Unisyn for Windows -- can't get it to work!

[knid]

Hi there ... I realize that admitting use of a Windows machine here is probably a stupid idea, but it's a fact. I use Windows, and given the reputation MOTU has had for several years, I figured I couldn't go wrong buying a MOTU product to fulfill my synth management needs.

Boy was I wrong. First, there was no indication on MOTU's website of which versions of Windows Unisyn supported, so upon discovering it did not support XP (which in and of itself is fairly lame), I downgraded my laptop to Windows 2000. Regardless, Unisyn simply refuses to have anything to do with my multiple synths, and errors out with a "umididrv.dll" error and from that point, things go down hill.

Tech support has been completely non-responsive via email, so I guess the next step is the phone. Unless ... someone here is also running the Windows version of Unisyn and has gotten it to work.

My interface and other MIDI programs work just fine. I am really thinking I should have stuck with my first choice of MIDIQuest.

Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions? (And no, buying a Mac is a little out of range ...)

Thanks!

Michael

[greggybud]

downgrade again.....to windows 98se and it will work for you. it does not work with windows 2000 or xp

its a crime they try to still sell Unisyn for PC when it hasnt been upgraded for years and the newest profiles of synths date back to the late 90s!

[knid]

Yikes ... that is really incredible. The manual does say that it supports Windows 2000. Thanks for the reply, though ... I guess I will be packing this up, selling it for whatever I can get and buying MIDIQuest instead!

However, if anyone has any magic wands to wave at this problem, I am more than willing! Thanks!

[greggybud]

If the manual says it supports Windows 2000 then you should contact MOTU and ask them to make it work or get a refund.

I tried Windows 2000 with Unisyn 1.5 for PC, and I could not get it to work. The program opens but I could not get it to send/receive anything from any profiles. I later read (dont remember where but probably a forum) that Unisyn did not work with Windows 2000. The very least you should contact MOTU since this would be false advertising.

Unisyn works fine with Windows 95 and 98 but of course MOTU hasnt upgraded it in many years. If I were statring out fresh I would definitely go with Midiquest. They even have a "competitive upgrade" price. Unfortunately for myself Im stuck with Unisyn due to the thousands of defined patches in a huge library.

Keep in mind MOTU is probably 95% Mac orientated. Nothing better illistrates this than the fact that until 1 month ago MOTU Tech Support didnt even know that the MIDI Timepiece AV (parallel port) does not work with Windows Xp when you are networking 2 MIDI Timpieces toghether for a total of 16 MIDI in 16 MIDI out! This is a very basic and common set-up. If they have much of a PC user base this is something they should have discovered when Windows XP was released. The fact is, until I brought this to their attention a month ago, tech support insisted it would work until they actually tried to network 2 units together with Windows XP.

I will state that through numerous emails and phone calls to MOTU Tech support they did come through last week and wrote a new .dll to correct this problem. But the fact remains that until a month ago, no one bothered to try to network 2 MIDI timepieces together which tells me there is not much MOTU PC interest out there.

[greggybud]

Received this email just the other day:

Greg -


Unisyn for PC is no longer featured on MOTU's website. You can view the list of profiles for Unisyn on your PC when adding a device.


Thanks for writing,
-Erik
MOTU Tech


While MOTU doesnt "feature" Unisyn for PC, Sweetwater and other distributors will still glady sell a copy for 199.00.

Any potential buyers need to be aware that unless they want an editor librarian that hasnt been updated since the late 90s they should not purchase Unisyn.

[knid]

*sigh* Yeah, at this point, I have been back and forth with MOTU on getting this #@*&^@#$* thing to work, with no luck at this point. I used to sell MOTU products when I worked at Guitar Center, and I was sure that a company that had such a good reputation in the Mac world had a good Windows product. Foolish me ... I should have done much more thorough research. I work for a very large group of post-production facilities in SoCal and I think it's safe to say that if anyone asks me about synth management software and is using Windows, I'll tell them to steer WAY clear of Unisyn. Having worked in the software industry myself, I am going to hold them to their claims, though, and either obtain a refund or get it to work. If the product is no longer supported or developed, they should pull the damned thing from the chain.

Thanks to everyone here who has tried to help! Think I'll go over to Sound Quest's site and check out the competitive upgrades ...

[sfz5]

Try checking out the ed/lib programs at http://www.synthzone.com/editlib.htm.

Many are free.

[greggybud]

Im happy with Unisyn for PC, its just a shame they decided to let it go down. If you have Windows 95 or 98 and all old synthesizers it still might be the way to go.

What Im upset about is the fact that they still market it for 200.00 when they dont even support it! I have sent them emails about this issue asking them to either drop it completely or upgrade/update the program and support it. All replies I have recieved from MOTU is that they are not doing anything anytime soon. Translation=we will sell it to whoever has 200.00 but we wont support it.

Editor librarians seem to be dead at this point. Your best bet definitely is Midiquest/Soundquest.

[qo]

Don't feel bad, PC users.

