Contents

• Marking a file as MT-32
• Playing MT-32 files
• MT-32 setup files (custom instruments)
• Attaching a setup file
• What happens on play
• The MT-32 System window
• A note on the Mixer
• Related pages

MT-32 Support

The Roland MT-32 (and its relatives, the CM-32L and CM-64) was an early sound module with its own way of doing things, and it scored a great many late-1980s and early-1990s games and pieces of music. Played back on a General MIDI device, those files often sound quite wrong, because the instrument layout is completely different. PXR has dedicated MT-32 handling to put that right, and it works with real Roland hardware as happily as with software emulators such as MUNT.

Marking a file as MT-32#

Here is the catch with MT-32 files: unlike GM, GS, and XG, they carry nothing inside them that says "I am an MT-32 file". PXR cannot tell them apart from ordinary General MIDI just by looking, so it cannot spot them automatically. That is exactly why MT-32 music so often plays with the wrong instruments, the player simply has no way of knowing it should switch to MT-32 mode. The fix is to tell it yourself, once.

To mark a file:

• Open the track's File Info window and click Mark as MT-32. The MT-32 Mark row then reads "Marked as Roland MT-32", and Unmark undoes it.
• Or select one or more tracks in the playlist, right-click, and mark them together.

Once a file is marked, PXR treats it as MT-32 every time it plays: the visualiser switches to the MT-32 panel, the LCD takes on the MT-32 look, and the music is handled with the MT-32 in mind rather than as plain General MIDI. The mark is remembered between sessions, and it even survives renaming or moving the file, so this really is a one-off job.

Playing MT-32 files#

• When a file is marked as MT-32, the visualiser switches to an MT-32 status panel and the LCD takes on the MT-32 look.
• Route MT-32 files to the right device using Auto-route by Format, or select the device manually.
• Use MIDI → MT-32 Reset to return the module to a known state before playing.

MT-32 setup files (custom instruments)#

Many MT-32 pieces, especially game music, rely on a setup that loads custom instrument definitions into the module before the song starts. Without it, the right sounds simply are not there. The good news is that PXR can send that setup for you.

It helps to keep two things separate:

• The music is the MIDI file you play (.mid or .midi). It may already contain its own setup SysEx, in which case no separate setup is needed.
• The setup file is a separate file you attach when the music does not carry its own setup.

Attaching a setup file#

1. Open the track's File Info window (or right-click it in the playlist).
2. Find the MT-32 setup option and choose your setup file. You can pick one from Finder or drag it in.
3. Setup files are normally .syx or .mtx (the dedicated MT-32 setup formats). The picker will also accept a separate .mid / .midi file if your setup happens to be supplied as one.

You can attach a setup to a single track, or to several selected tracks at once.

What happens on play#

Before a track with a setup plays, PXR streams the setup data to the module and briefly shows a Preparing MT-32 message. On real MT-32 or CM-32L hardware (and on MUNT) this takes around ten seconds, after which the music plays with the correct custom sounds. There is no need to do this each time: PXR remembers the setup you attached and sends it automatically whenever that track plays.

The MT-32 System window#

Effects → MT-32 System opens a window showing the module's overall system state while it plays.

A note on the Mixer#

On the MT-32, the Mixer offers volume and pan per channel only, because that is what the MT-32 itself supports. The reverb, chorus, and other send controls do not apply.

Related pages#

• MIDI Output & Devices for routing MT-32 files.
• File Info & Cover Art to attach a setup file.
• Troubleshooting if an MT-32 file sounds wrong.