Roland MT-32 and Windows XP / USB

[Sheriff]

Hello all,

I was thinking of replaying some oldies on my (modern) laptop, and use my Roland MT-32 for that. Two questions immediatly arose:

1) Will a USB MIDI Interface do the trick? I assume, from what laxdragon has mentioned on other topics, that it will. Will a DOS game correctly pass information through the USB port, through the interface and onto the MT-32?

2) Will the MT-32 work correctly on Windows XP? I'm planning on running games on DOSBOX or even natively on Windows XP if possible.

Thanks for the help

Pedro

[Alistair]

Hey Sheriff,

Firstly, I don't understand how you're supposed to run the MT-32 via a USB interface. Given that it was made in '88 or earlier.
(I guess you're talking about a converter, but I wouldn't know if one existed.)

Otherwise, if you hook it up properly, the MT-32 runs fine under XP. No problems I've ever encountered, as long as you run VDM Sound or DOSBOX or other useful programs..

- Alistair

[laxdragon]

I have the Edirol USB MIDI interface and it works just fine with the MT-32 on Windows XP. The only issue I have noticed is if a program that is accessing the MT-32 locks up, I have to unplug the USB adapter and plug it back in to get anything to see it again. Not a major issue.

[Sheriff]

Thanks laxdragon! So can DOSBox correctly send information through the usb interface onto the MT32?

Are there any drivers needed? How does Windows XP know the base port and IRQ of the MT32?

Thanks once again!
Pedro

[Ari]

It doesn't matter. I don't think the OS needs to deal with IRQ issues in this case since everything's handled through WinXP's MIDI Mapper.

[Sheriff]

It doesn't matter. I don't think the OS needs to deal with IRQ issues in this case since everything's handled through WinXP's MIDI Mapper.

Yes, but nevertheless, the DOS game (or DOSBox) will tell Windows XP something like "I am configured to output this sound on a MT32, usually at Base Port 330 IRQ 2!" and how will Windows XP know where that MT32 is? That's why I was presuming drivers/software were needed.

[Zemus]

That's what DOSBox and VMDSound are for. They take the data that the game tries to transmit to those ports and send it to the MIDI device of your choice.

[Ari]

It doesn't matter. I don't think the OS needs to deal with IRQ issues in this case since everything's handled through WinXP's MIDI Mapper.

Yes, but nevertheless, the DOS game (or DOSBox) will tell Windows XP something like "I am configured to output this sound on a MT32, usually at Base Port 330 IRQ 2!" and how will Windows XP know where that MT32 is? That's why I was presuming drivers/software were needed.

Let's look at the Microsoft GS softsynth for example. since it's a software synth, it doesn't use any IRQ and yet, the OS knows how to use it even in DOS games (not using Dosbox).

Same thing with an MT-32 with a USB interface.

[laxdragon]

Right, this is for DOSbox, or any Windows app that can uses the Windows MIDI mapper. If you try to use a DOS program outside of DOSbox you will need to use VDMsound which also will forward the port 330 to the MIDI mapper.

One thing though, in the current 0.63 release you can't set which MIDI device you want DOSbox to use (it uses the mapper default), so you'll need to change the default in the control panel. This is fixed in the source code and in the next release of DOSbox you can set the prefered MIDI device in the config.

[Sheriff]

Thanks for all the help people! One more question: I have seen devices to plug two (instead of just one) MIDI interfaces to the PC's usb:

http://www.edirol.com/products/info/um2.html

or

http://www.m-audio.com/images/en/callouts/big/usb_2x2.jpg

I was wondering if such a device would let me plug a Roland MT32 _and_ a Roland SC55? Will Windows XP be able to distinguish both if they're plugged to the same usb port...?

[Zemus]

Yes. Windows will detect it as two MIDI interfaces so you can connect your SC-55 to one output and the MT-32 to the other and choose which to use in Windows.

[Sheriff]

Final question (hopefully ): my idea is to eventually plug this interface to a laptop.

Unfortunately my laptop doesn't have a line-in so there isn't the option of looping the Roland MT32 sound output into the sound card's input and have both sounds coming out of the sound card's output.

Does anyone have any suggestion about what I can do in this situation? My immediate thoughts would be to plug both the MT32 and the laptop's headphone (line out) to a set of speakers with two line-in's, but I never found such a set of speakers.

Is there any other solution?

[DrJ]

I'm not cerain what the quality will be, but you can try using your microphone jack?

[micro]

The only issue I have noticed is if a program that is accessing the MT-32 locks up, I have to unplug the USB adapter and plug it back in to get anything to see it again. Not a major issue.

If you are using the v1.5.1 (May 28, 2002) driver, you should try v1.6.1 (May 28, 2004) from RolandJP. RolandUS just doesn't bother to upload it, even his version is 2 years older. Don't worry, it is in both English & Japanese.

It features 4-multiclient support. You couldn't be THAT bad luck having four programs locked up in the same session!?

http://ftp.roland.co.jp/pub/roland/japan/winxp/UM1_WinXPDrv161.EXE

[laxdragon]

YES! That worked. I tested it by forcing DOSbox closed in the middle of playing music on the MT-32, then restarting it and playing music again. Now the mt-32 was stuck on whatever note it was playing when I killed DOSbox. But, when DOSbox restated, it re-inited the MT-32 an went on its merry way. Nice.

Nice to see Edirol is supporting its US customer base by not releasing updated drivers here. Bah.

[micro]

Definitely, it is a DOSBOX problem . We can still easily use up the 4-muliclient sessions if DOSBOX is launched and close repeatly for several times.

[Sheriff]

I'm not cerain what the quality will be, but you can try using your microphone jack?

There will be loss in quality, I think. Microphone jacks are mono, right?

[Zemus]

And if they're not, they're for a much weaker signal so you may get distortion as well.

[Sheriff]

Any other possible solution?

[Laust]

PC/Desktop speakers with extra inputs do exist. My Altec Lansing speakers (old model, so no doubt discontinued) have two, for example.