Just wanted to say, my Midiman MM401 arrived today and it is... pristine. Not a single speck of dust and I can see my reflection in the back plate. I almost expect that it was in storage most of its life because its so clean.

Got it with more than 15 other old ISA cards (IDE, CDROM, MFM, dual game port cards and some I haven't identified yet) for under $60 shipped... woohoo. 😀

To give some feedback to your original question.

I believe the MIDIMAN MM401 is 99.9% compatible with the Roland intelligent mode standard as far as compatibility old games are concerned.

Now we are talking about a very specific, and smallish, list of games that require such a card to talk to a Roland MT-32/ CM series MIDI device.

good card , kudos on getting it
Phil is correct, there are some games that crap out - Laser Squad and Gateway are two of them.

So, aside from those two games, what would something like this do that a normal sound card would not? For example, a SoundBlaster 16, SB Pro 2, AWE64 Gold, PAS16...

It has some extra features that are used by music software.
In general though it's just nice to have. You can use another card for digital sound without worrying about the hanging note bug.
There is a full list of games that require an "intelligent mode" MPU on the SoftMPU wiki.
The Wing Commander series are probably the most well known.

bjt wrote:

It has some extra features that are used by music software. In general though it's just nice to have. You can use another card f […]
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It has some extra features that are used by music software.
In general though it's just nice to have. You can use another card for digital sound without worrying about the hanging note bug.
There is a full list of games that require an "intelligent mode" MPU on the SoftMPU wiki.
The Wing Commander series are probably the most well known.

Sorry for all the questions...

I see that SoftMPU allows intelligent mode on other cards. Is that mainly for newer systems, where as an actual card like the MM401 would be more suited to an older system like a 386 or 486?

Also, would it matter what type of sound module was hooked up to an MM401 or another card using SoftMPU? I know an MT32 would be more like what this card is meant for, but if I happened to find something newer that supported GM and GS would it work with the MM401 as well?

Yup, Roland MT-32 games are predominantly from the 286 and 386 era. SoftMPU runs on a 386 as well, but can take longer to transfer MIDI information because of how it works.

And yes, the MM401 can drive ANY MIDI module. Yamaha MU, Roland Sound Canvas, wavetable modules via an external wavetable board like Serdaco produces.

Note that many Sound Blaster 16 cards have a "buggy" MIDI interface, so here the MM401 is also nice to have, even for newer games and in faster machines.

You will want a Sound Blaster type card anyway, because MIDI is mostly for music, but many games used the Sound Blaster for speech and sound effects. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis CD-ROM version for example.

So, I've been playing with my midi equipment today and I have some questions.

I'm hearing what sounds like hanging notes in some songs using my MM401 connected to a Roland MT-200 (GM\GS... similar to SC55, but possibly with some quirks?). It is most noticeable in the Descent sound setup music test song.

What are some things that can cause hanging notes? I've used the card's test program to ensure that there are no IRQ conflicts, and it checks out okay. It's currently set to address 330, IRQ 7.

I did notice a small (but somewhat nasty looking) ding on the back of the card, that I somehow overlooked when I installed it initially. It is near\between two soldered pins, but its impossible to tell whether they are supposed to be connected or not. I kind of doubt it, but if anyone has one of these cards and could take a clear photo of the back of the card, I would really appreciate it.

When I get time, I will try using my CT2940's midi output instead to see if that gives the same result. Descent shouldn't have any problem with hanging notes on SB16 cards should it?

Finally, is there any other reason my MT200 would sound... different... than my SC7? One is GM\GS and the other is GM only... but I seem to be hearing some odd sounds and different instrument types on the MT200 that I don't remember hearing on my SC7... and they don't quite sound right. The difference could be my imagination, I guess. I'll test this more thoroughly too.

SC-7 is pure GM. MT-200: GM/GS? No idea. Good luck! 😀

Ozzuneoj wrote:

When I get time, I will try using my CT2940's midi output instead to see if that gives the same result. Descent shouldn't have any problem with hanging notes on SB16 cards should it?

If you're just testing midi output, disable PCM sound in the Descent setup utility and there will be no possibility of hanging notes due to the Creative DSP flaw.