Unitor 8 & Atari

[Blewisboy]

This is a shame... So in terms of MIDI patch bays available to install on SD2 (theres loads so its fine), the Unitor 8 would be the one you'd want to go for; Apple in the past year or so updated Logic X so it has backwards compatibility with the Unitor 8 over the usb on the unit.. I almost got one before as they work really well with Logic; One actual cool move from Apple with Emagic seeing as it's a unit from 1998, 8x8 interface and they're only about £100 now and theres loads about!

However

You can see it in the install list but when you click it it's asking for the Unitor8.mod file which is missing.. Dissapointing. There's not much chance that's gonna pop up is there heh

I'll keep digging ha.

[cb170]

Unitor wasn't a thing for the Atari ST, so I doubt there was ever an Atari-compiled Sound Diver module for it. In the Atari days (Creator up to Logic 2.5), we were using the Log 3 + Export etc for more MIDI ports - Unitor hadn't arrived yet and was still a way off, and the first Unitor was a serial port interface that worked on PCs and Macs. If you couldn't connect it to the Atari, you almost certainly couldn't talk to it over the serial port to edit it. Unitor came out around the Logic 4.x time, if I recall correctly, some years after all Atari ST support from emagic ended.

It's not in the 1.5 list of devices, so likely it (erroneously) made it into the list in the final V2.x version (dated 1998) because those device lists were shared among the three platforms, and SD V2 on the PC/Mac did support the Unitor. Again, there would be no way to edit a Unitor from Atari Sound Diver, so there would be no point including a compiled module for it.

I still have my AMT8 and it still works great now that Apple updated their driver for Apple silicon but I doubt you can use Unitors or AMT8's on Atari STs. You *can* use the PC or Mac versions of Sound Diver to edit the Unitor or AMT8 though (and there was also a third-party system preference to let you do in on Macs too for a while), and you could run your Atari ST MIDI output through it and route the MIDI traffic etc - you'd just need to set it up on a Mac/PC first.

But it's not going to work as a general MIDI interface for the Atari though.

[Blewisboy]

The unitor series started on the ST with Notator by C Lab before they moved into emagic, the first unitor has the notator copyright included unitor 2 has the cartridge port free for use with cubase and other programs. I’ve got 2.

I think you’ve got me wrong. The communication I’m talking about is via sysex and the midi ports. I don’t mean serial communication. It’s probably not in the 1.5v list as I’m looking in the actual 2.0 software, it’s an installable device… I’ve opened others like the JL Cooper patchbay and that’s fully editable. You can redirect the midi in and outs in sound diver. This softwares from 1993-1998 and the unitor 8 is their hardware. It’s there in the software… it came out in 1998 as well. It’s feasible. It doesn’t work but it’s there ha.

The JL Cooper one looks nice. You can filter the midi per port.

[cb170]

The unitor series started on the ST with Notator by C Lab before they moved into emagic, the first unitor has the notator copyright included unitor 2 has the cartridge port free for use with cubase and other programs. I’ve got 2.

Ok, we're talking a bit at cross-purposes - that's a different device. I'm referring to Unitor 8/Unitor 8 MKII and AMT8 - and these are what the Sound Diver editors were for.

The earlier Unitor cartridge boxes for Notator (pre-Logic, and pre-Sound Diver) are something completely different, and had no editibility and were never anything that Sound Diver supported at all.

I think you’ve got me wrong. The communication I’m talking about is via sysex and the midi ports. I don’t mean serial communication.

With Unitor 8/AMT8? Honestly, I can't remember offhand whether you could edit them via the MIDI ports, but I could go and check. I don't think you could, you'd edit the device via it's connection to the host computer, which was with a serial bus on the U8, and USB for the U8mkII and AMT8. Again, pretty sure you couldn't edit these from at Atari ST. You could likely select patch pay configurations via program changes though on a dedicated MIDI port - I'd need to check the manual to refresh my memory on that.

