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AMT8, Unitor & MT4 - M1 driver (Big Sur) [SOLVED]


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Bummer that Apple has not updated their drivers for Emagic MIDI Interfaces yet, I really hope they do someday soon, I think I will join in on the feedback route with everyone and demand them to do so!

 

Really good news for those of you with MOTU MIDI Interfaces... Yes, MOTU Just Updated to Big Sur And Apple Silicone on June 8th !

 

https://motu.com/en-us/news/motu-and-macos-big-sur/

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I did only make a build from Yves Salathe's Generic USB Driver nothing too fancy really.

 

I hooked a synth today and:

- AMT8 is receiving on all input ports, synth is playing.

- MIDI messages from the synth are received by the AMT8 but not the computer.

 

Nothing to share for now that can really be use in production and that can't be easily redone.

Would be nice to have Kurt Arnlund view on it (wrote him today).

Thanks for the update. Hope springs eternal…

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I have 2 Unitor MKIIs chained via RS422 so if you would like a beta tester please let me know. :)

 

(I upgraded to a MacMini M1 from a 2009 Mac Pro and I still have to use the 2009 machine running Mojave to drive my midi gear!)

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The Unitor family drivers are old and date back to when Emagic had companion interfaces for Logic. For MIDI, that hardware is a bit antiquated given that now most MIDI 1 connections are via a single USB cable, wireless or even ethernet connection and MIDI 2 keyboards are starting to appear. So I would not expect Apple to update or support drivers for old Unitor/AMT hardware which is only available on the used market. If you need to connect older keyboards with 5 pin DIN MIDI jacks, a modern MIDI DIN hub can be had from the likes of ESI, e.g., https://www.esi-audio.com/products/m8uex That one automatically senses the if the DIN connection is an input or output and treats it accordingly. The iConnectivity interfaces handle DIN/USB MIDI connections and can send them over your local network, https://www.iconnectivity.com/midi-interfaces-1
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The Unitor family drivers are old and date back to when Emagic had companion interfaces for Logic.

 

As it's basically Unitor/AMT owners here on this thread, we're well aware of what these devices are...

 

Apple *have* updated the drivers previously though, so they definitely were supporting them for some time.

 

For MIDI, that hardware is a bit antiquated given that now most MIDI 1 connections are via a single USB cable

 

Most new devices yes, but many of us have MIDI devices going back quite some time, including things like MCU's that require a MIDI IN/OUT port per device, so you need multiple MIDI ports just to handle those.

 

So I would not expect Apple to update or support drivers for old Unitor/AMT hardware which is only available on the used market.

 

This is not about people *buying* Unitors/AMT's, it's for people that have had these interfaces at the heart of their rig for years, rendered inoperable by the lack of a driver only ("antiquated" they may be, but they are otherwise still perfectly useful and viable hardware that provide important functionality).

 

If you need to connect older keyboards with 5 pin DIN MIDI jacks, a modern MIDI DIN hub can be had from the likes of ESI, e.g., https://www.esi-audio.com/products/m8uex That one automatically senses the if the DIN connection is an input or output and treats it accordingly. The iConnectivity interfaces handle DIN/USB MIDI connections and can send them over your local network, https://www.iconnectivity.com/midi-interfaces-1

 

There are actually very few multiport MIDI interfaces on the market now, due in part to the proliferation of USB and the general moving away from hardware into the box, so replacing 8 port interfaces with something that will continue to MIDI interface on modern systems isn't easy - most of these devices are old and unsupported now. The ESI unit above is non-rackmounted and, having class-compliant drivers, might not support things like MIDI timestamping etc to give good MIDI performance.

 

No one expects gear to go on forever, but it is frustrating when perfectly good functional gear gets related for scrap when a slight rejig of the driver code when Apple change the OS significantly could keep tens of thousands of units in service and avoiding recycling...

 

My guess is Apple probably feel the same way about supporting these devices, and probably won't update the driver, which would be a shame, but it is what it is...

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I just submitted feedback to Apple asking them to consider long-time Logic-users like myself and to please update the Unitor/AMT8 drivers.

 

If everyone here does the same, it might make them aware that they have many Logic folks who need such things.

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There are actually very few multiport MIDI interfaces on the market now, due in part to the proliferation of USB and the general moving away from hardware into the box, so replacing 8 port interfaces with something that will continue to MIDI interface on modern systems isn't easy.

This is my situation - for those with legacy outboard synths and effects I haven't found many choices for rack mounted 8 port interfaces. The M8U and the MioXL have ports in front, which isn't the cleanest for a rack mounted setup.The Midiplus MIDI16x16 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CRGFTQB/) is midi class-compliant but is a non-standard rack size, and their customer support is abysmal. I have been going back and forth with them for over a month trying to get some more specific technical information about handling sysex with older synths. I understand that some interfaces can't do that. The MOTU options seem the closest to the Unitor in design (https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MIDIExpXTUSB--motu-midi-express-xt-usb), but they only just got their drivers updated for Apple Silicon June 8th, almost 8 months after the M1's release!

 

No one expects gear to go on forever, but it is frustrating when perfectly good functional gear gets related for scrap when a slight rejig of the driver code when Apple change the OS significantly could keep tens of thousands of units in service and avoiding recycling....

