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Austin, Texas

Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster here.

I have recently acquired a Roland MT-32 midi module on the cheap ($40, what a steal!) from a music store going out of business. While I grew up with a Compaq Presario "tricked out" with a Sound Blaster Pro 2 (it was offloaded on to me, the youngest child, when the family computer was upgraded to a Windows 98 machine), I nonetheless remember the MT-32 holding a place of prestige as one of the best options for music on old MS-DOS games. I was excited by the chance to add it to my set-up; while it's probably too advanced to be considered "chip" by the sticklers out there (and trust me, I've seen my fair share of cm.o elitism in my years of lurking), I still think the chunky LA synthesis has enough character and nostalgia-factor to be a cool platform to write on in any case. While I know it's not strictly speaking "a vintage computer", I feel that because it's usually discussed in the context of old computers because of its implementation in a lot of old DOS games, it fits this forum better than just plain 'ol hardware.

I just picked this thing up a couple days ago, and while I've enjoyed messing around with the preset patches and building some beats with my Ensoniq EPS' midi sequencer, the preset patches are pretty cheesy and there are only a few synth presets on it that really fit my style. I know there are some midi editors out there, some that are specifically built to take advantage of the MT-32's LA synthesis, that could really open up the variety of sounds I can get out of this thing. MidiQuest seems to be a good option, and using Dr. T's MT-32 Editor/Librarian via DOSbox also seems to be a popular choice as well. I figured I'd ask here and see if anyone's experienced in the ways of MT-32/MUNT dabbling who might be able to give an informed opinion.

I found a collection of Sierra MT-32 patches online and they're really fun to play with too, but I'd still like to start making my own sounds with it. However, I'm still getting the hang of this stuff, so if anyone knows of any other online patch collections for the MT-32 or has any patches of their own they'd like to share, I always like trying new things! Unfortunately I don't have one of the units with aftermarket battery to allow saving, so I'm still stuck using SysEx to back-up my stuff, but my EPS can handle that pretty easily so it's not too much of a hassle.

Thanks in advance for your help!

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Melbourne

I wonder if the D50 editor could be used with the MT-32? Maybe not, but considering they use the same architecture, might be worth a try..
http://ctrlr.org/roland-d50-editor/
Too bad there isn't a dedicated MT-32 panel, because ctrlr is great software.

Otherwise the DOSBox option may be your best bet. I've heard reports that MidiQuest isn't quite as awesome as the website says, but I haven't tried it so should probably shut up lol.

I love those old sound modules/romplers. I've had a few (including an MT-32 almost 20 years ago, but then the MIDI ports stopped working and I didn't know how to fix them at the time), but I've currently settled on a JV1010 (quite modern compared to the MT-32) and a Yamaha SY22 (no interpolation on samples!).. and am tempted by the PMA-5 every time I see one for sale.

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https://fjkraan.home.xs4all.nl/digaud/mt32/

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Austin, Texas
pselodux wrote:

I wonder if the D50 editor could be used with the MT-32? Maybe not, but considering they use the same architecture, might be worth a try..
http://ctrlr.org/roland-d50-editor/
Too bad there isn't a dedicated MT-32 panel, because ctrlr is great software.

I asked my friend with a D-50 shortly after buying the MT-32, he also recommended I try out CTRLR but said I should message the devs about compatibility with the MT-32, haven't heard back but I'll give it a shot myself. Apparently there might be some difference in the way banks are stored (and later recalled via SysEx), but from my preliminary fiddling I can at least edit/dump/recall one voice at a time well enough. I'll let you know what the devs say, thanks for the tip!

@herr_prof:
Thanks for the heads up, I'll test it out later this week when I have more time.