OS 9

[midiw]

I have refurbished several of my legacy PowerPC Macs such as adding more RAM and more storage by installing additional internal hard drives or using external firewire drives.

On a G4 QuickSilver I have dedicated one of two internal hard drives to OS 9 which will be pure OS 9 and not Classic OS 9. The other internal hard drive is Leopard.

However I can not recall which flavour of Digital Performer/Performer would work in OS 9.

Can someone here remind me please.

Thanks

[HCMarkus]

I'm thinking DP3.x. I remember staying with OS9 with my G4 because it ran DP a lot more efficiently than OSX.

[mikehalloran]

I'm thinking DP3.x. I remember staying with OS9 with my G4 because it ran DP a lot more efficiently than OSX.

Yep. It was 3.11 which requires 3.02 or later installed to run the updater. The 3.02 and 3.11 updaters are still available from the downloads area of MOTU.com.

I still have my copy installed on a G4 just in case but I'm fortunate that all my 2.x and 3.x still open in DP 8.

My G4 exists for certain projects from my wife and daughter that can't be opened in OS X or X after 10.4.11.

[Shooshie]

DP 3.11 on a G4 Quicksilver running OS9 is a powerful combination. Without the overhead of OS X, the G4 can make quick work of things. You can run a high number of tracks with plugins and automation without losing fader control. For the first 5 or 6 years of OS X, I longed for that kind of snappy, speedy behavior. It just wasn't happening under OS X. I think we've finally reached that point and beyond, but look at the computers it takes to do that. These are absolute monsters compared with those little G4s of 2002.

I have one remaining computer still capable of running that setup, a Powerbook G4 (Titanium). When I run the Classic OS9, I realize that I'm too spoiled to the modern Mac to go back for more than a brief visit. Scrolling, window resizing, and most other system-related operations are just too tedious and too irritating to the wrist. You have to make every move with the mouse; there are no shortcuts except those in QuicKeys, and I had dozens of QK shortcuts. (still do)

My favorite thing at the time was Location. Under Location, I had the entire setups programmed for several different offices and households. I lived on the road, staying months at a time in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Hollywood, or literally on the road. I also stayed for weeks at our ranch when I could. Each place had its own way of connecting to the internet, printers, and other computers. Many were in different time zones. Some required loading different extensions during startup. Every bit of that could be changed for each place that I stayed with ONE click: just pull down the Apple Menu to Locations, select the location, and release. Everything in that computer was then set for that place, including the time zone.

Now, our computers do most of that automatically without any prompting from us. But then it was a huge deal, and it saved me hours of time, not having to set up the computer for every place and network I worked. My favorite laptop to this day remains the Pismo Powerbook G3. Not nearly as powerful as the Titanium G4, but it's sleek lines and coloring were so cool I never wanted to change. It sped through OS9, but OS X was drudgery on it, and left little memory for anything else.

DP 2.x (I forget the "final" version that was so good. 2.17?) was speedy on that Mac, and so was DP3. It's amazing, however, that Firewire drives were state-of-the-art on those machines, and that every Mac still comes with a Firewire port. Well, not now, I guess. Now it's Thunderbolt, but with one little inexpensive adapter, it still connects easily to Firewire.

I still have the Pismo, too. I'm thinking of reinstalling OS9 and using it as a slide-show "picture frame." I'm not sure it runs well enough now to use that way, but I'd like to see it running again. Beautiful Macintosh, from the heyday of Steve Jobs' return.

Sorry for the trip down memory lane. There's nostalgia in those boxes and on those DP disks. I still have every disk MOTU sent, plus the manuals, key codes, and serial numbers. I can still feel the studios in which I worked, with their sights, sounds, and smells. I can remember the people and their voices. I remember the hot summer days in Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Tempe, Mesa, Fountain Hills (AZ) and Las Vegas (NV), and inline skating their streets and trails at night. I had friends directing the shows in Las Vegas, and others doing the sound, playing in the pit bands, or performing on stage. We partied with celebrities, movie moguls, recording artists, rock legends and showgirls. (and most everyone remained drug free, except for the occasional toke on a joint, which didn't count) The coolest thing was walking into a Starbucks for my morning cup of coffee, and within 15 minutes there'd be a crowd of people around my table talking about chord voicings in their scores, and about Digital Performer and Pro Tools. (Logic was still this weird DAW for masochistic electro-nerds) Summerlin Starbucks was the closest thing we had to a forum, and I was the resident DP expert. UnicorNation was around, and I was a member but didn't have time to frequent it, then. The tech bubble was still on fire, and it was an exciting time to be alive and in-demand.

Ok, I know, I know. I'm doing it again. Hey, what do you expect? Bringing up OS9 is like opening a door into a past that still lives inside of us. There are a lot of people I miss, now. Some famous, some forgotten. Some moved on; some passed-on.

