The Different Windows MIDI Drivers For The Pro AudioSpectrum
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Family Of Audio Cards And How To Setup Them
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Revision 1.4 - February 17, 1994

This document is Copyright (c) 1993, 1994 by Tim Tschirner, and all
rights are reserved. You may freely distribute this file as long as
you don't modify it in any way and don't ask a charge for it. If you
have any useful information that might affect this document, please
let me know.
You can contact me at these Internet E-mail addresses which you can
reach from almost all major network systems like CompuServe and
America On-Line:

1) ittschir@techfak.uni-bielefeld.de
2) doublet@dave.hrz.uni-bielefeld.de

My thanks go to Henry Weckman who provided some additional information,
corrected some parts and encouraged me to publish this article.
If you don't have Internet access, you can also send your comments and
information to his CompuServe ID 70144,126.
Also, thanks to John D. Zitterkopf for some additional suggestions.

Disclaimer: I cannot guarantee the rightness of the information in this
document; it is based on my own findings and provided "as is".
Also, I may not be held responsible for any damages that may occur to
your hardware and/or software after following the instructions below.
Please note that I am not affiliated with any of the mentioned
companies. For technical and support questions please contact the
appropriate manufacturer.

Use this information at your own risk!

Now, after the official stuff, let's get right into the MIDI driver
confusion (which will hopefully be away after you read this document)!

The reason for writing this article was that I really got confused by
the many Windows MIDI drivers that have appeared lately. I didn't know
how to handle and install them right, so I tried to play around with
them a little bit and got some very interesting findings.

First, let me say that these tips are only for those people that do NOT
have an MIDI keyboard connected to their PAS. These people are
probably the majority of PAS owners. Also, please notice that I made
these experiments with a Pro AudioSpectrum 16 Revision C card installed
in an i486DX with 33 MHz and 16 MB of RAM. I tested it under both
Windows 3.1 and Windows for Workgroups 3.11. When referring to Windows
3.1 in this article, it does also apply to Windows for Workgroups 3.11.

For those interested, you can find out the revision of your PAS-16 by
doing the following: Start DEBUG and enter -i ff88. This will return a
number, where 01 stands for Rev. A, etc.

Now these are the drivers I'm talking about in detail:
(Note: Mentioned below are the latest versions as known today.
FTP means that the file is available via anonymous ftp from
ftp.uwp.edu in the pub/msdos/proaudio directory and from
ftp.rug.nl in the msdos/proaudio directory.
CIS means that the file is available in the Media Vision
forum on CompuServe (GO MEDIAVISION).
BBS means that the file is available on the Media Vision
BBS in the United States (510-770-0968 and 510-770-0527,
300-14400 Baud, 8 Bits, No Parity, 1 Stop Bit)

All the drivers are also available in the Music and Sound forum
on America On-Line, but they may have different names. The
PASDSA.ARJ archive e.g. is called SAPIOPL3.ZIP. Please check the
appropriate sources.)

MVPROAUD.DRV - Media Vision Pro Audio/CDPC Wave/MIDI/Aux
(This driver ships with the PAS-16 and PAS+ cards.
FTP: in GW2000.ARJ, CIS: in GW2000.ZIP,
BBS: in GWPATCH.ZIP)

OPL3.DRV - Voyetra OPL-3 FM Synth
(This driver ships with the PAS-16 and PAS+ cards.
FTP: in PASW145.ARJ, CIS: in WIN145.ZIP)

SAPI!OPL.DRV - Voyetra Super Sapi FM Driver
(This driver ships with the Pro AudioStudio cards.
FTP: as PASDSA.ARJ, CIS: as PASDSA.ZIP)

FMSYNTH.DRV - Jamie O'Connell - FM Synth MIDI Driver
(FTP: as FMSYNxxx.ARJ (xxx is the version number),
CIS: as FMSYN.ZIP)

Here is how these drivers appear in the MIDI Mapper as "port names":

MVPROAUD.DRV - Pro Audio/CDPC MIDI Output

OPL3.DRV - Voyetra OPL-3 FM Synth

SAPI!OPL.DRV - Voyetra Super Sapi FM Driver

FMSYNTH.DRV - FM Synth - Jamie O'Connell (Version 2.00)
FM Synth [jwo] (Version 1.xx)

Well, the most important finding I made is that you can have all these
drivers installed simultaneously! This helps you in eliminating
installation problems and gives you a better chance to listen how the
different drivers let your PAS card sound like.

Based on the assumption that you correctly installed the Windows
drivers for your PAS card, I'll describe how to install the other
drivers.

Before we continue, please do some very important things:
Make backup copies of your SYSTEM.INI and WIN.INI files (located in the
WINDOWS directory) and your MIDIMAP.CFG file (located in the
WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory) so that you can restore the original settings
if something should go wrong. For maximum safety you can additionally
copy the original files to a diskette.

