Recived my MP32L last week, thanks for fast shipping dreamblaster!
There seems to be still total component blacout in world, everywhere i looked, no Raspberries available.
Has anyone tested MP32L on Raspberry Pi 2b? I did not find any info regarding MP32L on RP2b, so i decided to try out. So i dismantled my home server running on RP 2b. Prepared SD card and config file... and it kinda works! Boots up very fast, music sounds on General MIDI mode games very good. But older games, that support only MP32 sound kinda off. I mean like wrong instruments are used. Tested with old version MP32 and CM32 roms. Can anyone tell me where is the problem?

Does your sound card support MPU401 intelligent mode?

heckyeah wrote on 2022-06-19, 19:22:

Does your sound card support MPU401 intelligent mode?

No, i use a cheap-o cristal chipset based SB clone + softmpu. For comparision i have an original old version MP32 running next to MP32L.

psychofox wrote on 2022-06-20, 05:55:

heckyeah wrote on 2022-06-19, 19:22:

Does your sound card support MPU401 intelligent mode?

No, i use a cheap-o cristal chipset based SB clone + softmpu. For comparision i have an original old version MP32 running next to MP32L.

Your issue sounds like SoftMPU is not working, or your computer is not managing to upload data to the MT32-Pi. This could be a problem with the USB MIDI interface you are using. What brand/model is it?

appiah4 wrote on 2022-06-20, 07:43:

Your issue sounds like SoftMPU is not working, or your computer is not managing to upload data to the MT32-Pi. This could be a problem with the USB MIDI interface you are using. What brand/model is it?

I use it on my 486 PC at the moment , so no USB cable but MP32L directly hooked with Midi cable to sound card Joystic port.
I have also that cheap chinese USB MIDI cable somwhere lying around too, if i find it will give it a try.

I'm a pretty happy CM32-L owner at the moment.

One word of advice is that the small posts at the bottom of the case may need a little trimming, your Pi board should mount onto those holes, they aren't simply spacers. Took me a while to figure out why my case wouldn't go together properly.

I have not yet found good quality screenshot of PCB in order to ID DAC chip on MP32L. Owners here, could you share this info. Product page is describing it as "High quality DAC" and that's all.

You can find it on the picture in the first post. It's pretty much the same as on many of the pre-made I2S-boards (e.g. GY-PCM5102): PCM5102A

Hey

I've had this device for some time, it's nice and compact, but I have this wired thing happening. If I boot up a game, like quest for glory 1 (in mt32 mode) it start out ok and sounds correct to my ears, but if I push the second button from the left to change mode or what you call it, the sound becomes all messed up, notes are missing and incorrect. It does not get fixed by restarting the mp32l, I need to restart the game. I had this happen to me in lands of lore as well.

BR joakim

Joakim wrote on 2023-04-03, 19:59:

Hey

I've had this device for some time, it's nice and compact, but I have this wired thing happening. If I boot up a game, like quest for glory 1 (in mt32 mode) it start out ok and sounds correct to my ears, but if I push the second button from the left to change mode or what you call it, the sound becomes all messed up, notes are missing and incorrect. It does not get fixed by restarting the mp32l, I need to restart the game. I had this happen to me in lands of lore as well.

BR joakim

The same things would happen if you started playing a game with a real MT-32, and then, five minutes into the game, unplugged it and directly plugged in it's place (e.g.) a real SC-55. Changing modes on this device halfway through a playback, is the digital equivalent of doing that.

What you are hearing is normal. The music data (and/or the game code) often contains initialisation/patch/parameter events, which configure the synth for that particular game or song. Events of that type which have already occurred (e.g. settings initialised at the beginning of a game or song), will not persist when changing between MT-32 mode & Soundfont mode. It's as though you've switched on a fresh synth. It knows nothing of the previous notes or parameters that were played.

Furthermore, music data for the MT-32 is not entirely compatible with General MIDI, and vice-versa, so when changing modes halfway through a playback which was written for one-or-the-other, some forms of weirdness would be expected anyway.

Shreddoc wrote on 2023-04-03, 21:06:

The same things would happen if you started playing a game with a real MT-32, and then, five minutes into the game, unplugged it […]
Show full quote

Joakim wrote on 2023-04-03, 19:59:

Hey

I've had this device for some time, it's nice and compact, but I have this wired thing happening. If I boot up a game, like quest for glory 1 (in mt32 mode) it start out ok and sounds correct to my ears, but if I push the second button from the left to change mode or what you call it, the sound becomes all messed up, notes are missing and incorrect. It does not get fixed by restarting the mp32l, I need to restart the game. I had this happen to me in lands of lore as well.

BR joakim

The same things would happen if you started playing a game with a real MT-32, and then, five minutes into the game, unplugged it and directly plugged in it's place (e.g.) a real SC-55. Changing modes on this device halfway through a playback, is the digital equivalent of doing that.

What you are hearing is normal. The music data (and/or the game code) often contains initialisation/patch/parameter events, which configure the synth for that particular game or song. Events of that type which have already occurred (e.g. settings initialised at the beginning of a game or song), will not persist when changing between MT-32 mode & Soundfont mode. It's as though you've switched on a fresh synth. It knows nothing of the previous notes or parameters that were played.

