Synth Site |  Roland |  MT-32 Synthesizer Module

Chris Adams
Quite a handly little unit. I bought mine back in '88 and it's still going strong and is well used. The main thing to make this synth really usable is... A COMPUTER EDITOR. The presets sound Ok, (actually pretty good for it's age...) but the sounds you can get from this beast with an editor are what's made me keep it. Apart from ElecPiano1 and Guitar 1 I don't use any of the presets. I've cobbled together a full bank of 64 memory sounds from various ones I've written, got from sound disks and off the internet. The analog sound and several of the pads I use in preferance to my K4 and I have yet to find a synth that will generate these particular tones.

Synthsite :
This was Rolands first breakthrough cheap multi-timbral synth module. 8 parts plus drums.
It's a sample+synthesis module with a total of 32 partials (sound elements) polyphony. Most reasonable sounds take 2-3 partials per voice so really the polyphony was more like 8-12. The samples were a little grainy but at the time it was a marvel. No-one here ever actually owned one so we can't comment too much on it. Quite simillar to the later D110 module which I've got and still use to this day. I think it was only editable via SYSEX from an external editor.

khackney@hub.ofthe.net:

I bought an MT-32 new and still have it. It adds some hiss to the basic noise level of a mix, but it's arco string and pizzicato string patches still are great. It has a great reverb capability that I have not improved on with equipment 10 years newer and costing twice as much.

I keep it IN CASE, rather than as a primary. It's variance from GM format is a nuisance that dates it more than it's patches and sound quality. Brass are fair to poor (as most brass from synths are).