The absolute basics of Amiga audio:
All Amigas have one thing in common: the built-in as standard audio chip, Paula, which can play samples at rates of up to 27KHz via DMA, or higher when running a fast processor and a suitable screenmode. The samples can be played either through 4 channels at 8-bit quality, or in stereo at 14-bit quality. The latter mode needs additional software from Aminet, CyberSound by Christian Buchner, which is included in the DeliTracker232.lha archive.
The Paula chip is one-way only - the ability to digitise sounds has to be added through one of the various 3rd party add-ons, one of which was by Datel, that plug into both the parallel and serial ports and were usually sold with some sample-editing software, ie AudioMaster IV, A.M.A.S. and Samplitude Opus. Any of these 8-bit samplers will fit any Amiga, with the exception of the A1000, which has non standard parallel and serial ports.
Of course it is possible to equip most Amigas with more modern soundcards, but in this respect the various models differ. Big box Amigas come with Zorro expansion slots, there are soundcards that fit these. Perhaps the most famous of the ZII cards is the Sunrise AD516 which was used in the making of the Babylon 5 TV series, but since it has been out of production for a while now, it is only available to those who are lucky or very determined. It was followed up by the Delfina and Prelude cards.
Presently there is another Zorro soundcard available, called Repulse. See "aU" link above. Reviews can be found on Aminet in the docs/rview directory.
The basic A1200 has a 'clock-port' expansion, instead of Zorro, although it is possible to tower it and add Zorro expansion slots. There were several cards made to fit the clockport, notably Prelude and the Delfina, which is replaced by the Flipper.
Any earlier machines, like the A500 or A1000, are not supported in this respect, although there are people who never give up, and do manage to expand them. Old Amigas are easy to hack around on.
On the MIDI front, it is relatively easy to make a DIY MIDI interface for the standard serial port, which, unlike the PC`s COM port, actually supports the MIDI baud rate. Presently the only commercial offering I know of, is the ProMIDI from Power Computing, although there are some simple DIY projects on Aminet for building your own. The TPP (or Triple Play Plus) even features three or four separate MIDI OUTs, giving a full 48 or even 64 MIDI channels.
MIDI timing is highly accurate, without glitches, and a plain 68000 machine can cope with quite a few channels, though to play the maximum of 255 tracks in BarsNPipes will require at least an '020. I haven't actually tested those limits myself, but in a real life situation I have successfully recorded ~32 MIDI channels in 16-bit stereo at 44.1KHz, via my Delfina, to a SCSI harddrive on an '030/50 A2000. The machine was running BarsNPipes and AudioLab16, with its screen partly slid down, so I could see and access both program`s controls at the same time.
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