MT-32 and D110

[tareon]

I am offered a Roland D110 for maybe $ 20 and was told it would sound like an MT-32 and should be compatible with it. Is that true? And how about the old Sierra and Lucasarts games... may it work with them?

[Great Hierophant]

I would like to expand on the question.  Can the Roland D series keyboards, the D-50, 550, 10, 20, 110 be made to function as a Roland MT-32 when connected through midi with the games that support the MT-32's specific LA synthesis engine?  Many of the keyboards have superior specs to the MT-32, which makes the possibilities very interesting.

[Laust]

The D-110 shares the model ID and (from a quick look) the memory layout (for SysEx) with the MT-32, so it seems it should work. I have not heard of anyone who has tried, though.

Compatible or not, I think $20 is an excellent price for a D-110. But I guess if you're not a musician, you might not have use for it otherwise.

[Alistair]

Compatible or not, I think $20 is an excellent price for a D-110. But I guess if you're not a musician, you might not have use for it otherwise.

Man, I think 20 bucks is a good price for a gamer..

Besides, if it doesn't wok with games, sell it on EBay for a premium!

- Alistair

[Cloudschatze]

I would like to expand on the question.  Can the Roland D series keyboards, the D-50, 550, 10, 20, 110 be made to function as a Roland MT-32

D-50 - No. This is a mono-timbral, performance instrument.
D-550 - No. Same as the D-50.
D-10 - Yes, but not by default. The partials are not mapped to the same locations as in the MT-32.
D-20 - Same as D-10.
D-110 - Same as D-10.

Sierra created and released patches for the Baby-D synths (D-10, D-20, D-110), though no-one has been able to locate them.

See this thread:
http://www.queststudios.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=852


I inquired of Mark Siebert a while back regarding these patches, and received the following reply:

The D-10 and D-110 were sister devices in the Pro keyboard and modules lines
for Roland.  Overall, both of these are better units than the MT-32.  Most
of the sound guys at Sierra had these for personal use (Rather than
MT-32's), so we decided to (on our own) make patches so that these could
work as well.  However, since these played the MT-32 tracks from the game
and the game was mastered for the MT-32, the MT-32 produced a better overall
experience.  If you have both, I would choose the MT-32.  As for finding the
old D-series patches...no idea if you can't find them on the Sierra site
anymore.

[Alistair]

Very very nice, Eric- cheers for the info! Now to ask him about the CM-32L.

- Alistair

[shad0wfax]

As usual, Eric is right and has put very useful info there. I'd say only the following: if you're a musician and you're interested in LA synthesis, get the D-110, as it's a very nice module and better in specs and sound than the MT-32. If you're a gamer and want it to play MT-32 compatible games, don't get it, as it wouldn't be of much use unless you know very well how to reprogram it and take a long time doing so.