It’s probably not in the 1.5v list as I’m looking in the actual 2.0 software, it’s an installable device…

Yes, I explained what i think is happening here in my above post.

I’ve opened others like the JL Cooper patchbay and that’s fully editable. You can redirect the midi in and outs in sound diver. This softwares from 1993-1998 and the unitor 8 is their hardware. It’s there in the software… it came out in 1998 as well. It’s feasible. It doesn’t work but it’s there ha.

No idea on other boxes, I had an AMT8 since about 2000-ish, and did indeed edit it with Sound Diver 2 (PC by then).

Anyway, as I said, the reason there is likely no module for Unitor (which means Unitor 8 ) is because there is no way to connect it to, or edit it from, an Atari ST-based system, so compiling an Atari module support for it would be entirely pointless.

And if you're expecting Sound Diver to be able to do something with your Notator era Unitor N/C or 2, then it doesn't, those boxes aren't stand-alone MIDI interfaces and patch bays like the later Unitor/AMT units are.

Hope that clears things up.

[Blewisboy]

Okay

You can edit some midi patchbays the same way you can edit some synths. Sysex messages. The interfacing is the midi cables from the Atari to the patchbay. Least that’s how the other midi patchbays I’ve looked at work it. Late 80s/mid 90s.

The unitor 8 in the soundonsound says it’s designed to work with sound diver. What I imagine happened is they included it but knew it would get canned later on and didn’t finish it cuz the consumer base was so small? Maybe they knew Ataris days were numbered. Who knows… who cares…

I’ve got a motu timepiece which I’ve had for years. It’s the same vibe as the unitor 8. It’s a pig to edit without an old laptop. Just figured if it did (which it doesn’t) it would be a versatile addition given the forwards compatibility.

Sound diver also does support Unitor 2, Export and Log3. No needed additional support.

It says it in the manual haha.

[Greenious]

I’ve opened others like the JL Cooper patchbay and that’s fully editable. You can redirect the midi in and outs in sound diver. This softwares from 1993-1998 and the unitor 8 is their hardware. It’s there in the software… it came out in 1998 as well. It’s feasible. It doesn’t work but it’s there ha.

No idea on other boxes, I had an AMT8 since about 2000-ish, and did indeed edit it with Sound Diver 2 (PC by then).

Anyway, as I said, the reason there is likely no module for Unitor (which means Unitor 8 ) is because there is no way to connect it to, or edit it from, an Atari ST-based system, so compiling an Atari module support for it would be entirely pointless.

Unitor 8 have 8 midi ports and connects to the serial port, Atari midiexpanders for the serial port are typically 1-3 extra midi outs.

So I suspect it is a speed problem, as the ST serial port is rather slow. A quick search didn't reveal what serial port settings Unitor 8 requires, but the ST serial port can be modded for faster speeds, and Mega STE/TT/F030 have faster serial ports, there is the lan port that also is faster. Someone motivated could work with that and maybe have the Unitor 8 work with Atari.

[cb170]

Sound diver also does support Unitor 2, Export and Log3. No needed additional support.

It says it in the manual haha.

Yes, all the C-Lab/emagic Atari apps will let you send and receive MIDI across the MIDI ports you have on your Atari, including the main Atari MIDI ports, additional ones on the LOG3, Export etc. It's how I used SD (and Logic) back in the day.

It's a different thing to the Unitor 8 SoundDiver module to let you edit and manage it's contents and program up the MIDI patchbay part of the Unitor 8.

[Blewisboy]

It's a different thing to the Unitor 8 SoundDiver module to let you edit and manage it's contents and program up the MIDI patchbay part of the Unitor 8.

Certainly is which is why I've been chatting about it as a MIDI patchbay and not as an expander this whole time, I think this is where the confusion is coming from. If you look at page 41 in the 1.5v manual and read patchbay support thats what I'm describing the use.

