MOTUnation.com

I'm opening this thread, just to know if MotU plans to update this piece of software...
It's really strange why softwarehouses such as MotU refuse to teke into consideration an important part of the market, expecially when other softwarehouses such as SoundQuest sell unfinished and crappy products such as MidiQuest...
For instance nobody's created a serious Mac editor librarian for the Korg TR series and several people don't know how to organize its patches...

As far as I can see this is a niche market, but not so small as it seems.

Regards
Michele

miket wrote:I'm opening this thread, just to know if MotU plans to update this piece of software...
It's really strange why softwarehouses such as MotU refuse to teke into consideration an important part of the market, expecially when other softwarehouses such as SoundQuest sell unfinished and crappy products such as MidiQuest...
For instance nobody's created a serious Mac editor librarian for the Korg TR series and several people don't know how to organize its patches...

As far as I can see this is a niche market, but not so small as it seems.

Regards
Michele

All indications seem to be that Unisyn will not get updated, but only MOTU knows for sure. So as of now the choice is SoundQuest or use Unisyn until an OS update renders it useless.

Another option for end users would be to propose an open source editor option, perhaps as part of the Audacity project.

FWIW the references to Unisyn that was in DP5's "Getting Started" Manual are NOT in DP6's "Getting Started" manual

Dwetmaster wrote:FWIW the references to Unisyn that was in DP5's "Getting Started" Manual are NOT in DP6's "Getting Started" manual

FYI, it's on the installer disk, under CD Extras -> Additional "legacy" DP Docs

billf wrote:

Dwetmaster wrote:FWIW the references to Unisyn that was in DP5's "Getting Started" Manual are NOT in DP6's "Getting Started" manual

FYI, it's on the installer disk, under CD Extras -> Additional "legacy" DP Docs

Yeah, along with the Digital Timepiece, Mackie HUI, and Radikal SAC-2K, all of which just happen to be discontinued products. Hmm ...

carrythebanner wrote:

billf wrote:

Dwetmaster wrote:FWIW the references to Unisyn that was in DP5's "Getting Started" Manual are NOT in DP6's "Getting Started" manual

FYI, it's on the installer disk, under CD Extras -> Additional "legacy" DP Docs

Yeah, along with the Digital Timepiece, Mackie HUI, and Radikal SAC-2K, all of which just happen to be discontinued products. Hmm ...

Yep. I really wish MOTU would start communicating more with the user base. It would be nice to actually have a dialog with product marketing on products and direction.

Anyway, it does appear that Unisyn is an EOL product.

Popping in a question here for those in the know. I don't have Unisyn... actually I'm probably not going to purchase it with what I'm hearing here... but, can users build instrument definitions? I know this won't be much help if the next OS on the MAC makes the Unisyn unusable....

Cheers
Steve

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.

gseibert 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.

So in other words, if you don't want SCSI sampler support, It works fine under OSX. I'm using it OSX and it appears to be okay.

What modern mac are you using to communicate with samplers via SCSI? Are you using a SCSI card? Or are you using an old Mac that still has SCSI connectors on it?

pilfermusic wrote:Popping in a question here for those in the know. I don't have Unisyn... actually I'm probably not going to purchase it with what I'm hearing here... but, can users build instrument definitions? I know this won't be much help if the next OS on the MAC makes the Unisyn unusable....

Cheers
Steve

^^^^This. Anybody??
Unisyn is $99 with the DP7 upgrade. It also doesn't do 2 out of four of my hardware synths.
When I asked, MOTU sales/support say they don't know if further development of Unisyn will happen? This is worrisome!

Can you make your own hardware profiles in Unisyn? I have a Poly Evolver, and Unisyn has the Evolver, but no Poly. I have a Lintronics Memorymoog, and Unisyn doesn't have an editor for that either.
Can Unisyn at least save sysex patches from these unsupported synths? (I know there are sysex librarians out there, but it would be nice to have it all in one hood)

Also, does anybody think and email campaign would do any good??

Michael Canavan wrote:Also, does anybody think and email campaign would do any good??

It's doubtful. There haven't been any Unisyn updates in years, so it seems unlikely that any are forthcoming.

I don't hold out too much hope. I really wish MOTU could figure out a way to keep the product alive... for example turn it over to a outside programmer who might maintain it independently in exchange for a cut of the sales or something since it seems Bob Melvin isn't too active with it? 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. All the more reason, perhaps, for MOTU to divest itself of Unisyn by selling off to a small one-man shop who can make a profit with it and keep it up to date or even give it a full overhaul, or figure out some creative means to keep improving and debugging it.

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 pray unisyn will survive the ages of time. if unisyn dies, motu will die for me. unisyn is my life thread to my hardware synths. I have replaced dead batteries and lost patches but been able to restore synths with unisyn. I make complex sounds that are impossible without unisyn.
It works fantastic and if digital performer did not have unisyn, Dp would be dead for me.
I prefer MIDI with hardware synths in dp but i prefer audio and software synths in logic.
I really wish motu would update unisyn, make it even more fantastic with better color graphics and more profiles.