Old Beige Mac, Can any older mac users help? Options

[subgenius88]

I picked up a 266 G3 beige all-in-one that was already upgraded w/ a 30 gb HD and 512MB RAM for $100. I've got 10.1 installed and all 3 PCI slots are available. I'm planning on installing a USB 2.0/firewire card so I can attach external CD/R and HD and MIDI interface, etc.> I have no experience using a computer for music. I'd like to use it as for sequencing and audio and will be primarily recording tracks one at a time. Can anyone suggest software I can use on that type of machine. New software typically requires a faster processer, but is there any way to pick up older software. For example, DP 4.0 I believe is the current version, and requires more than I've got, but people were using 2.0 or 2.5 back when the beige was a little more current. I've been thinking about adding a sonnet cpu upgrade, but I'm definitely on a budget. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[kolo]

I'd actually recomend trying OS 9. It's alot less taxing. I had a powerpc 7600(233mghz not g3!). I few years ago I got it for about 150$ and tryed running cubase 4.1. It acutally worked (slowly). I upgraded with a newertech 400Mhz G3 card and it worked great. Look for some dated software on ebay, can find this on ebay pretty cheap. I was able to run a reasonable amount of tracks with cubase 4.1, (like up to 20!) Virtual instruments were very taxing and one, two or three (depending which) was the max without ultimate problems as effects and tracks put their load on the processor. Your system is slower than this, and os x really needs more power as do the later issued applications which use OS X. Look into an upgrade card, it's well worth it. Do your research in chat spaces for particular apps as some don't fare well with some apps.. good luck

[-foster-]

I have a old biege G3 upgraded with a 400 sonnet G4 running OS9. I agree with kolo. My G3 still works wonderfully with all of my OS9 audio apps. I suggest maybe running protools free under OS9. You can download it for free @ www.digidesign.com. I also have a G5, but I use both machines frequentley, becuase you can't boot a G5 up in OS9, and classic mode in OSX has some midi/audio issues.

Best of luck,

-foster-

[algofrag1]

My 2 cents. I have a G3 beige desktop model upgraded to G4 processor(Xlr8) with 768 ram a delta 66 sound card running cubase 5.0 .Was running 9.1 for the longest time and just upgraded my OS to 9.2.1 and have always had a pretty stable system. My first recommendation wuld be to max the ram as this is the best thing you can do to increase performance on your system, especially with audio apps. My computer is a rrefurbished unit from about 5 years ago and for the first year i used the internal sound card and the G3's audio out with great success, however i was not doing much realtime audio at that time. If your looking towards mixing signals into your software such as guitars or miditriggered external modules then you will definitely need a good sound card that will reduce the latency issue. Hope this is of some benefit...

[beltunabob]

Another newby here. Not to music, but to the recording therof. I have a G4 tower. 512 mg 1Ghz (single) Currently the computer and the musci are in two seperate rooms. How do I start? Should i get somethin like an Mbox or a stand alone digital recorder. I have a strong preference for OSX and I gather protools is in 'classic' I play (and compose) on the accordion and the backup would be acoustic.

thanks
BObA

Software that will run on a Beige 266 under OS9:

Studio Vision Pro 4.5.1
Logic Platinum 4.7
Digital Performer 3-3.11
Deck 3.5
Peak 2.6-3.1

There are others, these are ones I actually had success with.Assuming your HD is less than half full and is maintained with Norton Utilities regularly, you should be able to get 20-24 tracks of audio with this using the internal HD.The number will drop the more editing you do.

However, running OSX, you are going to limit what will run on your machine, plus the OS itself is eating up so much RAM and graphics.

And even with OS9, you'll have to go easy on the plug-ins and many softsynths will just kill the thing. You might be able to run Absynth, but forget the Moog Modular V

People that have trouble with upgrade cards on G3s, it's usually combo USB/firewire cards.Many have found less trouble with a separate card for each.Doing any kind of work inside these All-In-Ones is a nightmare so be careful.