*edit - all of the info I have about the MT-32 is gleaned from a few evenings spent at the
Quest Studios Forum. I have, unfortunately, not had the time to first-hand try all possible configurations at my disposal, though I believe that the information below is correct. I encourage you to goto Quest Studios and read through the forums yourselves. There are a LOT of dedicated MT-32 and MIDI enthusiasts that frequent there, and as a group, it is the most knowledgeable place I have found on the net regarding MIDI and MT-32 usage. Also note, further edits to this post will be in bold.
Raven: If you're interested in hearing what MIDI in Conquests of the Longbow is supposed to sound like, head on over to
Quest Studios - Tom has put up flac-format midi recordings of pretty much every Sierra game out there. Fantastic Stuffs. (Incidently, CotL is my favorite Sierra title behind the Space Quest series).
If you're looking for real MIDI in your games, I'll second Anonymous Coward - get an MT-32. The midi cables are cheap (I got mine for $6 shipped off of eBay), and the MT-32, if you watch them, can be had for $30-40 shipped. Heck, I recently passed on one modified with the Real World hacks (professional hacks that fixes some of the shortcomings of the MT-32), and it ended up going for $45 shipped. And yes, I've been kicking myself ever since
Note that unless you're lucky enough to find a v3 MT-32 (telltale sign - it has a headphone port on the back of it), then you'll most likely have timing problems in sending SYSEX data to the MT-32
in some games (typically Sierra games - the ones I most want to play): wrong notes will occasionally play, and playback may even stop. This is common as the v1 and v2 MT-32's had an error where they would overflow and require a reset... the v3 fixed this issue. The workarounds are twofold: first, slow your computer down to 286-style speeds. Second: get a Roland midi card which will buffer the SYSEX data to the card, sending it to the MT-32 at a speed which it can handle. This second solution will run you some bucks, btw. I ran into this overflow solution when I first got my MT-32, having listened to the tunes at Quest Studios prior to trying the game, I was disappointed... enough so that I recently purchased a Roland MIDI card so I wouldn't have to fiddle with SlowMo each time I wanted to fire up a game.
Oh - it's fair to note that USB-to-midi cables exist and are cheap as well (again, $6 shipped off of eBay). These will work great with DOSBox on your modern PC, and you can use the built-in speed controls in DOSBox to get your MT-32 sounding right (or your MT-32 emulation, which DOSBox supposedly does passingly well - I've never used it)
So far as MPU-401 compatibility, you can use a Sound Blaster or compatible card
(to my knowledge, any SB/compatible card will do, but this may be limited to the 16-bit Creative cards - I've not yet tested with my SBPro v2 - currently, an Ensoniq generic card is what's in my gaming machine)with a midi-out to drive your MT-32. Bear in mind that true MPU-401 compatible supports both Intelligent Mode and UART mode. The only true MPU-401 compatible cards I'm aware of were produced by Roland, or contained the Roland chips (excluding the Roland RAP-10 sound card, sadly). Nearly every other card on the market only supported UART mode, although this wasn't usually a problem for gaming as it was only the earliest MIDI games that needed Intelligent mode to work, and for many of those games, there are hacks available that will patch them to work with your Sound Blaster/MT32 combo (at least for many of the Sierra games - Quest Studios hosts these files, as does sierrahelp.com).
As for my retro setup, I currently have a Sound Blaster Pro 2.0 for digital sound effects, and I'm currently using it to drive my MT-32.
(I double-checked! - oops! looks like I planned to pop the SB Pro in the rig, but I never got around to it. The generic Ensoniq is in there now - sorry for any confusion, guys) I've recently purchased a Roland SCC-1a to use as a midi card - I want the dream system I always wanted back in the day, and when that baby's delivered, I've got it
- I'll be using the SCC-1a exclusively as a midi card to power my MT-32, with my SB Pro running the digital sound effects. So far as noise/static on the SBPro? I've never noticed it unless I cranked all the volumes to max... and I expect distortion at that point.
FWIW, I also used the Pro Audio Spectrum 16 back in the day - for about 8 years, actually - and it was a wonderful card. Rather tricky to get going with some of my Origin titles, but once I got that set, I never had to worry about it again. Again, only noisy when blasted at full volume. Great card. Wish I knew for sure what I did with it.... (I'm thinking that it was "loaned" and never came back - sigh)