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OSX vs External MIDI Synthesizers

I've had an Edirol UM-1 USB MIDI Interface for ages and assumed it would 'just work' with the new Apple Power Mac G4 running OSX Tiger 10.4.11 that I recently acquired. The short answer is, it worked in the end, but the path to get it sorted wasn't overly intuitive.

Installing the correct drivers

Browse to the Roland Support Site and download the UM-1 Driver Version 2.1.0 for Mac OS X. This will give you the usual DMG on your desktop.

Run the UM1USBDriver.pkg file and follow the prompts. You may need to restart!

Configuring MIDI on OSX

Once you're back at your desktop, browse to Applications and look for Audio MIDI Setup.

You should have a device called UM-1 listed here. What you now need to do is add a new device for your external synthesizer. Hit Add Device from the top toolbar.

Give it the appropriate name and adjust the ports as required. Click the top-left icon and change it to something more appropriate.

From here, you need to join the output of the UM-1 to the input of your new synthesizer. Look at the first image in this section above.

Playing MIDI Files

QuickTime Player JUST WON'T WORK. It only seems to ever want to use the QuickTime Music Synthesizer. Forget about it and download Sweet MIDI Player. Once it's open, click the MIDI menu and then choose MIDI Setup.

Choose Core MIDI and then select your device. Now play your songs!

Of course... you'll only get the first 3/4 of the song... will need to work out how to buy a license.

Good luck!