Shooshie

[philbrown]

I just now got rid of my 2 G4's. I used them for a certain ask I did that only WaveBurner's OS9 version would do. Due to workflow changes I recently was able to finally switch to DSP Quattro and dump the G4's just last week. As Shooshie mentioned, without the overhead of OSX those G4's (relatively) screamed when booted in OS9. The whole system always seemd slightly underwater when jumping back to OSX even on way faster machines. Progress.

[midiw]

Thank you Guys for the excellent feedback/info.

Perhaps this next hurdle to overcome may for sure get me knocked off this forum.

I've dug up my MOTU micro express ( 6-port MIDI Interface/patchbay with SMPTE).

Connection of the micro express to the G4 computer will be via a DIN-8 AppleTalk cable and an Keyspan USB Twin serial adapter.

However, still require and looking for micro express Macintosh software installer (drivers) which at that time was installed from a floppy. Help in this area would once again be very much appreciated.

[mikehalloran]

I don't know if I still have the floppy for my Micro Express. I know where the box is - may still be in it. I rarely go to the basement of my Victorian because of my handicap.

It's not necessary, though. The OS 9 drivers are still available from Downloads. Look for FreeMidi 1.48. The sysex manager is right below.
http://www.motu.com/download/download_m ... duct_id=16

[midiw]

mikehalloran,

How about that! You saved the day for me. Thank you thank you.

While rummaging thru my legacy mac collection and related software found the software installers ( floppies ) for MOTU's FreeStyle. That was a fun program for me at the time. Will try it out in 9 albeit will not be too surprised if it freeze dries a forced shut down of the G4.

[mikehalloran]

Your welcome.

Is there any chance that the Micro Express works with an Intel Mac and the Keyspan USB Twin serial adapter? Someone on another thread would like to know. If it did work, then I'd look for an adapter and use it to sell my Micro Express.

I have an MTP AV that is Intel compatible so it's academic except I do have that old hardware.,,

[midiw]

Your welcome.

Is there any chance that the Micro Express works with an Intel Mac and the Keyspan USB Twin serial adapter? Someone on another thread would like to know. If it did work, then I'd look for an adapter and use it to sell my Micro Express.

I have an MTP AV that is Intel compatible so it's academic except I do have that old hardware.,,

Excellent question.

I'll run a test of the Keyspan USB on an Intel Mac although you will have to give me a couple of days.

I don't sell/get rid of old hardware because i'm not interested in the recovery dollars. Although I do have a person asking me to get sell of the hardware i don't seem to use, well not today, but perhaps tomorrow i may use it.

[mikehalloran]

No hurries. I'm not holding my breath waiting for a positive response. There are probably a few of us who'd like to know for certain. The question does come up now and then.

My guess is that, like the early MOTU USB MIDI boxes without the firmware upgrade chips, the answer is, "No".

My Micro Express was a nice piece of hardware, though. It would be cool if I was wrong.

[midiw]

Looks positive to me

Works with Windows ( up to WIN8.1 ) and Mac OS (up to 10.9 Mavericks)

http://www.tripplite.com/sku/USA19HS/

That;s the one i have.

[mikehalloran]

Looks positive to me

Works with Windows ( up to WIN8.1 ) and Mac OS (up to 10.9 Mavericks)

http://www.tripplite.com/sku/USA19HS/

That;s the one i have.

Didn't doubt that - not the issue. It's if the Micro Express works through that with an Intel Mac.

The early USB versions of those boxes don't unless the firmware chips are replaced. I suspect the same is true with the serial version but we won't know until you tell us yea or nay.

[midiw]

OK, thanks for helping me understand the real problem. MR MAGOO here will be taking the Keyspan USB twin serial adapter for a ride not only on the Mac Power PC's but also on a lower end iMac then will let you know what happened.

[Shooshie]

Thank you Guys for the excellent feedback/info.

Perhaps this next hurdle to overcome may for sure get me knocked off this forum.

I've dug up my MOTU micro express ( 6-port MIDI Interface/patchbay with SMPTE).

Connection of the micro express to the G4 computer will be via a DIN-8 AppleTalk cable and an Keyspan USB Twin serial adapter.

However, still require and looking for micro express Macintosh software installer (drivers) which at that time was installed from a floppy. Help in this area would once again be very much appreciated.

There was something about the Keyspan adapter that required some good guesswork. I don't remember exactly what it was, now, but I had a 4 port Keyspan (they were out of the two-port ones, and I needed one right at that exact moment), and it has to do with how to designate which port will be the printer port and which will be the Appletalk port. After 15 years that's a dim memory. I can still see a page of numbers and code flashing by while looking at some kind of a Keyspan utility, but I think I just tried them all (all four ports) until one worked. I remember calling their support line, but the lady on the other end was not helpful at all. No matter; I doubt that the company is still even there. Well, good luck getting it to work. I do remember that it never failed after I got it to work, but FreeMIDI was tricky enough on its own. Adding the Keyspan and its ambiguous ports just added to the chaos. Good luck!

Shoosh