No more UNISYN, now what??

MidiVeg · Post by **MidiVeg** » Tue Jul 26, 2011 1:27 pm

I am heavily dependent on Unisyn, and partly for that reason have stuck with using Tiger OS for all these years. I use Unisyn to load and tweak individual patches in my hardware synths. Now as I ponder acquiring a new computer (which I really need) and Lion, I learn that Unisyn is gone, and MOTU will not be upgrading it . . all I get is a 'sorry about that' and 'good luck' from MOTU . . .

So now what do I do? Is there another MIDI editor/librarian that will import Unisyn files? Or can I perhaps run Tiger & Lion on the same Mac (not at the same time, of course) so that I can continue to use my outboard synths?

As I read through these messages I see that I'm not alone, but have any solutions been found? Thanks

YouTube · Post by **James Steele** » Tue Jul 26, 2011 1:35 pm

Actually you didn't need to stay on Tiger. I have Unisyn working in Snow Leopard. You just had to make sure Rosetta was installed. Of course now with Lion, Rosetta is gone, and it will finally kill Unisyn. Still, you seem surprised or let down by MOTU? This is old news about Unisyn not being developed. We have been on borrowed time here.

Seems to me one of the key issues to consider is whether you need an EDITOR or just a LIBRARIAN. If you just want to save and load Sysex patch banks, there's a free app called Sysex Librarian that will probably work-- but I can't be sure. My plan (since I realized I don't edit hardware synths is before upgrading to Lion, dump banks into modules using Unisyn, the send them back into Sysex Librarian and save in that format.

billf · Post by **billf** » Tue Jul 26, 2011 4:22 pm

MidiVeg wrote:I am heavily dependent on Unisyn, and partly for that reason have stuck with using Tiger OS for all these years. I use Unisyn to load and tweak individual patches in my hardware synths. Now as I ponder acquiring a new computer (which I really need) and Lion, I learn that Unisyn is gone, and MOTU will not be upgrading it . . all I get is a 'sorry about that' and 'good luck' from MOTU . . .

So now what do I do? Is there another MIDI editor/librarian that will import Unisyn files? Or can I perhaps run Tiger & Lion on the same Mac (not at the same time, of course) so that I can continue to use my outboard synths?

As I read through these messages I see that I'm not alone, but have any solutions been found? Thanks

Option 1: Run Snow Leopard on a separate partition or computer in order to use Unisyn

Option 2: Look at an alternative such as MidiQuest, and see what their Lion support plans are.

Option 2a: Look at an alternative such as MidiQuest and consider using it on a Windows partition on your Mac

miket · Post by **miket** » Mon Aug 29, 2011 1:37 pm

I found an alternative "third way" to manage all my synthesizer patches. I saved an "old" Apple G4 1.25 DP running OS9 (Opcode Galaxy plus) and OSX 10.4.11 (MidiQuest with alternate results...) with a duplicate MIDI setup, based on a 3 MIDI Express 128 network. The MIDI interfaces are hooked to an USB Hub.

Both computers are running (MacPro and G4) and share the same USB/MIDI network.
When I need to edit a patch or load an entire bank, it's enough to unplug the USB Hub from the MacPro and plug it on the other computer.

That's it!

bayswater · Post by **bayswater** » Mon Aug 29, 2011 6:02 pm

miket wrote:I found an alternative "third way" to manage all my synthesizer patches. I saved an "old" Apple G4 1.25 DP running OS9 (Opcode Galaxy plus) and OSX 10.4.11 (MidiQuest with alternate results...) with a duplicate MIDI setup, based on a 3 MIDI Express 128 network. The MIDI interfaces are hooked to an USB Hub.

Both computers are running (MacPro and G4) and share the same USB/MIDI network.
When I need to edit a patch or load an entire bank, it's enough to unplug the USB Hub from the MacPro and plug it on the other computer.

That's it!

Couldn't you use a MIDI Merge box so you don't have to reconnect the USB?

