You are correct! Tyrian was specifically written on an Ad Lib and converted to the Loudness sound system by Andreas Molnar as well as MIDI spec for the MT-32, but the MIDI aspect was all translation into the MIDI standard and not intended for the original soundtrack instruments. In addition one song for Tyrian was written as a MOD file and also converted by Andreas. I love seeing Tyrian show up in so many Retro videos. Great info you have here. Thanks again LGR!

Funfact: Sierra didn't go half-assed when they debuted Roland support. They hired William Goldstein, a professional TV composer and electronics wiz, to do the music. He certainly wasn't a household name, but he was a legit pro composer and it was the first time a computer game had done that. Later, they also hired the keyboardist from Supertramp to do the soundtrack to Space Quest 3.

Great work Clint! You managed to cram in about everything I hoped you would say about the MT-32 in under 12 minutes! Only one word: Awesome! Pleasure to watch! :)

When you think about it, it's amazing that so many of these games had musicians that cared enough to program full songs.

Holy shit, not even the Secret Of Monkey Island remastered version from 2009 sounds that good

great video. the Amiga also supported the MT-32 (albeit in very limited fashion). i made a video about it if you were interested. cheers!

"Just listen to some of these ..." *TURNS VOLUME UP* *CRIES TO BEAUTIFUL MIDI GOODNESS*

Great video, it shows what a night and day difference the right equipment can make. I'm on a perpetual quest to find the best conversions of MIDI music, I feel like different hardware and soundsfonts all have different pieces of the puzzle.

MT-32 is so awesome! Thanks for spreading the word, more should know about it and enjoy DOS games at their best!

The link to 8-Bit Keys blew my mind. The Roland MT-32 on Space Quest!!! ARE YOU FOR FREAKIN' REAL??? That sound is UNBELIEVABLE!!! If you had that(back in the 80s), you must have been the one. No more 1-bit square wave PC Speaker noise. Too bad that all our sounds are now 24bit/192KHz 4K Ultra High Fidelity 10.1 Auro-3D Fully Immersive Surround Sound. **sigh**

MT-32 vs FM synth is like the SNES vs Genesis of PCs. They both have their strengths, and good composition can make either sound superior.

I remember having a Roland General MIDI add-in card that installed on my Sound Blaster 16, this hardware predates that and I never saw one, but I do remember how much better music was once the add-on card was installed!

I was so happy to see Tyrian 2000 featured in this video. Many hours of my childhood were spent with the shareware version of that game! Another fun video, thanks Clint!

That Monkey Island track hit my nostalgia so hard that I physically recoiled... and now I have an urge to play Monkey Island again.

That must have been quite frustrating for game music/sound creators. Create a rich sound track that (at the time) only a fraction of their customers could enjoy and the rests will have to settle for 'beep beep' music.

I feel the "couldn't afford the good audio options as a kid" SO MUCH! Thank you for fulfilling our common fantasy. I enjoyed it by proxy.

Clint, your channel is just downright excellent.

great and very informative! enjoyed every bit of this awesome video 😊

Wow!!! The Monkey Island title screen on the MT-32 is just phenomenal

I purchased an MT-32 while I was in grad school (around 2003-ish), having been curious all those years how much I was "missing out on" in not having one. Having always had Creative Labs' cards...was absolutely FLOORED at the difference it made! Compared to the 5 or 6 generations of Sound Blaster cards I went through, just having the one MT-32 from the get-go would have actually SAVED me money in the long run (albeit, too much $$$ up front for my young self). Even in old EGA games (like Quest for Glory 2), the usage they got out of it as amazing and really enhanced the settings and mood. I also used the MT-32 as a synthesizer for Cubase and some audio software (for fun); it was clear how flexible the device was. Many years later, I recently sold it on ebay during the pandemic -- and I hope it went to a good home that fully enjoys it to this day. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it...even though technology by 2003 had far moved beyond its capibilities.

lol the doom drums only thing was awesome. I wanna hear more of these with other games and other instruments.

Anders Enger Jensen! I was introduced to that name because Technology Connections has used his music to demonstrate audio playback of record players. Funny little connection there; nice of him to donate one of these amazing things to you.

Finally !! Have been waiting years for you to make a video of Roland MT-32 :) I used to own the Roland LAPC card which I bought in a Musical Instruments Store, which puzzled the store owner, as he asked me why a kid would fork out all this money just to play games with it :)

I had a similar childhood of wandering around music shops. When I was learning to play piano, I would regularly go into the shop just to play the Roland synth which at the time was over £1000. I dreamed about that thing. Fast forward to my thirties, and I bought one. I actually wrote a whole musical on it which was performed in London two years ago :)

Thank you for always expanding my mental rolodex with your wonderful compendium of computers & their corresponding counterparts~ Your videos inspired me to actually get off my ass & fix up these old machines I've got laying around!

