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Re: Will Unisyn have a future?
Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 3:04 pm
by bongo_x
I'm tempted seeing the offer for $99 when I go to upgrade DP. I really wish they would keep it alive and current.
bb
Re: Will Unisyn have a future?
Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 6:11 pm
by Michael Canavan
The only reason I haven't bought it is because it doesn't support the Lintronics Memorymoog, and only has support for the regular evolver. So out of the three hardware synths I own the only fully supported one is the Xpander.
Hardware has a multitude of advantages, it's odd to me that the poly analogues with savable patching are being ignored by MOTU while the old CV Gate modulars are being coded for??
I guess the thing is people with more than one are in short supply? dunno, but it's pretty frustrating. As it stands it's all Sys Ex saving for me.
Re: Will Unisyn have a future?
Posted: Sun May 23, 2010 5:40 am
by newrigel
Unisyn has a future just like NUBUS... time moves on and if you had a working system that does everything you need, why update? I have a mac IIci with an audiomedia card in it that if I wanted to, I can plug it in and use it but I moved on to better things... for me anyway!
Re: Will Unisyn have a future?
Posted: Sun May 23, 2010 1:31 pm
by Michael Canavan
newrigel wrote:Unisyn has a future just like NUBUS... time moves on and if you had a working system that does everything you need, why update? I have a mac IIci with an audiomedia card in it that if I wanted to, I can plug it in and use it but I moved on to better things... for me anyway!
Meh! you will NEVER get a sound like six voices from the Memorymoog stacked in unison from ANY soft synth, period.
Analog and Digital synths are different breeds. Tell me, do you think solid state amps sound better or the same as tube amps? because if you do then we really will never buy the same gear.
Re: Will Unisyn have a future?
Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 6:51 pm
by Darcycpoes
I believe that Unisyn was a one man show, at least at the end. From what I could garner, the developer left MOTU and is not much interested in it anymore. It only really works under OS/9 anyway, at least if you want SCSI sampler support.
Will Unisyn have a future?
Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 7:07 pm
by James Steele
If you don't need SCSI sampler support then it works just fine in Snow Leopard, actually, but Lion will definitely not work.
I was under the impression that UniSyn was a MIDI Sysex editor/librarian. I don't recall it supporting sample transfer via SCSI, ever. I know old versions of DP had a "Samplers" window that could do this, bit that feature didn't last long and ended when OSX hit the scene.
Re: Will Unisyn have a future?
Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 9:37 pm
by cuttime
Darcycpoes wrote:I believe that Unisyn was a one man show, at least at the end. From what I could garner, the developer left MOTU and is not much interested in it anymore. It only really works under OS/9 anyway, at least if you want SCSI sampler support.
This is not accurate info, and what would one expect from a haberdasher?
Re: Will Unisyn have a future?
Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2011 6:12 am
by nk_e
rthorderson wrote:James Steele wrote:...I really don't know the story of why it is languishing, but frankly, it is probably due in no small part to the fact that VIs are pretty much taking over and I think the number of people using external hardware modules is shrinking on a daily basis.
I agree with your forecast, although I am still shocked at how long hardware is holding on. Perhaps hardware manufacturers or MOTU are missing an opportunity though...while many of us would still like a librarian tool to keep all our patches/program organized, where I find myself forever coming up short is a quick editor. THE SOLUTION? MIDI Plug-in Synth Editors.
For example, the JV-1010 has some great sounds on it, but a ton of the patches are worthless because the internal tempo is locked in. So, if I had a plugin I could drop into my MIDI track that would let me edit my synth...even save those settings so that the SysEx is shot to the synth as part of my sequence, that would be sweet.
I believe the MIDI plug-ins are MOTU's own format (unlike AU plug-ins), so this may be tricky for a manufacturer to pull off for several different companies. But if MOTU had an plug-in editor that users could develop editor templates (something like the DP Console tool), that would be something to keep me happy for sometime to come (since I still have a hard time throwing away perfectly good sounding synths/modules). I would settle for a simple MIDI plug-in that would be a programmable SysEx slider or button...and you just drop the SysEx parameters in (AND have it handle the stupid checksum calcs that companies like Roland use). These could be saved off as presets, and reused all the time.
My understanding from others and my own experience is that getting an SDK from MOTU is like pulling teeth. Too bad...sigh.
I
think you can do exactly this in Cubase. They have a whole mini manual on developing 'MIDI devices' that allow you to drop an external instrument into a track and control various parameters via on screen controls you configure. A bit hairy to pull off is my impression.
I have unisyn v1 and sounddiver and, unfortunately, they are pretty useless on modern systems. Someone had an interesting suggestion on another forum: if you have sounddiver and are on a Mac, avoid the last (unstable) beta release for OSX and instead run the last PC release using Parallel's virtual PC. (The betas were released into the wild by Apple at the end of the product life all rights retained. And you still need the old Emagic dongle to run either.) Anyway, got it installed but had a hard time getting the MIDI communication to be reliable and ran out of time. Seems entirely possible though.
Lastly, I recently bought midiquest. So far it's worked well for me. I have not done anything extensive yet, but it recognizes connected synths, downloads the patches, opens editors. So far, I'm pleased.
Cheers.