Munt Emulator vs real Roland MT-32 The Secret of Monkey Island 

Bloody hell, that is one good emulator. I can't make out any differences!

The only real difference I can hear is at 5:35 where the Emulation has more stereo separation then the real unit. Other than that hurray for Munt! Makes me want to go play the old MT-32 supported games again with Munt.

The 1 dislike is from a person who doesn't understand _why_ we're comparing real vs emulator -- for accuracy and authenticity.

Love the Roland MT-32 sound!

Hey Phil, thanks for the video. It's great to see that I'm not really missing out by having a real MT-32 since they're impossible to find nowadays What kind of software do you use for recording? I tried using OBS to record DOSBOX -- but it only recorded the digital sounds and completely left out the midi soundtrack played from my SC-55. My 'soundcard' is a UR22 Steinberg Audio Interface. As the MIDI and sound mixes through the AI and plays just fine out of my monitors I suspect the issue is software. Thanks in advance for your recommendation!

It is so hard to find a real MT-32 these days, at least for a sane price. Luckily going from this we don't actually _need_ to find one! Excellent!

Munt is great. Great alternative for the rest who may not have the real hardware on hand. King's Quest IV really shines even on Munt.

thanks for this video, there is no difference at all , awesome!!!!!

As a child i would always see the roland MT-32 option on the back of boxes and wonder what it sounded like. the answer = fucking awesome :)

I have been using MUNT on and off for a few years now, and I love the quality of the emulation. I agree that it is hard to hear any difference between the two. @Phil: I'd be curious to know the differences you hear when you are playing it live, before it is added as compressed audio to a RU-vid video file. It's probably easier to hear the reverberation and nuances there, in person. :-) At least from what I have observed, I also notice a very slight pitch increase through MUNT, and agree that the stereo affect of MUNT is more pronounced than the actual Roland MT-32, likely, because a lot of professional audio equipment (especially analogue) has carry-over between the left and right signals. Also, I believe I heard a slight hiss with the Roland MT-32 (expected), whereas the MUNT emulation seemed more crisp. That is probably because MUNT is producing pure digital sound, and the Roland module uses physical audio wires. I had no idea the emulation was that spot on! I expected some differences in the sounds, but since the ROM chips include all the attack sampled partials that the MT-32 uses to construct the instruments that are heard and programmed by the software communicating with the unit. As long as the emulator can construct the sample partials in the same manner, and apply the same affects (such as reverb), it makes sense that the MUNT emulator team could eventually achieve a nearly flawless reproduction. :-) I'm still amazed. At first I didn't believe your setup was possible, and that you were possibly fabricating this whole experiment, using just MUNT to reproduce the sound in both channels, even though you were purportedly switching back and forth between audio channels in the video. Then I realized how clever your solution was. Using the "MIDI through" channel, MUNT was responding in the same way as if the program was calling directly. Because it was on the laptop, it was acting kind of like a MIDI server of sorts. ;-) And you could then realistically run both a real MT-32 and MUNT emulation simultaneous... the source signals were feeding commands into BOTH the real MT-32 and the emulated one. That also explains the very slight delay of just a few milliseconds between the MT-32 and the response of MUNT. Very cool though... great work!

This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so much for this video. Now I'm off to build my raspberry pi midi appliance.

They sounds identical, but the emulator sounds a bit lagging behind comparing to the real one. Not a big issue for gaming though, but for music production, you know which to choose.

Since they don't make anything close to this device anymore, this I very great news.

Unbelievable how close they are.

Thank you for the excellent comparison. I hear no difference whatsoever!

I feel like Munt almost sounds a liiittle bit better at times, but maybe it's just me ... I'm listening through a good pair of studio headphones, so it's a great exercise, I think ! The only thing that annoys me is the slight delay there seem to be in Munt, but maybe it's setup related ?

Damn that's a pretty good emulation. Slightly better top end transients and stereo separation on the real thing but its REALLY subtle. I can't imagine many people would be anal enough to be that picky when it comes to DOS game audio, nor running a speaker setup capable of showing the differences.

I noticed something. MUNT audio has a higher pitch than real MT-32, but I like it.

now all we need is an sc55 emulator

Wow.... that sounds really spot on. I saw a guy on Reddit who had Munt running on a Raspberry Pi and was using it with his MiSTer fpga with AO486 core, I might have to look into that for these games.

