Members Introduction... time to reflect on our past that got us here :)

[revel8or]

Mat, I spent about 2200 us in two sound cards for the PC back in 2000 so I could get 6ms latency.  My wife told me, then, that I should have just bought a Mac G4.  I just got the G4, and I still have the sound cards in a PC that gets updated every few years...I think that I would have been better off, fiscally, with the G4.  I love it.  To little bitty pieces.  I do.

[saxfun]

hi there!
I'm a musician (alto sax, bass clarinet, djembé, dundun, cajón), teaching since 20 years. for my local university i'm repairing a lot of powerbooks, MacBooks and all this stuff. i'm working since 2004 with Mac and OS X, OS9 i did see only on my artists colleagues machines. so i'm really interested, since i have already 9.2.2 on my Sawtooth (2gb RAM, 1,4GhZ Sonnet CPU Upgrade etc.). OS X on my main machines and on this sawtooth is ROCKstable but -honestly- i get a lot of lockups on OS9, an experience i did not had in the past with OS X. so i' eagerly looking forward to work a lot more with OS9 to optimize it on my machine.

saxfun 

[mrhappy]

Well this is the place to get your OS 9 machine sorted out! I'm gonna have to google dundun to see what that is though!!😁😁

[Silver]

Hello, I just found this great website by chance. I bought a used iBook calmshell with OS9 installed. I'm looking forward to making music with it.

[rickrob]

Hello everyone,

I've been using Macs since the 80's, started out with an SE and System 6... I took a break for a while a few years back and got rid of all my Macs... But about a year ago I found an SE/30 on the side of the road, took it home and fixed it up. That got me back into vintage macs. Now I've got a small collection going of a G4 Cube, Mac Mini 1.42Ghz, SE/30, Color Classic/Mystic and a Pismo G3 Powerbook. And a Laserwriter 4/600.

Looking forward to reading all the info in the forums.

[mrhappy]

Welcome Silver and rickrob!

started out with System 6.

That's where I got onboard too IIRC

[GaryN]

But about a year ago I found an SE/30 on the side of the road,

Damn. I need to my routes - I'm obviously taking the wrong roads!

[boring747]

Hi folks!

Some people can't help but feed stray cats when they encounter them. Me, I can't help but fix up old Macs when I encounter them. I joined this community because I'm trying to learn more about MIDI because I'm starting a Twin Peaks tribute band with my best friend. I'm kinda iffy on what the difference between a sequencer and a sampler is, so I have a lot to learn. I promise not to ask any really dumb questions for a while!

[eamoc]

Howdy all

By way of introduction, I spent a lot of time and had a lot of fun in the late 90s with the various free Calarts programs for OS 9 (especially Soundhack), and whatever else I could find. As a college junior with a blueberry G3 iMac DV, I'd explore, in maddening intricacy, every second of sound at hand, ticking away the small hours while largely avoiding schoolwork.

Since then I've run OSX on various newish machines (loving every way to integrate the bash terminal with GUI programs) and various barebones Linux distros on old, old ones, but have fondly revisited OS9 more and more. It holds fond memories, has odd charms, and an interesting way of keeping me focused on making, making, making.

I had always wondered what sort of musical sorcery could be performed with the SuperCollider program -- which receives user input in the form of an object-oriented programming language -- and have since learned a good deal about programming, and so am emboldened to revisit it.

Now, having had a Quicksilver G4 and a nice MIDI keyboard controller randomly come into my life, the time is right. I spent under $30 on the Audiophile 2496, and am reading manuals. The MIDI lab at my school wasn't formed until after I'd graduated, so I've plenty to learn.

I'm going to have a good thorough look at the forum pages and get down to brass tacks. Such a cool site, I'm a little confused as to why I didn't assume something like this existed.

[mocheez]

Hi there! I've been a hardcore Apple addict and fan of electronic music gear ever since I was a kid. It almost started with a Macintosh, back in 1984, but my father finally went for the Apple //e, much cheaper and much more expandable. Ever since, I was in love… (even though I was a bit pissed off he didn't buy the Mac)
I went through other computing experiences as life went by. My parents and I moved from Paris to Marseille, back in 1990. By then, I was into Amiga's (my dad had bought two A2000's to do computer graphics), on which I discovered the exciting world of computer music. I got away from Apple for a while, although I would often enjoy using the Mac IIfx at my dad's work. In 1991, I decided to get into computer music for real and got me some synthesizer and Atari 520ST with Cubase. This has been my setup for years. I later added a digital sampler and, later on, bought my first own Macintosh… at last! It was a Performa 5400 on which I would run Cubase VST. I later upgraded to a Powermac G3 B&W and got into collecting all the vintage Mac's I could afford, and especially the infamous Mac 128k my dad hadn't bought, back in 1984. After some time I had almost all things Apple had ever created. As I approached my forties, I got bit by some stupid adult bug called "reason". That led to the clearance of absolutely all my Apple computers collection. Fortunately for the buyer, that was before Steve Jobs passed away. Unfortunately for me, I now have to think twice before I buy a vintage Mac because prices skyrocketed.
Still, I managed to buy (again) a complete Apple //e, Apple //c and Mac SE (and two Mac Plus I have yet to get repaired) and kept my B&W G3 and PM G4 MDD (as well as the two Atari ST's)

