VOGONS

MT-32/CM32L problems with some games

Topic actions

First post, by Amigaz

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I have started resurrecting alot of my old hardware I have in my stash since back when I was very active here.

Currently I am giving my Commodore 486 pc some love by adding nice bits to it such as an MPU-401 midi controller.

Now to the issues I am facing ... I have went thru and tested a bunch of games that support the Roland LA synth such as the MT-32, CM32L etc.
I have hooked up both my Roland CM32L and MT-32 and tested games with them.
Almost all the games I have tested sound as they are suppose to such as Monkey Island 1 &2, Space Quest 3, Heart Of China, Codename Iceman, Quest For Glory 1-3, Hero Quest and Silpheed.

Adventures of WIlly Beamish and Police Quest 3 & 4 have so far sounded wrong, some of the instruments are not the correct ones and I believe some sounds are too low. The drum parts sound correct.

I have went thru alot of MPU-401 controllers such as the Roland MPU-IPC-T, Music Quest etc that I know are 100% Roland MPU-401 intelligent mode compatible.
I can't remember that I have had this problem before with any of my retro pc's hooked up to my Roland LA synth's

Any ideas what might be wrong?

Reply 2 of 6, by Amigaz

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
keropi wrote on 2025-08-01, 21:00:
Port conflict with main sound card? IRQ 2 not free? I have seen in the past resource conflicts causing such issues Also welcome […]
Show full quote

Port conflict with main sound card?
IRQ 2 not free?
I have seen in the past resource conflicts causing such issues
Also welcome back Amigaz!

Hi Amigo and thanks for welcoming me back to the herd 😁

Well, I have double checked all the IRQ's used and there is no conflict from the COM1 port, SB Pro CT1330A, VGA card, SCSI card or GUS Classic so I am scratching my head right now.
The Diamond Speedstar 24 VGa hard had a jumper for setting IRQ to 2 but it wasn't closed so ....
What I have changed with this preciousss is that upgraded the dog slow 486DX 33Mhz to a 486DX4 100Mhz Overdrive CPU but IMHO that should cause any issues what I am aware of ...hmmm

Reply 3 of 6, by zuldan

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Not related to your issue but I would open up your MT32 and CM32L and see if the voltage regulator is still outputting 5v. One of my other MT32’s was outputting 4.2v and another was 5.4v. The poor things are 36+ years old so I replaced the regulator on every device. No soldering required. See Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Reply 4 of 6, by Amigaz

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
zuldan wrote on 2025-08-01, 21:36:

Not related to your issue but I would open up your MT32 and CM32L and see if the voltage regulator is still outputting 5v. One of my other MT32’s was outputting 4.2v and another was 5.4v. The poor things are 36+ years old so I replaced the regulator on every device. No soldering required. See Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Thanks for the heads up on that potential issue

Yes, I will give them some TLC when everything is up and running OK along with my other gear I am reviving

Reply 5 of 6, by eddman

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Amigaz wrote on 2025-08-01, 17:15:

Adventures of WIlly Beamish and Police Quest 3 & 4 have so far sounded wrong, some of the instruments are not the correct ones and I believe some sounds are too low. The drum parts sound correct.

Are you perhaps playing these with the CM-32?

Reply 6 of 6, by Amigaz

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
eddman wrote on 2025-08-03, 11:42:
Amigaz wrote on 2025-08-01, 17:15:

Adventures of WIlly Beamish and Police Quest 3 & 4 have so far sounded wrong, some of the instruments are not the correct ones and I believe some sounds are too low. The drum parts sound correct.

Are you perhaps playing these with the CM-32?

Yes and with my MT32

Go to top of page Go to top of page
Back to Sound
Close window
Close window