After that, check your SYSTEM.INI file for the following entries:

[drivers]
MIDI=mvproaud.drv
MIDI1=opl3.drv

(Please note that these may be in reverse order, i.e., MIDI=opl3.drv
and MIDI1=mvproaud.drv. This is true for all MIDI drivers and does
not affect the following procedures.)

[opl3.drv]
drumchannel=10

(Please note that the drumchannel may also be 16.)

If your SYSTEM.INI has these entries, you can continue installing the
other drivers. If it doesn't have these entries you should reinstall
the Pro AudioSpectrum Windows drivers from the original diskette.

First, let's install the FM Synth (jwo). Please follow these steps:

1) Extract the FMSYNxxx.ARJ (or FMSYN.ZIP) archive into a single, empty
directory on your hard disk.

2) Start Windows, open the Control Panel and click on the Drivers icon.

3) Press the 'ADD' button. Select 'UNLISTED OR UPDATED DRIVER' from the
list and press the 'OK' button. Enter the full directory name of
the location where you extracted the FMSYNxxx.ARJ archive and press
the 'OK' button then. A dialog box containing the name 'Jamie
O'Connell - FM Synth MIDI Driver' (when using V2.00) or 'FM MIDI
Synthesizer - [jwo]' (when using V1.xx) will come up. Select the
driver and press 'OK'.

4) Choose the 'RESTART WINDOWS' option and after that exit Windows.

Please read the documentation that came with the FM Synth MIDI Driver
very carefully to configure this excellent driver the right way.

Now take a look at your SYSTEM.INI file. The important portions should
read like this:

[drivers]
MIDI=mvproaud.drv
MIDI1=opl3.drv
MIDI2=fmsynth.drv

If it doesn't look like this, something went wrong during the
installation and you should reinstall the FM Synth MIDI Driver.

If your SYSTEM.INI does look like above, let's now continue by
installing the Voyetra Super Sapi FM Driver.

To do that, follow these steps:

1) Make sure you're not running Windows. If you do so, exit before
continuing with the installation.

2) Extract the PASDSA.ARJ archive into a single, empty directory
on your hard disk.

3) Copy SAPI!OPL.DRV and VCTL.DLL to your WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory.
Copy SLOAD.EXE and the two .mid files to your WINDOWS directory.
The .mid files are patches for the driver.

4) Add SLOAD.EXE to the Windows group that contains Pocket Recorder,
Pocket Mixer and the other Multimedia Tools.

5) After that, you must manually edit the SYSTEM.INI file.
Search for the [drivers] section and add under it the following:
MIDI3=sapi!opl.drv
(Note: If you chose not to install the FM Synth driver then make it
the next consecutive MIDIx= line.)

6) Create this new section at the end of your SYSTEM.INI file:
[sapi!opl.drv]
Then write 'drumchannel=10' (without the quotes) under it.

More information on the Voyetra Super Sapi FM Driver and the patches
can be found below.

The relevant parts of your SYSTEM.INI should now read like this:

[drivers]
MIDI=mvproaud.drv
MIDI1=opl3.drv
MIDI2=fmsynth.drv
MIDI3=sapi!opl.drv

[opl3.drv]
drumchannel=10

[sapi!opl.drv]
drumchannel=10

(Please note that the drumchannels may also be 16.)

If they read like above, everything worked okay up to this point.
If it doesn't look like above, repeat all necessary steps.

Now, as I said before, this is only for the people that don't have an
MIDI keyboard connected to their PAS cards. Because of this, you can
now remove the Pro Audio/CDPC MIDI Output driver from the SYSTEM.INI.
Edit this file so that it reads like this:

[drivers]
MIDI=sapi!opl.drv
MIDI1=fmsynth.drv
MIDI2=opl3.drv

Then save it and start Windows. If you get a message saying that you
don't have enough memory, exit from Windows and edit your SYSTEM.INI
file so that it looks like this:

[drivers]
MIDI=sapi!opl.drv
MIDI1=fmsynth.drv
;MIDI2=opl3.drv

This will exclude the Voyetra OPL-3 FM Driver from being loaded (I have
chosen this driver because it produces the worst sounds IMHO).

Now, start Windows again, launch the Control Panel and open the MIDI
Mapper. Delete all the setups in there as we don't need them anymore.
We are now going to create three different setups for each driver so
that you have a total of nine setups after that.
We will create a BASIC, an EXTENDED and an ALL setup for each driver.
For a detailed description of the different setups and what they do,
please download MIDIQA.ARJ from ftp.uwp.edu in the pub/msdos/proaudio
directory or MIDIQA.ZIP from the Media Vision forum on CompuServe.

Let's start with the BASIC setup. Please follow these steps:

1) After deleting all setups in the MIDI Mapper, click on the 'NEW...'
button to create a new setup.

