I was told by the initiator and sponsor of this project that the parts were extremely difficult to source and come mainly from China. A significant amount of time and money was invested. He actually had several other daughterboards (including SCC-1 and SCC-1A versions) and several ISA soundcards made. Very impressive stuff, well designed too, with some unique features (notice the SPDIF output pins in the pictures). All in limited numbers, so rather exclusive.

The question is- is it just the 128 default MT-32 instruments? if so, it has pretty limited use.

Yeah we need to confirm whether it's a simple rompler, or a full reproduction of LA Synthesis capabilities.

If the former, then with all due respect it won't be worth much. If the latter, then Yes Please.

well we can see it has 32kb of dram (4 x 64kbx1, so 32kb).

original mt32 has 2 banks of 32kb ram.

1 32kb is for the BOSS chip, the other 32kb is for the intel mc96.

BloodyCactus wrote on 2021-01-05, 15:09:

its funny to see those old intel embedded mcs-96 / 8095 cpus.

Those are actually as well on the original MT32, the LAPC-I and probably other LA32 based devices.

root42 wrote on 2021-01-06, 13:27:

BloodyCactus wrote on 2021-01-05, 15:09:

its funny to see those old intel embedded mcs-96 / 8095 cpus.

Those are actually as well on the original MT32, the LAPC-I and probably other LA32 based devices.

err.. yes which is why I brought it up.. I dont know what even current mcs96 compilers exist. old things are old.

I don't know how effective or dependable are these so-called LA32 daughterboards. This is the first time hearing of such thing.

I'm not really optimistic about it when it comes to compatibility too. Roland MT-32 ROMs are still copyrighted, and the above boards must be an enthusiast created ones in his spare time.

Anyway, he should played off Sierra adventure games instead, like King's Quest V or something, to show off the capabilities of that card.
If it supports CM-32L roms, Bitmap Brothers' GODS game is one of the few games that require this to sound correctly.

For me, the gold standard to listen to is either the easier to find real LA capable modules - MT-32, CM-32L, CM-64 and CM-500 (of course, problem is getting a MPU-401 intelligent mode compatible ISA MIDI card - or best is the LAPC-I).
(And also, MUNT in Dosbox.)

There is another video in which the owner plays Gods and King's Quest V: https://www.clous.cz/jamicon-spacestation-386-part2/

Works great! Too bad such a project is destined to be for only handful of boards. Especially since the creator invested so much time in it. And even if it won't be possible to source the chips again, perhaps documentation on how it was done would be nice? Just for educational and hobby purposes. Who knows what other interesting projects would come from it?

Copywriting and patenting sucks on occasions, where the end result is to drive invention and knowledge out of the world for no purpose except to cling onto long-commercially-redundant IP.

CHiLL72 wrote on 2021-01-03, 21:06:

It might be. I have two of these boards, which are slightly different from one another. Here are two (partially obscured) photos […]
Show full quote

Salient wrote on 2020-12-28, 17:13:

See: http://members.home.nl/c.kersten/ […]
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Paar wrote on 2020-12-27, 20:27:

... a DIY waveblaster daughterboard which seeems to be fully compatible with MT-32 ...

See: http://members.home.nl/c.kersten/

It says "And just today two more, very special new boards arrived from the same source: LAPC on a MIDI daughterboard! It must have been especially difficult sourcing those chips....
Haven't had time to test them yet, but I will do so very soon. I already put them on my flatbed scanner, so photos are coming too!"

Might as well be that board?

It might be. I have two of these boards, which are slightly different from one another. Here are two (partially obscured) photos for you. These boards were created by a fellow VOGONS member.

LA32 - 1.jpg
LA32 - 2.jpg

Hey there,
I am going through my retro daughter boards and I got two of the LA32 - 2.jpg pictured boards from my brother! I don't know where he got them, but I'm going to try these 2 beasts out on my mpu401at roland card--I suspect this is a lapc-i and/or CM-500 card equivalent! Can you confirm? I was amazed to see the same card here pictured as LA32 - 2.jpg on VOGONS! ANYTHING else you can tell me about this card? Thx!!!!

CHiLL72 wrote on 2021-01-03, 21:06:

It might be. I have two of these boards, which are slightly different from one another. Here are two (partially obscured) photos […]
Show full quote

Salient wrote on 2020-12-28, 17:13:

See: http://members.home.nl/c.kersten/ […]
Show full quote

Paar wrote on 2020-12-27, 20:27:

... a DIY waveblaster daughterboard which seeems to be fully compatible with MT-32 ...

See: http://members.home.nl/c.kersten/

It says "And just today two more, very special new boards arrived from the same source: LAPC on a MIDI daughterboard! It must have been especially difficult sourcing those chips....
Haven't had time to test them yet, but I will do so very soon. I already put them on my flatbed scanner, so photos are coming too!"

Might as well be that board?

It might be. I have two of these boards, which are slightly different from one another. Here are two (partially obscured) photos for you. These boards were created by a fellow VOGONS member.

LA32 - 1.jpg
LA32 - 2.jpg

What is that top board, LA32 - 1.jpg ???? I'm so curious as I seem to have 2 of the LA32 - 2.jpg board.... thx. These boards look like they have proper connectors for a Roland mpu401AT (full intelligent mode midi) or a Soundblaster 16 (Uart only mode mpu401 midi, might need soft mpu software to work properly in some games. I'm glad I got my brother's retro pc roland gear, this is good stuff. Any additional info is welcome!

Lucky find. Just stick it on you sound card, configure desired software for MT-32 music and you should be good to go. But remember, all cards work only in UART mode, software that needs Intelligent mode won't work properly. Still, you could use SoftMPU to fix that.