My 'new' CM-64 has arrived! -- some comments

[MikeSol]

Well that was fast. But it was labeled priority mail so maybe that is why.

Ok three games in a row, all three failed to sound correctly on my CM-64. Not a good start I should say!  Those games were Silpheed, Space Quest III, and King's Quest IV. So I tried some non sierra games and they all worked fine.

I remember Mace saying something about the PCM part and games sounding funny so I figured that was it. I came here to find his message to confirm that but I noticed that Amigaz posted again so I checked his Silpheed samples and I noticed that he had the same trouble with his CM-500. The game sounded funny. He fixed it with an updated MT32.drv. Taking a cue from him, I googled an updated MT32.drv, found one, hosted by our very own cloudschatze (I know I am spelling that wrong) and sure enough this driver worked for both Silpheed and Space Quest III. It did not fix King's Quest IV however. It actually made that one worse. I get a 'Exe Checksum Error' with the new driver for that game. So for now, I am 'stuck' with my MT-32 for that one. That's ok, both modules are connected to my mixer. Switching between them is not an issue.

Anyway, I can not hear any difference between the CM-64 and the MT-32. Also I am hearing sound effects in one game on my CM-64 that I don't hear on my MT-32 as expected so that is good. Thanks to all the advice given and for the posted samples as well!

[endre1952]

I think you need this file:

http://www.queststudios.com/utilities/cm500sysex.zip

Partsoff.mid turns off the SC-55 part of the CM-500, and I believe it also turns off the PCM part of the CM-64.

[mace]

One thing: How do you know you get checksum errors if you use a synth without a screen?

[MikeSol]

I think you need this file:
http://www.queststudios.com/utilities/cm500sysex.zip
Partsoff.mid turns off the SC-55 part of the CM-500, and I believe it also turns off the PCM part of the CM-64.

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, this did not seem to do anything. Same funny sound on the CM-64.

[MikeSol]

One thing: How do you know you get checksum errors if you use a synth without a screen?

My CM-64 is connected to my MT-32. When I replaced the MT32.drv from King's Quest IV with the new one, instead of displaying 'King's Quest IV', it said 'Exe checksum Error' so I knew it wasn't going to work even before it started playing. Sure enough, the music sounded *really* messed up on both units with the new driver. With the original driver, the game at least works correctly on the MT-32.

[BlueMax]

A cheap method I used as a kid was to run a game like Thexder II first - it shut off the parts.  Unfortunately, KQ4 may not like the new instruments it loads either....

[endre1952]

If Thexter II does shut off the PCM part of the CM-64, we could record that sysex and edit it so that it also resets the LA part afterwards. And some of the guys here are real experts. I've never owned a CM-64, but have hopes of getting one from Japan. I probably won't use it much though, it probably has a higher noise-floor than the CM-32L since it has two synths in one box.

I've fooled around with CM-500 compatible sysex and can shut off the LA part or set its volume to a moderate level (no clipping in certain games).

[endre1952]

I found these on my hard drive:

http://www.geocities.com/endre1952/cm32p_off.mid
http://www.geocities.com/endre1952/cm32p_off.syx

Never had a chance to try them, however.

[MikeSol]

I found these on my hard drive:

http://www.geocities.com/endre1952/cm32p_off.mid
http://www.geocities.com/endre1952/cm32p_off.syx

Never had a chance to try them, however.

I just did. The midi worked. King's Quest IV sounds correct now on the CM-64. Thank you.