Could MUNT to be used to implement a successor to LA32? \ VOGONS

Could MUNT to be used to implement a successor to LA32?

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First post, by SkyHawk

Posted on 2023-04-17, 18:11

SkyHawk Offline

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Before I begin, I want to make clear I'm not asking anyone to actually *do* any of this. This post is an idle academic curiosity.

If one was to give up on MT-32 family compatibility (The ability to correctly reproduce MIDI targeted at a Roland LA32 device), could one use MUNT as the basis for an improved successor to the LA32-type devices? Maybe call it LA128.

I'm thinking stuff like making the base configuration 128 partials (or more), partials executing at 44.1KHz or 48KHz, a much larger PCM ROM, use of the full 16 MIDI channels, hell maybe even General MIDI compliance at power-on, but retaining the MT-32s ability for the musician to define custom timbres.

Would it be possible to get away from these Roland-copyrighted Control and PCM ROMs?

Lastly, is this thought experiment just a massive waste of time, as something like a modern DAW solution is just plain better?

Reply 1 of 3, by sergm

Posted on 2023-04-18, 17:45

sergm Offline

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I'd like to clarify the point of using the ROM images in munt, and probably, the goal of munt per se. With munt, we can have a relatively high-performance reimplementation of famous hardware used in retro gaming. Despite of being a reimplementation, we nevertheless load essential data from both the PCM and control ROMs, e.g. the timbre bank. Without this, we cannot hope to achieve sounding remotely close to the original devices.

However, this project is not suitable for emulating behaviour of the hardware accurately, because the actual code that resides in control ROM is not executed at all. Neither the project is flexible enough to emulate other devices - the existing code is tightly bound with MT-32 model and can be barely reused even to emulate other LA devices except maybe D-10. Another approach is taken in emulators like MAME/MESS, but in contrast, munt is able to work in real time on an old 1GHz PC.

BTW, there's munt_vsti project that does offer approximately what you described above. However, it is still based on the mt32emu engine and thus needs the ROMs.

As long as we put aside the emulation accuracy, we surely no longer need the ROMs. Still, we'd reuse the same LA technique to create sound; it's quite simple in fact. But whether munt would be useful with this in mind, I don't know. Maybe a combination of a good synth VSTi and a sampler will bring better results in the end. That's if you are completely unconcerned by compatibility with LA. Otherwise, the requirements are not clear enough wrt. how far we could go away from the classic.