I found these on ebay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/230803806686?hash=it … b0AAMXQQtNR1fkb

I also have mini din midi adapters, though I'm not sure if this is what I need for a serial port 1 midi = enable option, or how I would use it with games.

Interesting, I've never seen a mobo with that option. I'm sure someone will come along with actual knowledge, but a few thoughts:

Music creation software back in the day often used serial for MIDI, but generally packaged their own drivers. Not sure where native MIDI support on the mobo would factor into this.

Using these cables you can connect say an SC-55 directly, switching it to PC input. https://hosatech.com/products/data/control-sy … cables/dbk-100/ ...but I'm not across the protocols in play, or whether you'd simply be able to use a DIN adapter to connect it to a regular MIDI port. In any case you'd need to run SoftMPU for gaming I think, which would be a shame with a real Roland MPU sitting there.

If you enable it in BIOS, does it present any address selection options?

Pierre32 wrote on 2021-05-24, 01:03:

Interesting, I've never seen a mobo with that option. I'm sure someone will come along with actual knowledge, but a few thoughts […]
Show full quote

Interesting, I've never seen a mobo with that option. I'm sure someone will come along with actual knowledge, but a few thoughts:

Music creation software back in the day often used serial for MIDI, but generally packaged their own drivers. Not sure where native MIDI support on the mobo would factor into this.

Using these cables you can connect say an SC-55 directly, switching it to PC input. https://hosatech.com/products/data/control-sy … cables/dbk-100/ ...but I'm not across the protocols in play, or whether you'd simply be able to use a DIN adapter to connect it to a regular MIDI port. In any case you'd need to run SoftMPU for gaming I think, which would be a shame with a real Roland MPU sitting there.

If you enable it in BIOS, does it present any address selection options?

I can only change the ports to COM1-4, and select Enable/Disable for the Serial Port 1 (and 2) MIDI. The more I think about it, the more that I wonder if it simply provides a DUMB midi option, rather than an Intelligent MPU, as there is also a gameport connector on the board that I leave disabled, so maybe they share the same MIDI function, like a gameport on a Sound Blaster card. I keep googling "Serial Port 1 MIDI" and the only thing I can find is that if this option appears in a system bios, it is to enable or disable the MIDI interface. As far as the game port, it can be either enabled or disabled (I leave it disabled as I have an AWE32,) though there is no mention of MIDI for it. If it provides the same midi function as the gameport, I can't see any benefit from using it, as those gameport/midi cables I see almost always have a passthru.

The Winbond W83787F/W83787IF super I/O chip found on these motherboards can be configured to operate at the standard MIDI rate of 31250bps. Presumably, toggling the BIOS option just flips the necessary register bits at boot, in lieu of having to do the same thing through software means otherwise.

This doesn't make the serial ports MPU-401-compatible, however. For that functionality, you'd still be required to use either a version of SoftMPU, or game drivers that have been modified for direct serial port output.

A practical benefit of having a serial port that can be configured for the standard MIDI baud rate is that, instead of needing to use an active rate-conversion device - such as the multitude of General MIDI era tone generators with RS-232/TO HOST I/O, or newer devices like the "MPU-232" - you can use a simple, passive adapter instead:

There's some of that actual knowledge. Nice.

Cloudschatze wrote on 2021-05-24, 04:12:

The Winbond W83787F/W83787IF super I/O chip found on these motherboards can be configured to operate at the standard MIDI rate o […]
Show full quote

The Winbond W83787F/W83787IF super I/O chip found on these motherboards can be configured to operate at the standard MIDI rate of 31250bps. Presumably, toggling the BIOS option just flips the necessary register bits at boot, in lieu of having to do the same thing through software means otherwise.

This doesn't make the serial ports MPU-401-compatible, however. For that functionality, you'd still be required to use either a version of SoftMPU, or game drivers that have been modified for direct serial port output.

A practical benefit of having a serial port that can be configured for the standard MIDI baud rate is that, instead of needing to use an active rate-conversion device - such as the multitude of General MIDI era tone generators with RS-232/TO HOST I/O, or newer devices like the "MPU-232" - you can use a simple, passive adapter instead:

Ah, thank you. I have read that SoftMPU doesn't work with all games or with certain memory configurations. I suppose that I should stick with my MPU-IPC-T for this build, as I can use it with just about any game without extra programs or drivers, and I already have the breakout box and thus don't need to buy any adapters.