This page provides answers to the most frequently asked questions. You can browse the Hot Topics are search the Knowledgebase.
See a list of current application versions by clicking here
To retrieve lost serial numbers, upgrade information and download URLs, click here (registered users only)
- Hot Topics
- FAQs by Application or Topic
- Search FAQ Database
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From where can I download the latest version of my software? |
To find the download location and serial numbers for any U&I applications you own, visit our online customer information page http://www.uisoftware.com/searchreg.html This information is only provided to registered users due to rampant piracy. |
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Lost Or Broken Serial Number |
If your serial number is not working, you may be using a serial number for a different version of the program than the one you are launching. Read below for information about having the serial number and download information sent to you. Some versions of our apps have placeholder text in the name and serial number fields when the serial number dialog is displayed (usually the text "name" and "serial"). Be sure to completely replace that text with your name and serial number. There is a page where you can look up information for all products that you have registered or have purchased from us http://www.uisoftware.com/searchreg.html |
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How do I update my registration information? |
If your email address has changed since you purchased/registered your product, click here to visit our registration update page. |
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Why didn't I receive an upgrade notice? |
Upgrade information is sent to all registered users at the email address that we have on file. There are several reasons why you might not receive an upgrade message: 1) The email address that we have on file is out of date. You can update your email address by visiting: http://www.uisoftware.com/searchreg.html You will have to find your old registration. Search using your past email address and click on the link to update your information. 2) If your email address is current (i.e. if you can find it at the URL given above) then the upgrade message was intercepted or blocked by a junk mail or spam filter either on your computer OR at your ISP. Many ISPs have spam filters online that prevent what they think is spam from reaching you. About 20% to 30% of the upgrade messages that we send out are blocked. In some cases, the messages are stored in an online junk mail folder; in other cases, the messages are deleted on receipt by your ISP. Please log on to your ISP account and check its junk mail settings. If you have set junk mail to be deleted, turn that option off before asking us to re-send the message. If your email address is found at http://www.uisoftware.com/searchreg.html click on the button/link to have your serial number and download information sent. This will also result in recent upgrade messages or special offers being re-sent. |
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When I try to launch the application, some other application opens |
Add '.app' to the name of the application. In some cases, a person has an application installed that has mapped our creator type to some other application. Adding ".app" to the name forces the OS to open our application correctly when this happens. |
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XX 5 is having problems launching or the sound output is strange after it launches. What is wrong? |
The most likely culprit is an errant Audio Unit. We are finding that some audio units and some combinations of Audio Unit synths are problematic. We are investigating this issue. In the meantime, you should be able to solve the problem by temporatily disabling (hiding) your Audio Unit synths and adding them back in one at a time to see which AU is causing the problem. If you find a particular Audio Unit synth that is causing problems, please write to us to let us know what AU is causing the problem. For detailed troubleshooting directions click here. |
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I am having some problems running under OS X Lion. What can I do? |
OS X Lion broke the color pickers in MetaSynth 5.1, Xx 5.2, ArtMatic 4.8, ArtMatic Voyager 1.2 and all earlier versions of these apps. MetaSynth 5.3, ArtMatic 5 and ArtMatic Voyager 2 have been released and are fully-Lion compatible. Xx 5.3 will be released shortly. |
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How do I upgrade?/Upgrade policies |
When new versions of all products are released, we email upgrade information to all registered users. Upgrades are only available to officially registered users. If you haven't received upgrade information or new product announcements then your email address may have changed or we might not have received your registration card (only needed if you didn't buy directly from us). If you mailed a registration card to Arboretum, they may not have forwarded it to us. If you haven't sent in your registration card or you sent a reg. card to Arboretum, please fill out our online registration form. Click here to go to the registration page. Be SURE to enter all requested information since we can't send the correct information if we don't have all of the info. IF YOU NEED TO UPDATE AN EXISTING REGISTRATION, register your software or update your registration by visiting http://www.uisoftware.com/register.html |
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Windows/PC versions? |
We are frequently asked whether our products are available for the WINTEL platform. Currently, there are no Windows versions of our programs. We understand that there is a desire for these programs on the Windows platform, but we are expert Mac programmers with little Windows experience.
We have decided to stick to what we do best which is create great Mac programs for creative artists. In the time that it would take us to port a single program to Windows we can create several great programs for the Mac. We have not ruled out the possibility of porting to Windows but there are no plans at this time. We will update this item if we decide to create a Windows version of any of our apps. All Macs made in the past few years are capable of NATIVELY running Windows (with no loss of speed because it isn't emulaged). MacMinis and used iMacs are quite inexpensive and can run both Windows and Mac OS X at full speed |
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The Image Synth stutters sometimes in MS4 or MS5 with presets that played fine in MS 2.7. What is the problem? |
The stuttering you are experiencing could have several different causes. First, if you are previewing the Image Synth and it only happens with some presets, take a look at our tech note by clicking here. In the vast majority of cases that we have examined, we have found this only happens with presets with a large number simultaneous voices. Many people are unclear on just how Image Synthesis works and are surprised when a preset with 100 simultaneous voices does not preview smoothly. A preset might have a lot of simultaneous voices without your knowing it. Take a look at our tech note by clicking here. A little background may be helpful and help you figure out if there is a problem or note. Keep in mind that in MS 2.7, previews were done at 22k in mono. MetaSynth 4 does full-stereo previews at sample rates up to 48K. So, if there are many simultaneous voices (pixels) being triggered in the Image Synth, MetaSynth is being asked to do many times more processing than before.
