cables and even if your soundcard does not have any midi connectors, there are inexpensive USB-to-Midi devices. There is a bug though with Dosbox and 1st batch of MT-32 firmwares that can cause lockups of the MT-32 in certain conditions (there is a thread about this in the Dosbox development forum).
That brings us to the other devices, like the CM-32 and the CM-64 and probably even more. These are compatibel to the MT-32 or probably better said more advanced boxes than the MT-32. Some games like Ultima Underworld give out more sound effects with these devices (in UW it's actually just the running water effect), there is a thread here somewhere that lists more games, not many though.
I got both an MT-32 and an CM-64. The MT-32 is just connected with a midi passthrough cable to the CM-64 so I can see the sysex messages on the MT-32 display (the MT-32 has a tiny display that shows sysex messages, the other devices do not have this anymore) but the music/sfx get played on the CM-64.

Thanks for the info! Time to do some addition research - but i've learned that the MT-32 would probably sufficient for gaming.

Damn, there's a dealer in my city that has one for € 99.- (including a one year warranty), but i'm on a tight budget ATM. It's quite a big investment just for playing some old DOS games. I have no other use for the device, as i'm not a musician (i doubt it would be useful for making "real" music anyway).

You can get one much cheaper at ebay. There is an auction in Vienna/Austria and it ends in six hours and currently it's at 2 Euro
http://cgi.ebay.de/ROLAND-MT-32-MULTI-TIMBRE- … 1QQcmdZViewItem
if you happen to live in Europe you can easily bet on it. OR if you really don't dare, you can make me bet on it and I'll send it to you for the price it costs me. But it's only worthwhile in Europe, sending it to America or so is not worth it.

thanks Dominus

yeah, that's a good price that it achieved. Congrats on your new toy 😀

Vienna seems to be a good place to buy cheap vintage sound gear. 🤣
I got my SCC-1 for 1€ here. The reason for the cheap price was that the seller refused to ship it anywhere else. And it was described as "unknown soundcard". 😉

good one 😀

pilgrim wrote:

On a completely unrelated topic... I've managed to locate a CM-32L, and got stupidly excited about it, before I noticed that, in the seller's words, "It does power on, but you can't get any midi information to it". Does this mean, as I suspect it does, that the thing will turn on and no sound will come out whatsoever?

Bear in mind two things:

1. The MT-32, and CM-compatibles, do not have a part set to MIDI channel 1 by default.

2. The majority of MIDI controller-keyboards send on MIDI channel 1 by default.

Depending on how it was tested, there may not be anything wrong with this particular CM-32L...

That's the problem - I don't know how it was tested, and I don't know how much the guy actually knows about the gear (not much from what I can tell). If it was within the UK I would probably have gone for it, but getting it from the US will be too much of a hassle. At least now I know they can still be found. I'll wait for another opportunity, it'll hopefully arise soon. The MT-32's price hasn't gone above £20 in the last few days, so I might grab that one in the meantime. Or just live with the emulation 😀

The LAPC-I seems like a good choice actually. It's an ISA card, but ISA-PCI bridges are easy to find. The problem, naturally, is that ISA-PCIE bridges don't exist (and never will), so the card will be useless if I ever upgrade my PC, or just the motherboard. The point seems moot though, as of the options I was considering (MT-32, CM-32L and LAPC-I) the card seems to be the most difficult to find.

I'm also keeping an eye out for the CM-64 (seems to be identical to the CM-32L as far as gaming is concerned. I probably will not use the CM-32P bits from it though). I've also read some posts here that suggest the CM-500 can do everything that the CM-32L can, so that's another option if it surfaces.

I tried comparing CM-32L emulation and MT-32 emulation in Ultima Underworld... the CM-32L does sound much better, even though only minor sounds seem to be affected. The emulation with a CM-32L ROM is generally better even for sounds that are played in both modes. If that's a reflection of sound difference between both modules then I'd rather be patient and wait for a CM-32L. Or just buy both 😀

The LAPC-I seems like a good choice actually. It's an ISA card, but ISA-PCI bridges are easy to find. The problem, naturally, is that ISA-PCIE bridges don't exist (and never will), so the card will be useless if I ever upgrade my PC, or just the motherboard. The point seems moot though, as of the options I was considering (MT-32, CM-32L and LAPC-I) the card seems to be the most difficult to find.

It's not just the ISA-to-PCI(or PCIE) I think it might also pose a driver issue. If the host system doesn't have drivers for the device then you can't use it with Dosbox or with ANY program.
In XP there doesn't seem to be an explicit LAPC driver, don't know if there is one in Vista or if there is a "something compatible" driver that works with the LAPC or if the device fuly functions then. And for other operating systems the outlook is not much better.
So just thinking of the future I think the external devices are a much safer option (since these only need a midi device and to me it seems the USB2Midi will be around much longer).