Hi all,
Is it possible (with one of the HiFiBerry hats) to mimic a Roland MT-32 if I make use of the MT32-Pi baremetal MIDI synthesizer for the Raspberry Pi 3 or above (https://github.com/dwhinham/mt32-pi)?
I really like the quality of the DAC on the HiFiBerry boards.
Just wondering.
Hope to hear from one,
cheers, Jeroen
Theoretically this might work with the DAC2 Pro, but we can't really help with this as they are using their own driver. Hard to say how good this works
https://github.com/dwhinham/mt32-pi/wiki/I%C2%B2S-DACs
It's probably best to directly ask the developers.
Hi HiFiBerry team, thx for you response.
I have an idea, this was better asked in your other (ideas) section I guess, but since you answered I just left my response here ;)
I don't know if you knew but the retro gaming community is huge. Also ScummVM (for playing classic Point and Click adventures) and DOSBox has a very, very large backing and active users World-wide.
Next to the Mister FPGA (where the mt32-pi project was designed for) is the company Radxa coming with a new Single Board Computer (SBC) board soon (mass production is happening now / preproduction models were already sent out to major developers and YouTube influencers), the Radxa Zero, see link: https://forum.radxa.com/t/introduce-the-radxa-zero/6550
This SBC has the same form factor as the popular Rapberry Pi Zero W, but absolutely kills it (performance-wise). This board has the potential to become the best SBC from 2021 to-date. It can even run TwisterOS (which is huge).
I have a proposal/good idea?
To play the classic adventure games, but also lot and lots of (non-adventure) games through for example DOSBox (like Wing Commander Academy, Dune II, Code Name Iceman) I think there is a huge market (also commercially interesting) for a hat (same form-factor as the Radxa Zero) that can produce a way better sound experience then the classic Adlib sounds.
I'm talking about the Roland MT-32 and the Roland (SC-55) Sound Canvas, see sound samples:
example 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEn7XNDKwlw (00:00 Adlib / 01:38 MT-32)
example 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdiE6n4qD2E (00:00 Creative Sound Blaster / 02:27 MT-32 / 04:57 Sound Canvas)
How does your company feel about producing a Hat (with the use of your excellent stereo DAC) that can act as an MT-32 + SC-55 card for the Radxa Zero? The main purpose of this Hat won't be to edit sound, just to playback MT32 / Sound Canvas and thus let the World-wide (gaming) community experience sound as sound was designed for without spending 1000 USD (or more) and more importantly work-space in your (living) room for a similar experience?
For such a dedicated media entertainment system I do have an extra feature in mind (OLED screen) that also makes it possible to display the MT-32 / Sound Canvas 'eye candy' screen + 2 VU meters for main audio out, as featured in the excellent video from "Woody Piano Shack": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPHmj577png (see: 13:11+)
I don't know your companies road-map, but I do know the current needs and opportunities (with for example the Radxa Zero). I am more then willing to help out in the department of a custom FPGA / CPU for this hat to make this project a realization (if you are willing?)
Cheers, Jeroen