Unitor Family Driver 3 released (with Apple Silicon support)

[des99]

Thanks for the info. If you're on an Intel machine, you don't need the Universal Binary driver anyway, your device would continue to work as normal and didn't require a new driver - so there was no reason to upgrade.

The new driver was really for Apple silicon machines, where the hardware had become door stops... I've no idea of the functionality you mention works on Apple silicon machines, and I can't check right now, but maybe someone else can (I only have an AMT8 anyway, so it doesn't have the sync stuff.)

[Andreas Lorentsen]

27 minutes ago, des99 said:

Thanks for the info. If you're on an Intel machine, you don't need the Universal Binary driver anyway, your device would continue to work as normal and didn't require a new driver - so there was no reason to upgrade.

That was my first thought as well.

My second thought was…."Maybe the new driver will unlock some hidden superpowers? Give it a go".

Famous last words….

All jokes aside: I don't use the sync stuff either, but I'll hang on to the 2.5 driver a bit more, considering that everything is working properly now  

 

[gkletch]

On 5/28/2022 at 5:32 PM, scottkrk said:

 

My next goal is to get SoundDiver working in Win11 compatibility mode via parallels on M1

Did you get SoundDiver working on M1 yet?

[bohredL]

Hello! Which software is used on m1 Mac’s for the unitor 8 and Amt8 to program the routing ? Is it included in this driver update ?

[des99]

No, this is just the driver.

Apparently, the system preferences third-party panel still works on M1 Macs and Monterey:

http://www.potm.org/software/Unitor/index.html

There's also a ctrlr editor for it, apparently.

Edited January 16, 2023 by des99

[bohredL]

RE: http://www.potm.org/software/Unitor/index.html
I can't get the pref pane working on my M1 - System Preferences says the panel needs to be updated by the developer for security reasons. The OS considers it malicious software. I've tried the "open anyway" override the 'unidentified developer' warning but to no avail.

"Preferences error could not load Unitor 8-64 preference pane"

Any ideas?

Edited February 10, 2023 by bohredL

[bohredL]

Weird...I tried over and over, and then finally it worked after the 8th time attempting.

[bohredL]

Hi everyone,

What are the current suggested ways to:
(a) program the 32 patches and,
(b) change between patches

on the Unitor8 having a Mac M1 USB?

Final alternative:
Or, in the worst case, I have a couple of old Macs still running 10.5.8 ...if someone can reference where I can download SoundDiver, Unitor8 Control, or whatever other software to program the Unitor8?

Note: I have downloaded the v3 Apple Driver.

(i) I have started mucking around with Kurt's System Preferences Pane Control Panel here:
https://www.potm.org/software/Unitor/

I have changed the patch configurations from the the Preferences Pane but it's kind of finicky what is taking hold on the Unitor8; seems to be just Patch1...how would I have confirmation that the other Patch locations have updated with what is showing in the Preferences Pane?

From the manual, I gather I would need to either:
(a) send Program change messages (but on which Midi Channel, etc...(page 58 says it's possible to define the Midi port and channel, but is 'Unitor8 Control' the only way to do this)? And what is the correct format of the message to access locations 0-31 (i.e the 32 patch locations)?
(b) According to the manual pages 59-62, connect a foot switch to the front panel (Click Input) and somehow configure the "MIDI mode" in the "flip menu" (only in 'Unitor8 Control?' or accessible and working with Kurt's pref pane?)...programming as described on page 62-63 "P UP and P DOWN?"
alternatively...even send auto into the Click input jack to change patches (only P UP)?

(ii) I also see that there's Ctrlr:
https://ctrlr.org/emagic-amt8-standalone-patch-editor/
(but I'm clueless of what MacOS that will work on).

Thanks in advance!

[bohredL]

update to my own question: I think I've figured most of it out, this is connecting via a M1 on Monterrey 12.7.2.

Not sure why it's not connecting right now on  M1 Max on Big Sur for some reason.

Pref Pane has a Click Tip and Click Ring menu, which I programmed as per the manual and I have a Boss FS-6 TRS footswitch set on momentary mode. That allows going up and down the 32 patch locations pressing buttons A and B.

Programming the Unitor8 via PrefPane is achieved by ensuring a connection by USB. I press and hold the "Panic/Patch" switch for 3 seconds to move between the 'computer' mode and the 'Patch mode.' The sync of programming happens when in 'computer mode' and the patches are accessible when changing into 'patch mode.'

Edited January 11 by bohredL

[Y-my-R]

I got Sounddiver working with my Unitor 8 on a MacBook Pro with an M3 Pro, yesterday (on Sonoma 14.2.1)

It works via "Crossover" (which is based on Wine, I think, but with a much easier to use GUI), and by setting it to emulate the Windows 2000 commands. I also set SoundDiver to release the MIDI driver in the background... not sure, but I think it acted a bit weird, before that. 

