When you buy one of these finally, send to Vlad for dumping (er, if he wants to.)

Yeah, I've found it rather odd that Vladr and Snover offered only minimal input once my emulator really got going. I miss their input. I was hoping that Vladr would have brilliant insights that would exponentially push my project forward.

Technically, though. One really doesn't have to go to all the trouble to do the dumping. Having a literal rip from the MT-32 in some ways made the initial emulation more difficult until I got the ROM cracked. Since then, I've realized there are certain tricks one can play with the hardware have it output clean, unmodified PCM samples at their base pitch. No ripping required.

Originally posted by canadacow Yeah, I've found it rather odd that Vladr and Snover offered only minimal input once my emulator really got going. I miss their input. I was hoping that Vladr would have brilliant insights that would exponentially push my project forward.

Well, Snover has had his part-time job go full-time and I think Vlad has had his hands full with the "real world". The "real world" has been keeping me pretty busy as well...

Unfortunately at this point I haven't really got a whole lot of input, honestly. Um, it still sounds off and I've given you a couple documentations of that but yeah, other than that, I'm not quite sure what to say other than 'keep going'.

I have a CM-64 in safe storage. If it isn't too much hassle I could probably help. How exactly does one go about this sort of thing (rom dumping)?

Cheers,

CapTVK

See how it was done at the site.

Or have canadacow describe the easier way he referred to, to get the samples.

There is another chunk of data I'd be interested in, though I imagine the dumping method would be needed to grab it, which is the controller rom. Since you & vlad already put together a dumper, perhaps you guys could do it.

Though, based on this thread:
216.239.37.104/search?q=cache:nbznl1-hZ ... n&ie=UTF-8[/url]

dumping as many roms as possible wouldn't hurt.

Here's a quote:
"And the reason we asked you to try it is
>that we have found over the years that there can be problems with specific ROM
>versions and this has been particularly prevelent with Roland instruments. There
>are many ROM versions of the D-10, D-5, D-50, D-70, D-110, MT-32, SC-55, etc
>where the SysX does not work properly on the instrument, period. We find this
>out by working with the customer because if we ask for an instrument from Roland
>we usually get a different ROM and different results from the person
>experiencing the problem.
"

In this thread from years ago:
http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/back-issues/v … l011/issue3.txt

a guy had disected the mt-32 in which he points out the controller is an intel 8097.

and in this link:
http://rrzs42.uni-regensburg.de/~hep09515/key … s-50/index.html

A guy already gathered the disassembler & assmebler for disecting the rom code of the roland s-50, which uses the same controller.

Since it decodes the midi commands and tells the la32 chip what to do, the code could reveal undocumented commands and the arguments it passes to the la32(maybe shed light on what the parameters values mean) and perhaps other assorted goodies:)

Here's a page of undocumented d10/20 features that might be applicable to the mt-32: http://www.synthzone.com/lakata/d10tips.htm

Oh, and from quest studios lapc-I doc,

http://www.queststudios.com/roland/docs/lapc1.txt

the sound effect pcm's are in the drum bank; notes 76-108.

It wouldn't hurt if some of this stuff was grabbed and stored vogons, the mt-32 emulation project or mt-32 emulator source page so it doesn't disapper.

Snover wrote:

See how it was done at the site.

Hmmm, I prefer Canadacow's method. 😀 I don't think I could build my own USB rom dumper just yet. 😮

I also

Well found it, plus a Roland MPU-401 midi controller (isa card with external connector box) to boot. The CM-64 is basically a CM-32 and CM-32P in one box. I have a photocopy of the CM-32P manual (dated 18 apr 1989) I also have a 80 page (photocopied) technical reference manual which I received from Roland when I needed some help setting it up.

I don't know if you have this already but I also have a MPU-401 reference manual. This one is listed as version 1.5 (dated 5/29/85). This manual is very detailed and lists about everything a programmer should know about sysex data and how to control the MPU-401. It also has a rom versions delta guide which lists all the changes till 1.5.

Tip: You might try contacting Roland and ask for a reference manual for an older model. I got mine about 4-5 years ago. I called the Benelux Roland office in Brussels and received the manuals by mail free of charge! (Excellent service even on old models) 😎

So how do I go about this? Should I just set it up and play a special midi file and record it?

Hey.. if you have some connections at Roland (or good connections with Roland) at your place - then maybe you can obtain some detailed mt-32 manuals and specifications to help minimize the guess work needed to improve the emulator.

CapTVK wrote:

I don't know if you have this already but I also have a MPU-401 reference manual. This one is listed as version 1.5 (dated 5/29/85). This manual is very detailed and lists about everything a programmer should know about sysex data and how to control the MPU-401. It also has a rom versions delta guide which lists all the changes till 1.5.

I definitely want this. If you have a scanner and the time, please scan this and upload this somewhere. I've never seen it online.

Looks like the rest needs scanned too.

If you don't have the time, I can maybe do it. (But international mailing to the U.S. would be at your expense.)

If not, I suppose I can try Roland tech support...

Hi i've got a CM32P and 3 MT32 if you want something tell me !
I will get sooner a CM64 and CM32L.

Schadenfreude wrote:

I definitely want this. If you have a scanner and the time, please scan this and upload this somewhere. I've never seen it onlin […]
Show full quote

I definitely want this. If you have a scanner and the time, please scan this and upload this somewhere. I've never seen it online.

Looks like the rest needs scanned too.

If you don't have the time, I can maybe do it. (But international mailing to the U.S. would be at your expense.)

If not, I suppose I can try Roland tech support...

It's done. 😀 Decided to bite the bullet today and scan in the MPU-401 reference manual. Took about 3 hours of scanning and editing. I've scanned it in at 300dpi and stored it in PNG format.
It describes the commands for MPU-401 and various functions like tvr or the metronome. Sorry for the quality of the scans but it's a scan of a photocopy, not a original. So some of the pages are cropped at the edge. I'll leave it to another poor soul to OCR it and convert it to PDF.

I'll post it here in a min...

CapTVK wrote:

I'll post it here in a min...

I'd make the PDF, but I would probably not OCR it. Maybe Snover would do both.

*waits impatiently*

Sorry it took so long. Trying to UL it in one go seemed to choke my ftp connection.

Here it is page 1 till 83

http://home.tiscali.nl/thomas/uploads/mpu-401/

mpu401_technical_reference_manual_1.5.djvu
You will need the DjVu viewer from http://djvu.sourceforge.net to view it.

runderwo wrote:

mpu401_technical_reference_manual_1.5.djvu
You will need the DjVu viewer from http://djvu.sourceforge.net to view it.

DjVu? That's a nifty viewer util, it managed to compress all those PNG's back to a readable 1.2 meg. Impressive 😀

Um, that file is 1942kB... not that it matters. 😀

Well, next up is the manual for the CM-32P.

P.S
Not sure yet, but I might get into possession of a real roland gem. Hope to have more news soon... 😉