If the price is right, definitely grab it. You can often make do with SoftMPU, then build a HardMPU board or talk to Keropi when he builds a new batch of his Musicquest clone^2 boards.

^^ That's it. Get the unit first, SoftMPU works really well.

Yea, pick it up. MT-32s cost an arm and a leg. I honestly stuck with the AWE32 as I don't have 300 dollars to get everything I would need for an MT32 + audio + OPL setup.

Awesome 😀 and old vs 'new' model doesn't matter?

My guess is if it says MT-32 on it, it will be an MT-32 or compatible?

I wasn't even aware there was a board needed- I just plug it into the gameport on any of my audio cards.
Processing unit? Am I missing things?

gladders wrote:

Awesome 😀 and old vs 'new' model doesn't matter?

Yes, get the old one without the headphone port at the back.

What would that help? Also it just happens that's what I ended up with, paid 50 for it a year ago and it works well.
Doom is hilarious on it. Bleep bloop.

SRQ wrote:

What would that help? Also it just happens that's what I ended up with, paid 50 for it a year ago and it works well.
Doom is hilarious on it. Bleep bloop.

Man, ZDoom or Zandorum with a good 2GB or so SF on a modern PC is AMAZING, it sounds WAY better than the general MIDI synth most cards have.

SRQ wrote:

I wasn't even aware there was a board needed- I just plug it into the gameport on any of my audio cards.
Processing unit? Am I missing things?

Well, sorta 😀
Roland sold their own MIDI interface, the MPU-401, which supported the full MPU-401 standard (obviously).
There are two modes, 'intelligent' and 'dumb'.
Many sound cards implement a MIDI interface that is MPU-401-compatible, but only in 'dumb' mode (intelligent mode is basically a whole on-board sequencer, and requires a microcontroller, making it expensive to implement).
So if you want the 'intelligent' mode as well, you either need to use the SoftMPU software (which emulates it on the CPU, requires a 386 or better), or you need the real Roland interface, or one of the few clones that support 'intelligent' mode.
I believe a few games depend on 'intelligent' mode, so just having the MT-32 alone won't give you the full experience.

SoftMPU will provide the necessary features for a UART mode (dumb, in Scali's parlance) MPU-401 interface. It works with any title that is compatible with EMM386. A proper hardware interface (the MM-401 is 95% proper) is better, though, as it will work without question of software.

The microcontroller used was generally either an 8051 or Z8. Only a modest performance upgrade of the existing controller on a SB16, for example, would allow normal (intelligent) mode features to be enabled. By the time the interface was being built into sound cards, though, software had begun implementing any required normal mode features to be run on the host CPU and they weren't really required on the card.

Ampera wrote:

SRQ wrote:

What would that help? Also it just happens that's what I ended up with, paid 50 for it a year ago and it works well.
Doom is hilarious on it. Bleep bloop.

Man, ZDoom or Zandorum with a good 2GB or so SF on a modern PC is AMAZING, it sounds WAY better than the general MIDI synth most cards have.

I use my ipad to emulate SC-88 for it, sounded HELLA GOOD. for me. Not even sure how it could be improved upon.
also 2gb soundfont waaaat

SRQ wrote:

Ampera wrote:

SRQ wrote:

What would that help? Also it just happens that's what I ended up with, paid 50 for it a year ago and it works well.
Doom is hilarious on it. Bleep bloop.

Man, ZDoom or Zandorum with a good 2GB or so SF on a modern PC is AMAZING, it sounds WAY better than the general MIDI synth most cards have.

I use my ipad to emulate SC-88 for it, sounded HELLA GOOD. for me. Not even sure how it could be improved upon.
also 2gb soundfont waaaat

Yea, SGM + Nice-Keys-Sal-Giga is around 1.3 GB in size, would never even load on a 32 bit SB environment. It's a bum ton of samples.