Roland MT32 Love

[elmosexwhistle]

Take one totally underrated £30 synth, build a load of patches for it in Sounddiver, and sequence it with a free DAW, then add a couple of effects and make a silly but, at times moving, video. You then get the following epicness:



In all seriousness, it does have a few problems, a few audible clicks on certain patches i had to tame, but some features (ie the -/+ 1 octave pitch bend that works on even the drums!) can be used to great effect, randomly octave switching pads (see "Hoping & Waiting") can sound really fresh. I even managed to fake some portamento strings using careful pitch bend. Layering sounds can create big basses, and using the Ring Mod creates some nasty, distorted, just about controllable stuff. There's definitely a lot of mileage there.

[Infinity Curve]

Jaw droppingly good, as always!

[elmosexwhistle]

Thanks mate, i should probably make them a little less jaw dropping, that can't be healthy for the human jaw XD

[meatballfulton]

I had severe GAS for the MT32 when it first came out. My dealer played me the Roland demo song and I was enthralled.

$800 new (affordable), 32 voices (OK, not really) across 8 parts, onboard digital reverb (digital FX being $$$$$$ in those days) and a sampled drum kit (digital drums being $$$$ as well). With most synths of the day like my SQ-80 still hovering around 8 voices, adding modules was both a way to get new kinds of sounds and add polyphony for sequencing.

A quarter of a century later, it's a lot less exciting but I still get a jones when I see one selling for $25.

Great video!

[Walter Ego]

Hmm...can't wait to see what you would do to a TX81Z!

[elmosexwhistle]

I haven't got a TX81z, but i have got the keyboard version (DX11) so that'll be making it's way onto a video soon

[Nannerfan]

Could you please re-create the brass sound from Super Mario Karts "Rainbow Road" for SNES? And then tell me how you made it? So i can re-create it on my D-550?

Thanks

[tekkentool]

Could you please re-create the brass sound from Super Mario Karts "Rainbow Road" for SNES? And then tell me how you made it? So i can re-create it on my D-550?

Thanks

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hzaprlwy2ka7w ... 20Road.rar

I know you're joking but here's some rips I did from SMK. This should be all the samples used on rainbow road.

[Nannerfan]

I'm not joking actually... a friend and I spent a whole night once trying to nail that sound!!

Couldn't quite figure out the chord/oscillator intervals..

[Jay200MPH]

Great video! I laughed my a*s off at the intro featuring the exploits of the D50... Your tunes are pretty catchy too!

The MT-32 is one of those synths I haven't actively sought out, but if I see one locally I'd probably snap it up. Definitely a way underrated piece of kit.

[newsynthfixx]

Must have had this track in the back of my mind when in the local cash converters and picked one up on impulse ( sold my first MT32 years ago), This one however had FOUR outputs..a quick Google brought up a company called Real World Interfaces who made mods for the MT32 and an interesting PDF on the inner workings of Rolands` LA chip(s) and some hackers insight as to the inner workings of the D50/10/110/20 as well..MT32 PDF

Interesting read for the tech-heads (but no i don`t know if the mod is still available or how to do it..seems to be a hardware solder in/hacked Eprom upgrade)

If anyone else has any info on this, I would love to know.

Happy new year...

Dave

[polardark]

a quick Google brought up a company called Real World Interfaces who made mods for the MT32 and an interesting PDF on the inner workings of Rolands` LA chip(s) and some hackers insight as to the inner workings of the D50/10/110/20 as well..

It's a very interesting PDF for sure. Robin Whittle has been in business modifying equipment for a long long time. He's still actively producing the TB-303 Devil Fish modification. Why don't you try sending him an email?

Interesting read for the tech-heads (but no i don`t know if the mod is still available or how to do it..seems to be a hardware solder in/hacked Eprom upgrade)

From the PDF it sounds like it's a set of modifications best performed by someone handy with a soldering iron. ROM chips were in sockets in earlier versions of the MT-32 but I'm not sure how much use just modifying the ROM without the rest of the mods is going to be.

When it comes down to it, the more well-equipped and higher quality Roland LA synths like the D110 are often cheap on the second hand market today. I personally went down that route after deciding that modifying an MT-32 would be more pain than gain.

[elsongs]

NOW THIS IS ENTERTAINMENT!


Must share, I borrowed an MT-32 for a couple years back in the day (when it was still new), I could totally recognize some of the sounds you used. I didn't own a computer with MIDI yet so my sequencer was the onboard sequencer on my Ensoniq EPS sampler workstation. I always thought the drums were too cheesy but I did use the percussion instruments extensively (I can recognize that slap conga from 10 miles away...).

I did notice that upon close inspection, the MT-32 emitted a high-pitched whine in its outputs. It wasn't obvious but it was noticeable enough to me that it kinda turned me off to the thing. I must say I enjoyed what you did with it. How did you get the resonant/sweepy sounds?