Emulation available for Roland MT-32 or other more advanced sound cards?

[thorr]

I use this to mix several audio sources. You need to desolder the resistors and replace them with 1K resistors or it will be too quiet:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y2RYHFF/

[rhester72]

As far as I know, MUNT is only for MT-32. If it can do other things, that is news to me.

MUNT can absolutely do a full Sound Canvas. Whether the way MiSTer uses it supports that is a different question.

[TheMrAwesomeness]

OK, so after tinkering around, I discovered that MUNT will only output through the audio source that is auto-detected upon opening the program (not sure why that is). So, if I have my DAC that is connected to my PC on upon opening the program, it will always output through the DAC. Now, I just need to figure out how to use the line in to mix the rest of the sound, so I can hear both. Thorr's suggestion looks like something I may have to get if I can't figure out how to do it with the aux jack I got. Jrronimo, if you come accross this, you said you were able to get it to work by just plugging an aux jack into a line in, right? I have a jack connected from the audio output on my I/O board, to my computer's microphone input, which I'm using as a line in. Did you have to do a bunch of tinkering around before you were able to get it to work?

[TheMrAwesomeness]

I got it working!! I just had to find the setting that lets you "listen" to the microphone input. Thanks to everyone who helped me out.

[jrronimo]

I got it working!! I just had to find the setting that lets you "listen" to the microphone input. Thanks to everyone who helped me out.

Fantastic! Congratulations! I'm really glad you got it working. I see earlier you were talking about ROMs -- you can also use the CM-32L ROMs with Munt. They have more sounds than an MT-32, but only if a game supports it. And the list of games that supports it is pretty small... but Lure of the Temptress is a pretty awesome showcase.

You can also use FluidSynth with the SC-55 soundfont onboard the MiSTer rather than Munt. I've only tried it with Doom (via bbond007's port of PrBoom-Plus), but the MIDI sound works great!

I would have responded sooner, but yesterday was real crazy at work and I didn't end up with much spare time in the evening.

Does your Microphone input function as a Line-In? I know some sound cards can reconfigure the inputs and outputs, but it still needs driver support. I guess it's moot now since you have a solution though, haha.

In my setup, I'm using an old gaming laptop which claims it has a Line-In. I do hear audio coming from the HDMI to VGA adapter, but when I plug it in to my lappy's Line-In, there's a lot of interference. I suspect that they never expected anyone would actually use it this way. That Little Bear mixer that Thor pointed out looks pretty good, but more likely I'll try a different computer first.

[amadama]

As far as I know, MUNT is only for MT-32. If it can do other things, that is news to me.

MUNT can absolutely do a full Sound Canvas. Whether the way MiSTer uses it supports that is a different question.

How does MUNT do Sound Canvas?

[TheMrAwesomeness]

No worries, jrronimo, didn't take too long for me to figure the rest out. Yeah, I can use my microphone input on the front of my PC as a line-in, I just wanted to test it out there before I dig through the back of my PC to find the line-in input. I now have the aux jack hooked up to the line-in in the back, and it works just as well. Yeah, I've been using the SC-55 soundfont with the built-in FluidSynth for the game I'm playing, it actually sounds much better than the MT-32 for this particular game, so I'm sticking with the soundfont for this one. I'm gonna have to test out Space Quest III, since that seems to be the game everyone talks about that was designed for use with the MT-32. About using SC-55 ROMs on MUNT, I tried doing that, but it sounded like the MT-32 ROM I used, but worse. This leads me to believe it was using the compatibility mode. I know that SC-55's have a compatibility mode for MT-32, and it doesn't always emulate it well, because there are some instruments and other stuff that the MT-32 has that the SC-55 doesn't. If I can't get an SC-55 ROM to work properly on MUNT, I'm just happy to be able to use the soundfont with FluidSynth, since that works very well and sounds great. One last thing to note, I did notice while using the MT-32 ROM with MUNT, there were a few hanging or skipped notes on occasion. It wasn't nearly as bad as when I tried using the MiSTer's built-in MUNT, but it was still noticeable enough. Is this something you have experienced, and if so, do you know if there's a way to minimize hanging and/or skipped notes with MUNT?

