gdjacobs wrote on 2018-06-24, 03:00:

You can talk to ab0tj about a HardMPU board as well. I believe all the rev2 Music Quest clones have been sold atm.

Both are cheaper than a Roland, Voyetra, original Music Quest, or CMS MIDI card. Those are selling for quite astonishing prices nowadays.

I always keep an eye out for intelligent mode MIDI interface cards. Last year I scored a boxed CMS-401 for about $35 if I remember correctly.

I just found another boxed, but older revision CMS-401 and purchased it. Quite a bit more than I paid for the last one, but this one was supposedly never used and looks to include the original software and software manual.

I have quite a few other intelligent mode MIDI cards that I have picked up over the last few years. Don't think I paid more than $50 for any of them, some of them being boxed.

Those are really good prices! MIDI boards never show up where I live. I bought a MOTU board a couple of years ago, although I can't remember how much I paid. I've had issues with the emulation it uses not being 100% compatible with all titles or all host systems (not sure which), but it's the only one I've found.

Yes, with the combined factors of:
1) only the major economies of the time (USA, Japan, Western Europe) have the scale to see MIDI cards routinely on the secondhand market decades later
2) in such a small niche market, it doesn't take many dedicated enthusiasts gatekeeping the auction sites daily and snapping up everything they find, to pretty much saturate the buyer's side. Leaving near-Zero market for casuals, thus the need for people to (for example) go to great lengths recreating and sourcing new versions like the PCMIDI

Same effect applies for most retro PC componentry that wasn't dead-centre of the mainstream in it's time, and even a lot that was. The fortune (in this case) of living in those major 80's/90's economies is that you're automatically a retro power beast in comparison to the rest of us! You have effectively double or triple our buying power.

I think the MT-32 sounds incredible for those games which support it such as Monkey Island, Loom, and other early classics. But if you're not playing these games then it won't do you any good as it's not compatible with General MIDI. It will often require an MPU-401 interface that is compatible with intelligent mode, though this can be worked around through software. The AWE64 is otherwise a good card to pair with since it doesn't suffer from any hanging note or other MPU-401 bugs that plague many of the earlier Sound Blasters.

Another caveat is that there are two versions of the MT-32; the old and new, each with their own quirks. The old version is more desirable, but both have been hard to acquire now for a reasonable price as of late.

Another thing to consider, is MT-32 alternatives... like the MT-100 sequencer and the very large... but very capable RA-50. I think there might be other synths/modules/devices that are basically MT-32 at their heart that can be used as well. But just something else to consider.

CrossBow777 wrote on 2022-02-04, 15:42:

I think there might be other synths/modules/devices that are basically MT-32 at their heart that can be used as well. But just something else to consider.

His friends call him Munt.

That's the great thing : there are MT-32 options for everyone.

• If you want to camp on auction sites for a year and snuffle out a rare bargain on a real one, you can.
• If you want to not camp, and instead Buy It Now a real one for $500 (+$100 as each extra year passes), you can.
• If you want to spend $50-100 and some work, you can have something even better-sounding and more functional, with the pride of physically building it yourself.
• And there are the off-the-shelf modern options like those from serdaco

So if you have between $50 and $500 and really want an MT-32, you can have one. Either way, you'll pay in either money, or time/work.

CrossBow777 wrote on 2022-02-04, 15:42:

Another thing to consider, is MT-32 alternatives... like the MT-100 sequencer and the very large... but very capable RA-50. I think there might be other synths/modules/devices that are basically MT-32 at their heart that can be used as well. But just something else to consider.

A list I compiled awhile back - any inaccuracies are mine. (as in, DYOR)

MT-100
RA-50
LAPC-I
CM-32L
CM-64
CM-32LN
CM-500
LAPC-N

According to inferences from the Roland download site, specifically the "MT-32 to General MIDI patch" page, these big old keyboards should be MT-32 compatible /capable as well:
D-5
D-10
D-110
D-20

In the end I decided a build-my-own mt32-pi was the way to go. ~A year later, and I do not regret it. Real hardware is real nice, but sometimes the timing just isn't right - I simply refuse to pay asking prices for the real thing, re: past couple years. And running an mt32-pi has it's own ample set of rewards, in terms of the extra func it offers.

According to inferences from the Roland download site, specifically the "MT-32 to General MIDI patch" page, these big old keyboa […]
Show full quote

According to inferences from the Roland download site, specifically the "MT-32 to General MIDI patch" page, these big old keyboards should be MT-32 compatible /capable as well:
D-5
D-10
D-110
D-20

They are not. While *mostly* these synths are the same, the PCM samples are in different orders, so any custom instruments have a chance at being wrong.

Sierra put aftermarket work in for the D-110 synths until King's Quest 5, so you can download D-110 remap SYX banks for I think all the games before and including KQ5.

Other compatible synths include Roland's early E keyboard range, the E-5, 10 and 20 (all a little different). The E-30 is even a CM-32L with a couple added sound effects.

Spikey wrote on 2022-02-06, 23:14:

According to inferences from the Roland download site, specifically the "MT-32 to General MIDI patch" page, these big old keyboa […]
Show full quote

According to inferences from the Roland download site, specifically the "MT-32 to General MIDI patch" page, these big old keyboards should be MT-32 compatible /capable as well:
D-5
D-10
D-110
D-20

They are not. While *mostly* these synths are the same, the PCM samples are in different orders, so any custom instruments have a chance at being wrong.

Is the order of PCM samples something which could be relatively trivially addressed in software, and/or by way of (referring to your Sierra example) sending a sysex? or is it a more serious issue?

It means that they need their own SysEx's with the instruments edited to call the right patches. Some other minor changes appear to have been made too, those and the sample correction having been done by Sierra themselves until 1990 and KQ5, after which it seems it was halted (or at least, no evidence exists for patches beyond this point).

The relevant games are late 1990 and beyond, but there's no easy way to fix this. You'd need to custom edit the MT-32 SysEx for each and every game.

The good thing is, since some early VGA games are done, one could use those patches in future patching projects (e.g. instruments like StrSect1MS which are used in like 20 games). But I've never had any luck saving SYX files after editing them.

Ah ok. I perhaps-mistakenly assumed that the workaround would simply involve a constant translation table of sorts. I don't foresee much issue editing and saving Sysex files, or just embedding sysex into custom MIDI's as has been done in many other Sysex-reliant contexts in recent years - it seems a trivial thing - but again that may be shortsighted on my part. Without personal experience of the D- devices, it's hard to say.

It is with the existence of such things as SoftMPU that I call a basic Patch Translation Table "trivial", despite not exactly volunteering to insta-write it myself here and now! 😉

It would have been more accurate of me to say (regarding that list), that they are Roland devices including LA Synthesis, and for which MT-32 compatibility or-very-close-iteration-thereof is potentially achievable : depending upon one's capabilities. When we talk about such things at a place like Vogons, then a certain amount of technical zshushing is almost a given. Heck, technically speaking, the MT-32 isn't even 100% compatible with itself, given the different versions and the micro-changes involved. 🤣

I'm just happy I still have 3 original MT-32 and 2 original roland PSU in my closet 😀

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2018-06-20, 14:55:

do I need a Roland MT-32 also ?

No, keep your hands off them.