Ultima VI only supported the Roland MT-32 for MIDI music, so GM won't work unfortunately. But the FM music in the game is still very good and a huge step up from PC speaker 😉

clueless1 wrote:

Ultima VI only supported the Roland MT-32 for MIDI music, so GM won't work unfortunately.

You should still get sound though, even if the instruments aren't quite the correct ones.
The only explanation I could give for no sound at all, is that the game requires a Roland MPU-401 interface in intelligent mode, and the soundcard used only supports UART mode.
This can be worked around with SoftMPU, so perhaps you should give that a try: http://bjt42.github.io/softmpu/

clueless1 wrote:

Ultima VI only supported the Roland MT-32 for MIDI music, so GM won't work unfortunately. But the FM music in the game is still very good and a huge step up from PC speaker 😉

Of course Ultima 6 is pre-General MIDI, but isn't the only major difference between the MT-32 and GM that the instrument assignments can be a bit different - and that the MT-32 can only be on address 330? If that's the case surely I should get some sound if my MIDI is on 330?

Scali wrote:

You should still get sound though, even if the instruments aren't quite the correct ones. The only explanation I could give for […]
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clueless1 wrote:

Ultima VI only supported the Roland MT-32 for MIDI music, so GM won't work unfortunately.

You should still get sound though, even if the instruments aren't quite the correct ones.
The only explanation I could give for no sound at all, is that the game requires a Roland MPU-401 interface in intelligent mode, and the soundcard used only supports UART mode.
This can be worked around with SoftMPU, so perhaps you should give that a try: http://bjt42.github.io/softmpu/

Hmm, worth a try - Ultima 6 is not too RAM-hungry and I have more than enough Conventional left. Of course this will still only do the MIDI on the SB Pro-clone, not on the Roland, but it should be better than (mono) AdLib.

dionb wrote:

Of course this will still only do the MIDI on the SB Pro-clone, not on the Roland

No, it will turn your 'dumb' MPU-401 MIDI interface into an 'intelligent' MPU-401 MIDI interface.
So you still need to have the Roland piano hooked up to your MIDI port.

dionb wrote:

Of course Ultima 6 is pre-General MIDI, but isn't the only major difference between the MT-32 and GM that the instrument assignments can be a bit different

Partially correct. MT-32 or compatible devices can also be programmed with custom instrument sets via SYSEX messages which is something some titles did. GM devices usually only had read only instruments, at least via the MIDI bus.

dionb wrote:

and that the MT-32 can only be on address 330? If that's the case surely I should get some sound if my MIDI is on 330?

This is for the MPU-401 interface. 0x330 was the default IO address, but the interface itself is fairly agnostic of the MIDI device on the other end.

gdjacobs wrote:

dionb wrote:

Of course Ultima 6 is pre-General MIDI, but isn't the only major difference between the MT-32 and GM that the instrument assignments can be a bit different

Partially correct. MT-32 or compatible devices can also be programmed with custom instrument sets via SYSEX messages which is something some titles did. GM devices usually only had read only instruments, at least via the MIDI bus.

I would say this is the real answer. Lot's of GM devices have different patch sets that sound different, even minor variations of the SC-55 sound different. Try playing a custom instrument game intended for MT-32 on an SC-55 though...and it will sound like hell.

Scali wrote:

dionb wrote:

Of course this will still only do the MIDI on the SB Pro-clone, not on the Roland

No, it will turn your 'dumb' MPU-401 MIDI interface into an 'intelligent' MPU-401 MIDI interface.
So you still need to have the Roland piano hooked up to your MIDI port.

Yep, SoftMPU did the trick. Thanks for the (rather simple - I should have found that out myself) tip 😀

Was also nicely relieved it played nice with LH, so it hasn't claimed any of my 624kB of free conventional memory.

squiggly wrote:

I would say this is the real answer. Lot's of GM devices have different patch sets that sound different, even minor variations of the SC-55 sound different. Try playing a custom instrument game intended for MT-32 on an SC-55 though...and it will sound like hell.

Haven't spent more than few minutes listening yet - I'm not going to start actually playing until my younger children have gone to bed - but so far so good. Possibly one of the sounds in the menu is a bit odd, but overall it's more than acceptable and far less grating than the crude AdLib synthesis.

Maybe I'll change my mind after playing some time - and undoubtedly there will be some titles out there that really sound crap - but for now I'm very happy to have the option. Maybe one day I'll splurge on an MT-32, CM-32L or LAPC-I (or hit gold in some thrift shop), but until then this is the next best thing.

dionb wrote:

Maybe I'll change my mind after playing some time - and undoubtedly there will be some titles out there that really sound crap - but for now I'm very happy to have the option. Maybe one day I'll splurge on
an MT-32, CM-32L or LAPC-I (or hit gold in some thrift shop), but until then this is the next best thing.

