A driver question - help a computer illiterate

[maxbeckmann]

hello,

i bought a roland fantom x6 which is now discontinued. it's a fairly "old" synth (b. 2004) but certainly not vintage. it has a usb port.

thing is : i would like to link that synth to my computer. i have an i mac running macOS Sierra v. 10.12.2

problem is : roland don't do update anymore. the latest updated driver is for 10.8 which is not recognize by my OS.

in this situation, is there anything i can do to operate this synth via usb ?

any help will be greatly appreciated.

mB

[madtheory]

When I had a V-Synth (same issue, old drivers) I found this setup to be a much more convenient than the USB connection:
1. For sequencing, use a USB MIDI interface connected to the MIDI ports of the Roland.
2. For transferring samples, get a PC card to SD card adapter, and a USB SD reader for your computer (if it doesn't already have an SD slot).

[maxbeckmann]

When I had a V-Synth (same issue, old drivers) I found this setup to be a much more convenient than the USB connection:
1. For sequencing, use a USB MIDI interface connected to the MIDI ports of the Roland.
2. For transferring samples, get a PC card to SD card adapter, and a USB SD reader for your computer (if it doesn't already have an SD slot).

thanks for you reply. i would use the fantom basically as a controller. i do have an audio interface that has midi ports. are you telling me i could use that ?

[madtheory]

Yes.

[jxalex]

With MIDI you can use whatever synthesizer -- does not matter how old it is. Also it does not matter whatever platform or software you are using, does not matter. (when it is about the playing, sequencing, and some sysex, program changes)

When going slightly off from this like their proprietary interfaces, or even USB, then there are certainly the compatibility problems in a long run becouse all the software follows the contemporary platforms only and have very limited compatibility.