EDIT: Yeah Im 100% factual

In the Unitor 8 manual and it states setup for ALL platforms is just MIDI interfacing, then it states for Mac is usb, Windows is Com port. So what I'm describing is the way you would do it with an Atari IF the .mod file for it worked.
(Page 15. https://www.deepsonic.ch/deep/docs_manu ... manual.pdf)

I'm pretty sure you plug the Unitor 8 in with USB it turns it into a MTP interface device; it's emulating a Motu Midi Timepiece which as mentioned above I'm familiar with. When you don't have a usb in that device and it's operating as standalone it's a simple splitter/merger box. I could be wrong but again I'm pretty familiar with this stuff.

Hopefully that clears it up for you.

[Blewisboy]

I'm just gonna break down like how I see this stuff working in a actual situation.

Example of traditional setup

If were talking about a JL Cooper MSB Rev II patchbay and just an atari, this set up would be connected by sending the in/out of Atari MIDI to the same ports on the JL Cooper unit. What this does is it expands your single Atari MIDI in/out ports to a 8in/8out ports with full control via an editor and other integration BUT only with as many midi channels as the Atari port has (so 16, so not idea for multi timbral). So instead of using the thru's on devices and chaining them you can just use this to send the ins and outs separately and also have the opportunity to tap in to that chain with another computer and send note data (e.g an Atari running cubase by plugging in a midi output from source to a midi input on the midipatchbay.)

This is a screenshot of the editor for the JL Cooper so you can see what you can do over the sysex just with midi, notice the filtering options.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1khHKB1 ... share_link

So if you have A unitor 2's with extra inputs and outputs, you can set it up the same way. So you could end up with 3x JL Cooper MSN units which would have a combined 24 in/out with 48 midi channels by chaining each in/out to its own midi patchbay. This is what you'd do I imagine if you were running a laaaaarge studio back in the day and you wanted to use an atari for managing all your hardware. Ive seen some midi patchbays for this with like 10 inputs and 20 outputs on them.

Hatari Users Example

If you had an iRig 1in/1out usb midi device, set that up for use in Hatari, connect that to a midi patchbay, set up Sound Diver... You could manage a decent sized hardware set up with this. Youve got more ports that you can manage on the SD interface. You could use this with modern set ups and send midi from an interface on another computer being used by another DAW and just use the Hatari and SD as a manager. This is super cool. Imagine a DAWless set up, could be good for live situations. Ive paid £40 for an MKS50 editor before, thats one modern editor librarian. This has loads!

Honestly this stuff feels like a goldmine.

I wanna know how the Akai S Series stuff works with sound diver, I doubt its sophisticated with sample stuff but I know theres a large community of people with those machines that still use this stuff.

[Blewisboy]

Last post about this, promise haha!

https://www.potm.org/software/Unitor/mididata/

It’s some details of the sysex implementation for the unitor8. If someone wanted to try and modify a universal module to try and get it to work with Unitor 8 via sysex (if you can) that looks like as close to a proper sysex implementation chart as you’ll get. The adaption is already there seems like it just needs the mod file… (shrugs shoulders)

I’m just gonna try and use my Motu one whilst I keep an eye out for another officially supported one as I’m already learning too much random stuff rather than just making music ha..

[Greenious]

This is interesting I think and deserves it's own thread. So I moved this discussion to it's own thread.

So by all means, keep it going.

[Blewisboy]

Cool thank you!

Just to be clear as most of this thread was born of confusion ha. I’m not a software engineer and I don’t know or think Itl work as an interface (but again not engineer soo I don’t know). I’m a proper studio nerd. As geenious stated it has a serial port so could be good for high spec Ataris.

This is about implementation in Emagic Sound Diver, which is like a complete studio hardware integration and control program.

If you read back I’m explaining how there’s potential for it to be used a midi patchbay within Sound Diver and how these midi patchbays operate. (Not an interface, again I don’t know about that) There’s some resource files for it already in sound driver (recently made available again) but not a mod file (which is essentially the editor or program selector) as it asks for it when you try to install the module.

