Korg RK-100S Editor

[DJkeys]

I bought this Keytar new in 2015. The editor (still on Korg's site) for it will not run on any modern OS (Win10, Mac OS11.x). Korg did release the editor for the new RK-100S-2, but it not compatible with the original version of the hardware. Not sure what the differences would be, as the sound generation engine is the same as far as I know (based on MicroKorg).

 

Just wondering if anyone here has an idea for a course of action, I program all my own sounds, but cannot do it anymore on this instrument.

 

Thanks-

 

-dj

[Dr Mike Metlay]

My solution is messy, but in the past it was the only way to work. If a manufacturer requires software to run hardware AND if said hardware is vital to you AND said software suddenly won't run on new computers... pretty much the only thing you can do is keep an old computer around. When I sell my Opcode Studio 5 LX rackmount 15-port MIDI interface/processor, I will include an old Wall Street Mac laptop that runs OS 9, because otherwise you're stuck. I gave up my Nord Micro Modular because the Mac editor didn't have OS X support and I didn't have Windows hardware around.

 

Some people report good luck with running older OSes inside a virtual machine environment on a new machine (e.g. Windows XP in a window on a Windows 10 machine or a Mac running Mojave), but oftentimes these VMs do not have a reliable enough connection to interface ports to be able to guarantee stuff like synth editing will work.

[DJkeys]

Thanks for that suggestion, Mike-

 

-dj

[AnotherScott]

My solution is messy, but in the past it was the only way to work. If a manufacturer requires software to run hardware AND if said hardware is vital to you AND said software suddenly won't run on new computers... pretty much the only thing you can do is keep an old computer around.

Yup. That's my issue with stuff that require an iPad/iPhone (like Roland's editors for AX-Edge and Integra-7). It's easy to keep an old computer/OS around, or to find one on eBay if you need it... but iOS's insistence on upgrading itself with no way to go back and re-install an older OS makes it a challenge to be sure you will always have access to these tools.

[Reezekeys]

iOS's insistence on upgrading itself with no way to go back and re-install an older OS makes it a challenge to be sure you will always have access to these tools.

You sure about this? I think you can turn off automatic iOS upgrades (boo on Apple if it's not off by default though). I'm not sure where the setting is, but I occasionally get an alert saying a newer iOS version will be installed overnight if the device is connected to power and on a wifi network. Sometimes I let it upgrade, but I haven't had any issue telling it not to.

[AnotherScott]

Yes, auto-update is on by default, though you can defer indefinitely. But the real issue is that you can't re-install an older version. So you can't easily go on eBay or whatever and pick up an old iPad with an old OS on it (people don't typically avoid the upgrades), nor can you install the older OS on it even if you just want the OS it originally came with. If you need a Mac running a 10 year old version of MacOS to run some old editor, you can find one, or load that OS on any suitably old Mac. If you need an iPad running an old OS, it will be a challenge to find one. Plus after iOS 9, Apple stopped letting you store backups of your apps locally, so even if you found the old iPad, you wouldn't necessarily be able to install the app you already own... if it's no longer on the app store, you could be SOL. Though there is an app called iMazing that is supposed to let you archive your apps locally. (For how long, who knows.)

[AnotherScott]

iOS's insistence on upgrading itself with no way to go back and re-install an older OS makes it a challenge to be sure you will always have access to these tools.

You sure about this? I think you can turn off automatic iOS upgrades (boo on Apple if it's not off by default though). I'm not sure where the setting is, but I occasionally get an alert saying a newer iOS version will be installed overnight if the device is connected to power and on a wifi network. Sometimes I let it upgrade, but I haven't had any issue telling it not to.

One more thought/clarification about this... with auto-update On, I think it just happens, but with it off, it still periodically prompts you to update, and while you can defer, you can't completely decline. All it takes is one inadvertent finger tap in the wrong spot, and you're done for!