Is Motunation a Place for me?

[garyrice]

About 4 years ago I decided I needed to learn more about audio. Prior to then I did some video editor work but left the audio to simple AIFF stereo recordings.

I started buying stuff. My only rule (and STILL a rule): Whatever I bought must work with Mac OS 9.

To explain Mac OS 9 (and ward off naysayers):
I've owned a Mac since System 6 - dozens of them in fact.

I was an early adopter of X beginning with the first public beta. I suffered through 10.0.1 and its variants, 10.1 and its.

The first Kernel Panic I got was ugly. The Apple tech told me to reformat my drive and reinstall everything. I lost 2 (60 hour) week's work.

I figured it was my fault for not backing up daily. But then I COULDN'T since no backup software existed yet for this "robust" operating system.

Kernel Panic #2 happened about 3 weeks later. Once more I was told to reformat and reload. (oops, no backup - another 3 week's work lost.

Kernel Panic #3 was a month later. This time, after the reformat (and 2 weeks more of lost data), I reloaded Mac OS 9, threw X in the trash and never looked back.

I will NEVER use X again. So advice about using a "modern" operating system is a waste of your time and mine.
-----------------------
Now that I have THAT said, the first things I bought were from M-AUDIO (Audiophile 2496) and Steinberg (Cubasis).

I loaded these thing up on my G4 and tried them out. UGH! The system was horribly unstable. Hardly a way to begin.

So I moved on. Lots of trial and error (and a BUNCH of money) put me into what appears to be a stable and manageable DAW:
G4 MDD with lots of RAM
Digital Performer v3.0
Hours of recorded material in all the usual formats
Tascam FW-1884 control surface
Various input devices such as
- a Dual turntable for vinyl
- CD Player built in the G4
- Teac Cassette player
- MIDI keyboard
- Roland SoundCanvas (just because)
- Audio-technica AT822 Mic for voice-overs

My original "production" goals were supposed to be simple:
-Transfer my aging LP collection to CD (and repair wear damage along the way)
- Experiment with MIDI by taking some orchestral works and arrange them for band instead

I had absolutely NO IDEA how deep the water was. But now 4 years later I might actually be able to attempt my goals.

So finally to my question:
Are these forums a good fit for me and my environment?

Gary

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Welcome!

You might find a home in the Recording section for advice on some of this stuff. You will probably not find much computer related advice except where folks might remember the OS 9 parameters. I'm fairly certain MOTU no longer supports OS 9 but I/m not certain.

DP is also a very different beast (as you are probably aware) and while some DP aspects still apply, most often we see people with questions regarding the current slew of devices. Even on Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6.8 - which I am staying at indefinitely) I find many have moved on to the "Lion's Share" of OS updates. I like these as much as you like OS X, so I do understand your position. The point being that the "new crop" of members in the near future will not know a world where OS X did not exist.

Look around, do a few searches of topics of interest to you and see what you think. It's all free.

[garyrice]

Thanks for replying. You wrote:
I'm fairly certain MOTU no longer supports OS 9

Well I've heard that so often that I became my own OS 9 guru.I doubt that I have any OS-related questions left.

But I suspect I will have tons of DP3-related questions since I have found few books on the subject.

Gary

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Do you still have a manual? I might be faster to direct you to page numbers at times. I can dig my DP 3 manual out of storage and I know a few others still have that version of the book.

[mikehalloran]

I am in the camp that believes no one cares why you won't use OS X.

Oh, do you really think that you are the only one who suffered kernel panics in the early days? Ha! Anyone with a B&W G3 experienced that pain. And then we got through it. They still occur, more likely caused these days by some aging component that doesn't play well with the rest of the computer.

Anyway, for many of us, DP 4.61 in OS 10.4.x was the first really good version of both the OS and DP (I've been using Macs since Finder 4.x and DP since 2.4). There are still a few users who run DP 4.6 without needing to upgrade but, as hardware gets long in the tooth and some of the newer features become more attractive, even they are asking the rest of us about upgrading.

I still keep OS 9 on a G4 but not for DP. There was one build of DP 3.x that was pretty stable compared to every other version but it was so long ago, I no longer remember. I threw my copy out when I moved in 2004. I did use it to make some great audio recordings.

So, yes, you are certainly welcome here. There's plenty to learn and, no doubt you have things to share. Who knows - someone else may still be using DP 3 and you may be the guru.

But, if you wish to give us another infantile rant about problems that many of us experienced over nine years ago... Please spare us.

[Phil O]

Gary, dude (as they say). I run DP 7.24 on an 8 core MacPro OS 10.6.8. It's as solid as a rock. You don't know what you're missing! A few problems with earlier versions of DP 7, but 7.24 has NEVER crashed on my system. Although I must admit that the last time DP was this solid was version 3. So you settled on a good one.

I think I've got an old DP 3 manual kicking around here somewhere (probably holding up the corner of a workbench or somethin'). I'll offer help if I can. Welcome aboard.

Phil

[garyrice]

Thanks Guys.

My copy (via ebay) came without a manual so I ordered one from Amazon. It should arrive this week.

Is it any good or is it like so many of the things that vendors passed off as "sliced bread" manuals that were more like "stale crackers" junk.

Gary

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Amazon? They got MOTU DP manuals on Amazon?

