Roland MT-32

[Guru Dragon]

I'm trying to record some MIDI style music into it's proper sounding format through the use of the Roland MT-32 in much the same way the Exult team has recorded Ultima's music into Vorbis.

Since I have never done this before I have a few questions about it.

1.) Do I need an older PC or can I do it with a modern machine. If I can use a modern machine, can I use winamp to play the music?

2.) I still have to buy the proper hardware, but I've read that the the LAPC-I was the same chip as the MT32, but in an ISA card. Which should I use?

Anything you can do to help would be...

well...

helpful.

[Colourless]

Getting a MT-32 would be better than a LAPC-1. Almost all modern computers don't have ISA slots anymore, so unless you know your system has one, then it's a bad idea.

The MT-32 connects to the MIDI ports on your sound card. Usually you need a Joystick Port->MIDI converter cable as most sound cards don't have dedicated MIDI Ports. Alternatively you can just buy a USB MIDI adapter. It is more expensive and you'd need to make sure it's supported by your OS.

Now as to playing back the music, if it's from a game you really have 2 options:
1) Run the game and record everything from the game. You can even do it using DosBox if needed. Just make sure everything is configured properly to send the MIDI data to the MT32
2) Rip the MIDIs from the Game and Play them back in a 3rd party program such as Winamp

Something you need to know, most games reprogrammed the MT-32 using SysEx data. Unless you first upload the SysEx data playback of ripped Midi files will not sound correct (and for some games not correct means very very very wrong).

[Guru Dragon]

Thank you Colourless, that's what I wanted to know. I appreciate the in depth response.