Furthermore, music data for the MT-32 is not entirely compatible with General MIDI, and vice-versa, so when changing modes halfway through a playback which was written for one-or-the-other, some forms of weirdness would be expected anyway.

Aha, thanks for the explaination, it makes sense. So in case I for some reason would like to switch mode to sc-55, I would need to do this before booting up the game?

Joakim wrote on 2023-04-04, 10:28:

Shreddoc wrote on 2023-04-03, 21:06:

The same things would happen if you started playing a game with a real MT-32, and then, five minutes into the game, unplugged it […]
Show full quote

Joakim wrote on 2023-04-03, 19:59:

Hey

I've had this device for some time, it's nice and compact, but I have this wired thing happening. If I boot up a game, like quest for glory 1 (in mt32 mode) it start out ok and sounds correct to my ears, but if I push the second button from the left to change mode or what you call it, the sound becomes all messed up, notes are missing and incorrect. It does not get fixed by restarting the mp32l, I need to restart the game. I had this happen to me in lands of lore as well.

BR joakim

The same things would happen if you started playing a game with a real MT-32, and then, five minutes into the game, unplugged it and directly plugged in it's place (e.g.) a real SC-55. Changing modes on this device halfway through a playback, is the digital equivalent of doing that.

What you are hearing is normal. The music data (and/or the game code) often contains initialisation/patch/parameter events, which configure the synth for that particular game or song. Events of that type which have already occurred (e.g. settings initialised at the beginning of a game or song), will not persist when changing between MT-32 mode & Soundfont mode. It's as though you've switched on a fresh synth. It knows nothing of the previous notes or parameters that were played.

Furthermore, music data for the MT-32 is not entirely compatible with General MIDI, and vice-versa, so when changing modes halfway through a playback which was written for one-or-the-other, some forms of weirdness would be expected anyway.

Aha, thanks for the explaination, it makes sense. So in case I for some reason would like to switch mode to sc-55, I would need to do this before booting up the game?

Basically that's it. You may also need to run the game's setup.exe or equivalent, to choose between MT-32 and General MIDI.

Other combinations are possible, but as you've discovered, the results may sound a little unpredictable.

Hy this solution with which mt-32 compatibility has?
Rev1 or rev2?
Or dupport both, and possible switching two modes?

envagyok wrote on 2023-09-19, 03:57:

Hy this solution with which mt-32 compatibility has?
Rev1 or rev2?
Or dupport both, and possible switching two modes?

You can switch between rev.1 , rev.2 and CM-32L , the mt32pi project support all
There is even a dos program that sends the special switch message. More info can be found in mt32pi GitHub page: https://github.com/dwhinham/mt32-pi

Hi, I'm having a strange problem with MP32L... The hat used to work great before... Since I replaced the PI3A+ (I sold the old one) it's not working anymore... I switch on the pi with micro sd inserted, the lateral red light turns on and the green light starts to blink. Then I have a fixed red light on the hat (left of the screen) but the display doesn't give signals of life... I tried 3 different sd cards (Sandisk 2GB, Sandisk ULTRA 16 GB and Kingston 16 GB, same story... What's happening here? Maybe the hat has broken?

I'm using this mt32pi configuration file ->

https://serdaco.com/downloads/MP32L/mt32-pi.cfg

I tried with both firmware version 10 and last version.

Any suggestion? Thanks.

I answer myself since someone might face the same issue. I discovered all the Pi3A+s manufactured from April 2023 onwards (Revision 2.0) require a new firmware to run. Just replace these 4 files found on MT32Pi last version .zip...

start_cd.elf
start4cd.elf
fixup_cd.dat
fixup4cd.dat

...with the same ones you can download at this page:
https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/tree/stable/boot

Problem solved.

😀

opossum wrote on 2023-11-30, 14:16:

I answer myself since someone might face the same issue. I discovered all the Pi3A+s manufactured from April 2023 onwards (Revis […]
Show full quote

I answer myself since someone might face the same issue. I discovered all the Pi3A+s manufactured from April 2023 onwards (Revision 2.0) require a new firmware to run. Just replace these 4 files found on MT32Pi last version .zip...

start_cd.elf
start4cd.elf
fixup_cd.dat
fixup4cd.dat

...with the same ones you can download at this page:
https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/tree/stable/boot

Problem solved.

😀

Nice catch.
This should be flagged to the MT32Pi maintainers.

We had a similar issue when rolling out a lab of 300 embedded Pi 3B models back in 2016 and then having to replace small numbers of them with 3B+ a couple of years later, when the SD duplicator image needed updating to support the new firmware directory.

opossum wrote on 2023-11-30, 14:16:

I answer myself since someone might face the same issue. I discovered all the Pi3A+s manufactured from April 2023 onwards (Revis […]
Show full quote

I answer myself since someone might face the same issue. I discovered all the Pi3A+s manufactured from April 2023 onwards (Revision 2.0) require a new firmware to run. Just replace these 4 files found on MT32Pi last version .zip...

start_cd.elf
start4cd.elf
fixup_cd.dat
fixup4cd.dat

...with the same ones you can download at this page:
https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/tree/stable/boot

Problem solved.

😀

good find thanks !!