Who knew... hope you didn't pay too much for that.

I'll check back (like maybe around Sept 19) and see what's been shakin' in this thread, but frankly, w/o a manual, I don't think I would be much more than an impediment in your grasp of the program.

Hey, man, good luck with all that! Really!

[James Steele]

Thanks Guys.

My copy (via ebay) came without a manual so I ordered one from Amazon. It should arrive this week.

Is it any good or is it like so many of the things that vendors passed off as "sliced bread" manuals that were more like "stale crackers" junk.

Gary

Hi Gary. Welcome to the forum. It's a good manual. I'm surprised you could get one from Amazon. Perhaps it's from a user who is selling their old one.

You should be aware of one issue, however. If you bought your copy of DP on eBay, unless the seller transfers his license over to you, you cannot be a registered user and do not legitimately have the right to use the app. MOTU doesn't allow users to sell old copies of DP unless they transfer their license and forfeit their own right to upgrades, etc.

Put simply, if the person who sold you the old copy of DP is to this day still using DP, it's almost like you're a pirate. I know that's a weird spot to be put in, but I'm just telling you how it is. Perhaps MOTU doesn't really care if you're way back on OS 9 (or was it System 9).

Also I'll echo the sentiment that the fear over OS X and recent versions of DP isn't all that justified. DP 6 was the only version that was not quite up to snuff and it's long dead.

[mikehalloran]

Oh no, the manual and the Quick Start Guide are essential beyond the basics. I'm pretty sure I never cracked mine as I never used any functionality beyond v.2.

There was one version of DP 3 that was rock solid. I just don't recall which. DP wasn't that stable again till 4.61. Versions 5.13 and 7.24 are also rock solid.

Occasionally test the memory on your old Mac with a utility like TechTool. RAM occasionally dies of old age and nothing screws up your projects like bad RAM - worse because the cause of your grief is never obvious other than Bounce to Disk quits early or something similar.

Old AppleCare disks with versions of TT that work in OS 9 are often easy to find if you know what to look for.

[buzzsmith]

DP 3.21, I believe, was the previous "gold standard".

Buzzy

[kgdrum]

Thanks Guys.

My copy (via ebay) came without a manual so I ordered one from Amazon. It should arrive this week.

Is it any good or is it like so many of the things that vendors passed off as "sliced bread" manuals that were more like "stale crackers" junk.

Gary

Hi Gary. Welcome to the forum. It's a good manual. I'm surprised you could get one from Amazon. Perhaps it's from a user who is selling their old one.

You should be aware of one issue, however. If you bought your copy of DP on eBay, unless the seller transfers his license over to you, you cannot be a registered user and do not legitimately have the right to use the app. MOTU doesn't allow users to sell old copies of DP unless they transfer their license and forfeit their own right to upgrades, etc.

Put simply, if the person who sold you the old copy of DP is to this day still using DP, it's almost like you're a pirate. I know that's a weird spot to be put in, but I'm just telling you how it is. Perhaps MOTU doesn't really care if you're way back on OS 9 (or was it System 9).

Also I'll echo the sentiment that the fear over OS X and recent versions of DP isn't all that justified. DP 6 was the only version that was not quite up to snuff and it's long dead.

+1

What James said.

The other issue,whats the latest version of Mac OS compatible with a G4,Tiger?
And I'd guess the latest compatible versions of DP, I'd guess would be either 4 or 5 ?
So either way besides the legitimacy of the OP's copy of DP which I'm also skeptical of though I suspect no bad intentions from the OP.
The reality though is availability and support of these legacy OS's and DP will be severely limited.

Gary I wish you the best of luck and I know it's the last thing you probably want to hear but I'll suggest if the budget allows, maybe get a used but recent macmini and step forward a bit.
You'll save yourself alot of time and aggravation and get more productive work accomplished w/ assistance from the community at large.
Since you have Cubase you should qualify for a competitor upgrade from DP also.
Yes you will have to spend some $$ to do this but the road your trying to take besides everything being obsolete,will offer no tech support if the software is not legitimately authorized for you to use.

[mikehalloran]

>The other issue,whats the latest version of Mac OS compatible with a G4,Tiger?<

DP 7.12 is the latest version for any PPC.

For kicks, I tried it on my G4-500 test machine 2G RAM. Definitely not recommended! I would think a G4-1K-dual would fare much better (RAM is limited to 1.5G on these).

DP 5.13 is ok as long as the VI/Plugin/Track count isn't that high.

BTW, OS 10.4.11 is the latest OS for the G4-500. I have a 1200 accelerator that I plan to install in it but the video card won't support 10.5.

Leopard does run on my G4-1K-dual. A little slow but it works fine. Never installed DP on that machine. If it ever makes it back to my bench, I might try 7.12.

[HCMarkus]

7.24 work on PPC, but Leopard (10.5) is "required". However, if one bypasses the OS warnings, 7.2x runs under 10.4.11. I've been loving 7.21 under 10.4.11 on my Quad G5 for some time now.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

And while I vowed not to post on this thread until Sept 19, I'd like to add one small point.

Look (o/p) at the freakin responses you've gotten already on your hypothetical. Maybe this is not the kind of community support you're looking for.

These may not be the droids you're looking for.