How The Hell Can I Get Outdated Software?, ...software if i wanna buy a 7300/200 Options

[dr. schoft]

i dont have much money. and to do simple recording/sequence (1trackat a time, maye 2 but i doubt it) tasks. i wont be needing a G-something, right? im a guitarman and i just want to make some songs with midi drummachine, work out structures etc...

theres a company here in belgium that recycles macs and they sell a full equipped 7300/200 for 200euros. i wana buy that thing it looks very interesting for the price(for the research i have done on macs)

the only problem left is SOFTWARE, how do i get older versions of whatever cubase, cakewalk...

another thing: yes i wanna do those things on a computer. i worked with cakewalk pro audio 9 before on this computer (which is a pc that runs on windows and isnt mine) and i like that better than working on the stupid drummachine (alesis) on which i tend to lose my patience all the time. keep in mind that i dont have my own computer yet so im gonna use it for some other minimalistic things

you think id be allright for 400-500 euros?

any suggestions Highly Appreciated

and im sorry if theres been someone else before with a similar question. i looked for a bit and it looks like the most have a g3 or more. so before i got crazy i made my own thread

[dreibel]

here's some thoughts of mine on this subject;

if you're looking at the 7xxx series, consider looking at getting a 7600 model, as this one has RCA audio line level in and out, that will give you another option for audio in.

But why not dream big? Consider looking at a 9600 Tower - these are beginning to show up dirt cheap on eBay. They have the ability to be upgraded to up to 1 gig of memory, and have 6 PCI slots for adding all sorts of cards like USB, Firewire, IDE, and video (plus the big door on the side makes it much easier to get inside and get inside its guts. There's also the earlier 9500, but these are a real bear to open and get inside without spilling blood

Also a budget consideration - Mac clones like the Power Computing PowerTower Pro or the UMAX S900. These are based around the 9500/9600 with the six slots and up to 1 gig of memory capability, and are now going for peanuts. I have a UMAX J700 (an S900 with four slots and a desktop case) with over 500 MB of RAM, a couple of hard drives and a G4 daughtercard, and I get great results running Cubase VST/32 5.1 on it.

Look for as much RAM as possible - thankfully, the 168-pin DIMMs have been dropping steadily in price, you can get 128 MB DIMMs for around $25 US.

A modem/printer port MIDI unit is a great way to go - a few weeks ago I picked up an Opcode Studio 64 X for $50 CDN. And Gibson still maintains an Opcode web site for downloading the 2.3.8 drivers you'll need.

One other thing about PCI Power Macs - a cool aspect about these is that it's possible to stuff a faster processor into these via a duaghtercard upgrade. Sonnet , Powerlogix and XLR8 all make some cool cards for turning older Macs into fire-breathing funny Macs . One to look out for are XLR8's daughtercards that can take ZIF-style upgrades, which make them really good should you find someone selling a ZIF from a beige or B&W G3 or from a Yikes! G4.

And one other research site - Low End Mac is an excellent repository of info for all things old Mac, and even offers newsletters for users of particular models.