MidiByte

Introduction

MidiByte is a special kind of MIDI player. It will run on any Atari ST (and most emulators) with a MIDI port. The program can run in the background, but you will only notice this on a multitasking system such as MagiC, Geneva or Aranym.
It will run fine on MagiC-PC (that has no MIDI port). This is a short tutorial to get MIDI working under MagiC on Windows.

MIDI on MagiC-PC

There are two options: MIDI over TCP or MIDI over serial.
On Windows you will need:

  1. virtual port (COM2TCP) -OR- virtual modem cable (COM2COM)
  2. serial-to-MIDI converter
  3. (optional) virtual synth

COM2TCP is needed for MIDI over TCP, COM2COM is needed for MIDI over serial.
After you have finished the steps below, run MidiByte and select serial or TCP in Options->MIDI port.

1A. COM2TCP

A good option is the free HW Virtual Serial Port. It will add a virtual COM port that listens at a specified IP address and port.
When installing the program, choose for the standalone option. For MagiC, set IP to 127.0.0.1 and port to 1040. For Aranym, the IP should be the actual ip address of the host in your local network. Make sure that the settings (except for the COM port name: you can pick one yourself) are the same as in the image below.

HW Virtual Serial Port

Once you have this set up, continue to step 2.

1B. COM2COM

The best option is the free and open source com0com solution. It will install two virtual com ports on your machine that are connected to each other. Consider it as a virtual cable. You will connect MagiC-PC to one end and a serial-to-midi converter to the other end.
First, install com0com and configure it as shown here:

com0com

Notice this is different from the default setup that com0com will create. You will have to change the default to loopback mode: on both sides RTS and CTS are 'looped back'. You can do this by dragging the green dot to its desired destination.
Make sure that at least one of the two virtual ports in in the COM1-COM4 range, because that's the range MagiC-PC can work with. On MagiC-PC set the serial interface to one of the virtual ports.

If you use the MIDI over serial option, it is possible to run other MIDI programs than MidiByte under MagiC-PC as well. You will then need to install MIDI Out Director on the Atari. That's an accessory that can redirect the MIDI port to the serial port on Atari. Choose B,C or D to do so. Keep in mind that most of the classic Atari MIDI software, such as Cubase, will not run under MagiC.

director

2. Serial to MIDI converter

Next you will need a serial to MIDI converter. The best option for that is the free Hairless MIDI-Serial Bridge.

MIDI-Serial Bridge

Set the serial port to the one that brings in the data. For TCP it's the port that shows up as ELTIMA, for serial is the other end of the virtual modem cable you created in the previous step. If you settle for poor sound quality, set MIDI Out to Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth (that comes with Windows) and you're done.
If you want a better sound quality, use VirtualMIDISynth.

3. VirtualMIDISynth

A excellent replacement for the GS Wavetable synth (included with Windows) is VirtualMIDISynth. After installing it, you will need a sound font to go with it. One of the best is FluidR3_GM.

VirtualMIDISynth