http://www.zoltrix.com/support_html/Multimedi … und/MMQUEST.HTM

this link provides no help with the issues I describe here... but thanks anyway for your time

I resorted to manually add the SB16 information in the original 3.11 midimap.cfg that has extended setups and patches...

In case anyone cares in the future, I have attached the file here:
have SB16 installation complete and overwrite midimap.cfg, then just overwrite with the one in the zip to have all the goodies in midi mapper (file goes to WINDOWS/SYSTEM) 😊

Your LAPC-I settings look correct except for one item : On your "after" screenshot for the LAPC-I, your source channel 10 (for percussion and SFX) goes to destination channel 11. Shouldn't it be destination channel 10, which is what the LAPC-I uses for percussion/sfx?

@Great Hierophant:
I guess you are correct but there is abysmal difference between the 2 configs... the stock 3.x midimap.cfg has a complete setup of patch maps and key maps and redirects the lapc-i channels to mt-32 patch maps - and there is a specific one called "mt32 percussion" for the one you mention.
At any rate adding the SB16 setups in the stock midimap.cfg seems the best solution IMHO since you retain the gazzilion other settings

keropi wrote:

The SB16 driver just replaces midimap.cfg with it's own and does not care about any other devices.

A similar thing happened to me when I installed the AWE64 Gold Windows 3.1 drivers and software. It replaced midimap.cfg with its own one. No more adlib, proteus, or any of the default Windows configurations. I think it gave me the option of backing up the Windows one, however, and I did. I think it also commented out the existing FM drivers in my system.ini (adlib, SB Pro, and Voyetra).

And could you not restore the original midimap.cfg from the Windows 3.1 disks?

yep at the end I restored from my install disks AdamP ... and it was way more easier to add the SB16 info to it than doing the opposite to the sb16 .cfg

The Basic and Extended MIDI mappings confuse the heck out of me. Its like they were inspired by the Adlib and Roland MT-32 devices, but do not match up 1 for 1 with them.

The MT-32, MT-100, CM-32L & LAPC-I respond to messages by default on MIDI channels 2-9 with channel 10 devoted to percussion and SFX. The CM-64 & CM-500 also respond on channels 11-16, but Microsoft's Extended MIDI mapper maps channels 1-9 with 10 as the percussion & SFX. So by that mapping the LA devices would come up short.

By contrast, General MIDI devices would exceed the mapping, as they respond on channels 1-16. Lack of polyphony in practice may decrease the number of channels, but there is no guarantee that MIDI commands would not be transmitted on channels 11-16. I suppose that is what All MIDI mapping is for, but it is not readily apparent that Windows 3.x can support all 16 channels at a time.

Finally, its handling of Basic MIDI, intended for Adlib devices, is most perplexing. The Adlib knows nothing about MIDI, so software has to translate MIDI commands and data to OPL2/3 register writes. An Adlib can respond to 9 instrument channels or 6 instrument channels and 5 percussion instruments. Even using the percussion mode, the Adlib should be able to utilize seven MIDI channels (with one for the five percussion instruments). Basic MIDI only allots four channels with one for percussion. Seems as if the capabilities of the basic Adlib, nevermind the OPL3 cards, are underused.

I can't comment to the Basic Midi stuff but I assume they might work with some ol program or was a common setup or something along those lines...
It's a pity OPLx goes so much unnoticed but I speculate ms did not bother writing more maps/settings for them since the "serious" user of the era would probably have a roland/gm synth and did not really pay attention to the weak OPLx device (provided he had one in the first place 🤣)
Personally I think that OPL usage in pcs is generally on the "meh" side (there are some exceptions for sure) , one only has to listen to some sega genesis tunes to realize it himself...