The beginning of the end of the MIDI
Concluding a chapter.
In December 2017 I reviewed a Floppy Disk MIDI 'Boombox' (It wasn't really a boombox - but hey, click-bait). In this video I draw this chapter to a close by featuring the culmination of Roland's line of stand-alone MIDI Music players, the MT-90U.
Since I've managed to get this one completed (I hope) a day early. I plan to use the 'spare' time to shoot something for Patreon. After all it's not like I've got anywhere I need to be.
UPDATE EDIT: Changed the phrase "USB A port" to "USB port" at the 2 min mark.
UPDATE 2 EDIT: A few small snips.
Comments (73)
I just happened to spot an MT-90s on eBay the night after watching this. It finally came this week, and I've been having a lot of fun with it! Just waiting on a USB-MIDI cable to test it out with some retro games as well. Thanks for making me aware that such a device existed!
I’m glad I could help.
Walking on Sunshine - Kraftwerk style - Man, you crack me up!!
Thanks so much for the video. In particular, your Katrina was uncanny.
Now i want a Midi boombox with an OPL3 sound chip. Seems i have to roll my own one day. ;.;
Fantastic Video. As soon as I saw the title I'd hoped for more singing. You did not dissapoint. But the staying inside bit is starting to show again. I hope the UK gets over this flu soon. Stay safe eh?
Hi Mat. Apologies if this has been asked already (I gave a quick scan through the previous messages, but I've been responsibly-isolating with a bottle of vodka this evening): Would it be possible for you to link a MIDI file of Anders' "Cuba Baion"? I have an urge to do a 132 BPM hard techno version. I suspect it would be terrible, but mucking about with MIDI is one of my hobbies.
I'd like to hear that - here's the link https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code=XZPBsD7Zttn9N3LNekVlIvEmJ6HWPuaCklhV and here's the video history https://youtu.be/iaoyo6pvkUg
When I heard the Sandstorm and the karaoke part, I laughed so loud. 😁 That was hilarious!
I can't wait for the 10 hour loops of Walking on Sunshine by Techmoan to come out.
"We can't mention karaoke without demonstrating it" - oh yes you can! AARGH!!!! The pain!! Seriously - nice bit of humour. 😀
You know you love it really.
Best karaoke performance ever seen!
Remember in space no one can hear your MIDI scream
Oh wow! Hearing "Cuba Baion" makes me realise how much I miss the Moans!
That part was awesome! Really good job on Anders's part.
Really interesting Video, Mat. That's an impressive machine. Whomever wrote the firmware for that was a talented individual! My other half composes on Sibelius software and we take her Midi files to her very non-portable Roland FP80 keyboard to play them with all the full orchestra sounds. We could actually do with one of these! You might like to try one of her files, she uses a LOT of instruments. See if this works for you. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mDJOFSfTPpibPb7ZUO-bmKD62iMPWonY/view?usp=sharing Anyone else is welcome too. No copyright matches on this if you should ever wish to use it. Cheers, S
I'll play it in the next patreon update, so you can see if it sounds as you'd expect.
I'm looking forward to the inevitable 10 hour loop of "Walking On Sunshine".
Coincidentally, I bought an MT-80S last Saturday at a charity shop for € 40. Seems to work OK, though the headphone port is wonky (used too much, it looks like). Works wonderfully as a MIDI output device on the Windows 98 PC I use for older games. Do you remember what you paid for the MT-80S back in 2017? I can't find any listing of it, and I'm curious if I got a bargain.
It was £70 + £15 p&p. However after that some nutter then went and made a YouTube video that bumped up the prices for a few weeks.
Will you sing at my next wedding, Mat? The great thing about MIDI files, is that they allow musicians to compose, arrange and communicate with total freedom in terms of tempo, pitch, and instrumentation. MIDI is also a blessing for all those entertainers who reply on backing tracks, since the MIDI files can be edited to suit any occasion perfectly. MIDI file were never intended to replace any recorded music in a home environment, but it is a nice and interesting twist. :-)
Indeed I was thinking of the clangers and then looked down to see that I'd been made :). Also the karaoke moment had me reaching for my hankee.
I always found The Clangers very creepy as a child. I think I was just a year or so too young to understand what was going on.