I did see other information pertaining to sysex implementation for the ubitor8 (linked above). Which is how you control it in Sound Diver. I’ve linked the best info I found. If I find more il post it in here.

Again there’s gonna be other easier to use, harder to get supported midi patchbays (il research these as well) but in theory if someone had knowledge on writing modules they could maybe get the unitor8 going. Atm they’re only £100ish and work with Apple modern systems. There’s a decent amount of them out there.

All the other ones I’ve seen are pretty rare, expensive or just old. JL Cooper MSB range is the example I made above.

I’m happy to buy one to test it but my knowledge with coding and Ataris is limited ha.

[Blewisboy]

So I found this on a website for a old program someone developed for windows for the Unitor 8.
https://www.hermannseib.com/english/miditrix.htm

"Unitor 8 / amt 8 Problem

The Unitor8 / amt8 devices know two modes:

-The "Computer Mode", in which the computer, or, respectively, the sequencer program controls the complete MIDI data flow
-The "Patch Mode" in which you need no computer; the MIDI data flow between the devices is controlled by one of 32 programs stored in the Unitor8.

If you just want to fiddle a bit with your MIDI devices, it's not always necessary to turn on a computer... you just have to create a patch for the Unitor8s beforehand and then use it to control various devices from your master keyboard. In theory.

Life could be SO easy, if that really worked... unfortunately, the SysEx implementation of the Unitor8 / amt8 devices is a bit too simple in this respect. While it does allow you to configure the output ports for each device in the chain, all the Input ports with the same number are mapped into one - it is impossible to tell the Unitor8 from which device in the chain the signals have to come from. For example, any MIDI data coming in on Port 1 of the first Unitor8 is treated on ALL Unitor8s as if it had come in on the local Port 1. This means that a real matrix is impossible - you can't set up a defined point-to-point connection between a specific Midi In and Out port."


From that it sounds like you can't assign some of the ports through sysex properly and that the standalone 'patch' mode is primative; 1 input to all outputs except the same numbered output (e.g input 1, will go to output 2 all the way up to 8 and not out go out output 1). What you need in Sound Diver is fully assignable ins and outs via sysex in standalone. So in that respect it wont work at all in Atari Sound Diver as thats what it relies on to make it send the MIDI SysEx data where it needs. Looking at the sysex implementations noted in a earlier link I posted... You could probably make the lights go up and down in brightness via sysex if thats what anyone reading this is into haha.

Well that was fun.

As for engineering the serial. Again. No idea ha.

I'm gonna go through the Sound Diver install list to get a list of midi patchbays it supports as I'm gonna hunt for one, I'll post it in here when I've done it. If your interested the JL Cooper from what I can tell has best implementation.

[Fujiyama]

Blewisboy: thanks for sharing your experiences and ideas around this subject. I have many of the same ideas regarding the use of two computers, but haven't yet decided on how to set this up and so on.

I haven't used a Unitor-8 myself, but a quick glance through its user-manual gives me the impression that this isn't your regular type of MIDI patchbay, and that it's highly reliant on a computer (Windows-PC or Mac).
A quick giveaway is that the front panel doesn't contain any buttons for repatching (thus needing a computer for that). On the other hand it might be possible to change between different setups using MIDI program-change, but don't quote me on that.

Myself, I have a Roland A-880 (link to user-manual) which replaced my home-made "MIDI input selector" box attached to my Atari STe that was quickly running out of available sockets (I needed to be able to sysex-dump synth patches from a variety of synths, so I used that box for each device's MIDI OUT, and relying on MIDI THRU sockets for several of my synths' MIDI IN sockets. The A-880 allowed me to ditch all of that (and give me more in/out ports) so that each MIDI device could now have a MIDI IN directly, and for dumping sysex I could just reconfigure the connections (no unplugging/rewiring of MIDI cables).

