Mod worked great! Very happy with the outcome. One question I had was I saw in some of the images it looked like most boards had a socketed CM-32L ROM in the center of the board. In mine I had a soldered chip, not sure if it is any different? Picture attached.

Should be identical except it is a mask rom instead of an eprom. Looks like it was made in 1990 so it's a pretty late version

darry wrote on 2022-04-18, 18:04:

If anyone in the Montreal (province of Quebec in Canada) area is looking for a deal on a RA-50 locally, one of the bigger local […]
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If anyone in the Montreal (province of Quebec in Canada) area is looking for a deal on a RA-50 locally, one of the bigger local pawn shop chains with a WEB presence has one for sale for 110 CAN$ and have apparently had it for sale since 2019 .

To respect Vogons' policies, I will not be providing more detailed information. Anyway, what I have shared should make it rather easy to find for most local inhabitants .

Apologies to MODs if what I have shared crosses any red lines . If it does, please let me know and EDIT/DELETE this post accordingly .

EDIT : 2022/05/02 It's still there, so clearly not many amateurs in Montreal . 😉

EDIT2 : 2022/05/10 It's gone and it wasn't me . It's still there. Something might have been off with the site's search engine a moment ago .

I think I've got that one : ) Thank you.

zecahue wrote on 2022-12-07, 20:42:

darry wrote on 2022-04-18, 18:04:

If anyone in the Montreal (province of Quebec in Canada) area is looking for a deal on a RA-50 locally, one of the bigger local […]
Show full quote

If anyone in the Montreal (province of Quebec in Canada) area is looking for a deal on a RA-50 locally, one of the bigger local pawn shop chains with a WEB presence has one for sale for 110 CAN$ and have apparently had it for sale since 2019 .

To respect Vogons' policies, I will not be providing more detailed information. Anyway, what I have shared should make it rather easy to find for most local inhabitants .

Apologies to MODs if what I have shared crosses any red lines . If it does, please let me know and EDIT/DELETE this post accordingly .

EDIT : 2022/05/02 It's still there, so clearly not many amateurs in Montreal . 😉

EDIT2 : 2022/05/10 It's gone and it wasn't me . It's still there. Something might have been off with the site's search engine a moment ago .

I think I've got that one : ) Thank you.

Cool! Mind sharing where you got it ? I don't think I even remember where it was, 🤣 !

Incidentally I went to a pawn shop today to return an unreliable external HDD. That pawn shop had, as of around 4-5 PM EST, and they had an RA-50 at 160 CAN$ . I don't know if it is the same pawn shop that I mentioned before, but if that is not the one you got it at, that means it is still available. The item does not currently show up in a search on their WEB site (AFAICR, it did not yesterday either). Also, this pawn shop will be having 50% off sale (for non-new items) starting on Dec. 26th. Final hint (assuming item has not already been purchased by zecahue or someone else), the pawn shop is in Longueuil.

Cool! Mind sharing where you got it ? I don't think I even remember where it was, 🤣 !

I found 2 online on they system, one was 160 and another 100. The 100 one was around St. Michel/St. Leonard.

I ended up getting a RA-50, would it be possible to use with dosbox? I did a quick test with Monkey Island 1, the instruments sound weird but in the demo they sound normal.

Ripthron wrote on 2023-02-06, 22:20:

I ended up getting a RA-50, would it be possible to use with dosbox? I did a quick test with Monkey Island 1, the instruments sound weird but in the demo they sound normal.

Have you put it in the MT-32 sound map? Do it like this:

- Push and hold "WRITE" and power on. This will put the device in factory default (E-20 mode).
- Push: "MIDI", "7", "+", "MUSIC STYLE". Now the display should show MT-32

Salient wrote on 2023-02-07, 06:08:

Have you put it in the MT-32 sound map? Do it like this: […]
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Ripthron wrote on 2023-02-06, 22:20:

I ended up getting a RA-50, would it be possible to use with dosbox? I did a quick test with Monkey Island 1, the instruments sound weird but in the demo they sound normal.

Have you put it in the MT-32 sound map? Do it like this:

- Push and hold "WRITE" and power on. This will put the device in factory default (E-20 mode).
- Push: "MIDI", "7", "+", "MUSIC STYLE". Now the display should show MT-32

That did the trick, thanks
I didn't know I needed to set the mt-32 map.
Now I need to find a way to use it in dosbox, at the moment I'm using it with Mister FGPA

About to do the switch mod. I'm going to try to connect directly to the MC68 instead of soldering to the trace. I found the trace is shorted to a pin on the top left of the MC68 near RA8. I noticed on my unit, and most of the pics that the large capacitor (4700 uF) is glued to the board? At first I thought it had leaked, but it looks like some sort of glue. Anyone else notice that?