There is a difference, it's very hard to pick up on though. That's some good emulation.

i'm really impressed how much this sounds like the original! it's quite nearly identical.

Отличный подход, великолепное решение. Фил, вы дали мне ответ, который я искал, на вопрос. Ваше видео самое точное из того, что я хотел услышать. Спасибо большое за эту работу.

The only difference I can tell is that the MUNT Emulator seems to sound slightly more bassy.

Nice, I have an MT32 also that I bought off a guy on Craigslist for $30, but I'm going to check out the Munt as I don't always feel like wiring it up. Great video!

Munt + Dosbox. It doesn't get much better than that.

Could you do Space Quest III or King's Quest IV? (Great job!!)

Soundwise, it seems like the Munt is doing a perfect job emulating the MT-32. However the Munt obviously has a lot more latency. The music on the Munt is lagging behind compared to the MT-32, which can be noticed every time he switches between the two audio sources.

They both sounded great I could not tell witch one was witch thanks for everything everything you do.

I can't hear any difference besides what the fellow mentions at 5:35, and as far as I'm concerned it's better for the separation. Looks like I'm getting a Munt unit then! (It's smaller, and that's important for my setup.)

I on't know why "my" munt didn't sounds as the MT32, I tested on Windows (7 & 10) and on linux (Raspbian) but I get weird sounds. For example when the title of The Secret of Monkey Island appears... could be the soundcard? I'm using a cheapest sound card with the CMI8738 (in a thin client). IDK about it's limitations, for example I can't play MIDI music and FX at the same time on Doom... Maybe I need to try with a Creative sound card... Thanks!

The only difference is that the emulator sounds is slightly delayed from the real mt-32

Wow I can't tell the difference at all :O

You, sir... ARE A GOD!!! Just kidding, but this was a great comparison video 👍

Wow, that is excellent emulation! Unless my hearing is deceiving me however, MUNT is a few cents higher in pitch. Anyone else hearing the same?

Munt, Nuked-SC55 and Timidity with cherry picked instruments from a library of soundfonts is as close to MIDI perfection as I'm likely to get without paying actual money, and unlike real modules can fit inside a laptop and won't let the smoke out if I forget to replace the 40-year old leaking capacitors.

Finally a good comparison! I saw a comparison where the guys uses a pathetic recording from Dosbox (munt) and then plays a really good recording of a real MT32 of the same game! That's cheating! Here both midi players are at the same level, incredible work really!! Tell me, by now do you really think Munt has gotten better? Or was like this from the beginning (forgive my ignorance). Cheers!

I do notice a difference, but it's incredibly tiny. The emulator seems to produce just a tiny hint lower tone, but you only notice it if you can switch to the real thing back and forth. If you just finished listening to the real thing, go over to the next house and listen to the emulator, you would not know the difference. That's damn impressive.

The emulator is doing its job very well I must say

Sounds great!

Is it just me or is the difference barely noticeable?

Really nice man!

I'm playing this via ScummVM and I have Munt installed, but I can't get it sound like this. The Roland MT-32 emulation used by ScummVM just sounds so off and flat (especially the flute), it's nowhere close to this :I

Do you need authentic MT-32 ROMs for Munt to sound like that?

I wonder how a crappy atom based PC like really old notebooks would handle this emulator, it would be pretty sweet to get one with a broken screen or something and turn it into a dedicated munt machine

Genius!

That's quite a big difference! But the emulation is not bad, just different.

Real Roland have slightly audio filtering

MT-futeh teux?!?

Is there any reason to buy a real mt32?

i feel that i'm hard pressed to hear a difference

Where do you get decent ROMs?

I played this before and it works with scum vm useing munt 1.1.1

Hello, is it possible to control MUNT with a USB-Controlle-Keyboard?

I did not hear the difference

The real MT32 sounds more punchy and sharp, but still the munt is very impressive!

munt emulator lacks crisp bright sounds

10 seconds after you start playing this game, you will not notice the difference (which is minimal)

the munt sounds like a 128k mp3 version

yep thats a simple comparison looks like the real deal one has done right but alas the emulator version lags too much.

The emulation is good but it's just to dull, the pitch is too off and it just feels off. It's a good imitation but getting the real thing still feels worth it.

still better on original, more 3D