If you are using external midi you dont need to worry about emulating midi, just ensure passthrough is enabled. And yes you always need aweutil for it to work at all.

kolderman wrote on 2022-11-08, 06:36:

If you are using external midi you dont need to worry about emulating midi, just ensure passthrough is enabled. And yes you always need aweutil for it to work at all.

Got it. What and where is 'passthrough' though?

The AW32/64 doesn't have the same MPU-401 as the SB16/32 has.
- Which wasn't great either, since it was a "dumb" UART type of MPU, anyway. A special serial port with MIDI tinings, in other words.

To make it work with a real MT-32/CM-32L etc. and its games, SoftMPU had to be run (which requires V86 mode).

Instead, the AWEs use a software-based MPU-401, controlled via AWEUTIL.

AWEUTIL also has a cheap MT-32 emulation that uses the fine EMU8000 synthesizer chip (installed on AWEs and SB32).

This MT-32 emulation connects to the software-based MPU-401.
That way, Real-Mode games for DOS can use a fictional MT-32.
Protected-Mode games like MegaMan X or Lollypop won't be able to use it.

However, the fictional MT-32 has another drawback. It's not programmable.
Games like Monkey Island will sound okay, because they use the default programming.
Other games may sound wrong, however, if they try to re-programm the MT-32.

Edit: Or in other words, both the SB16 and AWE32/64 don't have Intelligent MPU-401, as needed by most MT-32 games (those from the 80s, running on 808x/286 PCs in Real-Mode).

To make them run, SoftMPU must be loaded (simulates intelligent MPU-401 in software, then sends processed MIDI information a to dumb MPU-401 hardware).

Or you need a classic MIDI card, like the MusicQuest card or its clones.

Jo22 wrote on 2022-11-08, 07:28:

Instead, the AWEs use a software-based MPU-401, controlled via AWEUTIL.

Right. but I can still use the AWE64 to output midi through the gameport, yes? You just use AWEUTIL instead of SoftMPU to achieve the same result?

Vresiberba wrote on 2022-11-08, 07:33:

Jo22 wrote on 2022-11-08, 07:28:

Instead, the AWEs use a software-based MPU-401, controlled via AWEUTIL.

Right. but I can still use the AWE64 to output midi through the gameport, yes? You just use AWEUTIL instead of SoftMPU to achieve the same result?

Ah, now I understand. You want to know if AWEUTIL provides an intelligent MPU-401, as in MT-32 emulation, but for the physical MIDI connector?
I seriously don't know the answer. But I'm sure some members of Vogons can test this.
Many seem to have at least an AWE64 Gold in their collection, afaikk.

Jo22 wrote on 2022-11-08, 07:37:

Ah, now I understand. You want to know if AWEUTIL provides an intelligent MPU-401, as in MT-32 emulation, but for the physical MIDI connector?

Yes, exactly. Or if SoftMPU would work just like on a normal SB16 so I can hook it up to a real MT-32 or a SC-55 or anything connected to the gameport/MIDI connector. I don't want to emulate them.

Vresiberba wrote on 2022-11-08, 07:42:

Jo22 wrote on 2022-11-08, 07:37:

Ah, now I understand. You want to know if AWEUTIL provides an intelligent MPU-401, as in MT-32 emulation, but for the physical MIDI connector?

Yes, exactly. Or if SoftMPU would work just like on a normal SB16 so I can hook it up to a real MT-32 or a SC-55 or anything connected to the gameport/MIDI connector. I don't want to emulate them.

SET MIDI AUTOEXEC.BAT Question

That makes sense to me. I don't know if SoftMPU supports the AWE32/64 directly, sadly.
I also don't know if AWEUTIL can emulate Intelligent MPU-401 for your external MIDI devices..

Maybe someone else can help?

Best I can do is recommending checking out Phil's Computerlab at Youtube.
Phil/Maulwurf1977 did a lot of experiments with the AWE64 Gold in the past.
It was his favorite card, I believe.

The other AWEs are similar in terms of software compatibility.

@georgel Thanks for the link! 🙂👍

I dont think question related to intelligent mode, although it is tangentially related.

Of these aweutil options:

/EM Enable MIDI Emulation
/EM- Disable MIDI Emulation
/EM:GM Enable MIDI Emulation using General MIDI
/EM:GS Enable MIDI Emulation using GS Emulation
/EM:MT32 Enable MIDI Emulation using MT32 Emulation

The disable one might have been the passthrough I was thinking of. I might have been thinking of the windows drivers that clearly allow you to output over the uart.

kolderman wrote on 2022-11-08, 06:36:

If you are using external midi you dont need to worry about emulating midi, just ensure passthrough is enabled. And yes you always need aweutil for it to work at all.

No you do not. You must initialize the hardware on the card with AWEUTIL /S but that does *not* load AWEUTIL as a TSR like it does if you enable one of the emulation modes. The external MIDI port works just fine without AWEUTIL TSR

maxtherabbit wrote on 2022-11-08, 14:25:

kolderman wrote on 2022-11-08, 06:36:

If you are using external midi you dont need to worry about emulating midi, just ensure passthrough is enabled. And yes you always need aweutil for it to work at all.

No you do not. You must initialize the hardware on the card with AWEUTIL /S but that does *not* load AWEUTIL as a TSR like it does if you enable one of the emulation modes. The external MIDI port works just fine without AWEUTIL TSR

I meant you always need to run it, whether as TSR or just initialize with /S. My bad.