MIDI Support in Amiga Emulation

TOPIC

Q: Can I use Amiga MIDI hardware and/or software on the PC?

DISCUSSION

A: Amiga 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 (not on A1000 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.

The latest version of WinUAE, included with Amiga Forever, supports MIDI output (not input), redirecting Amiga MIDI output to the PC MIDI hardware (not Amiga MIDI hardware). This appears to work well with some programs, such as Bars & Pipes (remember to enable sound, or the metronome will not work) but is not yet guaranteed to work with all programs.