I expect Morrisey's lawyers are rubbing their hands with glee at this very moment..... That is such a fabulous toy - I remember your previous video of the earlier model and am no less impressed at what a great and functional tool these players are for people who really understand what they're doing. Being entirely non-musical (creatively) myself, I am quite sad and frustrated that I will never have any use for such a thing. However, I do aspire to be able to sing as well as you, Mat. That's how bad I am! A great an entertaining video - thank you for alleviating the lockdown with some informative levity. Apparently, it's Thursday again and the bins have to go out this evening. The recycling centre is closed and I am reduced to cutting up the cardboard into tiny pieces so I can get more into the wheelie bin. I used to have an important job, now I am cutting up cardboard - and I must admit that carton deconstruction suits me a lot better. Stay well, Mat - and Thank You!
I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time cutting up cardboard in order to fit it in an impossibly small amount of space too. Perhaps we need a support group - a cardboard cutters collective. I had to burn a load in the back garden the other week - yes I've turned into one of those burning things in your garden nutters. Next I'll be pressure washing stuff. When you see someone get their pressure washer out, you know they've got absolutely nothing better going on that day.
Very nice video! I got my MT-90U just 2 months ago used from a local Roland shop here in Switzerland. Mine has quite some background hiss on the internal speaker and I don't like to listen with it. Maybe mine has several hundred hours of use, as the power button and volume knob are yellow and sticky (due to the old rubber "melting"). The sticky part was easy to clean off, I even could order replacment buttons and knobs, there is a japanese seller who has all sorts of parts. Mine didn't come with a remote either, but a brand new one costs only about 5 dollars. Also, I'm not sure why you couldn't use your MT-90U as a MIDI OUTPUT device. This is what I use mine for. Plus plugging the LINE OUT to my PC speaker to avoid the hiss. Maybe GarageBand only supports MIDI input? Try using a dedicated MIDI player software. But be aware of Roland GS and GM2. Most software doesn't support those and send everything as GM. I my case, the software does support it, but sends it as GM anyway because it thinks the output device only supports GM. But playing the files directly from the USB Sticks solves this problem. I can give you some suggestions for software (Windows only) if you need/want them.
Looks like I'll need to snip a section out. I'll leave the computer software side to Clint at LGR when he makes a video on the MT-90S - that's more his area. Thanks for the information - it's very helpful if I can fix any errors before a video goes live.
Techmoan’s latest release will have have you reaching for the tissues, with his soul searching rendition of an old favourite. Heartfelt passion with a spine tingling element of melancholy. New Musical Esspresso April 2020.
When are we getting the Techmoan album?
I'm waiting to hear back from Ronco.
Enjoyed the whole video, but worth watching just for the karaoke demo!
Nice one Sir!
When you started showing the karaoke mic port, I thought, "You can't talk about it without a demo..." and you didn't disappoint. Techmoan karaoke was the highlight for me. Great fun watching this, Mat. :D
Wooo.
My keyboards and some of their attachments all utilize MIDI. I’m lucky if I connect the cables correctly. There are pages of manuals that I don’t comprehend at all, but it’s still interesting.
Watching for the first time... 18:52... demonstrating it... this is the moment I was waiting for!
Powerful little machine, any chance you could use the mic input as line in with an attenuator? Cables seem to be readily available online although I've never tried one myself.
There’s a section I edited out where I mention attenuators (it’s always the bits I cut that generate comments) - but no *in my opinion* an always-live mic input that’s attenuated and only adjustable in volume from the rear isn’t suitable as a substitute for a proper line-level input. (just my opinion - probably wrong).
i never thoguht of MIDI as anything but a novelty. i remember the boom box video and i was so confused like 'who would buy this'. i guess i do understand its use as a teaching tool, that never dawned on me. laughed my arse off at your karaoke (couldnt figure why this thing had a mic input before that), this wouldnt be even 1% as funny if you werent british. in fact, i think techmoan singing that song in b&w might be the defining moment of this month, and as we go on, maybe the year.
Always happy to help with a bit of absurdity.
Don't know why people hate MIDI songs, they're lovely!
People hate everything - some people would hate free money.
Changing the key is a great function. The amount of times I've come to play along to something and it's in a drop tuning so I've had to retune to learn it is a pain.
