I'm not familiar with Realms, but are you saying the game sounds different from the YouTube video you watched? And only the background music, not the main theme?
Or are you saying some channels seem quiet but that this could be correct?

Interface isn't going to be relevant if some channels and some games are working fine.

Spikey wrote on 2023-12-02, 07:01:

I'm not familiar with Realms, but are you saying the game sounds different from the YouTube video you watched? And only the background music, not the main theme?
Or are you saying some channels seem quiet but that this could be correct?

Interface isn't going to be relevant if some channels and some games are working fine.

Hi,

It would be the first one. The music sounds different from the Youtube video (and I can tell it's wrong because some of the instruments are hardly audible as well).

This is the video - the music that I am comparing it to starts at minute 3:50.

I have done some more testing, and if I select one of the quieter channels volume separately and try to increase it (by rotating the volume wheel), I can sometimes increase the sound and hear it louder for a fraction of a second, but then it goes back to being quiet (I assume because this is the instruction its receiving from the PC?)

Could this be a game that needs the 2nd generation mt32 like the CM32L? Maybe this was used to do the video and this is why it's different?

keropi wrote on 2023-12-03, 08:13:

Could this be a game that needs the 2nd generation mt32 like the CM32L? Maybe this was used to do the video and this is why it's different?

Just since this is confusing, the 2nd gen MT-32 (aka rev1) and CM-32L are different things, at least as far as the CM has the extra sound effects. The noise improvement from the 1st gen MT-32 (rev0) may be the same in both and I think are assumed to be. The CM has different panpot spec as well.

Either way, that wouldn't be causing anything like what the OP is describing.

Night: What it sounds like is incorrect MIDI instructions being sent for some reason. I would assume your setup somehow (eg something weird like bad MIDI cable) but it's working at times, you say. Are you sure it's working correctly for other games like MI, or just that you don't hear anything overly weird with them?

Is it possible for you to record the MIDI output from the game? Not sure if you're on retro hardware or a modern PC. That's really the only way to see what's going on, though. Although you taking a video would give us something, it probably won't be decisive.

Maybe the game runs into buffer overflow? Normally stated in the display when this happens. When that happens, it will not manage to finish programming and things will sound off. I don't know if Realms is one of those games capable of this, but it normally happens for MT-32 old (no headphone jack in the back) with music created for games programmed on LAPC-I, CM-32L and MT-32 new (headphone jack in the back). Not sure if there's a difference on Rev 0 and Rev 1 of the old MT-32 old.

Sorry for the long delay, but life got in the way.

I have a quick update on this topic... the problem was on my physical Sound Mixer (it was set to mono - probably the cleaning lady changed it and I never noticed) and It never crossed my mind to check because I've never used that button in my life 😀

I ended up finding this because I was also troubleshooting some left/right channel issues I was having with my sound card.

I feel stupid, but at least I now have clarity on the problem - glad my MT-32 is working fine.

Thanks everyone for your support.