That was for the background. Today, things are getting a little different. For years, I kept using Mac OS X Lion on my iMac because my trusty old Cubase Studio 4 was still running fine on it, and I could still boot in 32bit mode to use my Tascam controller (no drivers for Mountain Lion… Tascam, you're a b**ch!). But lately, my iMac's drive crashed real bad and I had to format. As I couldn't find a way to simply re-install Lion, I went Yosemite… But now I'm into trouble with Cubase, there's no upgrade plan from Steinberg for my version (they did the same thing to me when I first switched to OS X and G3)… and I can't use my Tascam controller anymore (except for midi and audio pass through…)
I feel stuck in that race for better, faster, stronger hardware and software, and I hate that.
I feel that most hardware has never been totally exploited to its full potential. People build bigger machines because they program fatter software. Where's the optimisation? Where is the time when your Mac would boot up in seconds, where Sound Designer and Photoshop were both 300K and would run on 1MB of ram?
Look at the computer and music industry today : more and more "entertainment" in the form of eye and ear candy but no more creation, no more originality, no more talent. And whilst people are getting crazy over flashy gear with touch screens, I'm trying to get back to basics. So my latest acquisitions were a Mac SE, MOTU and Apple serial midi interfaces and an Ensoniq EPS16+. (Actually, I ended up on this forum because I was looking for an early classic Mac version of Cubase, so I could try my brand new Apple Midi Interface on the Mac SE.)

Thanks for being there. Today I'm gonna try install Mac OS 9 back on my G4 ;-)

[lowfikoans]

Hi Everyone

I'm still using a G3 Powerbook and a G4 Pro Tools TDM Mix system for audio work.  Very excited to have discovered this site!

I do electronic music and have tons of samples to share, along with various Pro Tools and audio related bits. 

[ThisIsAlanB]

Hello! I've been very curious about older Macs, especially the iMac G3 and iBook G3 Clamshell, since I started getting into tech back in 08 (I'm a bit younger and my household was primarily Windows). I just recently picked up an iBook G3 Indigo Clamshell and ironically enough, it came with a copy of OS 9.2.2 from this site! I'm still shocked how easy it was to get a newer Microsoft USB mouse to work in OS 9.

[Archilog]

Hello!

Well, I'm Archilog.

I own an Audiomedia III card I won after a big work on a Filemaker sound database on a G3 B&W. At that time, I personally owned a W98 PC (didn't have enough money to buy anything else), so I ran my Audiomedia III on this system. It was last millennium.

Last year I decided to transfer some old analog tapes and remembered my AM3. I bought a cheap (today  ) Tascam 112 MKII to read the tapes and a PowerMac G3 B&W (9.2.1 US system) since it's the most recent Apple system     able to work correctly with this good old card. I am very impressed by this computer, in my humble opinion the best one in terms of conception - but I'm not a specialist.

The AM3 works perfectly.

I am searching for Pro Tools LE 5.1.1 (Avid community states it's the ultimate good version for my card).

I hope I can find it and other hints here. I am a former sound engineer, but totally changed my professional life 15 years ago.

Thank you, MacOS9Live community, for being alive as well as my G3! 

[bobesch]

Hi there, I'm Robert, living in the North of Germany close to the Baltic Sea.
Just started to find out more about the 'mysterious' MacOS
Until 2009 I've only using DOS/Windows, but I remember, that I always had a stop at a Mac-Sellers Window in the late 80's to have a look at that beautiful  Macintosh with Desktop and Icons while everyone of my mates at college were hassling around with DOS and Command-line.
Because of my profession I had to stay with windows, but in 2009 I've got my first MacBook.
Since I'm pleased to see, the working with both environments is nice and challenging.
After getting hands on my first PowerPC (iBookG4) with OS X Tiger I was first impressed about that >10y old hard- and software but even more, after I started to run some stuff (Office2001 and Photoshop) in Classic mode.
Now I sitting here with a Clamshell G3 trying to start with Classic right from the scratch and want to try to find some useful stuff to connect it to my existing environment of Win-OSX/intel/OSX-PPC. But mostly to catch up the missing history that passed by behind that window-pane in the 80's

[Mat]

Welcome on board everybody!

