LGR - Roland MT-32 Retrospective

It's just such an awesome device! And while Monkey Island also sounds awesome in it, its sequel's theme song is my jam! :D

There's a new-ish MSX MIDI device called the MIDI-PAC. It can effectively pretend to be the internal PSG and/or FM Music Module and "convert" them to MIDI commands. It doesn't support the MT-32 out of the box but there's a config file you can download and write to the cartridge through some DOS software. I use mine with a Roland SC-55 and it's pretty awesome, but yeah some games just don't really work with it.

Love the Monkey Island track on MT-32. Have listened to your medley of the Evolution of PC Sound countless times!

MrMattan

I remember seeing those ads for Soundblaster & MT-32 , and I also remember being boggled by the idea of a computer generating sound beyond beeps. I wanted one so badly, but the price was way beyond me. Fortunately, when I got my IBM PS/1 486, I was finally able to experience a Soundblaster!

Purple Tentacle

Holy cow, this is such a good video! Love the MT-32 sound and always have. MUNT emulation is ok, but I would really love to have the real deal. There should really be an album compilation of the best MT-32 game music available. Would be all in on that. Keep up the great work Clint!

Therek

The MT-32 soundtrack for Space Quest III is still, to this day, my favorite video game soundtrack ever. The open sequence gives me chills.

Sean Daugherty

It's awesome hearing my favorite PC game of all time (Monkey Island) in a way that I've never heard it before. Sounds AMAZING!

Andrew Buffenmyer

Wow! What a difference in sound quality. I love it! Those tracks you played had this mesmerizing boyhood fantasy feel to me, like going to a different world. Sound really makes the immersion for me in games & the music plays a huge role so this baby is a gamechanger. Reminds me of when I upgraded my vinyl player to a nicer one & the sound quality difference changed 'night n day'. I don't play too many DOS games but I'm absolutely THRILLED for you, haha you must be SO happy! :D

Love the woodgrain computer trim, looks like my alarm clock.

Leif

Great work! Classy LGR style, and very informative. You managed to get all the necessary information in under 12 mins! Kudos! :D I would perhaps have shown Dune2, Thexder2 and Monkey Island 2, but there are so many great games with MT-music so good choice anyway. Also, there is a GM patch bank you can load to play GM games like DOOM though, in case anyone is wondering. :)

Anders Enger Jensen

A rad piece of kit indeed. It's still kind of unique to see a firm like Sierra go and push for it in their games as they did back then. I managed to nab one a few months ago… and this has been a nice reminder than I need to go order a USB-MIDI interface so I can use it for some DOSBox action.

Rob Caporetto

I have a friend who is all over those old synthesizers from the 80s and has quite the impressive rag controleld by an Atari ST. He swears that is better than any 1000€ Software. And well it cost not as much, still not the cheapest hobby if you have like 6 synthesizers either big or for the rag standing there. It is also interesting to know that often other models that are not as popular and iconic are often as valuable but you get them for much cheaper. But guess that is not quite the thing for this roland that you have, because they seem to be always rare at least over here in europe.

Ezydenias

Amazing video, the sound of this blew my away.

meisterolsen

I first heard about the MT-32 from a Let's Player who used a real one for his Sierra game Let's Plays. One of my favorite themes from the MT-32 is from Police Quest II. I never knew about this card when I was young, our first computer was a 486 in 1991, and when we got our first soundcard it was a Sound Blaster and that blew me away enough at the time.

Douglas Holmes

I would have loved one of these... But that price...

Terry Lee

Saying that though, after further reading, apparently older games take advantage of the older versions of the MT-32 hardware (it had bugs) and newer releases ONLY work with the more recent hardware. I'm not sure which model is the one in the video. Haha, I love computer games but damn are they complicated when you factor in all this different hardware. And while emulation gives you the luxury of trying anything you want without having to splash out on so very many pieces of kit, at least back in the day you had to make a choice and that was your lot. That way you played the game back then was certainly THE way you remember it!

MagikGimp

So this is what made games like Monkey Island and many others I've played growing up sound AMAZING! You can't go wrong with this or FM if you ask me! =) Its crazy how much of a difference it makes!

Marcus Zertuche

Crack dot Com :)

You bet! Really enjoyed yours and how it touched on so many other topics I know nothing about and didn't mention in my own video :)

LGR

Hey wow.. thanks for the shout out on my video!

The 8-Bit Guy

Interesting! Was it maybe from a music classroom of some kind?

LGR

If anyone's interested in emulating this kind of sound, you'd be better off tracking down the CM-32L ROMs as that piece of hardware was designed for games more than the MT-32 (which is a proper piece of professional recording kit) and has some subtle differences that are noticeable when playing e.g. sound effects etc. It didn't have the still cool looking box or display but if you use Munt to play MIDI files from games you can see the display there. You can play regular MIDI files too in Munt (it's more of a fiddle to use it as your standard interface in Windows these days) but a lot don't work correctly although some sound very nice. DOSBox SVN Daum is a breeze to setup with this technology too and SCUMMVM is even easier.

MagikGimp

I had my hands on one of these back in the day- my school had one. Alas alack, I had no clue what it was for so it was wasted on me. I'm amazed they had something that I now find out was that expensive as we were hardly a well off school. I still regret not learning how to use the setup back then and I wonder if they still have it...

MagikGimp

Yes indeed, certain games used patches to accomplish this I believe.

LGR

Normally, the MT-32 is used for music, but aren't there a few games that somehow manage to get sound effects out of the thing? ...or am I just imagining that? I seem to recall that Wing Commander might be one such game...

Kris Asick

Haha, yeah it's surprisingly cumbersome to fit!

LGR

Hehe, I do wonder how my gaming preferences might be different today if we were flush with cash for stuff like this :P

LGR

9 times out of 10 I still find myself using OPL2/3 as well. It's a rare pleasure kinda thing :)

LGR

I might be strange but i don't see me using one of these, i like the chippy sound of the OPL way too much for that.

BastetFurry

I am so glad I never know of this back in the 80s. I would have bought one and been much poorer for it monetary wise lol

Gary Leigh

Great video but those Mechwarrior?battletech games in the background....

TempleTurkey

Wow, an actual MT-32! I'd always wondered what they look like back in the 90s when I first saw the selection in some game I was installing. Now I know it wouldn't even have fit onto my desk :-P

Yep, that's on the agenda for the future. I've been gathering more disks, documentation, and software for it in preparation since I like my videos to be rather thorough. For instance, I wouldn't have covered this MT-32 if I didn't also have the MPU-401, IPC card, etc :)

LGR

I sent you a Gravis Ultrasound card "a long time ago". Might it be possible for you to cover that in the future? That is, if it came to you by mail just fine.

Teemu Pekkanen

So far, from the games I've played, Day of the Tentacle, Wlly Beamish, and Monkey Island are my favorites with this thing. Music in those games are wonderful. :)

ReeseRiverson

It's so awesome you finally got one! Those units are incredibly awesome. :)

ReeseRiverson