ad 1. it doesn't matter whether irq is 5 or 7. You just have to set the same one in dosbox and in the game's setup. Although it is possible that some games may not allow you to change it and then you will have to change in dosbox's config. For example game "It came from the desert" uses IRQ 3 and doesn't allow to change it.

ad 2.
General MIDI is supported in dosbox. It uses your default windows' midi synth or you can use any other midi synth if you installed it in windows.

there is a dosbox cvs with roland MT-32 and CM-32L(LAPC-I) support here:
http://www.si-gamer.net/gulikoza/ You also need roland MT-32 and CM-32L roms for it to work. When you have all the roms, CM-32L is used as default as it is better (has additional sound effects). Some games use cm-32l effects, so if you run them with mt-32 you won't hear them.

there is a dosbox cvs with roland MT-32 and CM-32L(LAPC-I) support here:
http://www.si-gamer.net/gulikoza/ You also need roland MT-32 and CM-32L roms for it to work. When you have all the roms, CM-32L is used as default as it is better (has additional sound effects). Some games use cm-32l effects, so if you run them with mt-32 you won't hear them.

to nitpick a bit, plain vanilla DOSBox already has MT32/Cm32 support. If such a device is hooked up to the computer you can use it. What robertmo is talking about is the EMULATION of MT32/CM32... 😀

Thanks. I actually did mean emulation of MIDI devices as I don't think I'm going to bother with installing one. All mine are ISA solutions and without an ISA slot I'm pretty out of luck.

The Mt32/CM32 devices are external devices that plug into the midi port, btw.

Yes, I realize that. However, that means you need a MIDI port. I still have an MT-32 floating around here somewhere. I was speaking more about my MPU-401AT that still in the closet and the Sound Canvas.

ah ok. if you have a midi port it is worth connecting the MT32 and play MT32 games with it. The emulation is not quite the same yet...

I still have a myriad of Wave Blaster-type devices. Pity that header is no longer supported. I suspect there's probably a way to build a box that would function as a MIDI device but that's a bit beyond my scope.

Agrajag27 wrote:

Yes, I realize that. However, that means you need a MIDI port.

Just plug any PCI sound card with joystick/midi port

or there are cheap usb-midi devices. Sorry for steering this topic slightly off topic 😀

i think someone on queststudios wrote that cheap usb-midi devices are not very good.

I have yet to confirm that 😀
I am using one on my iMac but haven't really had time to really test it with Dosbox, yet. It works on quick test but I don't know how it behaves during regular playing a game... (and it HAS to work as there is no other way to make it work on an imac (well, there might be expensive firewire solutions, though...)

(this can depend a lot on the driver and thus on the operating system)

I used a MIDISport Uno USB-MIDI device and it worked just fine until I tried to use it on a 64-bit Windows OS and found that MIDISport has been dragging their feet horribly for years on releasing 64-bit drivers! I won't be buying anything else from them until my Uno works again.

Even worse, it seems that lack of 64-bit support for USB MIDI devices from *most* companies is currently poor, so be sure that you check the driver downloads on the company's site if you're shopping for one. I managed to find one on Fry's web site, but when I went to the store to pick it up noone could find it! Oh well.

A cheap basic PCI sound card with a joystick (DB-15) MIDI interface combined with a DB15-to-MIDI cable (hard to find these days) is probably a good (and potentially lower-latency) solution as long as you can find drivers for your OS.

FWIW, I switched from MidiSport to a Cakewalk/Roland UM-1G which has better driver support (the Vista drivers also work on win7).

So how exactly do these things work? You download the drivers, plug them into a USB port and presto, you've got a new MIDI sequencer available in Windows?

Supposedly you don't even need drivers in some cases, but yeah it shows up as a MIDI I/O device in the MIDI Mapper. If connect it to an external synthesizer (such as an MT-32 or SC-55 or whatever) and set it as the default Windows MIDI output device, DOSBox will output MIDI data to your synthesizer from games that support MPU-401 / General MIDI / etc.

I'm planning to build a new desktop soon, and I'm looking forward to hooking up my MT-32 and SC-88 again. I'll have to get a new USB-MIDI interface though because as I said my Uno doesn't work with 64-bit OSes due to lack of driver support from M-Audio 😠

Edit: I suppose I could just buy a cheap PCI audio card that has a joystick+MIDI port. Here's one for under $4 (USD):

http://www.bestofferbuy.com/6-channel-51-surr … _campaign=gbase

It even has Windows 7 drivers available:

http://www.cmedia.com.tw/drivers.html

The upside is potential lower latency. The downside is potential conflicts with other sound hardware in the system (I have a Xonar DX that I want to use), and that it won't let you connect MIDI devices to laptops or non-PC systems.

I don't understand: if the MIDI output is sent to the synthesizer, then do you have to plug the synthesizer's audio output into your sound card's Line In port, or find some other way to connect it to your speakers, or is it all done internally?

Jorpho wrote:

if the MIDI output is sent to the synthesizer, then do you have to plug the synthesizer's audio output into your sound card's Line In port,

Yes, or to external mixer. You can also connect speakers of headphones directly to the synthesizer if your game uses Roland for both: music and sound effects (games supporting CM-32L/LAPC-I).

I actually chained my synths like this last time I used them:

MIDI output: PC -> USB-MIDI cable -> SC-88 -> MT-32 (the SC-88 has a MIDI-Thru port that can be activated)

Sound output: MT-32 -> SC-88 -> PC line-in (the SC-88 has a line-in jack with a volume potentiometer on the back!)

I could then turn off the MT-32 when I just want to use the SC-88, or mute the SC-88 when I just want to use the MT-32, or listen to both at the same time if I want to hear some really weird stuff 😀

The SC-88 also has a headphone jack with a volume knob that's independent of its line out. Pretty nice synth now that I think about it!