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MT-32 / GM / GS Sound module thread

Yes it is crazy, I am lucky to have gotten my two sc-55 units and mt-100 before prices went up so much. My MT-32 I got a good deal on but the time of the full recap and troubleshooting the eproms offset that a little 😆
 
Bad_Hambre said:
Awesome thread. I bought a few of these sound modules in 20-21. Didn't really seek them out at first. I was building a new PC at the time, and was going to purchase a RTX series card. I had everything ready except for that. That's when the parts shortage hit. So while waiting I stumble onto vintage PC videos. It hit me with lots of nostalgia. So naturally I eventually ran into these sound modules. Even Japanese computers like the X68000 utilized them! And down the rabbit hole I went.

I still don't have my vintage PCs built yet, but I been building up for it. Got me a mt32, sc55, mu2000, and cm64! I'm just trying to figure out a build for all of them.
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I'm gonna need video of that mu2000!
 
Oh hi I think I like this thread. I pretty much got the setup that Bad Hambre has.
rckGgPE.jpg

I use them for dosbox, for playing some games on my X68000 Pro and just for general midi playback.
A few things to keep in mind with the mu2000, you can upgrade it's firmware to the EX standard and the Yamaha drivers crashes the USB stack on windows 7 and newer when you turn the unit off. I solved that by only using the usb part of it running in an XP VM which I still sort of needed to do due to shift-jis character woes. You really want two midi out ports in total for those two port midi files that exist. They're really nice!
 
Very awesome setup, and welcome @Tandgnissle !

Are the dual port midi files only applicable for units like the MU2000? Or are there files I could run to a SC-55 using 2 USB midi interfaces?
 
You'd need a more capable unit than a SC-55. SC-88 and above have two midi ports, and yes the mu2000. Konami in particular released two port midi files on diskettes with their midi power CD albums and the files can be several hundred kilobytes big!
 
SC-55 has 2 midi inputs, just one is located on the front. I would think the polyphony might be the limiting factor? The only limit other than polyphony is that the 2nd midi input is not passed to midi thru along with the main one.

I have an SC-88VL though which has far more polyphony, so it would probably be better suited.

Any disk images in particular you know I could look through for those files off the top of your head? If not, I can do my own research, but it never hurts to ask :)
 
Oh yeah I missed that, I only looked at the back of the units. searching for "Konami Kukeiha Club - MIDI Power Pro - floppy disk" on nyaa dot si there seems to be at least three seeders at the moment. The second diskette has Salamander 2 music on it, some of which use two ports. You do need some sort of midi playback program that can handle multiple ports though. I'm using kbmedia player (kbmed) and I think it has an English version if you can find online. I think this might do: http://www.emu-france.com/emulateur...et-sons-section-consoles/4235-kbmedia-player/
 
Tandgnissle said:
Oh yeah I missed that, I only looked at the back of the units. searching for "Konami Kukeiha Club - MIDI Power Pro - floppy disk" on nyaa dot si there seems to be at least three seeders at the moment. The second diskette has Salamander 2 music on it, some of which use two ports. You do need some sort of midi playback program that can handle multiple ports though. I'm using kbmedia player (kbmed) and I think it has an English version if you can find online. I think this might do: http://www.emu-france.com/emulateur...et-sons-section-consoles/4235-kbmedia-player/
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Fantastic, thanks :) I'll hopefully get to mess with that soon.
 
skate323k137 said:
I'm gonna need video of that mu2000!
Click to expand...

I don't have it set up yet, but will pretty soon as I try to finish my other projects first. I was waiting to build my 4 in 1 SS7 AMD PC that can run DOS games all the way to Win98. I got most the parts for that. Also got an X68000 that hopefully only needs a power supply replacement. Then I can start jamming out to these MIDI tunes!
 
Tandgnissle said:
Oh hi I think I like this thread. I pretty much got the setup that Bad Hambre has.
rckGgPE.jpg

I use them for dosbox, for playing some games on my X68000 Pro and just for general midi playback.
A few things to keep in mind with the mu2000, you can upgrade it's firmware to the EX standard and the Yamaha drivers crashes the USB stack on windows 7 and newer when you turn the unit off. I solved that by only using the usb part of it running in an XP VM which I still sort of needed to do due to shift-jis character woes. You really want two midi out ports in total for those two port midi files that exist. They're really nice!
Click to expand...
Reminds me almost of that MIDI tower LGR made. That thing was awesome.
 
Welcome the newest members of my MIDI module family, an AKAI sg01k, and a Korg 05/RW, shown here. I happened to find an application from Korg made for Macintosh (a windows version exists) for configuring these modules. It's really really neat.
 

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Got the AKAI set up. The ebay seller really tried to pull one on me. It was pictured with a midi cable, manual, and wall wart. The description said the power adapter wasn't included, but whatever.

I received a different unit than the one pictured, which had the serial cropped out. What I got was thankfully the same model at least, no PSU, no cables/manual, and it required a 10V DC adapter and factory reset to function.

Anyway, here is my current listening / dosbox / scummvm stack. I upgraded the MU50 to a MU80, pulled the korg to keep it with the Mac SE, replaced that with the Akai, and swapped my SC-88VL out for a SC-55 as it has a serial input I want to test with old Macs as well.
 

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djsheep said:
I got the acapella, please send through a WAV of the instrumental so I can mix it!
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Sweet.... I had the accapella running on vinyl but left it out of the recording.

I can send you the video MP4 from OBS if you'd like, I didn't pull a straight WAV of this one.
 
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