Has it been a while since you restarted your computer. If none of the above helped, shut down your computer and re-launch. OS X uses virtual memory and the performance of virtual memory can degrade over time -- especially if you have either limited memory or limited/fragmented disk space.
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How do I learn more? Is there a user forum? |
There is a great online community of U&I Software users. It is both the best place to get technical support and a great place to learn more about U&I Software applications, get tips and meet like-minded artists. The group is called the UILIST online users group. This is our first line of tech support and results in the quickest response since the participants often answer questions before we can get to them. These are also the questions that we answer first since the answer benefits many users at once (some of whom were too shy to ask). The list is also a great source of tips and inspiration. You can learn more about it by clicking here. This list is a great resource since many list members are product experts and creative artists who have gone through the discovery process and are happy to help. Also, they often know more about related topics (projectors, sound cards, and other non-U&I-specific topics) than we do. |
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What is the latest version of my application? |
See list of the current application versions and upgrade options by clicking here
There is a link on that page to get the URL of the latest version and information about how to upgrade to the latest version. |
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I am an AOL subscriber and have not received my download information. Why? How can I get it? |
It has come to our attention that AOL is now (for some strange reason -- since we never send email to anyone but registered users about software updates) blocking all email from uisoftware.com to most of its users. This mail is put into a mailbox -- that most people do not even know exists -- that contains all blocked messages sent to a user. Below are two sets of instructions for accessing such messages. These instructions were provided by users. METHOD 1: AOL had me go to my mailbox through the AOL.com page via your web browser (NOT the AOL application). On this page is a "spam folder" which allows me to see all automatically blocked emails AOL system wide) and identify them as not spam. Sure enough all your replies were there (along with at least 10 other non-spam messages from personal friends of mine!). Apparently these are automatically blocked because someone on the AOL network clicked the "Report Spam" button when receiving from that particuar server. Go figure. METHOD 2: (Make sure to perform EACH step or you won't arrive at the right page): On AOL 5.0 under OS 9.2.2, the spam-box & its controls can be found via this sequence: My AOL> Marketing Preferences> E-Mail Preference> AOL Keyword: Junk Mail> [You can also start here.} AOL Spamfighters!> Spam Messages blocked & Mail and Spam Controls Spam messages blocked tabs let you see Spam messages blocked Today (since midnight ET), This Week, and This Month. Mail and Spam controls "... let you decide what kind of e-mail you receive. Determine what is placed in your spam folder...." The choices are "Allow all e-mail...Block all e-mail... Customize mail control...." |
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Some PICT or AIFF files are not selectable in the open/import dialog. What is wrong? |
It is likely that these files have the correct file extension but do not have the file type correctly assigned. We have posted a utility application that fixes the file type of such files. It can be downloaded from: http://uisoftware.com/DOWNLOADS/FileTypeUtilities.zip (ArtMatic Pro 4.1 and VTrack 2.1 can handle files w ith no assigned file type -- so be sure that you have upgraded to the latest version.) Here is some background: OS X has both file extensions (the letters like 'aif' or '.jpg' that appear at the end of a file name) and file type codes (a four-letter code not visible to the end-user that can be set by an application). In OS 9 and early versions of OS X, file extensions were cosmetic and the real file type was determined by the file type code. Since the release of OS X.4, many applications have stopped setting the file type code and rely solely on the file extension. Future versions of our applications will be able to handle files whose extensions have been set but have no file type. |
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When I render a picture, it sometimes doesn't match what I see on screen. |
This is generally caused by rendering a picture with an alpha channel (which acts as a transparency mask) that is causing larges parts of the picture to become transparent or nearly transparent. If the tree has a four-output component at the bottom, an alpha channel is saved with the picture. If you don't want the alpha channel, you can either use a 4->3 component at the bottom of the tree so that no alpha channel will be saved OR you can open the rendered image in an image editing application and remove the apha channel. For more information about alpha channels see the tech note>/a> and also take a look at the ArtMatic documentation. |
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OS X: When will you support OS X for Videodelic |
It is not currently known when Videodelic will be available as an OS X-native application. While it has been our dream to port Videodelic to OS X ever since OS X was released, it has proven to be a much more massive project than we imagined (essentially requiring it to be written again from scratch). It is posible that there will be a successor to it, but (as of Oct. 2011) we have some pretty ambitious projects in the pipeline ahead of it. |
