Chapter 5
MIDI Port I/O Programming
This chapter discusses Sound Blaster MIDI (SB-MIDI) and MPU-401 UART mode
programming. SB-MIDI port is available on all the Sound Blaster cards. MPU-401
UART mode is available on the Sound Blaster 16 only.
You can use either of the MIDI interfaces. However, it is better to use the MPU-401
mode on Sound Blaster 16 because it has its own independent I/O ports and interrupt
status bit which means that it is possible to have digitized sound and MIDI I/O
running together. On the other hand, SB-MIDI mode shares the same I/O ports and
interrupt status bit associated with digitized sound.
The following discussions assume that you have knowledge of DSP programming and
interrupt handling sharing. Refer to the chapter "Introduction to DSP Programming"
on these subjects.