What's particularly frustrating is that the existing driver seems to work with Big Sur on Intel, just not on the M1 chip... This wouldn't be the first time that a Mac upgrade forces me into a very expensive repurchase of perfectly good hardware due to an outdated driver that a vendor won't update (I am looking at you, Tascam FW-1884).

 

Which really makes me wary of vendor dependency... I am considering only purchasing core audio and class-compliant gear from now on. My two Unitors have handled all sysex and timing duties beautifully for over a decade - even on a MacBook Air running Big Sur - until they became bricks the instant they connected to my new M1 Mac Mini.

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What's particularly frustrating is that the existing driver seems to work with Big Sur on Intel, just not on the M1 chip...

 

Hmm, which suggests that it could be as simple as basically a tweak and recompile as a universal binary, and nothing more...

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...As it's basically Unitor/AMT owners here on this thread, we're well aware of what these devices are...

...Apple *have* updated the drivers previously though, so they definitely were supporting them for some time...

...very few multiport MIDI interfaces on the market now ... the ESI unit above is non-rackmounted and, having class-compliant drivers, might not support things like MIDI timestamping etc to give good MIDI performance...

 

Suggesting alternative interfaces is not to say current interfaces are exact replacements for the old Unitor/AMT interfaces. No one device usually has everything on (or off) the wish list, e.g., someone may not need the video/sync features in the Unitor but paid for them anyway. Landing on a random page from this thread may not reflect those units date back to the time of Emagic support for MacOS 9 and Windows 95. The last update to the Unitor drivers looks like 2010 for MacOS 10.5 which is not exactly recent by release standards. Newer interfaces support external instruments such that multi-player mode in Logic works along with additional options for MIDI routing not in the Unitors; iConnect and others have rack mounted devices. I think MTS (MIDI timestamp) was developed at MOTU, adopted in MacOS and ultimately put into the core MIDI framework. MOTU currently advertises MIDI interfaces with MTS; maybe they're using current core MIDI whereas the Unitor drivers may not. I would like the Unitor mkII we have to work natively on M1 machines as well, but we saw this in the transition from PPC to Intel. My experience with Apple is this need not hinge upon the technical issues, i.e., engineering reports it can be done but support and marketing veto it. Given what's currently on the market for MIDI interfaces I don't expect Apple to issue updates that can be interpreted to mean they support legacy/discontinued hardware. So we are looking at buying some new interfaces.

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I just don't see the point of arguing against the AMT8/Unitor8/mt4. It's amazing they've been supported for so long. And it'd be very nice indeed for them to continue working. Because for a number of people these devices do exactly what they/we need. As has been pointed out the alternatives are rare, driver support spotty (motu), additional features not necessarily compelling and some design choices a real disadvantage (not rack mountable, ports on front). Yes, I'd be surprised to see Apple update the driver but why not ask through their support form? And why not root for a third party driver one user here seems to be making real progress on?
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yes it does use MIDITimeStamp for driver>clients(softwares) messages.

 

Awesome!

 

Out of curiosity and because all documentation in the wild reports the AMT8 Product ID as 0x0002 while mine is 0x0001. What does yours say?

 

Product ID: 0x0001

Vendor ID: 0x086a (Emagic Soft-und Hardware Gmbh)

Version: 0.01

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Unitor8 MkII:

 

Product ID: 0x0001

Vendor ID: 0x086a (Emagic Soft-und Hardware Gmbh)

Version: 0.01

Speed: Up to 12Mb/sec

Manufacturer: Emagic GmbH

Location ID: 0x14630000 / 9

Current Available (mA): 500

Current Required (mA): 0

Extra Operating Current (mA): 0

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THANK YOU so much for even attempting this.

 

FWIW, I can confirm the Unitor MKII has the same info as reported - and this is 2 units chained via RS422.

 

Unitor8 MkII:

Product ID: 0x0001

Vendor ID: 0x086a (Emagic Soft-und Hardware Gmbh)

Version: 0.01

Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec

Manufacturer: Emagic GmbH

Location ID: 0x5d100000 / 1

Current Available (mA): 500

Current Required (mA): 0

Extra Operating Current (mA): 0

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  • 3 months later...

Hey folks,

Following this thread with great interest as I also have an AMT8 and just got stuck as you are with my new Mac Mini M1 :?

Have we got any news from user mcng ? I don't see his messages anymore :?

Does Kurt Arnlund from Unitor 8 Preference Panel answers any messages ?

 

I remember a very near past when ABLETON use to have a front picture on their website, with a studio fully equiped and an AMT8 in the picture :P

 

ableton-live-10-release_1_web-.Jm_brmmqqdGpDbsxsWlbKFYAMj8vfXZ.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...
UPDATE on Intel MacBook Air.

I got it working on my laptop now.

I manually transferred the midi driver (Unitor Family Driverw 2.5) to /User/Library/Audio/MIDI Drives and it worked right away without restart.

It's also showing in Midi Studio.

 

Did the same thing on my M1, but no luck :(

Hi do you have the drivers for the mt8 or know a link where I can download them as just got a new Mac but can’t find the drivers for the MT8.

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