I have to answer about two issues directly:

I feel stuck in that race for better, faster, stronger hardware and software, and I hate that. I feel that most hardware has never been totally exploited to its full potential. People build bigger machines because they program fatter software. Where's the optimisation?

It is making me very happy that others feel exactly like I do! Gladly I felt that way first when they tried to abandon Mac OS 9, and did not follow the industries plans anymore

Now I sitting here with a Clamshell G3 trying to start with Classic right from the scratch

Robert, I hope you are not using Classic but a Native Mac OS 9! Classic – the emulation within X - is extremely bad compared to native OS!

About "integration" to your network, have a first look at "DAVE". Here is a nice article for example: https://happymacs.wordpress.com/2014/06/16/network-you-classic-mac-with-windows-part-1-using-dave/

[trevor12]

Good evening everyone, I have ibook g3 so maybe some apps will be useful for me. Thanks

[simondo3]

Greetings earthlings 
this is my first post
Great site!! I'm here for some OS 9 goodies and to share the OS 9 goodies I have mostly TDM plugins. I'm a producer and have had Macs since I bought a 9500 in 2000 to host a Pro Tools Mix system which is still in use but is now in a G4 mirror case

[Philgood]

Hi everyone new around here.

Simondo, take a look at the TDM plugin section. We need some testers and to fill some gaps. There are many plugins which were not working for me so if you know some magic to make them work, let us know. 

[Heinz]

Hi folks,

I'm new to this forum, so I thought it would be good to say hello.

My computing history started in the late eighties with an Atari 520 ST+ (which still works perfectly). When Atari faded away I did not move on to Apple (at this time) since I simply could not afford any Mac. So I spend some years of computing with custom built PCs and OS/2 on top. Okay, OS/2 was great but not the best bet as well, so I moved on to use Linux as my main OS. But late in 1997 I was infected by the retro computing virus when I bought one of the still existing Atari magazines (ST Computer).

I started to collect good old Atari computers and even a number of Atari clones - like the Milan and most recently the FireBee. My Atari infection also led to the first MacOS 9 system since there is a great Atari emulator for MacOS 9 called Magic Mac. So Magic Mac was the first killer application for my Umax Pulsar/Supermac which was later upgraded with a G3/500 card. The Next Mac was a PowerMac G3 which was upgraded with a Sonnet G4/500 card. Then finally a brand new MacMini G4 1.42 followed - which was the only new Mac I ever bought. My Mac Mini obviously was not a retro computing device but my day to day private use system. In this role three Intel iMacs followed, two of them are still in use.

So now you might ask you how does all of this lead to Heinz joining this forum? There are several reasons. On one hand I like nice/good hardware, so I was looking to buy some old Apple systems which I never could afford at the time they were new. On the other hand I like to use some good OS and software which is not connected to any cloud, does not collect all information available and so on. So what would be a better choice than some nice G3 or G4 iBook or PowerBook with MacOS 9? This combination is more powerful and modern than all my Atari systems, so I can do more daily work with it. And it's just fun :-)

When I started collecting information on what to buy and how to set stuff up I found this page and forum. And hell this is awesome!!!

Well, that's why I'm here. You already helped me to start into MacOS 9 and I plan to ask some stupid questions and hope you folks can help.

King regards,
Heinz

[IDidMyTimeOnOS9]

I am a new member to this forum which I have stumbled upon as I was looking to resurrect my old OS9 machine(s) recently.

Like most of the other members here I am old enough to remember "the good old days". Through making music I got into using a Mac and I still own my very first machine from 1997 - a Powermac 7300/166 which I upgraded with a G3/300 card some years later.

My name says it all - I have spent a lot of my life in front of a Mac and definitely many hours on pre OS X machines. I spent the best part of my twenties at various recording studios in London in front of a Mac - right at the time when Pro Tools came in and tape took a step back.

I did not get into OS X properly until late into "Jaguar". It did seem exciting when "Panther" and then "Tiger" came. But I think that after "Snow Leopard" OS X started going downhill. So over the years I have become disillusioned with Apple, seeing how the company has changed and abandoned its original core user base which was keeping them alive between 1996 and the first iPod.

I always knew I would need to be able to go back to the classic OS and programmes (before people referred to them as "apps"). What I didn't realise was how much fun it would be doing it - using OS 9 makes me feel like my Mac is my friend. Mac OS was a very different beast then and with the hindsight of over a decade I can see how much Apple has really lost along the way, transforming itself into the most valuable company in the world.

I use Mac OS X daily and earn my living with it. It's far more efficient for a lot of my daily tasks and I couldn't be without it. Having said that there is something about the feel of OS 9 that's definitely been lost. It makes the computer appear more human and it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside - and that's why I am here, I suppose.