Using Emagic SoundDiver in 2022

A new Mac and a new set of problems for running SoundDiver...

I recently got a new M1 iMac for my music making endeavours and I’m now using Logic Pro X for the first time for creating music. I’m still using my Emagic AMT8 MIDI interface as Apple have now released a new driver for M1 Macs.
The new iMac left me with a bit of a problem with wanting to use SoundDiver. I’ve previously been using SoundDiver on Windows XP within Parallels on my last Mac, an Intel Mac Pro, sharing the AMT8 between Logic on the Mac and SoundDiver on Windows XP via Parallels.

After spending a bit of time researching how to run XP on Parallels on M1 Macs I realised this wasn’t going to be straightforward. I looked at other emulators for Windows XP and I got the feeling they wouldn’t work 100% either. Another option was the rtpMIDI route but I’d tried that once before and it didn’t work successfully with all the SoundDiver modules I use.

So I felt like I was in a bit of a hole with using SoundDiver on my new M1 iMac. I started to ask myself what the ideal working solution would be.
For me, the ideal scenario (and always has been) would be to be able to use Logic Pro and SoundDiver at the same time.

Hardware to the rescue?

I did have an old Power Mac G3 and a Unitor8 (pre USB version) MIDI interface in storage. Both still worked, which is pretty cool since they are both over 20 years old! I started them up and wondered whether this hardware route would be the way to go?

I had given some thought to this solution in the past, this is what I had in mind…
Buy 8 MIDI thru boxes and 8 MIDI merge boxes, hook them up to all the ins and outs of the AMT8 and Unitor8 and hopefully I’ll be able to use Logic and SoundDiver at the same time with all my MIDI equipment.
I already had a MIDI merge box and a MIDI thru box so I could test this out before having to purchase anything. I got everything hooked up and thankfully IT WORKED!

So here we have 8 MIDI thru boxes, 8 MIDI merge boxes (all from MIDI Solutions) and 32 MIDI patch cables!

And here we have it all hooked up.

And here’s the working setup - Logic Pro X running on my M1 iMac and SoundDiver running on Mac OS 9 on my G3 Power Mac.

Solved!

So what we have is the iMac using the AMT8 and all its 8 outs go to the inputs of the MIDI merge boxes. The Power Mac G3 is using the Unitor8 and all 8 outs of that are going to the other input on the merge boxes. The output of the merge boxes goes to the inputs on the MIDI equipment.
All the outputs of the MIDI equipment goes to the input of the MIDI thru boxes. Each of the 2 outputs of the thru boxes goes to the inputs of the AMT8 and the Unitor8.

This setup allows me to use all my MIDI devices with Logic and SoundDiver at the same time. This is something I’ve not been able to do since using them both on Mac OS 9 a long time ago!

I have to say I’m very happy with this working setup now. It’s amazing how much more creative you can be when you have all your SoundDiver libraries immediately available when you’re working on a track.

I have written this article to share my experiences with any SoundDiver users who are looking for a solution to use the program with an M1 Mac.
If anyone has any further questions about how I’m using this setup please feel free to get in touch.