DOS Gaming MIDI: Roland MT-32 / SoundCanvas SC-55 / SC-88, mt32-pi & SoundBlaster Hanging Note Fix

Outstanding video. Loved it as I love this era of computers.
Sadly my experience with anything other than internal sound cards is lacking which is one reason I love this content.

Thank you for mentioning me yet again. 😀
You seem to be going down a slightly different rabbit hole than myself, but be careful, they're expensive deep holes!

I've got some devices:-
Roland MT-32 v1
Roland CM-C64 (From what I understand - Gives the fun of the CM-64 and a MT-32 v2)
Roland SC-55
Roland SC-55mkII
Roland SC-88 Pro
Yamaha MU80
KORG NS5R (I've added a DREAMBLASTER X2 internally to it)

I hope that gives you and your followers a quick look how deep this hole can go. I only wanted a MT-32 to play some old point and click games! LOL
Once you've heard the "real" thing, it's hard to want to hear anything else! 😀

Great video. A nice 486 or Pentium MMX Dos rig is something I’ll be looking building in the new year. MIDI is something I’d really like to add to it.

Thanks for the video! Was really interesting.
Now, I need to go play Monkey Island again...

Really Great Video Rees 👍

The mt32-pi in Simon the Sorcerer has audible aliasing artifacts. Ugly :\

Nice overview! This isn't an area I have any experience with whatsoever lol 👍

Midi was a mystery to me until I watched this, now I'm watching a MT32 on eBay.......

Really enjoyed this Rees. The games all sound "wrong" of course lol as it's not what we heard from our beloved SB16's, but it makes more sense understanding the intended sound, and they do sound soooo much better.

MIDI is a "rabbit hole" Yeah, found that out the hardway! XD

Awesome video, really interesting to hear the SC55 MT32 emulation mode and MT32 in comparison with a software solution. Keep up the good work! 👍🏻

Fantastic video. I know you'll be covering the MT32 pi in more detail in the future but just quickly, how do you hook it up the the computer?

I bought a Roland SC-88 Pro in March 2010 ( I was going to originally get an SC-88vl in January 2010 but was outbid ).
In April 2014 I boguht a Roland SD-35 mainly to use with the SC-88 Pro so I could use the SC-88 Pro to render midi files.

Really Cool video. The mt32-pi looks interesting, these midi modules are very expensive here in Oz :)

Great video! Looking forward to the mt32-pi one...

Great video. Bit of a late reply, on the topic, I got a Dreamblaster X2 from Serdashop for my DOS midi needs and it's excellent. Absolutely worth the money. It even has an MT-32 soundfont available to make it sound very close. It's a device I can warmly recommend you take a look at.

I still have my old MT32. I got it for Christmas back in 1988. I think I about cried. Kings Quest 4 was the first game I played on it.

This is a great intro video that helped me clarify many things I didnt know and gotnme confused about whole pc/midi world. Thank you so much, good job!
Cheers from Argentina

Awesome roland

SC-55 Had a display too! Isn't it? By the way, when did Roland CM64-32 Series came?

You might have showed us an SC-55ST instead of the SC-55 I seen before on the internet.

thanks for showing hanging note bug. I never heard of this before in person. so now I know what it is. thank you! I bought Orpheus 1 and SC-55. I plan to get Software emulation solution for MT-32 too. It is so exciting time to hear classic DOS games altogether.

Seems like there isn't an open-source Roland SC-55+ or a Yamaha MU-80+ emulator.

This is a interesting piece of hardware and info that was overlooked back then because it was really expensive and for audiophiles. Recently I put on place a 486 and I'm researching for audio since mine it hasn't. The pi for a midi replacement seems a good solution. But still I can't do it for now.

I just got a SC-55 MKII and all setup and running. Now when messing with setting on Dark Forces, is there supposed to be a sound canvas option that pops up? I tried general midi and it works and plays the midis from my SC-55. Just wondering if sound canvas is supposed to appear in the options.

You can send sysex to the MT32 to add GM support, only 8 channels though but Doom sounds great.

This is awesome - such a piece of art and very informative - thanks for such a great work!

