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

[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.

[thorr]

Munt (or a real MT-32 or equivalent) is absolutely the way to go with MT-32 games. The MT-32 allows all the instruments to be manipulated or completely changed so each game sounds different. If you use pre-recorded sound fonts, it will not sound right with MT-32 games. General MIDI is basically always the same, so you can use sound fonts for Sound Canvas games. I prefer using a real SC-55 MK2 over soundfonts however. There are a lot of manipulations that can happen with the pre-recorded sounds, and I am not sure the soundfonts will sound right with whatever Fluidsynth is doing with the extra GS data, etc.