MidiVeg · Post by **MidiVeg** » Mon Aug 29, 2011 6:11 pm

Will Unisyn run in Snow Leopard?

YouTube · Post by **James Steele** » Mon Aug 29, 2011 11:43 pm

MidiVeg wrote:Will Unisyn run in Snow Leopard?

Yes. I've done it. You just have to have Rosetta installed. HOWEVER, even though I'm running it in 10.6.8, I installed and authorized it under an earlier version of SL. I know of one person who says he can't get authorization to work under 10.6.8.

Dwetmaster · Post by **Dwetmaster** » Tue Aug 30, 2011 11:18 am

miket wrote:I found an alternative "third way" to manage all my synthesizer patches. I saved an "old" Apple G4 1.25 DP running OS9 (Opcode Galaxy plus) and OSX 10.4.11 (MidiQuest with alternate results...) with a duplicate MIDI setup, based on a 3 MIDI Express 128 network. The MIDI interfaces are hooked to an USB Hub.

Both computers are running (MacPro and G4) and share the same USB/MIDI network.
When I need to edit a patch or load an entire bank, it's enough to unplug the USB Hub from the MacPro and plug it on the other computer.

That's it!

Can't you just remote Desktop to your Tiger machine and do all your edit from a "chicken of VNC" window on your MacPro?

I do this all the time from my MacPro to My G5 running Tiger 10.4.11

YouTube · Post by **James Steele** » Tue Aug 30, 2011 4:49 pm

I'll just throw out another option here which is what I had considered if/when I move to Lion. I had to ask myself what I did with my hardware modules (which is fairly little these days)? That is to say, do I actually do much editing of patches, or do I just need to manage banks and upload and download them from devices?

Upon reflection, I realized I don't do much editing, hence I don't really need the "Editor" part of the "Editor/Librarian." I can get by with a Librarian. Which made me consider Sysex Librarian:

http://www.snoize.com/SysExLibrarian/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's very basic, but what I'm thinking is when I get ready to jump to Lion and/or a new Mac, I'll dump my banks into the device via UniSyn one at a time and then download them into Sysex Librarian and store them in that format. Once I've got all my banks, I should be able to then use Sysex Librarian to load banks when I want. Granted, I won't be able to edit patches, but that's the trade off. Other thing is that as far as I know, with Sysex Librarian, to retrieve a bank from a device you must initiate the bank dump from the front panel of the device. Once that's done however, sending a bank to a device can all be done by a computer.

This is going on the assumption that Sysex Librarian runs on Lion. Seems like it's being maintained so I can't imagine why it wouldn't?

cuttime · Post by **cuttime** » Tue Aug 30, 2011 10:19 pm

James Steele wrote: Upon reflection, I realized I don't do much editing, hence I don't really need the "Editor" part of the "Editor/Librarian." I can get by with a Librarian. Which made me consider Sysex Librarian:

http://www.snoize.com/SysExLibrarian/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Been checking this one out for a while. Yes, it works, but I need Unisyn's search functions. Really, how many patch files can you have that say "Fat bass" or "Mellow Lead"? Every time I think I'm going to Ebay my hardware synths I do an A/B comparison with VIs and my heart sinks. There is a market for hardware tweakers, and there always will be. Please, someone step up to the plate. Unisyn is the best option. I can't think of any good reason to upgrade to Lion at this point.

MidiVeg · Post by **MidiVeg** » Fri Nov 04, 2011 10:25 am

I've been busy with other things lately so this kinda went on the back burner, but haven't found a solution. A couple of sources suggested i could run Unisyn on an older OS 10.4 computer, while running DP on another machine, and that somehow everything could communicate with each other. Yet no one has come forward with how to set up such a thing, & I'm certainly no expert . . . Sound feasible to anyone?

bayswater · Post by **bayswater** » Fri Nov 04, 2011 11:16 am

For a while I ran Unisyn V1 on an Atari Falcon while running Cubase on a Mac. The Falcon was simply a device plugged into the MIDI interface along with synths. There was some discussion that there could be conflicts between the Mac and the Falcon over MIDI communications, but I don't recall experiencing that. On the rare occasion I still need to play with Sysex, I just record it in a DP track, and do edits in the device itself.

