Crazy thought.. put Snow Leopard on retired MP5,1 and run Unisyn?

[James Steele]

This is just a crazy idea... but had thought about selling my old MacPro5,1 12-core (for a pittance obviously) now that I'm moving over to the Mac Studio. Then I realized that I'd like to maybe keep it in the corner of my studio to at minimum run Cherry Picker, as I need to make some custom patchlists in the Avid/ProTools format. So it would be nice to have.

Then my mind started wandering... WHAT IF... I could do an install of Snow Leopard on it, which to my knowledge as the last MacOS that Unisyn ran reliably on, and see if there's a way I can somehow connect that Mac up to my MIDI interface (better still somehow SHARE the MIDI interface between my Mac Studio and MacPro5,1) and be able to run Unisyn from time to time for patch editing and library management for hardware synths?

Of course, recognizing that with free apps like Sysex Librarian, it's easy enough to save and load bulk dumps from hardware. Just seems like it would be a slick technological puzzle to solve.

[stubbsonic]

Seems reasonable. I think the biggest hurdle is whether Snow Leopard will be installable on your MP5,1.

A little over a year ago, I managed to successfully install Snow Leopard on an old 2008 white unibody MB. Now that I think of it, the Snow Leopard part might have been easy-ish, but getting a working install of AppleWorks took a little more head-scratching.

I'm at a point now where I could see having multiple laptops around to run things from various eras. E.g., I have another MacBook Pro just for scanning and a few other little bits.

[James Steele]

Seems reasonable. I think the biggest hurdle is whether Snow Leopard will be installable on your MP5,1.

A little over a year ago, I managed to successfully install Snow Leopard on an old 2008 white unibody MB. Now that I think of it, the Snow Leopard part might have been easy-ish, but getting a working install of AppleWorks took a little more head-scratching.

I'm at a point now where I could see having multiple laptops around to run things from various eras. E.g., I have another MacBook Pro just for scanning and a few other little bits.

Ahh that's a great idea. Smaller form factor as well. I have a couple old MacBooks that I might be able to press into service for this, including a G4 MacBook if I remember correctly and it will still boot. Probably won't run Snow Leopard though. But old MacBooks aren't that expensive and setting something up primarily for Cherry Picker and UniSyn would be cool.

My main hurdle might be how to get the MacBook running Unisyn to share the MIDI interface with the Mac Studio. If I didn't need them at the same time, perhaps some type of USB-A switch box would do it? Probably more likely to work than some kind of merger.

[stubbsonic]

If you go that route with a used macbook, you'll need to confirm you can install Snow Leopard. I have a 2008 MBP that won't install Snow Leopard; but I got an ok deal on a 2008 MacBook (non pro) that was compatible with SL.

Keep us posted on how it goes.

[mikehalloran]

Snow Leopard 10.6 will not install on a MP 5.1 nor. G4. It will install on an iMac 2011 or earlier, likewise a MP 4.1 or earlier. The retail 10.6 DVD does not install on a 2011 Mac — that needs the 10.6.3 disk image from Apple Support which I happen to have—can’t get it from Apple anymore.

https://support.apple.com/kb/sp652?locale=en_US

I have a near perfect 2009 24” iMac running off an internal SATA III SSD. Free but for any shipping. Currently running El Capitàn, I could set it up to Snow Leopard.

When setting up a Mac to run an older OS, you have to disconnect it from the internet, boot into the repair partition (in this case, running El Cap) and reset the clock back to a time when that old OS would be supported. Now it will boot from the CD and let you install. When done, reconnect to the internet and the clock will reset itself.

[stubbsonic]

When setting up a Mac to run an older OS, you have to disconnect it from the internet, boot into the repair partition (in this case, running El Cap) and reset the clock back to a time when that old OS would be supported. Now it will boot from the CD and let you install. When done, reconnect to the internet and the clock will reset itself.

Thanks for mentioning this. I had to do this when I did my install, but I forgot about it until now.