Unisyn - Midiquest

Every now and then I get to thinking about how simple it would be to make an editor for the few hard-to-edit synths I have, if only I knew more about the midi spec. One day I'll make something. But then I get to looking for something to buy, and every time I get rage mad at the fuck all shitty state of this area of software. Midiquest is literally some of the worst software I have ever seen, and Unisyn doesn't even work on a mac with anything newer than 10.4... Unisyn is $200, and Midiquest is $400 for fuck's sake. What a joke. Do people actually buy that shit?

Does anyone use either of these?

Is that literally it?

Midiquest is pretty much a black box halfway vaporware program. It seems very useful until you actually try it out on whatever synths it claims to support.

the only feature i've really gotten success out of is the patch morphing and semi random patch generator, but only on one of my synths out the 5 that i've trie it with. Not in a single instance did i get their fancy GUI breakout knob/fader display to do a fucking thing to my synth.

Sounddiver is superior in terms of realtime editing and patch making, but only the newest iteration of sounddiver (a beta) on the mac which requires an old Logic dongle is really worth exploring imo. It unfortunately doesn't have the patch librarian and morphing features Midiquest has, but if you are patient with it (it crashes a shit load) you can get pretty deep into your synth.

i prefer just standalone editors for the stuff i own, like Zeedit for the FS1r, i find pretty flawless. One of the best editors i've used. Same with the Polyevolver editor. Both of those to me are hallmarks of great software editors.

edit: so in essence you should really dive into this project idea you've mentioned before. I will help in any way i can, i'd even be interested in investing in something that i could really use to exploit some of my more untapped synths. I don't fully understand sysex strings, but for someone who did it would just take a lot of time and dedication. I don't think technically speaking it would be that hard.
The best way to start something like this in my opinion is to gather together all the decent and powerful hardware synths that do not have sufficient or workable editors already and use that as a starting point.

oh i failed to mention a sort of indie version of Midiquest, called CTRLR
So far i haven't had much luck with it, but it seems like a promising framework that could probably be explored more.
http://ctrlr.org/

i wrongly assumed i had used Unisyn before, but i can't remember ever trying it. I should give it a go, i have a non intel mac still running a pre 10.4 OSx.

just off the top of my head here are some powerful beast synths (and others) that have inadequate or non existent editors that should have very good ones

Yamaha VL1, VL70, VLM, DX-200

Technics WSA1r, WSA1

Roland V-synth GT, XT

Elektron Machinedrum, Monomachine (people might argue these don't need editors, but i beg to differ)

Kawai K5000r, K5000

Dave Smith Tempest

Marion Modular

Eventide Eclipse, H3000

Kurzweil K2000R, K2VX, K2500, K2500R, K2600, K2600R, K2661

if you made a software editor that encompassed all of these only you would be filling a huge void/niche that i think could actually make money if you wanted to sell it commercially. There are many pros who work in sound design jobs who would clamor to get a hold of something like a VST shell version of these synths

ya I know. If I were a real developer, i'd do a indygogo campaign and bang it out. Sell it for $50 and kill the fuck out of midiquest. I can't believe how bad that software is really, or how often you hear it mentioned online. I guess that asshole still makes some money off it.

Yes! CTRLR looks awesome. I will try to make a panel for my cz-101 when I can. :) Just what I wanted! Thanks!

let us know if you have any luck. I had a little bit trying to get the front end for my JD-990 rack synth working. the parameter changes for the most part worked but things like patch loading did not. I don't own any of the other synths they built front ends for, but it would be cool if someone who did could report back on how good the functionality is.

ya I'll try a cz-101 editor. I also just got Unisyn. I'll try that out too and report back.

wow! Unisyn is actually really good. I haven't gotten into any of the more esoteric stuff like patch blending, or any of that, but so far it works great. It edits my cz-101, which means the synth might actually turn out to be useful. :p It doesn't save patches without a mem card and so on top of being hard to edit dumps your work once you switch it off. lol. I got some great sounds out of it after about 30 mins and have them all saved on the laptop. Nice.

I recently got a d-110, which is kind of a 80s hoss (8 outs and like 32 voices) but is fiddly like a mother fucker. The editor makes it a breeze. So nice! Now I just have to figure out how to integrate everything in a midi setup which wont require tons of pluggin in and out all the time.

Well done on Unisyn—I used to use that a little, back in the day.

I also had a CZ-101 at one time, and I do remember being able to save patches. And also there was a back up battery. I definitely wrote patches right on the 101, and saved them…?

ya you can do it, but if you unplug the unit they all get lost. There's no backup battery. :(

Ah, I must be misremembering. Still, have you ever listened to the randomized patches that appear after you do that? I mean, unplug it and let the memory scramble. I remember them being AMAZING

haha no I've never had that happen on a cz. The ds-8 does that and it is amazing. I even made a couple of videos of it haha.

I think it was because of the weird 8-stage envelopes or whatever but those rando patches could be a serious emotional journey. Like a 2-minute-long patch that just keeps making gradually evolving exploding lava sounds. I do regret getting rid of that CZ.

thats pretty funny, the only other keyboard I've had do anything remotely close to that was a Casio-mate, a really shitty Michael JAckson tie-in keyboard that retailed for about $100 back in 1991. Are Casio's known for their erratic low battery behavior?

Oh nice. So I recently picked up a roland d-110 for real cheap, and got unisyn working with it. It can make some really gnarly sounds... Not at all analog or anything like that, but it's got like 4 oscillators per voice, each with either a synth wave (square or saw) or one of about 70 pcm waves. Then you can smash the 2 pairs together. The editor makes the synth really powerful actually as it's got 8 fickin voices, each with it's own out. :p Thing's kinda owning my mixer right now hahah. Looking forward to digging in deeper. Unisyn also works great with the cz-101 which is also epic. I've been waiting and hunting so long for something to allow all this. Yay!