Success! Thanks all. Using a pin on the MC68 was easier and probably more stable than soldering to a via or trace. Not sure which pin number it is, but it's easy to find with a multimeter.

I have been fighting with this mod for a while now but I cant get it to work. I would really appreciate some help.
The problem im having is that when I have the mod (with switch) installed I only get the "MT-32 mode" working. I get the "LA Sound Module is not present !" message on the display and it sounds great.
But when i switch to Normal/Arranger mod i get corrupted messages on the screen and no sound output. I have attached a couple of screenshots. It almost looks like assembly. "LAAT ..", "LART" and so on.

When I remove the mod it works fine in its normal state. I have resoldered everything a couple of times. I have checked continuity with the DMM. The switch connects 1-2 or 2-3. The cut trace does not show continuity (10 Megaohm). None of the connections are going to ground.

ahyeadude wrote on 2023-03-04, 19:40:

Success! Thanks all. Using a pin on the MC68 was easier and probably more stable than soldering to a via or trace. Not sure which pin number it is, but it's easy to find with a multimeter.

I dont seem to have a connection to the MC68 from the cut trace, could this perhaps be an issue with the revision of my board?

Hopefully it's just a rookie mistake but im stuck.

Edit. Good news! I got it working. And it was a rookie mistake indeed. My first instict was to remove my post but i will leave it up if anyone makes the same mistake. I'm putting the solution in a spoiler but the problem is visible in the 3rd picture for those who are familiar with this modification.

FYI, I've added a feature to DOSBox Staging that corrects the raw MIDI stream by sending explicit Note Off messages for all currently playing notes when an All Notes Off message is encountered. This is stipulated by the MIDI standard in absolutely no uncertain terms, and a significant number of DOS game MIDI drivers can be considered violating the MIDI standard because they only send All Notes Off events.

This means that the latest DOSBox Staging build will play all MIDI correctly without hanging notes on the Roland RA-50. Btw, I've introduced this feature so that the capture function generates clean MIDI data, because editing long MIDI streams with no Note Offs is error-prone and a total nightmare, plus it can result in missing notes, depending on how the MIDI sequencer you use interprets multiple successive Note On events.

It's controlled by the newly introduced `raw_midi` option which is false by default. See details about the feature here:
https://github.com/dosbox-staging/dosbox-staging/pull/2318

Salient wrote on 2020-11-06, 16:35:

And also couldn't help myself to change out the display again to get rid of that dull standard one..... 😀

That looks great, could you please explain how to swap it? Is that a readily available part?

Also did you ever test a CM-32L ROM for the extra sound effects?

SmokeMonster wrote on 2023-06-04, 05:30:

Salient wrote on 2020-11-06, 16:35:

And also couldn't help myself to change out the display again to get rid of that dull standard one..... 😀

That looks great, could you please explain how to swap it? Is that a readily available part?

Also did you ever test a CM-32L ROM for the extra sound effects?

The display is a plain 16x2 LCD from AliExpress so you can choose whichever color you like for that matter. Wire layout is basically the same, from 1-14. The only thing you need to deal with yourself is the backlight. But plenty of 5V connections on the PCB so that's no big deal. You do need to drill out the holes a little on the display PCB to make it fit the original holes.

I never tested a CM-32L ROM but this is still on my to-do list, if noone beats me of course 😀

Hy
I make this mod, but both switch mode (ra-50 and mt-32) at start make me warnimg, my ra-50: l.a. sound module nit present.
Is that normal both mode?

No, that message should only show up in "MT-32 mode".

My friend says ra-50 has mt-32 mod with keys:
1. Midi button right side
2. Music Style line (up) 7 button
3. Right with +/- buttin from E-20 to MT-32 set up
4. Midi button again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-G1eqswpKI

I followed this mod, now my Ra-50 works just like an MT-32.

envagyok wrote on 2023-10-13, 12:39:

My friend says ra-50 has mt-32 mod with keys: 1. Midi button right side 2. Music Style line (up) 7 button 3. Right with +/- butt […]
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My friend says ra-50 has mt-32 mod with keys:
1. Midi button right side
2. Music Style line (up) 7 button
3. Right with +/- buttin from E-20 to MT-32 set up
4. Midi button again.

Correct, that does make it almost fully compatible with the MT32, except for the issue with hanging notes/no midi reset. For that you need the hardware mod or a driver that modifies midi mesages

Salient wrote on 2023-06-05, 16:45:

The display is a plain 16x2 LCD from AliExpress so you can choose whichever color you like for that matter.

Thanks a lot! I bought and modified my RA-50.

Installed a display from Roland D-20 (using 5mm M2 PCB plastic spacers). I took +5V for the backlight from the connector on the control panel.