VOGONS


First post, by atomix

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Hi folks,

I'm new to this forum and need your help: I've got a MT32 and a Roland IPC-T. The thing is, that I still need an ISA-card. My little research resulted in that I need a MPU 401 IPC-card or one of those cards from Keropi in this forum, right? So there is absolutely no other way, because I thought about all the MPU401-compatible ports from the soundcards out there?!

Reply 1 of 9, by weldum

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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

DT: R7-5800X3D/R5-3600/R3-1200/P-G5400/FX-6100/i3-3225/P-8400/D-900/K6-2_550
LT: C-N2840/A64-TK57/N2600/N455/N270/C-ULV353/PM-1.7/P4-2.6/P133
TC: Esther-1000/Esther-400/Vortex86-366
Others: Drean C64c/Czerweny Spectrum 48k/Talent MSX DPC200/M512K/MP475

Reply 2 of 9, by keropi

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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.

🎵 🎧 PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 3 of 9, by atomix

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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?

Reply 4 of 9, by keropi

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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 😀

🎵 🎧 PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 5 of 9, by gdjacobs

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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

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder

Reply 6 of 9, by dosgamer

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

Coppermine Celeron 800 @ 1.12GHz (8x140) - Asus P2B Rev. 1.12 - 256MB PC133 CL2 - Voodoo5 5500 AGP - SB AWE64 CT4520 - Roland SCC-1 - Intel Pro/1000GT - 1.44MB Floppy - ATAPI ZIP 100 - 120GB IDE - DVD-ROM - DVD-R/RW/RAM - Win98SE

Reply 7 of 9, by keropi

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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.

🎵 🎧 PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 8 of 9, by gdjacobs

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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.

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder

Reply 9 of 9, by dosgamer

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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.

Coppermine Celeron 800 @ 1.12GHz (8x140) - Asus P2B Rev. 1.12 - 256MB PC133 CL2 - Voodoo5 5500 AGP - SB AWE64 CT4520 - Roland SCC-1 - Intel Pro/1000GT - 1.44MB Floppy - ATAPI ZIP 100 - 120GB IDE - DVD-ROM - DVD-R/RW/RAM - Win98SE