I remember I used to have a Sound Blaster 32, that was, I think, a Sound Blaster AWE 32 but without memory to load external soundfonts. Some time after, Sound Blaster AWE 64 was released. These sound blasters had an OPL-3 chip plus a dedicated chip with more realistic sounds, like the Roland MT-32 or Roland Sound Canvas. They also had the digital recording capabilities of a Sound Blaster 16 cards, everything in one piece of hardware. I think the difference between Sound Blaster AWE 32 and AWE 64 was the number of simultaneous voices (32 vs 64, respectively). There were some games compatible with these two cards, but not too many, because they were relatively new pieces of hardware. Do you have any way of making a comparison between these two cards, Roland MT-32 and Roland SC-55 and SC-88? I would be wonderful!

would be nice if you got a higher-quality audio out on the mt32-pi since the ordinary jack output is notoriously poor on those things, and you can hear that reflected in the output. I'm sure it will sort out most of those weak bass issues heard in the comparison

Hey man, this video is tons of good information. But. Now that the Orpheus and others are out (like the mt32-pi), could you do an update to this, and maybe go over the current status, what's changed, and what's the best direction, or more specifically the best hardware to go for, for us who are into real metal DOS gaming - not the dosbox stuff or any of it, but the real things, CRT's and all. Is it worth it to go SC-88 or Orpheus in your opinion, or the mt32pi maybe, then how to hide it? Big part of the appeal for me at least is that there's no raspberry pi's or 3d printed enclosures to fiddle with.

Does the Roland SD-20 Studio Canvas work with old PC games?

Great video. Was the MT-32 pi playback coming from the pi's built in sound output, or did you use a hat DAC?

This video deserves many more likes and views! Thank you for all the time and work to put this info together! I can only imagine the amount of efforts necessary. You've got a new subscriber!

Any sites you can recommend to get Sound fonts for MT32 PI?

I'm currently using an old ESS Solo-1 sound card with Roland CM-300 via MIDI cables. Works great for all DOS games with SB compatibility and General MIDI. Recently, I have decided to convert an old ThinkPad R60 into a portable retro gaming for the CM-300 using a Ronald UM-One USB MIDI adaptor. Sounds great too with zero lag. Now I wonder if the Atari 520STFM will work with the CM-300 since I have plenty of MIDI cables lying around.

As far as I know, the first release of SC-55 had an LCD. The ST is a budged version released later, and I think it equal to Sound Canvas SC-55 Mk II sound wise. Legend of Kyrandia is one of the great games to show how SC-55 can sound very similar to MT-32 as well. Also, the hanging note bug applies to those cards connected to a wavetable header, or Wave Blaster port, in addition to modules connected to the gameport.

I watched a Phil's lab video on MT-32 emulation. I am currently building a MT-32/General MIDI emulator running Munt and Bassmidi on an old Lenovo Thinkcenter Tiny Form Factor PC that i got for 25 quid off ebay. I think all in it's cost around 60ish quid. I'm hoping to interface with my AWE64 ISA card that's in my PIII machine. Hoping to one day be able to do both MT-32 and Midi on a single Pi. I haven't been able to find a good solution for running both and being able to switch between them thus far though

Excellent informative and easily digestible video. Thank you!

Amazing video :) Gave me a lot of insight into the history of MIDI and perspective on what gaming was like back in the day.

The MT-32 emulation of SC-55 only handles the stock patches, and doesn't emulate any MT-32 sysex which a lot of games (including a lot of sierra and monkey island) use to load custom patches.

I had hanging notes with my [musicQuest] PC-MIDI card, which I suspect were due to > 8MHz ISA bus speed. MPU-401 never seemed to run into the same issues, but is likely it hasn't been tested as thoroughly. Something for a possible YT video I suppose. :)

I would love to know how what percentage of DOS gamers actually owned MT-32s back in the day. I, like you, never even knew what they were, let alone knowing anybody that owned one. It was enough of a novelty, in the early 90s, to own a Sound Blaster, in my circle of friends...

3 years and still a valuable piece of info here ♥

Obe thing missed here is the Roland virtual VST software that kinda badly but good enough emulates the SC series.

Great video. I have a question: providing I do not connect an external MIDI device to the gameport, will I still experience the dreaded hanging note bug with a Sound Blaster 16 or Roland SC-55 sound card?

If yes, can the PC-MIDI ISA MPU Card help me overcome this issue and does it come with full instructions?

Monkey Island's intro sounds absolutely amazing with the Roland MT-32

Amazing video. During my time as a PC gamer 1989~1999, never seen any Roland or Yamaha sound card sold in my country. I enjoyed immensely the following sound cards: Adlib, SB 8 bit, SB 16 bit, SB Wave Blaster, SB AWE32 and SB AWE64 sound cards. I spent considerably amounts of money buying new hardware just to be able to play latest PC Games, I'd have bought all Roland sound card/sound module products in a breeze, if I find a store in my city selling them.

Hi there - mt32-pi developer here! This is an extremely well-done video, thankyou for covering mt32-pi :)