arthur071169 wrote on 2021-06-28, 10:51:

I am having major issues getting my pi to work with the MT32 software.
...

First, are you using a suitable PSU, with sufficient capacity?
The microSD card must be formatted as FAT32 and the MT32-Pi build should just be copied over to that empty micro SD card.

For when you are going to use the HAT:
Make sure you set up your mt32-pi.cfg file correctly.
I think in this thread there is a link, but here is one that should work.
Just overwrite the existing file. Note: this is a config for 0.10.0 so make sure you use that version.
Note that you must then use the 3.5mm jack output of the HAT instead of the one on the Pi itself.

okay i am looking into enclosures again for MP32L,
which pi models would you like to plug this on ? any special requests for the shape?

I have a 3+ so that gets my vote.
I guess most people will have something similar (with usb and rj45 ports etc), as I suspect the earlier Pi models that don't have these ports are not powerful enough to run MT32 / soundfonts without stuttering.

dreamblaster wrote on 2021-06-30, 06:10:

okay i am looking into enclosures again for MP32L,
which pi models would you like to plug this on ? any special requests for the shape?

My guess is that most people will have a Pi 3 B or similar board, so that is probably the way to go.
I specifically bought a Pi 3 A because it's a little smaller (and cheaper) but that one will fit just as well when a case is made for the B models I guess.

A case that has an MT-32 look would be great, but when based on the "default" button and OLED display layout of the board things can be made smaller probably.

Er, I am getting zero sound out of the stereo socket from the hat, both in MT32 or Soundfont mode. The display shows midi info coming in.

If I try doom with general midi out, and in any mode on the pi mt32 or soundfont) the display shows Unexp midi info. I then need to reboot the PI.

If I try space quest 3 it shows insert buckazoid and then the 8 channels show music playing but again zero output.

Confirmed the cable from hat out to line in on the
SB16 sound card is working and all mixer settings correct.

Any ideas? Us8ng the ver 0.10.0 config file shared earlier by someone on this thread.

^ make sure that there is nothing touching at the bottom face of the pcb as there are protruding pins from both midi and audio connector
also test with some speakers/headphones directly connected to the hat

Sat on wooden desk, nothing touching anything that can short out system.

Discovered the MT32 volume was way higher than the soundfont volume... (after I reseated the 3.5mm jack input on the back of the pc) it was a bit loose after removing the sc55 to connect this unit.

Doom plays midi, but still shows unexp midi info.
I can even switch soundfonts but it still displays the above when playing music.

Blood works in the seperate audio setup program but during game, same message.

Tried doom2, same thing as doom (plays, but unexp midi info shows during gameplay)

Then... I tried SQ4, mt32 mode shows display but no audio.

It is like there is some missing info either not, or being passed incorrectly to the unit.

Do you have blood? Try the setup with both general midi and sound canvas, then try the actual game. Do you get the unexp message?

Edit. Unexp midi STATUS is displayed.

And the same with Hexen. It is playing MIDI music, but the display doesn't know what to do due to???

Last update for the evening. Tyrian2k works perfectly. (General midi).

I mean the underside of the mp32-L pcb, it has pins protruding
maybe you need to check your midi cable in indeed there is no shorting between the pi and mp32-l
there is nothing else I can think of atm

I had the "Unexp midi STATUS" error showing on a MT32-Pi installation when I was using a M-Audio Uno interface - some things would play (but be off-key), some wouldn't play at all, and display messages you would normally expect just wouldn't show at all. Swapped the M-Audio MIDI interface to a Roland UM-One and the errors went away.

Obviously the MIDI interface is built in to the MP32L/Lite, but I'd say it's almost 100% a MIDI connectivity issue.

I am running from the midi/joystick output from a sbpro in a p3 dos based pc. No USB in the loop.
All bare metal and genuine DOS output etc.

I think it might be a timing issue.
Has anyone else a similar setup tried doom and doom2 yet? They are consistently giving me problems. I know softmidi won't work with those games fully so perhaps it is a pi32 environment issue? 0.10.0 only recently came out so perhaps bugs crept in/features not yet resolved?

megatron-uk wrote on 2021-06-30, 19:29:

I had the "Unexp midi STATUS" error showing on a MT32-Pi installation when I was using a M-Audio Uno interface - some things would play (but be off-key), some wouldn't play at all, and display messages you would normally expect just wouldn't show at all. Swapped the M-Audio MIDI interface to a Roland UM-One and the errors went away.

Obviously the MIDI interface is built in to the MP32L/Lite, but I'd say it's almost 100% a MIDI connectivity issue.

Sbpro is the issue, switch to a card with proper mpu interface and everything will work

It worked fine with my sc55.

The SC55 doesn't require sysex programming in order to set it up for each game. Most MT-32 games do, otherwise they either won't sound right or work at all.

You can "emulate" this if you have a real MT-32 in a chain after another device; start playing a midi file with the first device turned on, then turn on the MT-32... It will sound horrendous most of the time!

SB Pro doesn't have a proper MPU midi interface like Keropi says, that's probably the source of malformed midi messages getting to the Pi.

That makes sense, but it is the soundfont mode that this is happening in. Mt32 seems mostly fine. And more strange is the setup programs for games such as doom work perfectly (chose device test device etc), but in game, unexp etc.

What are peoples thoughts on the Vibra range of SB cards? The SB16's are getting thin on the ground and Ebay is showing few, and expensive at that. what else is out there that will work (are you using) that is ISA based and still manageable with SB mixer or similar software from an autotexec.bat at DOS level. I never had any issues with the SC55 (until it died of course) but if I need to swap a card then no biggie. I just don't want to overpay to get 1 specific card if others will suffice and cost less.

😀

arthur071169 wrote on 2021-07-01, 11:23:

What are peoples thoughts on the Vibra range of SB cards? The SB16's are getting thin on the ground and Ebay is showing few, and expensive at that. what else is out there that will work (are you using) that is ISA based and still manageable with SB mixer or similar software from an autotexec.bat at DOS level. I never had any issues with the SC55 (until it died of course) but if I need to swap a card then no biggie. I just don't want to overpay to get 1 specific card if others will suffice and cost less.

😀

They are OK. I am no fan of CQM but I don't think it is necessarily terrible, it's just not one of th better FM synthesizers. These cards usually have low self noise but they often still suffer from MIDI bugs so they are not great one and done cards. I'd rather go for an ES1868 instead.

arthur071169 wrote on 2021-06-30, 16:12:

...the display shows Unexp midi info...

Have a look at this: https://github.com/gmcn42/clumsyMIDI/discussions/9
and this: https://github.com/dwhinham/mt32-pi/discussio … ncomment-366541

Some gameport cables are cheap and lack proper buffering. You might have gotten away with it on stuff like the SC-55 but when the cable is out-of-spec then all you can do is hope that sound card and the receiving device are tolerant enough.
Pop the hood off the gameport connector on your cable. If there aren't any chips inside, you probably have one of these bad cables.

Otherwise, I have nothing to add to what's already been suggested. v0.10.0 is well-tested with the usual suspects like Doom and Monkey Island - it'd be pretty poor of me to not at least give these games a cursory check.
Please try a different cable/sound card/both.