VOGONS


midi music

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First post, by Robhalfordfan

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hi all

I was wondering what would best midi device for dos/windows gaming that would work with most games and work with soundblaster 16

I heard of roland mt-32, roland sound canvas

but that all I know of 🤣

just wondering what would best option, if decide to go down that route

Reply 1 of 21, by gdjacobs

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MIDI Devices 101

You have many options depending on your interests and price bracket. Costs can vary from approximately $50 to many hundreds for a comprehensive stack of MIDI gear.

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Reply 2 of 21, by Shponglefan

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Roland SC-55 is your best bet for the broadest MIDI compatibility for the early to mid 90's era games. Or an MT-32 if there are specific games it covers (particularly older Sierra games).

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Reply 3 of 21, by Robhalfordfan

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what kinda different between sound would different model be like and at moment, price range seem a bit expensive at moment but research and see what everyone says to help narrow search

Reply 4 of 21, by gdjacobs

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Again, you can build a credible solution with a spare PC, USB MIDI adapter, and a free set of programs to do the MIDI emulation. Price is variable depending on what your objectives are. Even if you want to begin collecting real synth hardware, you can go the emulation route and add pieces as you find them.

It's worth noting that SB16 cards have drawbacks as a MIDI interface.

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Reply 6 of 21, by gdjacobs

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Some have DSP glitches which corrupt the MIDI stream (to a greater or lesser extent).
http://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/Hanging_note_bug

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Reply 8 of 21, by gdjacobs

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Oh, I was thinking you haven't been using MIDI yet. You won't notice the problem unless you play MIDI and digital sound effects together.

Anyway, I just wanted you to be aware.

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Reply 10 of 21, by gdjacobs

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You've got a MIDI daughterboard or external synth module? Cool, didn't know that.

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Reply 12 of 21, by jheronimus

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Your card has DSP v 4.12 — it's silk-screened on the chip in the bottom right corner of the empty socket. At least it is in this photo.

As far as I understand, right now you only have an SB16. That means that games you've played used SB16's PCM capabilities for digital sound and SB16's OPL3 chip/FM synthesizer for music. Not MIDI. This is why you don't have issues right now.

There are basically five main ways to connect MIDI stuff:

1) daughterboards to your SB16's Waveblaster header. This is what it looks like. These are cards like Dreamblaster X2, Roland SCB-55 and many more.
2) external GM modules like Roland SC-55/MT-32 or Yamaha MU-80 to your SB16's Gameport. This is what it looks like.
3) through a dedicated MPU controller like this.
4) you can also use dedicated ISA MIDI cards like Roland SCC-1/LAPC-I, Yamaha SW60XG and Turtle Beach Maui. They get MIDI instructions by themselves (and not through SB16) and simply feed audio output to your SB16 line-in port using a common audio jack cable.
5) finally, you can use two sound cards. Your SB16 will be used for digital sounds and OPL3 music (when needed), your second card can be almost any SB16 clone not made by Creative or ESS. The clone card is used only to control MIDI stuff using approaches 1 and 2. This is a more tricky approach as more hardware in DOS systems usually mean more conflict resources.

With your current card you should get hanging note bugs in scenarios 1 and 2, but not 3, 4 or 5. That means, when you play Doom with MIDI music, at some point you will hear a single stuck high note playing the whole time in the background of the soundtrack and it will be pretty noticeable.

P.S.: there are also cards with integrated MIDI capablities — SoundBlaster 16 AWE32/AWE64, Gravis Ultrasound and many more.
P.P.S.: you can find almost a lot of samples on YouTube and SoundCloud where people have recorded game music playing on any particular device. Doom's E1M1 is a track that you can find playing on almost any device imagineable.

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Reply 14 of 21, by gerwin

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Robhalfordfan wrote:

ok the is not my sb16 i own, just a pic i found on net but can open up in pc case have proper look

Why do the effort and actually look? Just post a few oneliners without real info again. 🤣

--> ISA Soundcard Overview // Doom MBF 2.04 // SetMul

Reply 15 of 21, by gdjacobs

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Robhalfordfan wrote:

ok the is not my sb16 i own, just a pic i found on net but can open up in pc case have proper look etc

out of all hose options which is lease hassle

Emulation is the cheapest way to go and the easiest to piece together.

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Reply 16 of 21, by Robhalfordfan

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Is there a way to emulate it for now on a real dos pc rather than dosbox as I like use real hardware as much as possible

And my sb16 in diagnosis says the in picture and looks like my card has the hanging note bug

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Reply 17 of 21, by gdjacobs

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It's not really possible to emulate a complex synthesizer within a DOS session. MIDI synth is memory and processor intensive (relative to the limits of a typical TSR). It might be possible to do so on a powerful enough Win98 machine for games that don't need to boot straight to DOS. Also, in this case the only emulation is of the MIDI module. You can use a real DOS PC connected to the emulator via MIDI.

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Reply 19 of 21, by skitters

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Robhalfordfan wrote:

so I can midi box and output to speaker and use sotware like softmpu, then would that work

You can output sound from the midi unit either directly to speakers or to the line in on the sound card.
Either way, you also need the midi cable connecting the midi port (joystick port) on the sound card to the midi in on the midi unit.

With your particular card, you'll probably get that hanging note bug.

Check Phil's video here, where he shows how to hook up an MT-32 to an AWE64
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPBSO02BUhc