When scanning for the Unitor 8, it couldn't be found, btw... but this didn't seem to matter, b/c SoundDiver saw the MIDI ports from the Unitor, anyway. (Just listing Port 1 through Port 8, without saying what interface this belongs to).  

So, I only added my synths directly via SoundDiver, without adding the Unitor 8 module to it. It just worked that way. 

I only have a couple of external synths. Some were found when scanning, some I had to add manually, and then set the MIDI in/out ports in SoundDiver, and they were found and I could request their settings and edit them. 

I did have some trouble when scanning some of the synths, where SoundDiver kept crashing when trying to, such as when trying to scan anything from the "Performance" bank of a Yamaha EX5R. After messing around with transmission delays etc. and making sure the EX5R had that bank active, it worked, and I was able to request and edit the presets. 

My Yamaha CS2x also crashed SoundDiver when trying to scan, when it was NOT set to "Multi" mode. That's b/c the SD module for the CS2x only supports the XG bank, but not the Performance banks. Apparently, the right bank has to be active for this to work (I think it was the same way back in the day... hard to remember after 20 years, though, haha). 

My Alesis QSR was detected without a hitch - was scanned without problems and worked immediately. 

I also scanned a Roland TD10-Expanded - this one also required some tweaks... but probably because that's not connected to the Unitor, but slaved into the external MIDI ports of a Roland TD-30 module (that provides it's own MIDI port to the computer via USB). But even that worked, after tweaking the transmission buffers and delay settings, etc. 

I have to wire them up for MIDI, but also have an Alesis MidiVerb4 and Roland DEP-5, that I was able to add, but couldn't try them yet (MIDI not connected, and way things are set up in my racks, that's a bit of a project). 

I don't expect "Auto-Link" to work with Logic, and haven't tried it yet (also b/c I've been using Studio One for the last 5 years or so... but Logic before that since version 2). I'll try, eventually. 

Before going for Crossover, I unsuccessfully tried different Virtual Machine apps, such as UTM (a GUI and templates for QEMU) and VirtualBox with Windows 98, Windows XP and Windows 11 - both these VM apps gave errors when trying to switch the USB port for the Unitor to the VM, regardless of the installed OS. Looks like MacOS wouldn't release the Unitor driver, so the VM couldn't get to it. 

SoundDiver ran on all these old Windows versions, though. It was just the MIDI interface (Unitor) that didn't work, because it either couldn't be 'handed through' to the guest OS, or there was no driver that works in that OS (e.g. Win11). 

I also tried UTM with MacOS 9... but OS9 only has USB1.1 implementation, and my Mac has USB3... there's no driver, so it couldn't find the Unitor. It 

I then also tried Parallels (and like an idiot, paid for the upgrade before trying it... for general stuff UTM IMO works BETTER than Parallels), and that gave a message when trying to install a Windows version for which a Unitor 8 driver existed (e.g. Win98/Win2k), that the CPU architecture is not supported, and that only Operating Systems with ARM64 (Apple Silicon) CPU architectures can be run in Parallels - and in support forums, claimed it's the Mac's fault, not Parallels - well, UTM and VirtualBox can both run different processor architectures... so, no Parallels... its YOUR fault that you can't emulate different CPU architectures. Other FREE(!!) VM apps can do that quite well.

And when it comes to Windows, the only version that supports the ARM64 architecture, is Win11 (well, Win10 also, if you can find an installer image that still has ARM64 support in it... looks like they removed that in newer versions). 
All this won't work, though, since there's no 64-bit driver for the Unitor, and Windows 11 will not recognize the old existing 32-bit driver for Windows for the Unitor. So, unless there'll be new Windows 64-bit driver released, too, that's going to be a dead end. 

In the end, "Crossover" (aka "Wine") worked, because this is not a Virtual Machine, but it only emulates the environment the PC application itself needs and translates the OS and driver calls from that environment (I used Win2k, b/c that's the last officially supported Windows OS with SoundDiver 3), to the native MacOS/Apple-Silicon environment. 

I don't really expect this to work 100% stable at all times, but I haven't really used my external synths much for MANY years, since I'm totally unwilling to dig for all the needed parameters from tiny displays and "unique" organizations of menus and knobs on the front panel. Even if I can just get in there, "design" a sound and save often, and get out again, and have my sound, this is still a HUGE improvement, and basically gives me my synths back. 

I hope this helps others find a way to get SoundDiver back with their Unitor/AMT on an M1/M2/M3 Mac 🙂

 

[des99]

17 minutes ago, Y-my-R said:

I don't expect "Auto-Link" to work with Logic

Autolink was never supported in Logic on OSX, as the mechanic that Logic and SD used to talk to either other was no longer available.