2) Name it 'Super Sapi Bas' and enter 'Channels 13-16 via Super Sapi'
as the description.

3) After selecting 'OK' you will be presented with a big chart table
that contains many fields. All you have to do now is to set the
Voyetra Super Sapi FM Driver as the output port on channels 13-16.

4) After you done that, select 'OK'. The new setup will now be saved.

Now let's create the EXTENDED setup. To do that, create a new setup,
name it 'Super Sapi Ext' and enter 'Channels 1-10 via Super Sapi' as
the description. Then, set the Super Sapi Driver as the output port on
the channels 1-10.

After saving this setup, you now have to create the ALL setup.
Create a new setup, name it 'Super Sapi All' and enter 'All Channels
via Super Sapi' as the description. After that, set the Voyetra Super
Sapi FM Driver as the output port on all channels.

Now repeat this whole procedure of creating the three setups for the
Voyetra OPL-3 FM Synth and the FM Synth MIDI Driver. At the end you
should come up with nine different setups, three for each driver.
(Please note: If you commented out one driver with a ';' in your
SYSTEM.INI, you will get a message saying that this setup
tries to access a device that is not installed. If you
should get this message, don't worry about it and select
'CONTINUE'.)

Okay, that's it, you're ready to go!

I recommend that you highlight the 'Super Sapi All' setup in the MIDI
Mapper and close it then. I think this driver gets the best out of the
Yamaha OPL-3 FM chip that is installed in your PAS card. To make it
sound even better, patch it with one of the supplied patches.

Here's a more detailed description (if you don't want to use the Super
Sapi FM Driver you can skip this part):

The Super Sapi FM Driver is a new OPL3 FM driver for use under Windows
3.1. It is a complete rewrite of the OPL3.DRV that is normally
supplied with the Pro AudioSpectrum 16 and Pro AudioStudio 16 cards.
I've heard from some people that this driver didn't work right with
some older PAS-16 cards. It is possible that it won't as expected on
PAS-16 cards with chip revisions earlier than D, but since it worked
all right on my system with a Rev. C PAS-16, you should try out for
yourself. A way to find out your Chip Revision is described in the
beginning of this article.
There are two ways to load the patches (the two .mid files) for the
driver.
The first one is to start the Control Panel and doubleclick the Drivers
icon. Select the Super Sapi FM driver from the list and click the
Setup button. You will see a window which asks for a .mid patch file.
Select 'BROWSE' and change to your WINDOWS directory, where you should
see the two .mid files. Select either one of them.
The second way is to use the SLOAD.EXE utility to patch the new driver.
To do so, just start SLOAD and browse until you find the patch files.
Highlight either one of it and double click the 'DOWNLOAD' button.
That's it!

If you had to comment out one of the three drivers in your SYSTEM.INI
because you got the message that you don't have enough memory, you can
now easily install and uninstall any of these drivers. To uninstall a
driver, just add a ';' in front of it. To re-install it, just remove
the ';'.
Please note that you can't do that while Windows is running!
Before installing or uninstalling a driver, you must always exit
Windows and restart it after modifying the SYSTEM.INI file.

You should try out now how all the different drivers let your PAS card
sound like. The Media Player which comes with Windows 3.1 can play
back MIDI files (files with the .mid extension). It uses the MIDI
Mapper to determine the output where the data should be sent to. This
means that the setup you highlighted in the MIDI Mapper will be used to
play back the MIDI files.

You can also use Shareware applications like WinJammer to play back
MIDI files. WinJammer can be configured to use the MIDI Mapper as the
output, but you can also choose any of the installed drivers directly
as the output. In general, the MIDI Mapper is the best choice because
you'll only have to change the setup there and it will automatically
change in all other programs then.
If you have a slow machine, it might be better to use one of the
installed drivers directly instead of the MIDI Mapper. By doing this,
you can leave out one step from the driver's chain.

This is all I found out so far and I hope it is useful to you in any
way. Please remember, if you have any information that may help others
and may be incorporated into this article, contact me at any of the
above E-mail addresses.

Legal notices
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Windows, MIDI Mapper, Control Panel and Media Player are registered
trademarks of and Copyright (c) by Microsoft Corporation.

Pro AudioSpectrum 16, Pro AudioStudio, PAS-16 and PAS+ are registered
trademarks of Media Vision, Inc.

The Media Vision Pro Audio/CDPC Wave/MIDI/Aux Driver (MVPROAUD.DRV)
is Copyright (c) by Media Vision, Inc.

The Voyetra OPL-3 FM Synth Driver (OPL3.DRV) and the Voyetra Super Sapi
FM Driver (SAPI!OPL.DRV) are Copyright (c) by Voyetra Technologies.

The Jamie O'Connell - FM Synth MIDI Driver (FMSYNTH.DRV) is Copyright
(c) by Jamie O'Connell.

WinJammer is Copyright (c) by Dan McKee.