[bbond007]

About using SC-55 ROMs on MUNT, I tried doing that, but it sounded like the MT-32 ROM I used, but worse.

You can't use SC-55 ROMS with MUNT...

You can use MT-32 or CM-32L ROMS...

As far as I know, MUNT is only for MT-32. If it can do other things, that is news to me.

MUNT can absolutely do a full Sound Canvas. Whether the way MiSTer uses it supports that is a different question.

How does MUNT do Sound Canvas?

MUNT absolutely does NOT support "full Sound Canvas"...

mt32d (MUNT Alsa daemon) does support a pseudo GM (General Midi) patch arrangement on a secondary port. Using this would be similar to running the MT2GM patch on a real MT-32. Its not even full General Midi and certainly not a Sound Canvas (GS).

MidiLink does support this with the "MUNTGM" switch, but you'd need to start it manually from the command line as the option its not exposed in the OSD - not the best option for GM when FluidSynth is available...

[jrronimo]

One last thing to note, I did notice while using the MT-32 ROM with MUNT, there were a few hanging or skipped notes on occasion. It wasn't nearly as bad as when I tried using the MiSTer's built-in MUNT, but it was still noticeable enough. Is this something you have experienced, and if so, do you know if there's a way to minimize hanging and/or skipped notes with MUNT?

I haven't done too much gaming with this setup yet, but I have noticed that Space Quest 1 VGA seems to leave a ton of hanging notes when using Munt over a network like this. I'm not sure if it sounds like that normally, or if I'm running into some issues. Since the whole intro to Space Quest III and (the much simpler) Champions of Krynn both work fine, I suspect it's an issue with SQ1 VGA. In my setup, I was running it all hardwired Ethernet, with the MiSTer and windows computer on the same switch even.

What game are you noticing hanging notes in?

[TheMrAwesomeness]

I’ve only tested it out so far with Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon, since that’s the game I’m playing right now. That’s the only CD game I currently have installed. I have some of thosr VHD’s with tons of non-CD DOS games, organized by year, so I’ll want to test it out on some of those, too. Most of the games I’ve played on those VHD’s are older DOS games, though, that don’t give you options for sound sources.

[TheMrAwesomeness]

I would like to have this setup running with my crossover cable connecting my MiSTer directly to my PC, but when I tried it, I couldn’t get my MiSTer to recognize the connection.

[bbond007]

I would like to have this setup running with my crossover cable connecting my MiSTer directly to my PC, but when I tried it, I couldn’t get my MiSTer to recognize the connection.

You would need to enable Internet Connection Sharing or some other method of providing a DHCP server on your pc.

Alternatively, you could manually configure static IP addresses on both systems..

[jrronimo]

I would like to have this setup running with my crossover cable connecting my MiSTer directly to my PC, but when I tried it, I couldn’t get my MiSTer to recognize the connection.

By convention, if a network device is connected and doesn't have contact with a DHCP server (which is what hands out IP addresses), the devices assign themselves an IP address in the format 169.254.x.y.

If you want to use a crossover cable, re-check the IP of each device and re-set the /fat/media/linux/MidiLink.INI file's UDP_Server setting appropriately. Windows takes a moment or 5 before it assigns itself an IP, fyi. But when it has a 169.254 address, it should work.

Or just hard-code the IP address of both devices like bbond007 said. But if you plug the devices in to any other network, they could potentially be on an IP address that's either already in use (cause problems for yourself and the other client) or invalid for that network (no internet).

[thorr]

Been away for a bit and lots of posts have happened and I haven't read everything, but hopefully this is helpful. MrAwesomeness, you should be able to switch your sound device instead of going out and back in, if I understand what you were saying correctly. This guide may be very helpful to you even if much of it is irrelevant to your situation: https://github.com/dwhinham/mt32-pi/wik ... leshooting

bbond007, can you comment about my question on the last page about the first few notes missing in MIDI? A lot of games don't play the first few notes when a song starts. Thanks!

[rhester72]

WAY back - apologies, I said Sound Canvas entirely inappropriately, I was (of course) referring to the CM32-L. Very very different things - sorry about that!

[thorr]

lol, I love the 'of course' part.

