I have an ESS Audiodrive 1869, and I can't get General MIDI or MPU401 to work in any way. In the User Manual, it says "General MIDI compatible (Support MPU-401)." Additionally, it says this:
"Using the WaveTable in DOS environment: No special configurations are needed to use the Wavetable in a DOS environment. DOS-based MIDI sequences and games software generally recognize the Roland MPU-401 or Soundblaster
MIDI interface to MIDI synthesizers. Games which require either MPU-401 or General MIDI can be supported by the Wavetable. Games which require the Soundblaster MIDI interface with a MIDI synthesizer are also supported."
With ESSCFG, I have configured the MPU-401 port to be a number of things between 300 and 330, but none of them work. Mostly I've been trying DOOM after setting the appropriate options in SETUP. I have tried other games, and none recognize anything as far as MIDI/MPU-401, and I've tried basically every port that I can with ESSCFG and set every configuration in the games to point to them. Some autodetected the port I set, but still didn't work.
I've gotten the most recent DOS utilities that ESS has, enabling configuration of the
sound card through software, but the same thing happens. I believe I've also used the COMPAQ system software disks (yes I have a crappy COMPAQ) to configure ISA PnP and all that... but none of it does anything.
Do I need a software wavetable or some junk like that? Do I need ICU?

How odd. I have actually used an ESS AudioDrive ES1869 in real mode (although with Descent and a few arcade games via a real mode DOS emulator) and never had a problem.

Are you trying to get your synthesizer sound from the sound card's internal synthesizer, or are you using an external device?

It seems odd that the games won't recognize the sound card's MIDI UART.

As far as hardware resources, your best bet for configuring the emulated MPU-401 for maximum compatibility is:

IRQ 9/2
I/O ports 330 and 331 (hex)
(You may only have an option to set the start, or "base" I/O port address; setting the base address to 330 will configure the card to use ports 330 and 331 (hex).

These are the actual settings literally hardwired into the original MPU-401 and MPU-IPC units from Roland and consequently, virtually all DOS games should be compatible with these settings (I still use an actual old MPU-IPC!).

If I remember correctly, my es1869 had a jumper that enabled or disable the MIDI UART. I believe this jumper was documented *only* on a sheet of paper that shipped with my card and was *not* designated on the card itself. It could be possible that your MIDI UART is simply not enabled. To see if this is the case, check to see if the card's MIDI interface and/or internal synthesizer works in Windows, Linux, or some other operating system. If you can play the card's internal synthesizer and/or an external MIDI instrument connected to the port, then it's enabled.

Are you trying to use any external MIDI instruments?

Also, is the card fully functional under Windows, Linux, or some other non-DOS environment?

I'm not trying to use any external MIDI stuff - my MIDI port is occupied by a joystick.
The card works fine under Linux with no configuration, but I basically never use MIDI, so I can't tell as far as that. It doesn't work under BeOS, but I haven't found many people with a 1868/69 working under BeOS. I don't have Windoze installed, but it has been in a Windoze box before and worked fine.
My card came with 2 identical pieces of paper... I'll see if I find any reference to MIDI UART...
I also don't have any option for setting the MIDI IRQ - only the BLASTER IRQ (5 by default on this card).
Would SET MIDI=etc. do anything? Do I need to set the MIDI environment variable similarly as I do BLASTER?

I would like to add that if I set a game's music settings to some SB derivative and tell it to use port 220, I get music, but rather low quality.
Oh yes... before you mention it... I have used ESSVOL and insured that I have the sound volume for synthesizers and MIDI and line out and all that junk all the way up.

i have a problem with the mpu-401 compatible midi device for the windows 2000. i tried everything, nothing seems to work. can sumone please tell me whats so different between a regular sound card, say from creative, and an MPU-401 thing. Do I have to download some sort of driver?