Screenshot 2025-04-27 at 23.57.36.png

(image source: RetroSynthAds)

It's got some cool MIDI filtering options and even allows merging of two inputs. A great MIDI patchbay in my opinion although I wish it had an LCD display which would make it a little more intuitive to use (and less looking up the manual), but I can live with that
The UM-880 from Edirol (a Roland subsiduary) is apparently the successor of the A-880, and very similar but from what I read the latter allows for merging more than two inputs.

And yes -Sounddiver supports this patchbay (from what I remember). Honestly I haven't yet gotten round to take full advantage of it as I've only used the front panel buttons to change configurations (having stored presets for whenever I need to dump sysex from certain MIDI synths), or just manually pressing the appropriate input/output buttons to get the wiring right.
I can however see the usefulness of having an editor/librarian automatically set the correct input/output connections whenever its started, and goes back to the usual configuration when using the computer as a sequencer etc. Less button pressing means more focus on the music!
Some forum thread which might be of help:

Edirol UM880 vs. Roland A880 vs MOTU MTP AV ...Standalone modes
Silently hiding under the mixing desk: Roland A-880
How I use the Roland A-880 MIDI patchbay
RetroSynthAds -A-880 brochure/info leaflet
A good alternative to an Edirol UM-880?
Polynominal.com: Roland A-880
Is this Edirol UM-880 worth anything?

A review of MIDI patchbay options
Modern MIDI patchbays
Q to those who use more than 8x hardware midi devices in their studio
Which MIDI patchbay?

[Blewisboy]

I’ve had fun with this. It’s Unitor 8 seemed like the cusp of when it all went usb. Mad to think now given how good the midi is on these old devices.

Got two computers working! Used my MOTU MTP with you can do it easy with a assignable midi patchbay. Probably other ways but this is how I’ve done it.

Atari 1. Into input and output 1
Atari 2. Into input and output 8

What you wanna do is link output and input 1 so they go into ports 2 through to 7.

Then link output and input 8 to 2 through til 7.

Both machines should be able to access all hardware connected to the midi patchbay as long as 1 and 8 don’t mix you shouldn’t get any issues.

You maaaybe could link them with filtering but as I have a second unitor for the librarian Atari I just send another midi out from that Atari so I can fire midi from a midi generator out into my sequencer Atari if I wanted to… however better solution for that.

Technically got a third computer for recording. Running SMPTE as an audio file (generated off a website) from an audio track in logic sending out my soundcard into the smpte input of the unitor on the sequencer Atari. This locks the times of both logic and the Atari by frames. No jankyness like with clocking by midi. (You need to offset the start of logic and cubase by 1 bar so cubase has enough time to catch up ready for bar 0. it’s the same as an old tape machine. Applicable with anything as long as it can play a really long audio file, I use 10 minutes. Also you can send multiple copies of same signal out. It’s a TV and film thing I believe).

If I’m mindful of latency in plugins I can mix as I’m going before it’s recorded and put stuff on the master, so I don’t need anywhere as much outboard mixing. Also with a midi out to the sequencer Atari I can use a keyboard through logic and access all the midi fx tools and music theory apps like scaler.

I only finished my studio this week after months so still testing the workflow but it’s all working. I now need now to sit down with it all and play about. (Actually waiting for a ASCI to SCSI adapter so I can get a PiSCSI involved and then see what I can do with an akai and Atari on the same scsi chain with sound divers editors! Studio feels like a spaceship atm it’s great.)

One thing I will say with sound diver, even though it’s just baby steps from me atm. It’s a 4mb+ program with large set ups so two computers probably way forward with STs. I could only load a Roland jv1080, korg m3r, Roland mks50 and a akai s2800 before I ran out of memory on a 2.5mb one. With a 4mb one maybe 7 units. If you’re super serious you want something above a ST with loads of ram for the librarian computer (A unitor with 3 midi patch bays and you could have 18 midi chains going with 48 channels, loooooads of units running all with editors on one computer.)