I wouldn't be surprised if Unisyn for the Mac doesn't make it to the MacIntel boxes. Maybe it'll run under Rosetta, but I doubt if MOTU is going to develop it further for any platform, including Mac.

I don't have any inside info to support this. Rather, I just think it's sorta obvious given that the last Unisyn update for mac was about 20 months ago (2004-04-12).

IMHO, it's a dead app.

[greggybud]

Don't feel bad, PC users.

I wouldn't be surprised if Unisyn for the Mac doesn't make it to the MacIntel boxes. Maybe it'll run under Rosetta, but I doubt if MOTU is going to develop it further for any platform, including Mac.

I don't have any inside info to support this. Rather, I just think it's sorta obvious given that the last Unisyn update for mac was about 20 months ago (2004-04-12).

IMHO, it's a dead app.

Sadly I think you might be right. What I dont understand is what happened to all those users who like to edit on a monitor instead of a 1x2 inch Emu display. And what happend to users who like to catagorize non-soft synth sounds for quick retrieval when working under time contraints? Did everyone else except me just give up on editor/ librarians?

Perhaps I should just toss all my old synths and buy a Triton like everyone else.

[cagedartist]

As I see it, musicians with MIDI rigs started to spend money on software instead of hardware. New people coming into the business (or the hobby) weren't buying MIDI modules, either. There are probably a dozen other contributing factors (too many mediocre devices with mediocre sales, better built-in user interfaces, included ed/lib software, more user presets), but the main point is that the revenue model, which was borderline profitable even in the best of days, broke. Today, nearly everyone - save for Michael Lambie at SoundQuest - has moved on to greener pastures. As a very small company (one person?) with no direct competitors, he might be able to keep going. Good luck to him!
-Bob

PS - qo says the last Unisyn update was 4/12/04? Did MOTU never ship the 12/7/04 update, which fixed a bunch of important bugs and included more than a dozen new or improved profiles? I honestly don't know - I've been exploring a different world since January of '05 and not paying an iota of attention to MOTU or Unisyn until yesterday.

[greggybud]

As I see it, musicians with MIDI rigs started to spend money on software instead of hardware. New people coming into the business (or the hobby) weren't buying MIDI modules, either. There are probably a dozen other contributing factors (too many mediocre devices with mediocre sales, better built-in user interfaces, included ed/lib software, more user presets), but the main point is that the revenue model, which was borderline profitable even in the best of days, broke. Today, nearly everyone - save for Michael Lambie at SoundQuest - has moved on to greener pastures. As a very small company (one person?) with no direct competitors, he might be able to keep going. Good luck to him!

I think your right on target. In a way sad but true.

[cdoug]

I have pretty much given up on Unisyn 1.5 for windows 95/98. It always sort of worked but not really well. I wish I had given it a good workout just after I bought it so that I could have returned it to Sweetwater.
It seems it was obsolete when I got it but Sweetwater never warned me of its limitations. Maybe they didn't and still don't know.

I never tried it on any other operating system but I don't want to have to downgrade OS as I move to new PC computers. I see no reason to have to move to an expensive MAC just because MOTU doesn't have the money or sense to support a product I bought in good faith. I already have one synth that has only an older versoin of profile available.

MOTU has never publicly stated any regret or commitment to Windows Unisyn owners. Its like they lost the one PC Windows programmer who could work on it and then all the MAC guys voted to not have anything to do with it anymore.

Sound Quest Midiquest here I come.

[greggybud]

I have several old hardware synths so I keep an old PC soly dedicated to running Unisyn under windows 98.

sorry it didnt work for you cdoug.....but I have never really used all the features. I use it as a synth editor of course, and a librarian to keep track of thousands of sounds which I have spent countless hours assigning definitions. This is why I desperately dont want to let go of it.....I spent too much time defining the patches and it works great!

It's very frustrating MOTU dropped it, and worse yet, wont allow anyone to write more profiles.

[markwayne]

As I see it, musicians with MIDI rigs started to spend money on software instead of hardware. New people coming into the business (or the hobby) weren't buying MIDI modules, either. There are probably a dozen other contributing factors (too many mediocre devices with mediocre sales, better built-in user interfaces, included ed/lib software, more user presets), but the main point is that the revenue model, which was borderline profitable even in the best of days, broke. Today, nearly everyone - save for Michael Lambie at SoundQuest - has moved on to greener pastures. As a very small company (one person?) with no direct competitors, he might be able to keep going. Good luck to him!

While all of this is true it doesn't give a software company an excuse to continue to market and promote a product they have no intention of even trying keep current. I see Unisyn as a stain on MOTU's rep in the software world. At the very least, not standing up and making a public policy statement one way or the other is bad karma.

I also believe there will always be hardware. After moving to using mostly softsynths, scattered across 4 slave machines, I have been slowly moving back towards my hardware boxes lately. No waiting for bootup. No loading a host application. Not to mention the very low odds of getting 2 Macs and 3 PCs to behave at any one given time and the heat and noise they generate and the power they waste. I've actually been eyeing a lot of the old hardware lately and thinking about selling a couple of these computers to finance a buying spree as the prices on quality used synths are just ridiculously low.

Wayne