SysEx to make selected QS tracks easier to play on MT-32

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Alderem
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SysEx to make selected QS tracks easier to play on MT-32

Post by Alderem »

In most cases, Tom provided System Exclusive messages for the MT-32 with his recordings. But there were exceptions with certain files that Tom listed as being playable on either General MIDI or MT-32. Here are some examples.
  • The Colonel's Bequest | The Entertainer | cbgm200.mid
    This song is not designed for MT-32 playback right out of the box. Although only a Honky Tonk piano is used on all three tracks, the MT-32 will treat the patch as an Electric Piano. Simply change the patch on all three tracks from Electric Piano 1, to Honky Tonk Piano -- no patch bank is used for this song.
  • King's Quest IV | Rosella's Organ Solo | kq4_2.mid
    MT-32 USERS: You must change Channel 5 to Program #12 (Pipe Organ 1) for proper playback. General MIDI users should use Program #16 (for Channel 5).
  • King's Quest VI | Jollo | kq6gm17.mid
    Change the Program Controllers on channels 8 and 9 to RECORDER (channel 8) and CELESTA 1 (channel 9) before playback.
My assumption is that all of these changes could be accomplished with SysEx messages, and if someone could put together the necessary bits, we could simplify the instructions for these files.
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Re: SysEx to make selected QS tracks easier to play on MT-32

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The Colonel's Bequest | The Entertainer | cbgm200.mid
This song is not designed for MT-32 playback right out of the box. Although only a Honky Tonk piano is used on all three tracks, the MT-32 will treat the patch as an Electric Piano. Simply change the patch on all three tracks from Electric Piano 1, to Honky Tonk Piano -- no patch bank is used for this song.
King's Quest IV | Rosella's Organ Solo | kq4_2.mid
MT-32 USERS: You must change Channel 5 to Program #12 (Pipe Organ 1) for proper playback. General MIDI users should use Program #16 (for Channel 5).
King's Quest VI | Jollo | kq6gm17.mid
Change the Program Controllers on channels 8 and 9 to RECORDER (channel 8) and CELESTA 1 (channel 9) before playback.
Tom's instructions don't make a lot of sense. Basically, the first one is a GM file. Depending on whether he changed velocities or not, it can easily be changed to MT-32.

For the second, it also doesn't make sense. Either it's a GM file or a MT file. I'd have to open it to see what's going on.

For the third, ditto as for the second. I'll have to open the files and see what he's on about.

The simple answer: For the first track and the third, it will be easy to make it so there's a MT and GM file both (I assume there was GM only for the first and third). For the second, it will depend. I'll follow up later in the week.


As for SysEx, MT-32 SysEx is a giant pain in the proverbial. I don't believe program changes can be made that way, and it's FAR easier regardless to simply create an extra file after the work, which should take less than a minute for tracks 1 and 3.
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Alderem
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Re: SysEx to make selected QS tracks easier to play on MT-32

Post by Alderem »

Alright, that makes sense.

I could never figure out why Tom tried to save 11kb of space by making a single file "work" for both GM and MT-32, and requiring special handling instructions for one or the other. :roll:
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Re: SysEx to make selected QS tracks easier to play on MT-32

Post by Spikey »

Me neither, although I'm sure people could make arguments about some of my decisions!

Having looked at the Entertainer, it's a converted GM file. So it bears no relationship to the MT-32 original file, in velocities or patches.

Rosella's Organ is the same. Weirder still, it's neither correct for MT-32 or General MIDI in terms of patching, it appears to be set for SB GM (uses Organ 1 instead of Church Organ 1). So it needs to be reedited twice!

I had a devil of a time finding KQ6GM17- turns out Tom had titled it "Jolly". Ah, the things we learn. ;)
In further weirdness, the source MIDI files for both the MT-32 and GM versions for Jollo are identical. And identical to the version Tom provided. So there's no reason to change anything at all.. Other than send a SysEx to your MT-32!
I think what Tom was driving at for this track was to send NO SysEx bank, but manually adjust the patches for your MT-32's internal map so they are 'Recorder' and 'Celesta'. Of course, that absolutely isn't worth the 19KB savings in 2020.

TL; DR =
Track 3 is fine for both MT-32 and GM.

Track 2 is neither GM or MT-32 compatible, in one of Tom's more bizarre decisions.

Track 1 is both GM and are not MT-32 compatible, the docs should be edited. I will try and 'edit' Tom's files to marry up with the MT-32 version, if not possible, I'll provide new sequences.
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