As for the A880 I really want to get one next! Loads my rack stuff is that era Roland and it’s always nice when it matches ha. There’s a nice akai one but it’s lacking in features. The Motu one works well wasn’t much. With a windows computer you can edit it.

[Fujiyama]

That's really cool!
Thanks for sharing your setup. You've really thought it through and it appears to be a great solution making the most of everything.
Is the 3rd computer a PC or Mac? What kind of DAW software will it be running?

If you want, perhaps you could draw a diagram of your connections and workflow (scanned from a pen/paper-diagram, or using a free tool such as draw.io)?

[Blewisboy]

Third computers a 2021 MacBook Pro with a Caldigit TS4 to expand how many data ports it has.

Yeah no worries I made this, hopefully no mistakes! It's basically the data routing. I have everything audio on looms for repatching so left that out. Still working on the logic midi return as it might need some filtering but from testing it seems fine, (I believe you can only send one line of clock on cubase and im using it for the td3 so might try and clock the midi patchbay with logic at some point in the future just so I can clock the hardware synths in the rack and sync things like LFO). There's room for more as well if I rerouted but this is manageable atm.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s6vhuU ... sp=sharing

[Blewisboy]

Ahhh apologies il sort out the resolution. I did it on my way out and just looked again and it’s unreadable ha.

[Blewisboy]

Hopefully that’s better.

[Atari74user]

I actually went for a modern MIDI router a couple of years ago, so I could be completely independent from any computer control for configuration for my needs. For me personally, I did not have the room for yet another computer in my home studio. The main premise of my router being to allow me to route my ST, Falcon or MacBook to any of my instruments with Editors / Librarians in mind, inclusive of those old ST librarians, with all of the current day connectivity I needed, of course with no re-patching. I am slightly changing my home studio again, and will be, at some point re-routing some of my MIDI devices.

As Greenious stipulates, it is a shame the STs serial port is not up to the job, but sign of the times that was. It is why serial Atari MIDI port devices are restricted to typically one MIDI out, even the ExPort is in reality one MIDI out, which has been been split into three physical ports. It is one of the reasons why C-Lab and Emagic manuals for the Atari, such as Notator, stipulate to not use heavy data on all 3 of ExPorts outputs, because of its design due to the serial port not being able to handle 'heavy' MIDI data traffic.

I was waiting for this MIDI router for years, but has yet to see the light of day, if ever. Personally I think it would need a redesign now in any event: https://kentonuk.com/interchanger/

[Fujiyama]

I actually went for a modern MIDI router a couple of years ago, so I could be completely independent from any computer control for configuration for my needs.

May I ask which one you have?
It's definitely nice to have one which doesn't require a computer to work.

As Greenious stipulates, it is a shame the STs serial port is not up to the job, but sign of the times that was.

True. And it makes me wonder why there weren't any parallel (printer) to MIDI interfaces around.
Actually, if memory serves me right, I think there might have been some Steinberg devices around for that, but nothing from C-Lab/Emagic (I use Notator SL).

EDIT: scratch the "might have been" part above, because searching a bit on the web led me to New Atari MIDI Boxes & Ports (Sound On Sound) where there was mention of a few such devices:
Friend-Chip MM1
Soundpool MO 4 (according to the Soundpool article in Sound On Sound, it not only works on the Falcon but all ST models)
Steinberg SMP II
Steinberg SMP 24

Too bad none of them work with Notator, but then again with the LOG-3 and Unitor (-C/-N/-2 models) which plug into the cartridge port, that's already an improvement over the serial (RS-232/modem) port.

There's an interesting Youtube video (Circlon DMUX as internal retrofit for TR-808) which demonstrates the timing differences between a busy MIDI (serial) triggering of the TR-808's drum sounds and then triggering in parallel.

Circlon DMUX as internal retrofit for TR-808

EDIT: for some reason I'm not able to embedd a Youtube video here, using the "youtube" tag. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

(Moderator note: Probably nothing, the site code was likely outdated, fixed now. Enjoy your embedded video!)

