Lucasarts tended to use the LAPC-I for their games, so that card or a CM-32L / CM-64 should work best.

This goes back to older games such as Monkey Island 2 with richer sounds playing on the latter units.

philscomputerlab wrote:

Lucasarts tended to use the LAPC-I for their games, so that card or a CM-32L / CM-64 should work best.

Aha, makes sense. I noticed people on GOG praising the Roland music specific to the floppy version and mention the old MT-32, so that made me curious- I was only familiar with the CD version's General Midi.

I'd love to see (hear) a comparison between MT-32/GM with both floppy and CD versions on your awesome YouTube channel 😉

philscomputerlab wrote:

[...]

This goes back to older games such as Monkey Island 2 with richer sounds playing on the latter units.

does MI2 really sound different between mt-32/cm-32l ? I haven't noticed it 😲

keropi wrote:

philscomputerlab wrote:

[...]

This goes back to older games such as Monkey Island 2 with richer sounds playing on the latter units.

does MI2 really sound different between mt-32/cm-32l ? I haven't noticed it 😲

A few sound effects sound a little different. I only noticed it by accident.

You can hook up a MT-32 (Old) and CM-32L through MIDI-THRU and listen to the sound the chef makes in the kitchen right at the start of the game. The CM-32L has a fuller sound. And I believe some of the spitting sounds are different.

Ok, to sum it up re. X-Wing: my recording is how it sounds for any MT-32 and is not caused by DOSBox or *my* specific setup, and also does not sound better on an MT-32 new? The only way to get it to sound as intended would be to use a module with the 33 extra sounds?

It's just a guess.

I don't have the game so I can't record it on a real MT-32 or CM-32L. I know it's on GOG.com now but the price is too much for me. I was more into Wing Commander never gotten into the Lucasarts games 😒

Sounds much the same on the rev 01 MT-32 that I have, even when using an exaggerated delay on all sysex messages, so maybe the sfx have problems with first gen units that go beyond delays between sysex messages. The sfx seem more correct with MUNT using default settings.

Ok I tried MUNT and I simply don't get any sound effect with Roland. I tried just Roland and Roland with Sound Blaster. The music plays but I can't hear any sounds when the ships fly around in the cut scenes.

EDIT: Tried it on my DOS Retro Gaming PC and here the CM-32L works fine. At one point a weird background noise kept playing over and over, but then disappeared in a different section of the game. So the whole thing seems a bit buggy.

I'm uploading a video of the intro and a bit of gameplay for comparisons.

Ok the video ran straight into copyright issues...

Attached a recording from the CM-32L. Intro + training course.

And here the General MIDI option played on a SC-55

philscomputerlab wrote:

And here the General MIDI option played on a SC-55

Awesome, thanks Phil! Unfortunate (but somewhat impressive) that the midi is apparently close enough to Williams' original to get flagged for copyright 😀 At least, can't imagine someone took the time to add recordings of old DOS games to the database.

Though the sound effects sound less 'authentic' to the movie on the SC-55 they still sound pretty good, and the music quality is amazing!

The CM-32L recording basicly sounds like a bug-free version of what I am hearing on my MT-32 old, I can't pick out radically different sound effects. If you have it in reach, I would be very interested to hear if your MT-32 new can make sense of this.

Ok here is the recording with my MT-32 (New).

Note that this is all on real hardware, Pentium 100 with Roland MPU401AT.

On the MT-32 (Old) the unit just produces a stuck note or something like that. No music at all after the Buffer Overflow message.

Thanks! Sounds pretty much identical to the CM-32L, so that confirms that there are indeed compatibility issues specific to the MT-32 old beyond the missing sounds and buffer overflow issue as ripsaw8080 mentioned? +1 for the MT-32 new I guess 😀

edit: There was someone on the GOG forums who did not notice any particular strangeness on his 1st gen MT-32 through DOSBox with delaysysex, but whether that means there are perhaps differences between rev. 0 and 1 modules (I have a rev. 1) and/or specific firmware versions, or if he's just less picky, no idea.

I recently got a Roland JV-30 synthesizer and decided to order an el cheapo MIDI-USB interface to try it with those old games that came with General MIDI support. I'm starting with X-Wing Collectors' CD-ROM edition (DOS, 1994) and have attached an audio recording of the whole intro and credits sequences.

The music sounds almost exactly as the SC-55 recording that was posted here, except for some cut off notes issues that might be related to the MIDI adapter I used (listen closely at 0:43, 2:05, 3:58, 4:09, and 4:27) plus an additional instrument not heard on the SC-55 (2:27 in attached recording, 2:35 in SC-55 version) which I think sounds better.

The game install settings were General MIDI for music and Sound Blaster for sound effects, however, since I just recorded the line in signal you will only hear the music which decreases in volume every time a sound or voice is played.

Next time I will record some of the in-game music and then try the "Roland" game music setting while running the synthesizer in MT-32 simulation mode.