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

[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.