Emagic SoundDiver 3.0

I have used SoundDiver 3.0 on and old Mac (G3) and a brand new PC. It seems to work on the old Mac just fine as an interactive patch editor. After installing it on my new PC running XP professional, SoundDiver 3.0 has crashed the machine three times.

To be fair, the manual reccomends Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0, 2000, and windows 98 Second Edition.

I'm using a MIDIman Midisport 2x2 USB interface with all the latest drivers installed.

My new PC is an AMD Athlon XP 2400+ with 256 MB DRR 2100 Corsair memory.

I use older gear like DX7s and Roland D550s and Kawai K1s, nothing really oddball or uncommon, so I have no problem so far on the Mac finding and editing these devices. But on the new PC, forget it!

I guess if you are planning on running SoundDiver on a newer operating system (anything beyond 2000) this program won't handle it.

This is a flakey piece of software. I am suprised and disappointed.

I would not depend on SoundDiver. I can't say that it doesn't work, or has never worked, but it behaves differently each time I use it. It always seems to surprise me, and sometimes suprises are not what you want when you are working on projects with deadlines!

I am about to go into the "wonderful" world of customer support and try to navigate across the Atlantic ocean via the Internet to see if I can get any resolve. Maybe there are downloads that I am yet unaware of that would solve my SoundDiver 3 woes. I can only hope at this point. More later.

If this product were lost or stolen, I would have to pity the poor fool for the headaches he/she are about to have when they try to attempt to use it.

Using the latest 3.05. This thing took me a year and a day to configure/set up, but since my rig was configured it has been pretty interesting using the thing. Hint, you've absolutely got to read the gargantual manual in order to get anything out of this program. On the other hand, the reason I bought it, "Autolink with Logic", still doesn't really work correctly; I couldn't update my patches in Logic using the libraries in SD while both were running, which was the advertised advantage of having the program in the first place.

See above re. Autolink - undoubtedly one of the greatest ideas going - doesn't really work, and there's no clear reason why (yes, I tried all of the approximately 10 pages or so of stuff in the manual re. Autolink). I'm still amortizing my blue-white G3 (with a g4 cpu upgrade), so I'm rather invested in staying with os9 for awhile to come, so I felt all right jumping in to this program, even though I think its librarian/synth model database is sure to be incorporated into Apple's OSX at some point in the future, owing to Emagic's acquisition by Apple. I only wish it were a bit simpler to install and configure. The librarian/editor screens are quite good for my synths, and I'm not disappointed with the 500+ units (including some very new ones).

Hmmm; it's somewhat temperamental, even though I'm a guy using Logic 6.1.1, unitor8, amt8, logic control + 3 control xt's... my all-emagic rig seems difficult for sd3 to identify with sometimes! what's up with that?!!!

It's getting steadily better as I learn more about it, though, so I'll give it a 7.

No issues dealing with the emagic folks. The updates (3.04 and 3.05) were what caused me to purchase the product, after the crack someone gave me was of absolutely no use. The manual is well-written and exhaustive, albeit a little light in matters of installation, configuration and the like. For that, the purchase was worth it b/c at least now the program is functioning. And when it's running at the same time as Logic (with Autolink 'sort of' working, as it does now), it sure is sweet!

I would replace this product, or else wait until Apple/emagic put its features in the OSX Audio control panel somewhere and upgrade my whole computer.

I think emagic bought this product from some individual/small company several years ago, and let said company continue updating the product, rather than applying its own crack team to ironing out the bugs, etc. If they were to do this in a future revision, the product would be unstoppable.

Still don't know how to use it. It only worked on 1 of 3 of supposably supported devices

Lots of promises but haven't been able to use it cuz I can't seem to learn how.

No sounds just editor/librarian

Graphic glithes. Still don't know how to use it.

Haven't even contacted them about it. But had great servic and help with my Logic Audio Platinum 5. They answered all my questions via e-mail within the same day.

Useless. I don't want it. Never been able to understand it or have it work for me.

Using latest version 3.04 - the problem is configuration. Once you're setup, it can be pretty stable, but then again, its full of bugs, like icons changing, or irregular crashes - more so than any other package I've used.

Well, it has lots of features, but many don't work right. What's the use of features which don't work? Support is pretty minimal, and their claim to fame is the number of supported devices - though they're usually only half-baked non-functional adaptations and not real working editors. Of my kit, only about 1/2 are actually supported by SD and of those, not all are actual editors or work.

One of the most annoying features is cd-locked copy protection, requiring you to re-register using the master CD on a regular basis. I can understand the need for copy protection to some extent, but this is totally annoying and overkill IMO.

N/A

Crash crash crash

Support tends to be snotty, "your problem" type approach. Support for new models is nonexistent - promises abound but little payoff.

If someone would do this right, they'd clean up in the industry.

Let me state that I have used (successfully) E/Ls (that's Editor/Librarians) from Opcode and MOTU. Maybe I had to check the manual once or twice (or thrice in the case of OMS), but other than that, they worked as advertised.

SoundDiver simply DID NOT Work. First, while it's supposed to have over 500 device profiles, it was stumped by most of my modules (did not list them) or got them wrong, even though 99% of the devices were in its database. I had to manually tell it what my set-up was, one synth at a time.

Then, it ever so slowly sucked all the patch data from my synths to create a library, but it wasn't the exact patch info I had. For example, if I'd created a new patch in a synth, this was ignored and replaced with the default. Ugggh!

Since this asks "how hard is editing patches?" and since this is the reason for this thing's existence, I could not edit a single patch. Click on one patch and if I was lucky, one of the modules would play a patch. Not necessarily the module I had clicked on, mind you, but a patch at least. And no matter where else I clicked, from that point, the same patch played yet again. And again. And again.

I ran it without OMS. With OMS. Tried a multitude of possible settings. Tried reinstalling. Rebooting. Re-everything. Nothing worked!

Well, it's feature packed, if it worked, so it might as well have had NO features. I'd say its MIDI capability is the technological equivalent of two tin-cans tied together with string that was then set on fire and put out by an elephant. Then buried.

"Expressiveness/Sounds"

It's only supposed to do two things Edit and Library. It did neither.

Read above. The Yugo of software. One of the worst products I've ever purchased. Period.

Zilch. Never responded to e-mail. Asked Sweetwater to contact them. Didn't respond to them either without repeated tries. Finally Sweetwater got them to respond with a generic, "We have no idea what's wrong, have him try this, this and this." Wizard! Of course, I'd already spent HOURS trying this, that, and the other thing. Frankly, if they'd been moderately professional with tech support (or tried even), I might not have been so steamed as to rant here.

THE WORST. I put my review in synths hoping someone will read it and avoid the nightmare I went through. MAYBE it will work on your Mac or a PC, but it did not deliver on my G4/OS 9.1. The software was returned (after some headaches from Sweetwater, but that's another frustrating story).

I will never buy ANY eMagic product and if one is given to me, I will be insulted and throw it in the nearest dumpster (thought that might be cruel to the dumpster).

Been playing some (yikes) 30 years. I currently run DP3 (works like a champ), RS-9, XV-5050, Virtuoso 2000, Ensoniq MR rack, QSR, and Pro-52. All work great.