hello again:)
The long (winded, waffling, wall of text, war and peace) version: -
uhh… I might as well, its a bit of a ramble, but I'm Grateful for this OS9 thing.
Looking forward to getting things ready and installed soon.
(btw I've just noticed that : and ) together is and emoji
face.
I don't do emojis, I didn't realise that.
Hello, I’m mark, from Wales, and I’m relatively new to Apple Mac (OS X/Mac OS) as I have been on the other side of the fence on Windows PC’s since 1998.
So Mac OS 9 is really really New to me, but am very much liking what I’ve heard and seen so far.
My interest other than mere vague curiosity is specifically in Audio midi Music, j/dnb.
My only reason for wanting a computer again (other than when I was a kid 7-11) again in my late teens.(1997-98)
New Macs.
it’s rather exciting seeing these new Mac’s that have just come out, oh my goodness, they are ridiculous powerful, I haven’t really followed it since the event thing (my first apple event viewing, i never seen the main guy doing his thing back in the day, but was interested to see what Apple had up their sleeve this time) and haven’t looked up on how they are doing in real life with the end users, but Wow.
All that potential real-time 3D rendering power:O the Processing power. And F keys finally again - Madness!
Through the years it seemed to me like Apple Macs (brilliant as they were/are, and certainly well made) were kind of playing catch up a little with the processing power of PC’s etc.
And then whatever it is that happened with them and nVidia, (thanks be for 2017 Mac’s with gtx1080ti egpu’s on HighSierra) and all...
But now they’ve gone all Space Balls on everyone and taken it up to Ludicrous Speed and overshot the rest of the computing world it seems
Just hope their brains don’t go into their feet along the way.
Old Macs.
However, as ultra cool and mind-blowing as they are I’m far more exited about Mac OS 9 on G4 PowerPC’s.
A sort of nostalgia I never experienced the first time around. But it’s a functional nostalgia.
Far more exited, for making music the way I want to make it OS 9 seems totally doable (was a/the world standard after all), even though we all have the mod cons at our disposal, it seems the core of what DAW’s are haven’t really changed since the turn of the century-ish, I know they have, but they kind of haven’t at the same time, and as long as midi and multitrack 24bit audio recording is possible with the known to work with OS9 audio interfaces, the samplers can get midi’d up and spit out the drums and synths and films and murder mysteries they were fed and been chewing on:)
I don’t care about VST synths, unless it’s to feed them to the hardware samplers:) ideally in an ideal world.
I’d be up for a VST sampler at some point later in the audios life. When it’s gone through the cleansing/dirt process of having gone back and forth through hardware (and/or software) a few times and is well cooked/baked.
Pity Logic’s new samplers are held hostage in a newer Mac OS.
Music.
coming from been brought up hearing ALL sorts of musics, then 91-92 hearing some commercial ravey dance hits in discos, which I initially rebelled against at first, coming from a distorted guitar mindset, though strangely liking some of it, but later/now liked and loved allot of that Atari ST and Amiga musical revolution music.)
I like almost ALL sorts of music but especially and specifically and in particular - dnb/drum and bass, I didn’t choose it, it choose me, back in 1997.
I was 17 and had just passed my driving test, went to see an old school mate (who introduced me to happy hardcore, jungle, hardcore, and techno.... in that order while in high school 1993-94, which soon led to getting some decks and vinyl, (but how’d they make the music?)
So I drove up but I had by this time had got rather fed up of most all of the cheesy happy hardcore, etc. and was stuck for some quality electronic music to love with a passion, besides The Prodigy. I should’ve paid much more attention to jungle:(
Anyway I hadn’t seen him for a couple of years, he passed me a tape and said “put that on”.
i heard it and was like “wow what is this”? “It’s dnb, drum and bass, it’s like the evolution of jungle music” he said, “I love it” I said, and I was mind blown with this ultra cool music of the future (I think it might have been 1 in the jungle with DJ Hype scratching over shadow boxing the remix) or whatever, it gelled with my soul and I’ve loved it ever since.
it also meant I could much more comprehend and appreciate jungle music too, jungle drum and bass, I love it, but not all of it of course.
No doubt production values are up above and beyond today, thanks to access to knowledge and advancement in technology no doubt, but some/lots of the early dnb just sounded better, new (well fair enough it was new), futuristic, fresh, raw, different, loud, stylish, exploratory, innovative, happy accident, wickid, massive, timeless......
It’s still all of those things, and still good today.
1 in the jungle, featuring the artists- Future Forces, was the first one (in the jungle) I ever taped/recorded from BBC Radio 1 fm, I remember running around the house at last minute for a blank tape, franticly trying to get the packaging seal off the TDK C90, putting the tape in and pressing record, and watching for the little reels to pull the brown rusty ferric oxide on the tape through, and then bang on time...
“your listening to the sounds of future forces”, yes!
I remember just sitting there absolutely engrossed in what I was hearing, so into it that I didn’t notice the tape come to an end. Panic stricken as quick as I could in a hurry turned the tape over to capture and record what precious frequencies were left on the airwaves, (I only missed about 15-20 seconds, of the best bits of a track called “strontium jazz”:(
I still like and listen to that whole set/episode now and then and it still sounds good start to finish, fresh, new and futuristic, massive and timeless.
97-99/2000 dnb. (And a whole bunch before and after no doubt) that’s the origin for me.
The sound of those whirring whirling waling womps and womp sounds on - trouble on vinyl and renegade hardware tracks.
I need to hear some more 1997 1 in the jungles etc..... YouTube.
Only thing is your at the mercy of the recording quality. Still good though._
The computers of back then.
