I wish I had one, they where supported so little but they are cool and interesting to have one...

I own one (two actually 🙄) and in my opinion it's definitely a nice card to have. However, there's only extremely limited support for it. I can imagine how owners of the IMFC must have felt when they saw that there was virtually no support for their expensive card. In all fairness, I think that the MT-32 (or LAPC-I or equivalent) simply offered more. Some things to consider:

- MT-32 has a dedicated drum channel with nice drum kit on MIDI channel 10. The IMFC doesn't have one and replicating drum sounds with FM isn't that easy nor great.

- IMFC is always limited to 8 voices simultaneously, whereas the MT-32 has a minimum of 8 voices (32 partials, each instrument can use up to 4 partials for each note played).

- IMFC has no effects processor, whereas the MT-32 has some nice reverb. I sometimes add a little bit of reverb and chorus to the sound of the IMFC by routing it through my Terratec EWS64XL soundcard. This definitely spruces up the sound a bit.

- IMFC only has very rough stereo panning: hard left, centre or hard right. MT-32 has much more sophisticated stereo panning (I think 15 positions in total).

Having said that, the IMFC can sound great when used properly. For instance, have a listen to these custom sounds on the FB-01 (of which the IMFC is the internal version. Kinda like how the LAPC-I is an MT-32 on an ISA-card). Unfortunately games were never really optimized for IMFC playback, although I have to agree that the Silpheed soundtrack sounds rather nice on it.

Lennart wrote:

I own one (two actually :sly:) and in my opinion it's definitely a nice card to have. However, there's only extremely limited s […]
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I own one (two actually 🙄) and in my opinion it's definitely a nice card to have. However, there's only extremely limited support for it. I can imagine how owners of the IMFC must have felt when they saw that there was virtually no support for their expensive card. In all fairness, I think that the MT-32 (or LAPC-I or equivalent) simply offered more. Some things to consider:

- MT-32 has a dedicated drum channel with nice drum kit on MIDI channel 10. The IMFC doesn't have one and replicating drum sounds with FM isn't that easy nor great.

- IMFC is always limited to 8 voices simultaneously, whereas the MT-32 has a minimum of 8 voices (32 partials, each instrument can use up to 4 partials for each note played).

- IMFC has no effects processor, whereas the MT-32 has some nice reverb. I sometimes add a little bit of reverb and chorus to the sound of the IMFC by routing it through my Terratec EWS64XL soundcard. This definitely spruces up the sound a bit.

- IMFC only has very rough stereo panning: hard left, centre or hard right. MT-32 has much more sophisticated stereo panning (I think 15 positions in total).

Having said that, the IMFC can sound great when used properly. For instance, have a listen to these custom sounds on the FB-01 (of which the IMFC is the internal version. Kinda like how the LAPC-I is an MT-32 on an ISA-card). Unfortunately games were never really optimized for IMFC playback, although I have to agree that the Silpheed soundtrack sounds rather nice on it.

Thanks for all the info

I own a Yamaha FB-01 but haven't used it so far...got it dirt cheap but something tells me they aren't very collectible 😜

For some odd reason, whenever I listen to the IMFC version of the "Credits" track (from Silpheed), I am reminded of the End Credits tune in the movie "Buckaroo Banzai":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MqJ3iGBdOo

And here's where the Silpheed "Credits" IMFC track can be heard:

http://sound.dosforum.de/

The movie tune almost sounds as if it could have been recorded using an IMFC! 😁

Lennart wrote:

I can imagine how owners of the IMFC must have felt when they saw that there was virtually no support for their expensive card.on it.

Keep in mind that the IMFC, like the MT-32, was neither designed nor marketed for computer gaming intent. Given the number of sequencing and composition programs that do support it, I imagine most musicians were probably secure in their purchase.

Then again, there is this malcontent...

Poor guy 🤣

Poor guy indeed, i'm sure that how he felt is exactly how others felt at the time too. The IMFC cost $250 USD back in 1987... that's the equivalent to about $500 - $600 USD in todays market.

Hmmm, I wonder if he was one of those people that purchased HD-DVD players only to have them go defunct as well. 😜

However, my favorite part of his post is this...

Sierra makes an attempt to be on the "cutting-edge" of game-playing in some ways. The latest thing is their plugging CD-ROMs. […]
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Sierra makes an attempt to be on
the "cutting-edge" of game-playing in some ways. The latest thing is
their plugging CD-ROMs. They want people to invest in new technology
to play their games with the hope that other companies will follow
suit and that even if they don't, Sierra will always be there for
them. I don't know exactly how things are going these days, but the
last time I researched CD-ROM technology, there was no accepted
standard in the industry.

Hehe... little did he know, but 2-3 years later it would be the industry standard. 😁