please advise – Mac user wants to buy a cheap PC to run vsig

Jim

if you run Intel Macs you should really consider simply using a virtualization software lke VMWare Fusion or Parallels + Win XP or even cheaper, use Apple Bootcamp + Win XP Pro SP2 (at least) for a native installaton. Both ways proved to work perfectly. The advantage of virtualization is that you can have your Mac OS running at the same time with Windows in a dedicated window, so you can keep using your programs for anything else. Bootcamp limits you to one system at boot, either OS X or Windows….but it's cheaper.

If you are still running G3/4/5 Macs, people have had luck using Virtual PC, but I have no advice for that.

If you decide to go for an used PC, I'd probably go for a cheap new one. Never know what a computer has gone through…

Get a machine with Intel chipset. No need for big cpu power. 1 GB ram would be more than enough with Win XP. Avoid Vista, even though Vsig works on it. It's just that it needs more power/ram to run ok.

Better if the computer offers a Serial COM port or you'll have to get an USB to SERIAL adapter.

Using a laptop is not the ideal vsig workstation. You need a good monitor size or a couple of smaller one running in dual head (most ATI and Nvidia GPU cards do that)

all the best

I

Hi Jim

Mac (and PC) users have found the Keyspan USA-19HS to be very reliable. Obviously, being a "for Mac" product you'll have to pay an unreasonable price for it. Any USB to SERIAL adapter costs a fraction of that and works fine. Yours is the choice:

http://www.tripplite.com/en/products/model.cfm?txtSeriesID=140&EID=14871&txtModelID=3914

Regarding which XP version/licence you have to use with Parallels, please check their website for specific requirements.

good luck

Italo

jimcredland:

i wish eventide would put out an OSX VSIG

We do as well. In the meantime there is VsigX.

jimcredland:

vsigfile.chm (don't know what this is)

VSIGFILE.exe (is this the vsig app?)

The first is the help file. The second is the application. Should be all you need.

Actually, I just tried again several options. In my experience, the biggest problem with using vsig lies in dealing with the serial connection from a Windows inside MacOSX.

So, I tried again the old VsigX. Actually it seems to work quite well on my system (OSX 10.6.7)

What I did:

-install the latest drivers for the Keyspan USB-serial interface (model USA-19HS) (drivers available on http://www.tripplite.com/en/support/downloads/index.cfm?txtArchive=0&txtLang=&txtOS=

-finish the installation of the USB-serial interface according to the Keyspan manual

-start VSIGX

-in Preferences… -> Connection -> enable Serial and choose the correct device, in my case something like cu.KeySerial1 (and maybe check all options are the same on the unit and in the Preferences: Baud rate, etc.)

-menu MIDI -> get sigDbase (YOU HAVE TO DO THAT before opening your patches, to have the correct data for your unit) … be patient… check the unit is sending something (look at its screen)… when it's done, you will have to give a location and name for the database…

-now, you should be able to use for instance MIDI -> Get Patch

VsigX is quite old (version 1.9beta released November 2006). But vsig is quite old too, and still in beta too (version 2.4.9beta released October 2007).

Bottomline is: try VsigX again. That might be your best bet. Ask questions here if you don't succeed.

All best.

Wowsers, well, it looks like you had a problem, but solved it.  Yay!

Just to recap, vSigX 1.9 only works with the serial port.  Trust me, this is way better than MIDI anyway!  And vSigX will work with different firmware versions.  You always need to have the appropriate database for each different version, so when you upgrade the firmware, always download the new database.  You'll only need to do that once for each upgrade.  FWIW, in version 2, I've added a dialog box that pops up telling you the database is being transferred.  IIRC, the transfer takes about four minutes…

If anyone has any problems with vSigX and I don't reply to you quickly enough here, you can always send me an email and I'll do my best to help you.  (doug at vsigx dot com).

Did you try the command View -> Show Patch View? Does it work? (May take time, so be patient before answering).

If it works, what happens when you click on a patch in this view? Is it selected in the harmonizer?

Are you sure you have to restart the Mac? Restarting vsigx is not enough?

J-F