Sending too much signals to MT-32?

[vmu]

Dear Midi fans,

I have a very weird problem. Everytime when I play a general midi or MT-32 based game. It looks like the sound card is sending extra signals to the wavetable/Mt32. During the game I hear all kinds of weird "extra" instruments (mostly played way too high, usually violins or guitars) The longer I play, the worse it gets. What can I do to stop this? Is there some kind of patch or fix?

I have a Soundblaster 16 and a MT32. I also have an internal wavetable for general midi based games. I have this problem in Real Dos, Windows and Linux. but only in games. I have the same problem If I use DOSBOX (Windows and Linux)

The strange thing is: When I just play midi files in Dos/Win/Lin, I don't have these problems. In some games it's worse than other. In Zeliard for example I have the problem very rarely. But in space quest (1vga, 4 and 5) I have this problem everytime I start the game. It's very frustrating. I hope someone can help me with this weird problem.

Btw. I hear these extra instruments together with the normal midi music.

Thanks in advance.

Greetings,

vmu.

[Tom]

Sounds like two MIDI devices playing at the same time;  the MIDI data is being sent simultaneously to both your internal wavetable sound card, and the MT-32.  You need to disable the internal sound card's MIDI -- or set its volume to zero so that the MIDI is only being sent to your MT-32, for games you want MT-32 support enabled.  And it sounds like the reverse is true, as well.  In any event, you would need to disable one of the MIDI devices so that they aren't both playing at the same time.  

General MIDI recognizes 16 MIDI channels, and many Sierra soundtracks have MIDI data on channels 1, or 11-16 (for other sound card support.)  The MT-32 only recognizes channels 2-10.  What may be happening is that DOSBox (or whatever utility you use) is disabling your SB MIDI device during game play, but it's only doing that on channels 2-16...leaving channel 1 or 11-16 accessible.

[vmu]

Thanks but I already tried that. I even physically removed the internal wavetable. But I still have the same problem (even when I insert the wavetable and remove the MT-32) I use dosbox (windows and/or linux version) and Native ms dos 6.22

Do you have any more tips?

Thanks for you extremely fast reaction.

Vmu.

Ps: Sometimes when I quit the games I keep hearing these extermely high sneering and squeaking violin sounds.

[Marten]

Does the panel on your MT-32 ever say "Overflow" ?

If your computer sends the MIDI data to the MT-32 too quickly, your MT-32 will lose some of the instructions and that can result in symptoms like the ones you are experiencing.

[vmu]

No it doesn't. I made a few recording so you can hear what I mean. I hope your bandwith is ok becouse I didn't compress them.

http://donnyk.homelinux.com/extras/sq1wrong.wav (intro of Space quest 1 vga)

http://donnyk.homelinux.com/extras/sq1wrong2.wav (The beginning of sq1 vga)

http://donnyk.homelinux.com/extras/zelwrong.wav (Intro of Zeliard)

They were all recorded directly from my MT-32

I hope you can help me.

Thanks in advace.

Greetings,

Vmu.

[Ari]

Wow! this sounds horrible!  :?

It's not only the additional sounds, it seems, but also a slowing down of the music in some parts. this is, indeed, very weird.

I honestly don't know what to make of it...

[Tom]

Wow, those are some nice song files!!   :shock:

If that was recorded, as you say, DIRECTLY from the MT-32's output, then the MT-32 has to be malfunctioning, I would think.  I can't imagine that's a software problem.  Have you hooked up the MT-32 to another system to check it out?

[vmu]

Yes I hooked it up on other systems and it seems to be working fine on these systems. I think it's the SB16 becouse I have the exact same problem when I hook up my internal wavetable. but I don't know how to fix the sb16. Do I need some kind of (driver) patch for the sb16? The reason I ask is becouse I don't have any problems when I play midi files with a dos/windows/linux/dosbox midi player.

[vmu]

Oh my goodness. . . Problem solved!

I was reading other threads on this forum and I found this post:

What are you selecting for the driver on your game? Is this for everything you try? Selecting the Soundblaster Pro driver will give you rather interesting results, as the SB16 is not completely compatible. I haven't had any problems with the regular soundblaster or adlib drivers with a SB16 though.

I loaded up an old sound blaster pro driver instead of the standard soundblaster 16 driver (Wich I got with the card) and Boom... Everything sounds perfect! Wow This is amazing. I didn't know the solution was so simple. I was afraid I had to replace my sb16 or my MT32 and internal wavetable.

Thank you all very much for your support and extremely fast replies. You guys rule! This forum is the best! Now I can finally replay all my Sierra games in full MT-32 glory  

Thanks again.

Greetings,
Vmu.

[Tom]

I must have misunderstood -- I thought you said you recorded directly from your MT-32 and therefore bypassed the SB.  I assumed that meant that the MT-32's line out was connected to a mixer and/or a digital recording device.

[vmu]

The MT-32 is directly attached to the sb16. (With a midi cable).  I recorded the sounds with another device.