you can use a sound card that has intelligent mpu support, or a standard soundcard and softmpu, but for the latter don't know the compatibility

I assume you only have the IPC-T breakout box - it's useless without the ISA card... I don't know of any easily available soundcard that has a full MPU onboard (unless you count the SCC-1 and LAPC-I ?)
Basically you have 2 choices:
- gameport->midi cable and use your main soundcard with softmpu like weldum mentions
- getting a dedicated ISA MPU card

Depending on your system specs softmpu might not be a choice at all as you need a 386+ system to use it. You can always experiment with it and then decide what to do.

Thank you for your answers. Since I'd like to have the sound as original/authentic as possible, I will definitely need to get an ISA MPU-card. Will the breakout-box (IPC-T) become obsolete then or do I still need it for proper functionality?
@Keropi: in case you still manufacture/build those cards, I then have to reply to the "Music Quest MPU clone cards, anyone interested in them?"-thread, right?

Yeah the IPC-T box won't be used at all, it needs the IPC-T ISA card to work
About the cards, yep they are in stock: https://www.serdashop.com/ISA-MPU-Card , see at the bottom of the page for contact info 😀

Your breakout box might be useful if you can track down a clone board, or if Lo-tech makes new boards available.
https://www.lo-tech.co.uk/wiki/Lo-tech_MIF-IPC-B

Ensoniq Soundscape has a full MPU-401 (including intelligent mode).

gdjacobs wrote:

Your breakout box might be useful if you can track down a clone board, or if Lo-tech makes new boards available.
https://www.lo-tech.co.uk/wiki/Lo-tech_MIF-IPC-B

The IPC-T breakout box does not contain the chipset like the bigger/older MPU-401 box so a card like the lo-tech one will just not work.
For the IPC-T the chipset was moved from the external box to the ISA card , that is the reason.

Ah, those sneaky Roland engineers. So it's a third type of breakout box along with the original and MCB.

dosgamer, Soundscape fakes some aspects of intelligent mode, but it's by no means a full and complete implementation.

gdjacobs, You're right, it's not a full MPU-401 clone, but it works with games like Wing Commander. I believe there are a handful of games where it fails. Still, it's all hardware and doesn't require any drivers or TSRs and as a bonus, it has pretty good General Midi. A Soundscape S-2000 or Elite and an MT-32 would be a great combo.