Karaoke section: Calm down, Matt, you're scaring the children! /s
Nifty little box, and it is a shame that it's not a MIDI target.
Was it deliberate that there was no intro animation?
It seems to be there for me.
"Walkin' In Sunshine"
Great video. But I'm still LMAO over Walkin
Enjoyed this Mat, not so keen on the appearance when compared to the model reviewed earlier but functionality is really brilliant, you could almost make a song out of bits and pieces mixed together, my level of skill haha. One other thing and not sure it matters, but Shazam picked up Eminem.
I'm letting it percolate a couple of days to see if youtube picks up anything. I can always cut out any matching bits. So far so good...but there's plenty of time yet.
I loved the little trumpets in "nevergonna" lol they sounded too cute. I'm also happy that people still appreciate ABBA songs till this day. I was always curious about midi because I have a piano keyboard that I got in 2005 that uses midi files for the music and also has a metronome. Anyways, very cool video. Your singing skills are getting better, you seem to get more and more excited the more you sing! And Anders Enger Jensen did a great job with the midi file. It was L I T
More Clangers and karaoke, please!
I got an MT-90S a while back myself and it's neat to see how different they are! Roland upgraded more than I realized on the 90U it seems, the ability to play MP3s in particular. My video I'm planning about the 90S will be going over much different territory than you do here though, so hopefully it'll end up being a nice companion piece of sorts. I scrounged up some SMF albums on floppy disk, some MIDI teaching aides, among other things to show. Oh and it appears the video title and description currently say 90S instead of 90U. An honest mistake I'm sure ;)
Thanks for spotting the S/U mix-up - I’m editing-blind at this point. It’s fixed now. I hope I haven’t stepped on your toes with this video, if you need anything for yours let me know, but I know you’re more than capable of making a better video than this one without my input.
Very interesting. I'm one of the ones not keen on midi but nice player. Question is are you going to keep it? ( Must be hard doing your job I would want keep everything). Your karaoke was very funny I've seen kc (not sunshine band though) live it sounded rather different lol. That was the night I met Dennis Seaton
I’ll be keeping this one - it’s the ultimate consumer MIDI player - the Nakamichi of MIDI.
Sounds like a genius idea to me. YouTube pub quizzes are proving very popular during lockdown so maybe its time has come ;)
Could make a great pub music quiz machine.
I was once tasked with setting a pub quiz. It was the early days of monophonic ringtones and I devised a round where you had to guess the song from the ringtone. It went down in infamy as the worst round ever. People still reminded me about it a decade later. There was one chap who cleaned up though - recognised every one.
I remember the ads for that audio cassette camcorder when I was a teenager. I was absolutely drooling over it. Called every store in the yellow pages and they were all sold out! After watching 8-bit guy's video on it, featuring a very solid cameo of yourself, I was so glad I never got my hands on one! Please keep the videos coming, we can use them now, more than ever.
That barrel jack for the power connection is a center negative, something to watch out for if you ever loose the adapter.
I have more centre neg than centre pos devices. Perhaps that's just me.
Haha, that karaoke perfomance! That was as the kids say nowadays: LIT! 🤩😂💪🏼
"Lost In Translation"?
That was, without question, the best Karaoke ever. *Ever*.
I suppose karaoke requires a few pints of lager for the full experience. 😁
I do expect the next video to be a full cover of "Walking on Sunshine"!
Hey, this isn't in regards to the video but I saw one a bunch of recommended "news" articles that talked about "video on audio cassette" and actually even mentioned you. I find this extremely odd that all these videos are talking about how this is the first time video has been on cassette when that kids toy recorder that 8 bit guy featured used audio cassettes. Since you were in the video using one, do you think it's possibly time to do a video on it? Possibly using the momentum of these dumb clickbaity articles using incorrect information and correcting them? (One news articles even mentioned you). Also your prison tech video was utterly fantastic and deserves the hopeful 1mil views it will get. Thanks again and hope you and your folks are ok.
I think the chap doing it was just having fun playing about with tech - which is something I can relate to. Good luck to him. You can see the video I made on the Fisher Price PXL2000 camera here: ;-) https://youtu.be/u_si3xAoTeM
Sorry to be pedantic but at 2:01, that's a USB "B" port....
I really wanted a day off - Never mind - maybe next century. Thanks, I'll sort it out.