A: Any MIDI hardware
that has Windows drivers can be used with
Amiga Forever for Windows (2012 and newer
versions). This makes it possible to run
Amiga software like Bars & Pipes Pro in
Amiga Forever.
Within Amiga Forever, select
Tools/Options from the menu, and then select
the desired "Windows MIDI Input" and
"Windows MIDI Output" to configure the
Windows ports. This sets the Windows MIDI
devices for all Amiga emulation
environments.
By default, MIDI is already enabled in
all Amiga emulation configurations, i.e. a
virtual Amiga MIDI device is attached to the
(emulated) serial port if a Windows MIDI
device was selected under Tools/Options. To
change this setting (e.g. to disable MIDI on
a configuration where MIDI interferes with
other applications) right-click the desired
configuration, select Edit, go to the
Configuration tab and choose the desired
MIDI option.
"Workbench 3.X" (listed in the systems
tab of Amiga Forever) is the recommended
high-end configuration both for installing
and running Amiga software, and for data
sharing with Windows. To exchange files
between Windows and the Amiga side select
Tools/Open Amiga Files from the Amiga
Forever menu, then click Shared/dir/Work.
When the Workbench 3.X configuration is
running, the Amiga environment sees the
content of this "Work" folder as the Work
partition.
So far, these instructions explained how
to use a PC-compatible MIDI device, which
includes USB and other PC-specific MIDI
peripherals. Older Amiga serial port-based
MIDI hardware can in general not be used
without additional modifications. This is
because the Amiga provides +12V and -12V
power on pins 9 and 10 (except on the Amiga
1000 model) of the DB-25 connector. These lines
are used by most Amiga MIDI interfaces, but are not standard on serial ports in general,
and are in general not used on the PC. It is however possible to connect MIDI devices to
the PC MIDI connectors (usually on the sound board), and to access these from Amiga
software as if they were connected to the Amiga serial port.
