Macs, MIDI and Live Settings

[llang629]

Disappointed that Macs running the latest software can no longer use the Roland Editor and Librarian software natively to manage a Juno-G. I have a virtual PC on my Mac for the sole purpose of running these programs.

Seeking an alternative, I've been looking into how these programs communicate with the keyboard. Looks like all the parameters for a Patch or a Performance are available via the MIDI implementation. So at least in theory, one could write Mac software to manipulate these parameters, comparable to Editor or Librarian (or perhaps even better), by reading and writing the correct hex sequences. No small task, of course.

An ongoing disappointment to me has been that the Librarian software couldn't manage Live Settings. Considering the tedium of manipulating Live Settings to follow different set lists for successive gigs, some less cumbersome method via a computer interface would be useful. However, these parameters do not seem to be available via the MIDI implementation, and so not open to such a program.

Perhaps one could reverse-engineer the BACKUP file format and adjust the Live Settings that way. But since that file format is undocumented (unlike the MIDI implementation, which has some sketchy documentation), it would require a fair amount of reverse engineering.

Just curious if anyone else has thought about these issues, and even better, taken steps to program some new tools.

[marczellm]

IMO, it is a very bad situation in which we are at the mercy of synth manufacturers. Whether they release an editor at all; whether the editor is free or for money; whether it is complete and bug-free; whether it runs on your OS or not. I think someone should write a configurable editor which could handle all kinds of synths given a config file with the MIDI implementation chart.

(Although Apple should also keep their OS backwards compatible.)

[wave]

Perhaps the best thing you can do is using VMWare Fusion, install Windows XP or 7 32 bit and install Juno G Editor.

[llang629]

Wave, thanks for the suggestion. That's essentially what I've done (using Parallels instead of VMware).

Unfortunately, even that program does not allow PC editing of the Live Settings.