[bbond007]

bbond007, can you comment about my question on the last page about the first few notes missing in MIDI? A lot of games don't play the first few notes when a song starts. Thanks!

Try to edit the MIdilink.INI file and turn off DELAYSYSEX=TRUE if enabled. The routine is overly aggressive and may backlog USB MIDI IO and disrupt the flow. This only applies to USB MIDI and the option is provided only for use in conjunction with real Real MT-32 Rev0...

I don't have "MT-32 Pi" and I have not used the project. I find it interesting, but use my own RPi based MIDI solution that uses UDP vs physical MIDI adapters. Also, all of my best DACs are USB which it unfortunately does not support.

[TheMrAwesomeness]

Whoops, after reading rhester72's comment, I realized I made a mistake when talking about the SC-55 ROM. I must've not been paying attention, because the ROM I was referring to was a CM32L ROM. I got all my Roland ROMS from a Google Drive Roland ROM pack, so I guess I just assumed the one that wasn't MT-32 was an SC-55. SC-55 ROMs are actually difficult to find, haha. Hopefully, one will pop up in my searches.

Edit: I saw bbond's post about how MUNT doesn't support SC-55. Whoops again. Well, the SC-55 soundfont I use sounds good enough, anyway.

[thorr]

Try to edit the MIdilink.INI file and turn off DELAYSYSEX=TRUE if enabled. The routine is overly aggressive and may backlog USB MIDI IO and disrupt the flow. This only applies to USB MIDI and the option is provided only for use in conjunction with real Real MT-32 Rev0...

I don't have "MT-32 Pi" and I have not used the project. I find it interesting, but use my own RPi based MIDI solution that uses UDP vs physical MIDI adapters. Also, all of my best DACs are USB which it unfortunately does not support.

That did the trick! Thank you very much! That problem has been bugging me for weeks/months and I am so glad I asked.

Regarding the USB DAC, you can contact the MT-32 Pi author by adding an issue on the Git Hub page. He has been totally great and implemented lots of major fixes and features for me including creating the guide I linked above to help with testing hardware vs software issues. He will often create test versions that you can try.

[jrronimo]

I don't have "MT-32 Pi" and I have not used the project. I find it interesting, but use my own RPi based MIDI solution that uses UDP vs physical MIDI adapters. Also, all of my best DACs are USB which it unfortunately does not support.

Is this something with public code/binaries? It would be nice to have a more portable way to do UDP MIDI. I've got a couple single board computers that I'd like to test and see if they're up to the task.

[Higgy]

Here you go:
https://github.com/dwhinham/mt32-pi

[thorr]

He was asking about UDP midi which is not currently supported in mt32-pi. I bet if someone asked the author, it would be implemented very quickly.

Edit: I checked with him and he already has it on his list of to-do's. He is also planning on getting a Mister to help test it.

[fsmith2003]

I recommend MT32-PI. In a nutshell, you install Munt on a Raspberry PI that is dedicated to Munt using a very thin OS that makes it work almost immediately after turning it on (not Raspian). It is fantastic. I helped a lot with ironing out the bugs and it is pretty solid now. https://github.com/dwhinham/mt32-pi

How did you get this to work? I am using a Pi 3B+. I copied the contents of the zip downloaded for the latest release of mt32-pi onto the root of the Pi's sd card and added the roms. I plugged in my UM-ONE to a USB port of the Pi and the other end into the midi port of my pc. With this set up in this configuration I do not get and red light lighting up on the UM-One. When playing midi files there is no sound at all to the connected speakers.

[bbond007]

Is this something with public code/binaries? It would be nice to have a more portable way to do UDP MIDI. I've got a couple single board computers that I'd like to test and see if they're up to the task.

I just use the exact same MidiLink program that is included with MiSTer on the PI.

viewtopic.php?f=27&t=375

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/MidiLink_MiSTer

I also have a ic2 LCD (20x4) driver I have been working on which loosely mimics the MT-32 UI, but allows selection of FluidSynth as well as soundfonts. It works really well, but have not posted source to GitHub yet because it still relies on KB to work the UI.

https://youtu.be/6w8iJJ2MPL0

[belgarcat]

I recommend MT32-PI. In a nutshell, you install Munt on a Raspberry PI that is dedicated to Munt using a very thin OS that makes it work almost immediately after turning it on (not Raspian). It is fantastic. I helped a lot with ironing out the bugs and it is pretty solid now. https://github.com/dwhinham/mt32-pi

I want to try it, but I don't understand how is the RPi connected to MiSTer.

