Patch Distribution and the future of Emagic..
 

Howdy peeps!

Ive been plowing through the various archives of Virus Patches on the access site and a few others and i have noticed that the following 3 formats seem dominant.

- Standard Midi file (with sysex)
- .SYX sysex dump
- .LIB SoundDiver file

Now since Access makes that handy "Free" version on their website i've been seeing quite a few people using the SoundDiver format, and i cant complain about the results...

Now here's where i'm getting concerned.
As you know a couple of months ago Apple bought Emagic OUTRIGHT and proceeded to sell "Apple" brand Logic Audio and Logic express..
...But what happened to SoundDiver?

Alas, I have heard no news about any continued support or development for SoundDiver so where are users to go for the latest supported editor/librarian.

Just wondering what would be the next step for distribution of patches once SoundDiver eventually drops of the face of the planet.
MIDI and Sysex are universal, but you get no control of where the pathces go.
There are other utilities such as MidiQuest XL but they are not freely available like the "Bundle" version of SoundDiver Access supplies on their website.

Strangely enough I had absolutely heaps of trouble trying to use the free/bundled Virus SoundDiver CD with my Indigo (v1), and that was even after downloading the updates (for that CD Virus SoundDiver version) at that time. I tried everything over a stretch of about two days, but my computer and virus just refused to detect and communicate with each other.

A bit controversial, but seeing as I only use SoundDiver with the Virus alone, I decided to ditch the Virus version and try a cracked version of the full SoundDiver program and that worked brilliantly from the off, without a hitch. I still don't know why the original CD version didn't work, as the settings and configuration were exactly the same. :?

Even though Apple now owns Emagic, the latest full Windows version of SoundDiver still caters for all Virus owners up to and including the "C" engine. And of course Access bundle their own proprietary, custom-designed integrated software with the new "TI" Virus, which completely does away with the need for SoundDiver for this incarnation. Yay!

I thought Sounddiver was going to be integrated in Logic, so it would make it not only a good sequencer, but also a good librarian and patch editor for all existing synths. Like a total all-in-one solution for synth sequencer users. Maybe Apple will do that, or simply dismantle it.

BTW, I also had lots of trouble with Sounddiver and my VirusC. I thought it was Sounddiver, but I've never had any other problem with all other synths I've tried it with. Actually, it works flawlessly with all other synths.

If you are using Windows (on a PC), have a Virus C, and you're using the full version of SoundDiver...

....I think it suggests to install SoundDiver as normal, then go here:

http://www.emagic.de/support/downloa...rW.php?lang=EN

....and download the "SoundDiver 3.0.5.2 (5,7 MB, ZIP File)" file at the top of that page.

Once it's downloaded, extract it, then copy all of the contents inside the "into Diver" folder and paste them into your Emagic\SoundDiver3.0\Diver folder depending on wherever you installed the original program....

(For example, into C:\Program Files\Emagic\SoundDiver\Diver )

...You will have to overwrite some of the older files with the new ones.

I never had any troubles with the bundled version of Sound Diver that came with my RackXL....

Im on Mac OSX though, so maybe there are some issues with PC version?

I also had lots of problems with the bundled Virus SoundDiver but the full version works well even tho I didnt used it much...Not all that convenient in my opinion!

But would be cool to have it within a sequencer a bit like the TI should be doing!

I'm guessing that the windows version is a piece of crap, cause i've had no probs whatsoever with the OSX version..

Oh well.. Such is life..

In regards to using an editor/librarian within your sequencer, I just ordered MidiQuest XL which does VST integration as well as a name server for all your patches on your various synths (in cubase).

I'll let you know how that works out when it arrives.

Great! Let us know!

I'm curious to hear about it...

Heres some links with info.

http://www.squest.com/Macintosh/Midi...LFeatures.html
http://www.squest.com/Windows/MidiQu...LFeatures.html
http://www.squest.com/Macintosh/Inst...rus/index.html


Looks good on paper..
I'll have see how well it actualy works cause the demo doesnt do the VST support.
Otherwise it seems to be a pretty well featured editor/librarian.