Roland MIDI Emulator Project 2.0 for best music with DOS Retro Games

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[msthalamus]

I know it's been a few years, but I wanted to thank you for making this series of videos. I feel like I'm 30 years late to this party, but I couldn't come close to affording this kind of kit back then. (I was very lucky to have the hand-me-down clone XT I had!) While I still can't afford the kit, I do have an old Mac Mini collecting dust, and I've been able to give it a fourth lease on life now as a MIDI emulator!

[AshtonCoolman]

I had a PC speaker in my Turbo XT from 1987 to 1997. I missed this entire era of MIDI and sound blaster music in my games. I geek out on every MIDI video you do, Phil!

[RetroTinkerer]

Between this and your 136 in one project you are really wrapping up the ultimate DOS gaming alternative for all the people that don't have access to hardware that will get exotic as years keep passing. Thanks!

[soberjedi]

I love this. I have multiple machines that support MIDI through an MT-32 compatible or SC-55. Being able to just switch like this is great, and so much more affordable. And of course easier than trying to manage multiple devices.

[sevennld]

I used a Korg wavetable card on my soundcard. It sounded great !

[davidhake]

Oh god Raptor Call of the Shadows was one of my favorites back in the day!

[MaxiZamac]

I had a Sound Blaster 16 back in the days with my old DOS PC, now using MUNT software emulator to play these games again with Roland MT-32 sound, amazing experience all the way!

[Felix-vehs]

Really interesting what Sound Quality you could achive with MIDI back in the day compared to 8-Bit Music

[opticburn]

Awesome project, Phil. Might have to bring out my old Retro 3 in 1 and rework my MIDI emulator box to start doing this. Thanks!

[pc-sound-legacy]

Descent - nice stereo effects and bass👍 And another 👍 for Duke Nukem 😎

[justjoeblow]

I think this might be the earliest I've caught a a video now this is a project I would love to do once I get a retro machine setup. All though I've got a similar setup for my DOSBox usage. I've really enjoyed the Roland SC VA VST but as expensive as it was I should have just bought a SC-55. All though part of what caused me to buy it instead of a hardware device was the fact space is something I lack right now.
EDIT: All though my current setup is not automated like this as how I have it running it. So no on the fly switching when you have a full DAW running the VST's.

[JoeyRivers]

Thought Id say thanks for the tutorial Phil as it was very inspiring as are all your great videos. Rather than use a mini PC or otherwise dedicated unit for this project I thought I'd just use my main i7-8700K PC which is not far from the DOS PC. I routed the audio out of the DOS PC (AWE32) into the line in of my PC. This way I can play my DOS games with audio coming out my main PC speakers which are very good and also listen to MIDI tracks on the main PC using the Falcosoft MIDI Player (amazing software). For people such as myself who don't have a MPU-401 card on their PC I think Phil mentioned the Gameport to MIDI adaptor cable needed in the video but I didn't see a link for one in his list of links. For those who need such a cable I purchased the one below for around $22. It only took 2 weeks to get here to Adelaide from china. Very nicely constructed but they didn't label which connector was MIDI IN or MIDI OUT. Anyway it took 5 seconds to work out which was which.

[RetroPCUser]

I have a Yamaha DB50XG connected to the Sound Blaster 16 CT2740 and it sounds amazing. I even made SYSEX files to reset the Daughterboard to allow the SFX for certain MIDI files, like Last Wave from OutRun (rhythm channel 10) when I power it on and when it boots to either MS-DOS or Windows 95C via the autoexec.bat that calls the bat file that resets it.

[Edman_]

I guess I'm lucky. Born before 1980 in Central Europe - but behind that Iron Curtain (and growing up on the lower end of the food chain :D), I have never come across Roland, GUS or Turtle Beach or any other fancy MIDI device. So reaching the maximum level of nostalgia for me means just the plain and simple OPL2 - which is still cheap and plentiful :D

[scorpian]

Using a combination of MT-32 and SC-55 for my DOS games thanks to your suggestions :)

[nullsmack]

Why did you need the long midi cable before your roland usb interface? Couldn't you have gone from the male connection on that straight into the female connection from your retro pc card?

[ArtisChronicles]

ok I gotta say I really loved this video. the midi sounds were beautiful.

[FrostbiteXZ]

Always did like the midis that came with every machine that had the yamaha s-yxg50 even though there was a 100 and later models

[vulturius]

This project is to me the most inspiring so far ... heads off to you Phil. Have ordered a miniPC + have been testing everything on my main PC first before I'll port it to the miniPC. The MDF tool inreal DOS via MIDI-TO-USB cable works fine. You just need to tweak a little bit in HEX to make more presets, but that's part of the game. Want to create more presets for all cool soundfonts out there...

[Arachnosoft]

Well... I don't know why I didn't find your video before...
Thanks for the featuring and the interesting project!

So far, I "ONLY" have a full-size PC tower with an old multi-PCI motherboard (5), crammed with 4 Sound Blasters to test SoundFonts and wavetables...
It has an AudioPCI 128 (CT4810 - ES1373), a Live! (CT4830 - EMU10K1) with the LiveDrive IR (found years after in... a trashbin), an Audigy 2 ZS (SB0350 - EMU10K2) and an X-Fi XtremeGamer (SB0770 - EMU20K1).
All working together and switchable as MIDI outputs.
Has been quite a pain in the *ss to configure them all with the right IRQs and non-conflicting drivers on Windows XP MCE 2005!