A quick check of connections can be made by selecting each instrument in turn and grabbing a patch or two. Unisyn works well with a MIDI patchbay, making all the routings beautifully transparent, but even if you only use a simple manual switcher, Unisyn can remember this and prompt you when necessary. The excellent manual talks you through configuration in a friendly and reassuring manner. Sadly there was no support for my Boss SE50 multi‑effects, or my Korg S3 drum machine, and I guess it's still a little early for my sexy new Korg Prophecy. It took me about 20 minutes to set up communication with nine instruments in my system, including telling Unisyn which MIDI port, channel and MIDI patchbay program each of them expect. This is a procedure that will vary according to the size of your rig. Usefully, MOTU have provided several generic 'SysEx dump' profiles which allow you to obtain data from synths which are not currently supported - obviously you can't do much other than send and receive, but the facility is welcome nonetheless. These profiles are sourced from a number of different authors (there's no provision for creating your own) and are free to registered users (see 'Unisyn Supported Instruments' box). Synths are accessed by a series of profiles, with the more complex instruments being separated into individual modules - there are six for the Korg Wavestation, for example. Unisyn is a single program that allows you to edit a wide range of MIDI devices from a consistent‑looking set of screens.
Now that Unisyn for Windows has finally arrived, this patient X‑Or owner is anxious to see if it was worth the wait. In 1993, Dr T's sold the program to Mark Of The Unicorn and, although the Mac version quickly reappeared under the new name Unisyn, the PC version went into oblivion. It was intended to grow with you, since new instruments could easily be added in the form of new 'profiles', and it was available for the Macintosh, PC, Amiga and Atari ST. Released back in 1989, Dr T's system eXclusive ORchestrator ( X‑Or) provided revolutionary control over an entire MIDI system, replacing a stack of dedicated synth editors and librarians. Paul Nagle perks up his patches with Unisyn. Windows users looking for comprehensive and professional editor/librarian support for their MIDI instruments may not need to look any further.
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