[MrFlibble]

While searching something else on YouTube, I found a video of The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall demo played with Roland MT-32 music:
https://youtu.be/J195d15bYC8?t=1m

The music in this seems to sound a lot better than that of generic MPU-401 MIDI, or Roland SC-88 (link). Now I'm not really familiar with MT-32, is it generally expected to have better music quality, or can it be conjectured from this that the music in Daggerfall was primarily written to be played through MT-32? Or is it just that the quality of the videos makes Roland MT-32 sound very different from Roland SC-88?

[MusicallyInspired]

The SC-88 is newer as it uses the General MIDI standard (plus GS) and all the instruments are PCM samples. The MT-32 is definitely very different as it is comprised of a combination of PCM and Linear Arithmetic synthesis which means you can reprogram the MT-32 with custom patches through sysex MIDI messages. Most game companies just use a General MIDI compatible patch bank and load it onto the MT-32 for General MIDI compatibility (more or less), though, which is probably the case with Daggerfall.

There's definitely a controversy as to whether MT-32 truly sounds better than newer synths or not. High Treason and I have had our debates on the subject . Generally most of the default patches on the MT-32 aren't that great and there are much better equivalents on newer synths like the Roland Sound Canvases (SC-55, SC-88, SC-88pro, SC-8820m SC-8850, etc) or the Yamaha XG synths, but where I believe the MT-32 really shines is in the customization. If someone uses the MT-32 to its fullest potential and creates new patches specifically for the compositions they're writing it can be quite exceptional (see early Sierra and LucasArts games, also Wing Commander). I also think that the MT-32's reverb is second to few, as is the beautiful stock Soundtrack patch.

The downfalls of the MT-32, besides the low quality stock patches (it's not the greatest at strings and pianos for instance), is the limited polyphony. If you use too many timbres at once it'll start cutting notes. It's named the MT-32 for a 32-voice polyphony but realistically it's more like 22 or so as many of the patches use multiple partials. Depending on the number of partials used for a timbre you could really max it out and be limited to as low as 8 notes at a time. Again, composing specifically for the MT-32 is how you can really make it shine, taking into account its limitations and unique capabilities. You probably won't have much luck just running any old MIDI file through an MT-32 with a GM patch bank.

All that said, I'm pretty sure that Daggerfall was composed specifically with the Sound Canvas/General MIDI in mind, with support for the MT-32 being an afterthought. That's usually the way it went after the first Sound Canvas came out in 91. A few exceptions for certain games include the GUS, but the MT-32 never became the popular standard after that. It's a shame, really. It's quite a special little box.

[MrFlibble]

Thanks for a very detailed response! So is the impression I had of better quality from that video due to custom patches used by the uploader, or just plain wrong?

[MusicallyInspired]

No, that sounds like stock patches on the MT-32. I do love its soft French Horn sound, though.