Ok, the problem is- it is old and not supported any more. I have Emagic Unitor 8- 8 in/out MIDI time piece. Back in the day it cost $800. I use all 8 ports and kept it on for years- it never ever ever game me any problems.
 
I wish I could use it in Windows 8 on my new computer but I am afraid to install the driver because it is NT (not even XP). It installs fine in XP, never had any MIDI problems, but I do not want to take my chances with XP. So- should I just forget about it? I know- there is compatability mode for old programs, but I am not sure if it applies to the drivers that should run inside of Sonar. It is 32 bit, my system is 64 bit now. Any suggestions? I know that it is very hard to replace 8 ports MIDI- only few options available over $400. Thanks.

Maybe the MOTU MIDI Express 128 might be your answer. I believe they still ship with the Win7 drivers but their website claims to support Win8. It can be had for less the $250

The midi express drivers work fine under Windows 8 64. I have them on my system and they work great.

Do you really need 8 MIDI ins and outs? 

The Cakewalk UM-3G has 3 and that's plenty for me. YMMV.  With the advent of softsynths, I haven't purchased any new real synths in at least a decade. 

Daveny, thanks for the input. As I stated in my first post, I do use all 8 ports. I actually need at least 12- I use my other soundcards for 2 more ports.

What are the midi express drivers and where do I find them?

I was wondering- what if I connect the Unitor 8 and power it on and see what happens and if Win 8 assigns some generic driver to it? Any chance it would work? It usually asks for the disk and I have a disk but the driver is NT.

The "MIDI express" drivers come with the MOTU MIDI Express 128 interface that I was taling about in my thread above.

To my knowledge, Windows does not come with a default multi-port Midi device driver.
vladasyn: I have 3 MOTU midiexpress 128s on my system and use every port as well. The Unitor 8 was great, but the newer MOTU's use a faster processor so the timing between the midi ports are solid on a single unit. The drivers do a decent job maintaining timing across units, although if you flood them with midi data, the timing between units does jitter.

Yeah, thanks for the idea. This thing powers off USB port. This is weird. I have 850W power supply but still... I wish it had its own power source connector. Alco it does not support

MOTU MIDI Express XT USB ($345) http://www.sweetwater.com.tore/detail/MIDIExpXTUSB
 
Has power supply, supports Midi Machine Control transport messages (that is not the one I need- what's the other one? Roland Fantom does not read regular midi- ok- it should but I had problems with it for some reason- I use something else- Might be MMC). But so much money for everything I already have? My Unitor is timepiece and supports all formats. Just no drivers. Wont work if I just connect it?

Most likely it wont as you need 64bit drivers, which do not exist. Do you need SMPTE sync and internal routing? The 128 is the same unit without the ability to read/write LTC, sync to SMPTE, and internal midi router. The 128 supports MMC as well.

Working hardware with no device drivers sucks big time. The primary reason I dislike PC/MAC-based DAWS. :/

Would the MOTO Micro Lite work?  You would need 2 for 10 ports, or 3 for 15 ports, and it has Windows 7 drivers, according to the MOTU site.

Here is a link to it on Guitar Center, followed by the MOTU product page for it"

http://www.guitarcenter.c...-102303369-i1154846.gc

And:

http://www.motu.com/products/midi/lite

Each one would cost $139 at Guitar Center, and the MOTU site says you can just add another one for more ports.  Each one gives you 5 ins and 5 outs, along with USB connector to computer, and is powered by USB bus, although you could use a powered USB hub (between $15-$20) to give you 4 powered USB ports.

Would that work?

Bob Bone