TYRIAN I have been trying to remember this game for a long time thank you!

This would have blown my mind as a kid!!! Awesome job Clint!

Always great to have some new LGR content, just what I needed to cheer me up! Thanks Clint! :)

Thank you for pronouncing Timbre correctly.

I always had a soft spot for the Police Quest soundtracks. Jan Hammer did the score for Police Quest 3: The Kindred. The score is awesome. Some people might not know, but Police Quest 4: Open Season's score by Neal Grandstaff was in General Midi format and was intended to be played back on the Roland SC-55.

Always find something good on LGR! THX!

As someone who grew up playing DOS games, I spent a fair amount of time as a kid wondering over all the different graphic and audio options, and your channel has officially cleared up the last of those old mysteries for me. Good stuff, as always

I love this neat little device, Clint. Thanks for showing it to us!

You dont know how long iv been waiting for you to do a video about this :D

Thank you for this, LGR! I've had an original MT-32 for some 15 years, and it still sounds awesome IMO.

There's a reason why the Atari ST became the MIDI controller of choice for many. Excellent choice Atari :)

Clint!!!! I'm so happy you covered this!! :D I've been wanting to buy one of these or the SC-55 for AGES, i really want to make some music with it!

It's the second time I've seen this video and it always seems great to me ... I don't understand how there are 68 people who don't like this video ... they don't know anything about old school videogames (retro).... Thanks for your videos my friend Clint I hope one day I can send you a Christmas gift

Awesome video, Clint! Hearing Monkey Island on the MT-32 gave me serious chills.

This is what i have been waitning for! Thanks LGR :D!

Man, this is such satisfying content. I can't help wanting to continue to thank you, Clint, which is why I have no problem giving you some of my money each month! Keep it up, mate!

The only downside is the sound quality is so much higher quality than the game graphics there there's a little bit of feeling of there being a mismatch.

this the same guy who gave 8-bit keys his? does his channel music too? what a god damn trooper. big ups to this man!.

Loved the video and REALLY loved the Willy Beamish intro music :-)

The MT-32 is by far the best way to enjoy the music from the first Space Quest game (best sound of any version of the game period)

Wait... The 8-Bit-Guy AND LGR both got a MT-32 from Anders Jensen? How many of these does he have in storage?

I've been waiting for you to cover this for a long time. And I've always wanted to get one, especially for those Sierra soundtracks. Great video as always.

Awesome review, hope to see some more sound card stuff on LGR!

Very interesting. Keep up the great work man, I love your videos!

Always been super curious about this! Thanks :)

Nothing beats waking up to an LGR vid in the morning!

Great video. I'm a MIDI fanatic and love seeing stuff like this.

Oh wow. That is a huge jump from PC speaker. That really awed me. But it also reminds me how much ultimate PC gaming can cost, even back in the early 90's

Awesome! Always wanted one of those! Thank you!

Nice video for a nice piece of kit. Nice one LGR.

it hit the music portion and I kind of hit the zone. This thing sounds FREAKIN' GOOD. Thanks for reviewing, and thank Andres for donating!

Cracking video as always. I always loved the Monkey Island theme, it sounds much more cinematic than many others to me.

Thanks for mentioning SoftMPU!

"Background music is from Adventures of Willy Beamish" : thanks for the link to my video :) About the LA devices : there are 3 versions of the MT-32 : Rev.0, Rev.1 old, Rev.1 new. Only the latter has the phones jack and no 'buffer overflow' bug. This later model also introduce a preset duration for 'sustain' (with earlier models, composers had to stop the sustain or to use a fade-out to avoid 'stuck notes' ) -CM-32L is a MT-32 with 32 new sound effects, no screen nor buttons on the front panel. -LAPC-I is a soundcard. It's basically a CM-32L and a MPU-401 combined on an ISA card. -CM-64 is a CM-32L and a CM-32P (a 'patches' or samples module) in one only module. -CM-500 : combines a LA CM-32L and a GM/GS CM-300 (the CM version of the SC-55) in one module. Note that many european games have problems with the original MT-32. As PC MS-DOS games was a tiny market in Europe until 1991 (because Amiga and Atari ST computers ruled the marked), European developpers composed their music for MT--32 'new' or later models. So many european games have buffer overflow bug or stuck notes.

Great 👍 review, totally brought back nostalgic feeling.

That MPU-IPC 8-bit card is a freaking unicorn. I've been hunting for one for ages. Nice score! I've used my MT-32 with my soundblaster 16, and it does work, but using it with DOSbox and the USB->midi adapter works really solidly. Sierra had awesome support for the MT-32, and I've found that I've gone through most of my game library and played through the older games just to hear the soundtracks. Great video, Clint!

