The Real Time MIDI Subsystem comes with OS/2 Warp 4 and is an excellent system for MIDI
playback and recording.  Unfortunately not many soundcard drivers are compliant to the
RTMIDI standard.  Fortunately though there is a way around this limitation by using your
current driver along with the IBM MPU401 driver(Available on the DDPak CD-ROM that comes
with Warp 4 and also the DDPak website). This workaround also works for the SoundBlaster
cards.

These are instructions on how to enable a soundcard that does not have a RTMIDI compliant
driver:

    1) Backup your config.sys

    2) Open your config.sys file and look for the line that specifies the settings
       for your soundcard.  There should be a setting that specifies the MPU address
       for your card(See your owner's manual for details).

             I have a SoundBlaster card and my setting is as follows: /M:330

    3) Change this address to something other than what it should be.  I changed mine to
       read /M:300

    4) Save your config.sys

    5) Install the MPU-401 driver from IBM (Instructions are included with the driver)

    6) Reboot your machine.

    7) To test if RTMIDI works download my program MIDI Station and if it runs with no
       errors you have success!!!

    8) If you receive the error "Driver can only receive messages" AND you have the latest
       MPU-401 driver from IBM (the date should be about 10/15/1997) you should add the
       parameter /O:NORMIRQ to your MPU401.SYS line in CONFIG.SYS.
     
If all went well you should have RTMIDI ability now.  I have had complete success with
this method and I have proper sound in my OS/2, DOS and Windows sessions.

Here is the logic behind this methodology:

   By setting an incorrect MPU address your soundcard driver will not be able to find the
   MPU port.  That allows the MPU401 driver to find your MPU port and capture it.  Since
   the MPU401 driver is RTMIDI compliant you now have the ability to use the RTMIDI
   capabilities.


The aforementioned views are mine and mine only and have not in any way been endorsed by
IBM.  Also I take no responsibility for any damage that may be done to your system by
following these directions. This is just a method that I found useful.  Feel free to
contact me.


Christopher Hodges
Author of MIDI Station and the forthcoming MIDI Station Sequencer
cdhodge@ibm.net