There's another alternative: MUNT, the MT-32 emulator.
It's very accurate, and one way you can use it is to set up a modern PC with MUNT, and connect the MIDI out of your vintage machine to the MIDI In of the MUNT-machine.
See this video for an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvuncHhza5A

Yep, Scali is right this is the easiest way. Howto video by Phil:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/vSk9S1bkRS8?aut … play=1&vq=hd720

But if you would like to use your hardware and your hardware actually supports the MT-32 compatible bank and drumset of SC-55, you can try this pack. You should start GS2MT32.BAT before playing your game. It sets channels 2-9 Bank MSB to 127 and channel 10 Program to 127 and sets the default MT-32 compatible patches.

Falcosoft is too modest. For Windows machines, FSMP is even easier. Download on the sig above, obligatory video from Phil below:
https://www.philscomputerlab.com/ultimate-midi-emulator.html

gdjacobs wrote:

Falcosoft is too modest. For Windows machines, FSMP is even easier. Download on the sig above, obligatory video from Phil below:
https://www.philscomputerlab.com/ultimate-midi-emulator.html

I'm not so modest, I linked the same video 😀
I forget to mention but the syx file in the zip package above also sets the MT-32 default 12 semitones pitch bend range on all channels. And the 'Delay2=2000' line in MDF.INI should be replaced with a more rational value (e.g. Delay2=200) since the sending process is unnecessarily slow with 2 sec. delay.

Bah, I thought you linked his "$50 Roland MIDI" video.

Regarding Ultima 6 with newer GM devices, I have created a custom MIDI.DAT optimized for Sound Canvas devices. Using it should sound better on GM devices than the default MT-32 optimized one that comes with the game.

Grab it here (remember to backup the original). Some background/setup info here.

TamaMan wrote on 2023-01-13, 16:28:

Regarding Ultima 6 with newer GM devices, I have created a custom MIDI.DAT optimized for Sound Canvas devices. Using it should sound better on GM devices than the default MT-32 optimized one that comes with the game.

Grab it here (remember to backup the original). Some background/setup info here.

Very nice! Thank you! I assume this will work fine with midi daughterboards as long as they are set to the correct midi port?

Very nice! Thank you! I assume this will work fine with midi daughterboards as long as they are set to the correct midi port?

Yes, no computer I/O, IRQ etc. involved with that file, just standard MIDI program changes. A Roland SC-7 was used when creating the file, SCB-7 and SCB-55 should sound as intended.

TamaMan wrote on 2023-01-13, 16:28:

Regarding Ultima 6 with newer GM devices, I have created a custom MIDI.DAT optimized for Sound Canvas devices. Using it should sound better on GM devices than the default MT-32 optimized one that comes with the game.

Grab it here (remember to backup the original). Some background/setup info here.

Apologies for necroing but I have a quick question about this.
Would it only work with Rolands that come with MT-32 modes or would my 8820 ALSO be able to take advantage of this? I've been trying to get Ultima VI specifically to play from my Roland because I quite like the sound of it over the Adlib emulation of my SBLive!.

Razgriz wrote on 2025-01-23, 04:20:

Would it only work with Rolands that come with MT-32 modes or would my 8820 ALSO be able to take advantage of this?

Why don't you just try it? I don't have the device, so no way to test but:

newer GM devices

optimized for Sound Canvas devices

The 8820's manual mentions General MIDI 2, Sound Canvas and GS. Would it sound as good as the original roland GM models? Maybe, maybe not. Re: Roland SC-8850 Sound Module

I often use my 8820 in place of my SC-55 mk2, and in 99.9% of cases it works/sounds just fine - sometimes better, sometimes 'different'. I believe the 8820 and 8850 are largely the same in terms of samples, so I would think both either could be a pretty good option instead of a 'regular' GM module with the above patch.

Razgriz wrote on 2025-01-23, 04:20:

Would it only work with Rolands that come with MT-32 modes or would my 8820 ALSO be able to take advantage of this? I've been trying to get Ultima VI specifically to play from my Roland because I quite like the sound of it over the Adlib emulation of my SBLive!.

Should technically work with any GM device (8820 included, and if no issues with the game sending the MIDI data to the sound device) but of course will sound only as "good" as that particular GM device sounds. If the 8820 has a SC-55 mode, that should bring it even closer, perhaps.

The decision on chosen instruments for that MIDI.DAT has been done by ear using a SC-7. You may edit MIDI.DAT yourself to fix/change non-optimal sounding instruments for your device.