Setup Advice Needed, midi/audio setup on emac Options

[flapper]

I have a 700 mhz PowerPC G4 Emac with 384 mb of memory running OS X 10.2.8. A year ago I went through all sorts of hell trying to set up a simple midi and audio recording system utilizing an M Audio Audiophile USB as the interface for my midi keyboards, drum machines, etc. and for audio. It was an unending nightmare of one software wanting OSX updated, another only running in 9, no communication or one way communication at best between the Mac and the devices connected to the Audiophile.

I switched over to a Mac because I was led to believe it was easy to implement and not buggy. I have successfully set up midi sequencing on PC based system in the past. I have failed utterly with the Mac. After a year, I am again thinking of trying to make this system work.

My question: Will someone please suggest to me a very simple midi sequencer that will work in OS X 10.2.8 and give me your ideas on what is possibly wrong with the communication between the computer and the peripherals connected to the Audiophile. At this point I would be satisfied to be able to do midi sequencing on the Mac, leaving the audio recording to my stand-alone digital recorder. Thank you so much for your kind thoughts.

Flapper

[Metro SE]

..please suggest to me a very simple midi sequencer that will work in OS X 10.2.8...

Metro SE

[Bubowski]

Also check out Intuem (http://www.intuem.com/main/index.html) or Tracktion (http://mackie.com/products/tracktion2/index.html)

[gdoubleyou]

1)You barely have enough RAM to run the OS. Max out your RAM at least 768MB

2)You will probably have to upgrade your OS to do audio, most of the newer versions require 10.3

3) Do a search on Intuem in this forum it's midi only.

[lepetitmartien]

Yep, 10.2.8 while it works ok for some Protools conservatives is still a pain in the a… check compatibilities and then move to Panther (a clean install to avoid eventual problems) it'll ease your life. and the RAM question must be addressed.

You can find original Panther install CDs for cheap on Ebay for example.

[flapper]

Thank you all. Besides Apple, where is a good place to buy some additional memory? I bought 256 from them a couple years ago and they were helpful, but kind of expensive.

I assume I can upgrade to 10.3 with this computer & the additional memory, but it means another couple of nights of ssllllooooowww downloading, which I vividly recall when I upgraded to 10.2.8. Before I could even do that I had to download a new download program that wouldn't lose what I'd downloaded when I got disconnected in the middle of it by our miserable dial-up connection run by the phone company. It seems like an endless succession of upgrading memory and OS and then hoping the new program will install and operate correctly. I just want to use this thing for music!

Keep those suggestions coming & thanks again.

Flapper

[ed van otterdijk]

maybe it's time to spend some money. if you wanna have everything for free, don't use apple, go toPC.

[flapper]

"maybe it's time to spend some money. if you wanna have everything for free, don't use apple, go toPC."

Well, 2 years ago I spent about $1500 on the Mac, another hundred on memory, $150 on software, $150 on an interface to my $10,000 worth of midi instruments, and so far I've still done all my recording on a stand-alone 8 track because I can't get the eMac to even do basic midi sequencing. I'd add that 10 long years ago I set up (with some minor difficulty) my PC to do midi sequencing and a couple tracks of audio. It worked great! I wish I still had that system. I spent a couple of hundred hours at trying to get the eMac set up and gave it up as a bad cause a year ago. Now I'm back for more pain!

I'm not adverse to spending money, but I need results. At this point I feel reluctant to throw a whole lot more money at this endeavor unless I'm going to end up with a simple working system. When I record with a stand-alone recorder it becomes a big deal to have to set up all sorts of equipment, get all the settings right, etc., and then half the evening's gone. I want a simple system, like my ancient, departed one, where I can turn on the computer, turn on a keyboard or two and start recording.

[Bubowski]

If you really want some sequencing power you could always pick up an old OS9 machine for next to nothin and run Opcode Vision. Vision is probably still the most powerful and intuitive MIDI seqencers out there...and the price is good... FREE! Go to www.opcodeusers.com and join the brother (and sister) hood of Vision users.

[ed van otterdijk]

First started with MC500, Atari, last 12 years on apple, large midisystem and grand studio, never had any problems.
Use Apple with logic, and good soundcard and equipment. For what you can do professionally with apple and logic, I think it costs near to nothing.

best, ed

[mortalengines]

I have heard that the emac wasn't really a good unit for music production (though I did some Reason sequencing with one at one point with few to no problems at all). If you want to do some serious music production, you will need at least an 800 Mhz G4 with 512MB (more is better) RAM. G4s are cheaper now & you can find a used one on Ebay for a reasonable price. If you want to slog it out with what you got you should post your real problems on this site & be a specific as possible & I am sure that somebody here could help you.

[flapper]

Based on all your suggestions, for starters I'm going to max out the memory, which for this machine is 1024.

One suggestion was that I upgrade to Panther, and that there were copies available on eBay for cheap. Will I run into hassles doing it this way? I know more about PCs than Macs, but I can do simple things Apple-wise. How do the rest of you feel about the upgrade? I got the impression that 10.2.8 is not looked on too kindly for purposes of music.

Re. Opcode, would I really have to have an older machine to use 9; could I boot up on this machine in 9 and use it just as effectively (I did discover how to boot up in 9 while avoiding what was called the "Classic".

I really appreciate all your suggestions. I will continue to add specific questions as they arise. It'll take me about a week to get my memory. Thanks.

[Bubowski]

Hey Flapper,

If you can already dual-boot, check out Vision. Many Visioneers use dual-boot machines so they can keep using their fav midi app. I use vision on 500MHz G3 Powerbook (Pismo) and run Logic express on a 2GHz G5 iMac. Mainly using Vision and Galaxy (editor/librarian) for all my old synths. OMS has a great facility for managing patch names which can't be beat by todays sequencers. Have to say I LOVE using Softsynths in Logic..too sweet!

--Bub

[Bubowski]

Forgot to mention that Vivion WILL NOT work under Classic...the machine MUST boot into OS9 for it to work.

[flapper]

Thank you Bubowski. I'll look into opcodeusers.com. Any further information is really helpful.

Re. upgrading my OS from 10.2.8, I have a CD-RW, not a DVD drive. Which means I would have to (if I bought it from Apple), buy the OS on DVD, send it in, pay $9.95 more and get the OS on CDs. I'm a little leary of doing this, especially since a clean install was recommended by someone--meaning, I assume I would lose my anti-virus license as well? How about dual boot capability?

I have upgraded CD-ROMs on PCs once or twice, but I don't know if I'd dare try to put in a DVD drive on an eMac that doesn't look too easy to upgrade or even open up, outside of adding memory. I hesitate to buy a second external drive--it sounds like the old expensive way to upgrade. Or is it? Can I get Panther (still would like to hear what the rest of you have to say on the necessity of upgrading to 10.3) on a CD?

Another question (or two): what about Apple's Garageband? Also, is that available on CD. I see that iLife ships as a DVD.

Thanks for bearing with all my basic questions, many of which have been answered elsewhere in this forum. I initially tried answering some of them via searches, but the volume is such that I got easily sidetracked.