I was waiting for this MIDI router for years, but has yet to see the light of day, if ever. Personally I think it would need a redesign now in any event: https://kentonuk.com/interchanger/

Yes, it looks a little dated although its specs are nice. Still, they should (in my opinion) add at least twice the number of inputs/outputs! I still haven't gotten round to finishing the redesign of my home studio, but even with my Roland A-880 MIDI patchbay (8 inputs and outputs) I'm still struggling and need to figure out some smart solutions for my connections. Obviously, when having some interest for this kind of stuff it's all too easy to bring in more and more gear (well, perhaps not today with those inflated prices) and 8 MIDI ports is all of a sudden not that much.
I suppose in my case I'll have to look into additional merge and THRU boxes. Back in the day there were a bunch of "Pocket" boxes (from Anatek, I believe) that didn't even need external power.
MIDI solutions have similar boxes today, so that may solve setup challenges like the ones I described

[Atari74user]

I supported the MRCC from Conductive Labs on Kickstarter, but it has been out for a few years now, and is now expandable, and has siblings (MRCC 880):

https://conductivelabs.com/mrcc/?v=7885444af42e

It can be desktop or rack mounted.

The Roland A-880 does look cool though, I was totally unaware of that.

Yes, it is a pity those parallel port MIDI expanders don't work with Notator or Logic, I wrote about them here:

https://sites.google.com/view/ataritoss ... sive-world

I have had the MO4 for years, and am fortunate to have a Steinberg Atari MIDI-3, SMPII and Friend-Chip MM1 (it took me about 15 years to find one though).

I do happen to use Merge boxes too, still have my old Merge boxes from Philip Rees from back in the day, but as you say, MIDI Solutions are good, as are Kenton.

[Fujiyama]

I supported the MRCC from Conductive Labs on Kickstarter, but it has been out for a few years now, and is now expandable, and has siblings (MRCC 880):

https://conductivelabs.com/mrcc/?v=7885444af42e

Cool! I only recently heard about it, from this Reddit discussion: A review of MIDI patchbay options (which I linked to earlier in this thread).
Looks like a solid piece of hardware with more modern options (USB support) than my Roland A-880. Fortunately I have a keyboard controller with both USB and MIDI output (Roland A-800 Pro).

Yes, it is a pity those parallel port MIDI expanders don't work with Notator or Logic, I wrote about them here:

https://sites.google.com/view/ataritoss ... sive-world

You've got a great website with lots of invaluable information! Been there many times, but keep learning new things all the time
Yes, too bad about C-Lab/Emagic not going the route of Steinberg with their printer-port MIDI interfaces. I assume there's nothing to do about it because the routing is probably done within Notator and Logic itself.
I don't have any experience with Cubase but understand that the use of MROS allows the writing of drivers for this kind of thing outside of Cubase itself.
I'm sure C-Lab/Emagic had their reasons (or maybe they just didn't get round to it before folding).

I have had the MO4 for years, and am fortunate to have a Steinberg Atari MIDI-3, SMPII and Friend-Chip MM1 (it took me about 15 years to find one though).

I do happen to use Merge boxes too, still have my old Merge boxes from Philip Rees from back in the day, but as you say, MIDI Solutions are good, as are Kenton.

That's a nice collection of Cubase related hardware!
Yes, Philip Rees and Kenton are solid brands with lots of goodies.
I had a Kenton Pro-2 (dual MIDI to CV/Gate converter with DIN-sync) for years, until I no longer needed it (having MIDI-retrofitted or sold the devices attached). Great product and support!

[Atari74user]

Thank you for your kind words by the way!

Yes indeed, exactly as you say regarding MROS, it did allow for third parties to create peripherals and an associated driver which can be used within the MROS echo system, Cubase, Avalon etc...

I am biased, but I do like the MRCC, there don't seem to be many new MIDI routers, however I have seen this mentioned, looks nice:

https://www.iconnectivity.com/mioxl