[jrronimo]

Is this something with public code/binaries? It would be nice to have a more portable way to do UDP MIDI. I've got a couple single board computers that I'd like to test and see if they're up to the task.

I just use the exact same MidiLink program that is included with MiSTer on the PI.

viewtopic.php?f=27&t=375

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/MidiLink_MiSTer

I also have a ic2 LCD (20x4) driver I have been working on which loosely mimics the MT-32 UI, but allows selection of FluidSynth as well as soundfonts. It works really well, but have not posted source to GitHub yet because it still relies on KB to work the UI.

https://youtu.be/6w8iJJ2MPL0

Wow, that looks great! I'd really love to build one of these with a display and everything... I need to learn some more.

I didn't realize that there were Linux binaries in that MidiLink repo, haha. Makes perfect sense though. I'll try to fiddle and see if I can't find a few other SBCs that can work. Thanks for that!

MT32-Pi is a great project and all, but I don't *have* a Pi newer than a 1, and those aren't really up to the task, sadly. I do have a couple other SBCs laying around though, and I'm just not sure what else to do with a Pine A-64 at this point.

[thorr]

How did you get this to work? I am using a Pi 3B+. I copied the contents of the zip downloaded for the latest release of mt32-pi onto the root of the Pi's sd card and added the roms. I plugged in my UM-ONE to a USB port of the Pi and the other end into the midi port of my pc. With this set up in this configuration I do not get and red light lighting up on the UM-One. When playing midi files there is no sound at all to the connected speakers.

A couple of suggestions... Make sure you edit the config file that is included with the MT-32 Pi to configure it to what you are trying to do. Make sure your midi-in is connected to midi-out, or try swapping the two cables. I am not sure exactly what MIDI device is on your PC, but if you had two UM-One's you would need a MIDI barrel connector because both ends are male and they need to connect together. In my case, I soldered my own MIDI in port together with the Pi and I also purchased a quality audio DAC and have an OLED screen. I made a very nice case that I want to show off, but I want to do it on Youtube and haven't gotten around to it yet. I also got it working with USB MIDI on the Pi with a barrel connector to another USB midi on the MiSTer, but that was just during testing.

So in summary, I have a UM-one connected to the USB on my MiSTer and a midi-in on my raspberry pi and a quality dac for the audio out on the pi. The 3B+ will work fine, but I recommend a 4 for those who want to buy one for this. More power potentially allows better quality.

[belgarcat]

So in summary, I have a UM-one connected to the USB on my MiSTer and a midi-in on my raspberry pi and a quality dac for the audio out on the pi. The 3B+ will work fine, but I recommend a 4 for those who want to buy one for this. More power potentially allows better quality.

Ok, thanks, I will test it once I've built the midi-in circuit for the raspberry pi. I've already have a M-AUDIO uno I bought years ago.

[thorr]

Cool. Just be aware that the analog audio out on the Pi sounds lousy with this, so you will want a good DAC. You can use it to start with, but it sucks. Also, there is a link on the MT-32 pi page to a vendor who makes a Pi hat with a DAC and MIDI built in. I didn't want it because I wanted to make my own case.

[TheMrAwesomeness]

So, I did the "ultimate test" and ran Space Quest III with it, and it sounded just like it's supposed to, so that's great! There were still some notes tripping, so I'll see if maybe that can be fixed by using a more stable connection. I imagine the communication would be quicker if I connected my MiSTer directly to my computer, so it doesn't have to go to the router, and then to the computer by Wi-Fi. I also know there are a handful of MT-32 ROMs out there that can used with FluidSynth (none by the guy who made the SC-55 one, unfortunately ). I checked one out, and it was playing xylophones on the SQIII intro , so maybe I should go looking for a different one. I know soundfonts aren't perfect, but as long as they sound good enough, I'm a happy camper. I didn't grow up with these sound modules, so I don't notice the tiny differences veterans do.