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Posted by: quaco Wed 15 Feb 2006, 19:22

Hello,

I may have found the answer on another person's thread, but nothing beats having a discussion about your own personal case...

I have been running Pro Tools Digi 001 on a G4 with OS 9.1 for quite a while now, and everything's been fine. But the the OS 9.1 has begun to become outdated ... endless Shockwave/Flash error messages ... so many things made for OSX only now.

So, I think I'm ready to upgrade to OSX. I could either have both OS 9.1 and OSX on the computer and use the 9.1 to run the Pro Tools and the OSX for everything else, or I could upgrade the Digi 001 as well. Apparently, it will work up to 10.3 (Panther).

Are there any things I need to worry about here?

What are the steps I must take? (I still live in the dark ages, and am scared of making some irreversible change to something that works well.)

Thank you for whatever information you may be able to offer.

quaco

Posted by: lepetitmartien Thu 16 Feb 2006, 00:59

First, what's your computer?
Next, to go OS X means you need RAM, OS X eats RAM for breakfast.

I will call some Digi001 user around.

Posted by: ronaldl Thu 16 Feb 2006, 02:45

Hi quaco,

Welcome to the 21st century.

I finally gave in and traded up from my Digi 001 to a Digi 002R and I have not regretted it. I've had no problems and it has allowed me to continue updating the PTLE software. Digidesign's hardware exchange program made it easy. Check their website @ http://nav.440network.com/out.php?mmsc=forums&url=http://www.digidesign.com/ to check the compatiblity of Digi 002 and whichever OS X you upgrade to. For one thing, you'll be able to remove the PCI card since the 002 is firewire. You'll now be able to put your Mac to sleep once again! There are still some diehard 001 users around, but it's a legacy product that will prevent you from enjoying any further Pro Tools updates. And lepetitmartien is correct: the more RAM the better.

Ron

Posted by: quaco Thu 16 Feb 2006, 02:52

I think it's:

Mac G4
450 MHz
256 MB RAM

Pretty standard five years ago.

Posted by: quaco Thu 16 Feb 2006, 02:54

Thank you for the advice and the goodwill! Just curious, why would anyone want to stick with Digi 001, rather than get an 002. Does the old one actually have any advantages?

Posted by: ianstonehouse Thu 16 Feb 2006, 11:40

With the Digi 001 you're limited to running ProTools LE version 6.4. Think your G4 will struggle @450MHz and 256MB RAM though.

Posted by: quaco Thu 16 Feb 2006, 15:56

So maybe the better idea is to get OSX, but keep the OS9 on there as well, solely for running my Pro Tools LE.

Or are you saying my computer will have a tough time with OSX anyway?

(Sorry for all the questions...)

Posted by: jce44 Thu 16 Feb 2006, 16:19

FYI, if you're using MAC OS 9.1, and want to upgrade to OS X.x, you must upgrade to OS 9.2 first.

OS 9.2 is available (free) at the Apple/MAC support

http://nav.440network.com/out.php?mmsc=forums&url=http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75288

This site also explains which G4's are capable of starting up in both OS X and 9.2 and how to set them up.

I installed a second hard drive in my MAC G4 (AGP graphics w/ 400MHz) and "partitioned" the 2 different drives,... I left OS 9.2 on the old, original drive, and run OX 10.3.9 on the new, bigger hard drive. I can start up in either OS, and run "Classic" OS 9.2, while in OS X.

I also added 2 512 MBs of RAM. It all runs great! I'm still new at the Digital Recording, so I can't reply to the Music Apps you're questioning, but I know the Mac OS and the G4 pretty well.

I'm in the process of choosing a new 1.4Ghz (or faster) processor to install in my G4 and will also upgrade to more RAM in order to get my mini recording studio off the ground. I only want to record 3 or 4 instruments and 2 vocals at a time.

G4's are highly upgradable, depending on your model. Good Luck!

Judy

Posted by: ianstonehouse Thu 16 Feb 2006, 16:22

Well, I've found that - for example - running OSX Panther on a G3 500MHz laptop was just about acceptable for basic use, but way too slow for running audio software such as ProTools LE. I was running OSX Panther from an external firewire drive, booting it as a startup drive, as I wanted to preserve my original OS9 install on the G3's drive rather than have OSX 'upgrade' it to OS9 "Classic" - which is not the same thing as OS9.2. thereason was because i was running other audio apps that required OS9.2. Also, I didn't have much space left to install OSX anyway!

Suggest visiting Digidesign site and checking the compatibility info for the Digi 001 system
http://nav.440network.com/out.php?mmsc=forums&url=http://www.digidesign.com/compato/osx/001/

Posted by: quaco Thu 16 Feb 2006, 20:12

Thanks, folks, you've given me some things to look into. I do appreciate that!

(Feel free to keep the posts a-coming though. I know there's more I could learn...)

Posted by: ronaldl Fri 17 Feb 2006, 00:16

Hi quaco,

It would seem that your first step would be getting OS X Panther and configuring your computer to dual-boot between OS 9 & X. All of the above information is excellent in that regard. There are a number of places to get Panther (Google), but as mentioned, be sure you get 10.3.4 or earlier. I just checked my Panther install disk for system requirements and while it will even work on a G3 with only 128MB RAM and 2GB HD space, DAWs like Pro Tools tax your computer. I would suggest at least doubling your RAM to 512MB minimum. Once you set it up to dual-boot you can try PT in OS9 as usual and then install and try PT in OS X. Or just use OS X for everything other than PT as you mentioned. But you will love OS X.

After that, you can decide whether or not you like running PT in OS X. If so, you can upgrade PTLE as far as v.6.4 and still use your DIGI001. You might find that the migration to OS X and the upgrade to PTLE 6.4 is a wonderful new world and you have no need to go any further. If a year later you start thinking how great it would be to have some of those features in PT 6.9, then you can think about upgrading to a DIGI002.

Re: 001 vs. 002? You'd have to go to their site and check out the specs for the 002 and see how they differ, but for the most part they're very similar. A major difference is that 001 is PCI and 002 is firewire. Macs tend to have sleep issues when PCI cards are installed and I was not able to put my computer to sleep properly while I had the 001.