swh@hpcupt1.cup.hp.com (Steve Harrold) (01/05/91)
Game support for MIDI MPU 401? How much support do recently issued games provide for the MIDI-equipped computer? Recently, I installed Sierra's Police Quest 2 on my PC which has the Roland MPU 401 MIDI processor attached to it. The PQ2 install asked for my sound equipment configuration, and one of the choices was the MT32 card, to which I said OK (which was a lie). Much to my surprise, when I played the game, sound came forth from the synth I had had attached to the MPU401!!! I was under the impression that the MT32 was a synthesizer (i.e. generates sounds electronically all by itself). On the other hand, the MPU401 is NOT a synth, it processes MIDI data streams and passes them on (silently). My question: How is the MT32 card driven? Does the game software send it a proper MIDI byte stream, and then lets the MT32 convert that to sound? Or are there some other data sent to the MT32 to achieve this? Does the MT32 accept whatever is sent to it, and then, in turn, output a proper MIDI byte stream? Regardless of how the MIDI stream is outputed by the MT32, can anyone supply the specifications of the on-board music voices (aka as patches in the music synthesizer world). Descriptions would suffice, e.g. patch 1 is "piano", patch 2 is "violin", etc. I'd like to setup my outboard synth so that its generated music matches what the MT32 programmer intended. -- --------------------- Steve Harrold swh@hpda.hp.com ...hplabs!hpda!swh HPG200/11 (408) 447-5580 ---------------------
risto@tuura.UUCP (Risto Lankinen) (01/07/91)
swh@hpcupt1.cup.hp.com (Steve Harrold) writes: >Recently, I installed Sierra's Police Quest 2 on my PC which has the >Roland MPU 401 MIDI processor attached to it. The PQ2 install asked for >my sound equipment configuration, and one of the choices was the MT32 >card, to which I said OK (which was a lie). >Much to my surprise, when I played the game, sound came forth from the >synth I had had attached to the MPU401!!! Hi! The MPU-401 is plain MIDI-card, which sends the MIDI events to the channel, regardless of which synth you actually have connected. The MIDI standard has a special message type, System Exclusive, which can be thought of as an Escape Sequence for printers, as in they generally work with only a particular manufacturer's devices. Now, the Sierra games want to know the type of the synthesizer in order to use the correct Exclusives to manipulate the sound *timbres* in the MT-32 . When you don't have the MT-32 connected, your synthesizer will not respond to the timbre definition messages sent by the game program. The actual MIDI events (play note, change voice, etc) are standard among MIDI devices, and thus you do hear the music, although it is played with an 'instrument' not originally intended for that piece of melody. Instead, you'll hear whatever timbre was defined in your synthesizer at the time of the music starts. >My question: How is the MT32 card driven? Does the game software send it >a proper MIDI byte stream, and then lets the MT32 convert that to sound? Almost. The MPU-401 slavishly sends whatever it is asked to by the program. It is up to the synthesizer to recognize (or not) the message. The MPU-401 interface card and the MT-32 synthesizer should be though of just separate devices in this sense. [some deleted] >Regardless of how the MIDI stream is outputed by the MT32, can anyone >supply the specifications of the on-board music voices (aka as patches in >the music synthesizer world). Descriptions would suffice, e.g. patch 1 >is "piano", patch 2 is "violin", etc. I'd like to setup my outboard >synth so that its generated music matches what the MT32 programmer intended. Any and all synthesizer manufacturers seem to have their own specification of patch numbers. In MIDI specs, there's a universally recognized message 'Voice Change'. It takes one *numeric* parameter, but there's no defined relation from this number to an actual voice. It is up to the synthesizer manufacturer, to decide whether voice #4 selects piano or flute, for example. To setup your own synthesizer into 'MT-32 emulation' could prove to be pretty hard a job, because the Sierra games seem to want to define their own sounds. Even if you managed to get a 1-to-1 correspondence between the pre-programmed sounds at both synths, your synth would still miss the MT-32 -dependent voice definition messages, and you'd lack the "space sounds" in SQII, for example. Terveisin: Risto Lankinen -- Risto Lankinen / product specialist *************************************** Nokia Data Systems, Technology Dept * 2 2 * THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK * 2 -1 is PRIME! Now working on 2 +1 * replies: risto@yj.data.nokia.fi ***************************************
mlord@bwdls58.bnr.ca (Mark Lord) (01/08/91)
In article <56470005@hpcupt1.cup.hp.com> swh@hpcupt1.cup.hp.com (Steve Harrold) writes: < <Recently, I installed Sierra's Police Quest 2 on my PC which has the <Roland MPU 401 MIDI processor attached to it. The PQ2 install asked for <my sound equipment configuration, and one of the choices was the MT32 <card, to which I said OK (which was a lie). < <Much to my surprise, when I played the game, sound came forth from the <synth I had had attached to the MPU401!!! < <I was under the impression that the MT32 was a synthesizer (i.e. generates <sounds electronically all by itself). On the other hand, the MPU401 <is NOT a synth, it processes MIDI data streams and passes them on (silently). Yes, the MT32 is a 32-voice synthesizer, IN A SEPARATE BOX !! When you buy it for your PC, it comes with a card and cable to connect to this external box, using MIDI. The card may even be your MPU-401 (?). The idea was that they could sell the sam MT32 for several different computers by merely supplying a simple MIDI interface card for each (MAC, PC, AMIGA,..). -- ___Mark S. Lord__________________________________________ | ..uunet!bnrgate!mlord%bmerh724 | Climb Free Or Die (NH) | | MLORD@BNR.CA Ottawa, Ontario | Personal views only. | |________________________________|________________________|