Beautiful work, Clint!

Good to hear Willy Bemaish in MT-32 in the background sir!

Amazing Vdeo ones again ^-^ loved it

This is weird synchronicity i was messing around with Roland MT-32 emulation last night and was wondering if LGR has ever done a video on the subject and blow me when i check you posted an hour before, freaky stuff!

Glad to see another review on an amazing piece of hardware, and by such a good reviewer. Excellent!

That. Was. Fascinating! I regularly watch you but this is a new favorite! I grew up always wondering what the MT-32 was on all those install screens. PS. -- Years ago you commented kind words on my Jill of the Jungle music cover -- at the time I don't think LGR was even fully up in running (2009). But a great honor to hear the kind words

Watching your vids after a science test is always relaxing

I really love just how clear the sound is.

my friends brother is a superb musician/composer. he had a whole stack of gorgeous midi boxes of magic, gorgeous gorgeous sounds.

8-Bit Keys brought me here, it's cool to see you bring him up in this video

That was AWESOME! Thanks.

Tyrian! Awesome soundtrack, great game. :)

I was waiting for this episode to happen

Each kind of synth has their own use, be FM, sampler, analog, additive, and so forth. It's just the manner of how you use it. Still though, this tickles my music producer senses. Love the vid LGR!

Man...over 500k subs...that's insane! I remember first subbing when you had under 1k subs, which was way before the epic beard too! So nice to see worth while channels growing this much. Keep on keeping on man. Keep on keeping on.

That is a huge sound improvement! I would have been blown away if I was a kid!

7:16 That DOOM DRUMS bit was SICK. Seriously, that's some Metal awesomeness going on there.

SoftMPU really is a lifesaver. For soundtracks I've gotta recommend Firehawk and Rob Hubbard's masterful shredding on the Ski or Die intro song. Great video \o/

Man, that is an impressive sounding synth! It was truly advanced for its time! Amazing how much of a difference it made for the soundtracks of games that supported it.

Lazy Game Reviews Good Review!

Oh man, sounds so nice!

Holy crap you just help me remember the first PC game I ever played when I was little. It was Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge. I could never remember the name

Excellent video, simple and thorough explaining MIDI as well as those classic tunes playing through it. While the Soundblaster is my nostalgia choice in gaming the MT-32 is awesome too.

Holy shit that was incredible. I can't believe it could get that good. I have a relatively nice 5.1 system and the MT-32 had such depth in its audio.

You don't know how long I've been waiting for LGR to make a video on the MT-32. Wonderful job, man!

Ironically, the founder of the Roland company died today at the age of 87. RIP

I had one of these in a cupboard for about 10 years before I realised actually what it did. I received it with a bunch of other music stuff, and I just couldn't work out what it did. So glad I kept it as playing DOTT now with the MT-32 is an incredible experience!

For sure hit me in the nostalgia. I remember always trying to get the best midi.

I didn't know anything like this existed. Figured "oh, I guess the beepboops might sound a little better", but that was truly amazing to hear.

Awesome!! I own two of these that I use. One is normally set for overflow. I love them a great deal. I've even reformatted a few midi tracks to utilize the sounds.

Wow, this was nostalgic. I remember getting a Sierra On-line demo tape (audio) featuring clips from MT-32 audio from Sierra On-line games in the early 1990s.

Just got one recently myself, and now they're blowing up on KZfaq. :-) Good to see these things getting some love. They sound great even today, and especially for their time. So, next up - Sound Canvas?

If I had this when I was a kid back then, it would certainly blew my mind. For the first couple years, I was playing pc games without sound at all because sound card was considered a luxury item and we couldn't afford it. It wasn't until 1995 when we first got our Yamaha OPL3-SA sound card. Imagine hearing sound for the first time on your old favorite games, it was like playing the game for the first time all over again.

As a long time owner of a Roland TD-12 drum-kit/module and TD-20 module, I'm really happy to see this. From my experience, Roland hardware never comes cheap, user controls can be complicated as hell, but in the hands of a master, it's one of the best audio hardware companies.

why is your voice so god damn buttery smooth?.... WHY IS IT SO COMFORTING?!

Hey, I have the same speakers! Cool, I now feel so much more in touch with LGR :O

I've never had any real experience with retro computers or games but even I got goosebumps when the King's Quest theme played on the Roland.

I'll stick with Munt on a current PC playing old games through DOSbox.

A few years ago I was able to pickup a MT-32 and a SCC device and I'm so glad I did. Sierra really supported the heck out of it and some of there games sound amazing when using said device.