I haven't tried it with a second Mac. The Atari has its own internal MIDI system, so at the very least I bet you'll need to add a second MIDI interface with routing and merging capabilities to the second Mac and consider the routing carefully avoid conflicts.

SoundQuest1 · Post by **SoundQuest1** » Fri Sep 07, 2012 8:35 am

Hello All,

Over the last couple of weeks, Sound Quest has been contacted by a couple of forum members suggesting that we should be commenting here.

Sound Quest continues to actively develop MIDI Quest and are currently working on a new release for the software. Structurally, MIDI Quest and Unisyn are organized in much the same way. There is a studio window to manage instruments, an instrument editor for bank and patch editing, Performance storage (we call it a Collection) and Library storage. This should allow for a releatively easy transition from using Unisyn to MIDI Quest if interested.

While MIDI Quest does have a couple of small issues with 10.7 and 10.8, once properly configured it will run on both versions of the Mac OS. These issues will be addressed in the next release.

While MIDI Quest can't offer the tight integration that UniSyn does, the XL version offer AU plug-ins so you can manage your instruments within Performer including recordding and playback of parameter automation data.

MIDI Quest XL is also capable of generating .midnam xml files that can be used by Performer to selected synth patches by name.

A new feature that will be found in MIDI Quest 11 XL is the ability to directly read Sound Diver. We had planned to add a similar feature for Unisyn but not until the subsequent release of MIDI Quest. However, with sufficient interest expressed it might be possible to move this up in the development schedule.

MIDI Quest also contains an extensive range of features not found in Unisyn which I would be happy to discuss if there are those who are interested.

Michael Lambie
Sound Quest Inc.

Note: I have attempted to write this from an informational perspective. If I have crossed a line and this is considered "too sales/marketing", I apologize.

zandurian · Post by **zandurian** » Thu Oct 04, 2012 12:10 am

SoundQuest1 wrote:Hello All,

Over the last couple of weeks, Sound Quest has been contacted by a couple of forum members suggesting that we should be commenting here.

Sound Quest continues to actively develop MIDI Quest and are currently working on a new release for the software. Structurally, MIDI Quest and Unisyn are organized in much the same way. There is a studio window to manage instruments, an instrument editor for bank and patch editing, Performance storage (we call it a Collection) and Library storage. This should allow for a releatively easy transition from using Unisyn to MIDI Quest if interested.

While MIDI Quest does have a couple of small issues with 10.7 and 10.8, once properly configured it will run on both versions of the Mac OS. These issues will be addressed in the next release.

While MIDI Quest can't offer the tight integration that UniSyn does, the XL version offer AU plug-ins so you can manage your instruments within Performer including recordding and playback of parameter automation data.

MIDI Quest XL is also capable of generating .midnam xml files that can be used by Performer to selected synth patches by name.

A new feature that will be found in MIDI Quest 11 XL is the ability to directly read Sound Diver. We had planned to add a similar feature for Unisyn but not until the subsequent release of MIDI Quest. However, with sufficient interest expressed it might be possible to move this up in the development schedule.

MIDI Quest also contains an extensive range of features not found in Unisyn which I would be happy to discuss if there are those who are interested.

Michael Lambie
Sound Quest Inc.

Note: I have attempted to write this from an informational perspective. If I have crossed a line and this is considered "too sales/marketing", I apologize.

Thanks for coming over. I love the VIs but will ALWAYS be tweaking DX7s, D-50s and DX-8000s. Always.

dewdman42 · Post by **dewdman42** » Fri Jul 19, 2013 12:58 pm

has anyone tried installing Snow Leopard on something like parallels in order to run Rosetta apps, including Unisyn after moving to Lion or newer?

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