mt32-pi

A baremetal kernel that turns your Raspberry Pi 3 or later into a Roland MT-32 emulator and SoundFont synthesizer based on Circle, Munt, and FluidSynth.

• A work-in-progress baremetal MIDI synthesizer for the Raspberry Pi 3 or above, based on Munt, FluidSynth and Circle.
• Turn your Raspberry Pi into a dedicated emulation of the famous multi-timbre sound module used by countless classic MS-DOS, PC-98 and Sharp X68000 games!
• Add your favorite SoundFonts to expand your synthesizer with General MIDI, Roland GS, or even Yamaha XG support for endless MIDI possibilities.
• Includes General MIDI and Roland GS support out of the box thanks to GeneralUser GS by S. Christian Collins.
• No operating system, no complex Linux audio configuration; just super-low latency audio.
• Easy to configure and ready to play from cold-boot in a matter of seconds.
• The perfect companion for your vintage PC or MiSTer FPGA setup.

✔️ Project status

• Supports Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+, B, and B+, Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, and CM4 series.
  • Pi 2 works, but only with concessions on playback quality.
  • Pi Zero (original) and Pi 1 are unfortunately too slow (even with an overclock) and unsupported.
• PWM headphone jack audio.
  • Quality is known to be poor (aliasing/distortion on quieter sounds).
  • It is not currently known whether this can be improved or not.
• I²S Hi-Fi DAC support.
  • This is the recommended audio output method for the best quality audio.
• MIDI input via USB, GPIO MIDI interfaces, or the serial port.
• Configuration file for selecting hardware options and fine tuning.
• LCD status screen support (for MT-32 SysEx messages and status information).
• Simple physical control surface using buttons and rotary encoder.
• MiSTer FPGA integration via user port.
• Network MIDI support via RTP-MIDI and raw UDP socket.
• Embedded FTP server for remote access to files.
• A user interface with menu system is planned.
• More advanced MIDI routing is planned.

Quick-start guide

If you have a Linux computer or MiSTer FPGA device, you may wish to try the new interactive mt32-pi installer script.

Otherwise, for a manual installation:

1. Download the latest release from the Releases section.
   • If you are updating an old version, read the Updating mt32-pi wiki page for the correct procedure.
2. Extract contents to a blank FAT32-formatted SD card.
   • Read the SD card preparation wiki page for hints on formatting an SD card correctly (especially under Windows).
3. For MT-32 support, add your MT-32 or CM-32L ROM images to the roms directory – you have to provide these for copyright reasons.
   • You will need at least one control ROM and one PCM ROM.
   • For information on using multiple ROM sets and switching between them, see the MT-32 synthesis wiki page.
   • The file names or extensions don’t matter; mt32-pi will scan and detect their types automatically.
4. Optionally add your favorite SoundFonts to the soundfonts directory.
   • For information on using multiple SoundFonts and switching between them, see the SoundFont synthesis wiki page.
   • Again, file names/extensions don’t matter.
5. Edit the mt32-pi.cfg file to enable any optional hardware (Hi-Fi DAC, displays, buttons). Refer to the wiki to find supported hardware.
   • MiSTer users: Read the MiSTer setup section of the wiki for the recommended configuration, and ignore the following two steps.
6. Connect a USB MIDI interface or GPIO MIDI circuit to the Pi, and connect some speakers to the headphone jack.
7. Connect your vintage PC’s MIDI OUT to the Pi’s MIDI IN and (optionally) vice versa.

Documentation

More detailed documentation for mt32-pi can now be found over at the mt32-pi wiki. Please read the wiki pages to learn about all of mt32-pi’s features and supported hardware, and consider helping us improve it!

Help

Take a look at our FAQ page for answers to the most common questions about mt32-pi.

If you need some help with mt32-pi and the wiki doesn’t answer your questions, head over to the discussions area and feel free to start a topic.

⚠ Note: Please don’t use the Issues area to ask for help – Issues are intended for reproducible bug reports and feature requests. Thank you!

mt32-pi-midi-hat

Project on GitHub