No doubt amongst Atari ST’s, Amiga’s, PC’c, real synths and samplers, DAT’s and whatever else back then, Mac OS 7?/8/9 would’ve been a big part in allot of that.
I was made aware more than once around 2001-ish that Apple Mac’s were the “professional” or “better” and expensive machine that was geared up for and just worked with audio, midi, and video right from the off.
I should’ve jumped ship a while ago. I almost did just before Macs went intel I think, but chickened out and got yet another Windows PC:(
Always admired the sleek, good looking, aesthetically pleasing designs on all the Macs, really nice, (except for a few really oddball ones) I occasionally noticed whilst I was just looking out my Windows through the years:)
with a slight hint of - Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours computer and/or OS (in the background of my mind)... right ye sorry, now where’s that .dll file been misplaced Windows update? I want to run my favourite programs again.
I’d bare minimum the ui display graphics in XP so it looked (and Ran) like 98/2000.
So OS9 ui looks very nice to me, though since getting a Mac I did notice/do like how OS X’s ui prettiness and shadows etc seems like it’s a baked in textures, transparency alpha matte RGBA thing, as opposed to the graphics card working hard pushing eye candy around in Windows.... I think, I wouldn’t know.
Macintosh...
...and my Analogue (and digital) Synth/Sampler revival.
I only happened upon Mac’s really by a strange occurrence.
I hadn’t thought much about audio, midi, VST, Synths, Samplers, Compressors etc, for….. a while.
A few years ago (2017-ish) someone mentioned somethings about yesteryear music that got me thinking and soon looking at synths, and I found that the recent-ish analogue synth revival had occurred/was occurring.
I remember having a couple of go’s of two analogue’s in 2001-02, a Roland SH101 and the much MORE memorable and dangerous growling monster, a SequentialCircuits ProOne.
It got me thinking that I had never had a real life hands on synth. I had gotten a sampler - Akai S6k, two grooveboxes Roland + Yamaha, a djx keyboard and a TCElectronic Triple-C compressor and an Atari ST 1040FM years ago (2001) and not long after my Pentium2PC with SoundBlaster live went to P4 PC (with an m-audio delta 1010LT) Pentium 4’s became really powerful and I went all in the box VST. Why? intrigue, amazement, convenience, laziness? What was I thinking? Anyway…..
So I found that a recent-ish analogue synth revival had occurred that I was completely unaware of, so I bought one, the gateway synth, then I thought I need an analogue compressor for my analogue synth, ordered a behringer compressor and eq from Amazon who were going to take 3-4 months to deliver, so I cancelled that, took it as a blessing in disguise, joined eBay to get a second hand compressor from back in the day, and thought I might aswell get all my old stuff down from the attic. Excitedly:)
I was not bothered at all about USB sample transfer to and from the Akai S6000, no I’ll use the quarter inch ins and outs, proper.
But as soon as I found I could not (even if I wanted to) do anything via usb, it being unsupported and unrecognisable in anyway on new Computers and OS’s, I just had to.
So, I seriously did not want to buy yet another PC, i did not have to think twice about it.
Naturally some cheap old Mac of some sort would be ideal for this task, and I’d have a little taste of Apples.
I get one white Lapintosh which turns into many:
White Macbook 2010 A1342 - does not run Akai Ak.Sys software, incompatible - I need an older machine.
Phone Apple for help, and they treat me like I’ve just bought a brand new computer (thank you Apple) and they walk me through the process of formatting the disc and doing an internet recovery, and guide me where to maybe purchase a SnowLeopard disc from their store, which I do.
I had to phone them again for something, and they were very helpful.
And in the meantime I get another: (Unknowingly ignorant)
White MacBook 2009 - Same thing, won’t run, get into virtual older OS’s with “classic mode”, still doesn’t work but hey these Macs are nice, they look, feel, sound, are, nice. Nice. (Still ignorant, confused, but also how’s the artist - “celdweller” doing it on YouTube with the same looking curvy white MacBook as mine?)
iMac 2017 27” - I want more Mac regardless of the Akai, start considering a 2012 Mac mini, see a mates iMac, I don’t want another screen, pondering it, reconsider and take advantage of a double discount sale thing going on and get the base model 2017 27”iMac (Bonus is - ZBrush and others, etc. goes cross platform a week or two later, and its one of last models to do the nVidia egpu thing, 3D, Bonus)...
I by now realise that I need a pre intel Mac for Akai Aksys, and immediately stop shaving sheep, and other virtualisation’s.
I go looking and find a:
Powerbook A1095 with a yellowing screen but cool it works. (I’ve since got another A1095 for its screen and spares, pity that model won’t OS9 btw)
Then I see the one I should’ve gotten in the first place, an:
iBook G4 14” 2003. - I didn’t think it was possible to keep a computer in such excellent mint condition in box, It was like a time capsule. And it works for what I want it for.
AkSys installed, connection to Akai S6k made, (thanks to Classic mode compatibility) Great.
And they stayed quite a while on a shelf gathering dust waiting for that day the Akai comes calling.
Give my 2009 white MacBook to a friend (my old school music friend funnily enough;) because I have too many, and don’t want to be greedy and hoard.
Also sorted him out with an emu, an Akai, and a red Microbrute:)
Synths and Samplers, Compressors, etc.
(! GAS and Gateway Synths are/is a real thing!)
After the first synth more synth because one synth wasn’t enough synth.
Samplers (emu, Akai, ensoniq, Roland(VP9k), yam), korg sampler grooveboxes (but not the newest one) compressors, effects, alesis modfx, racks and pedals, kaoss’s, old mixing desk, patchbays, cables, etc. Amiga 500, 600 + upgrades (I still need to install) etc. (because I discovered trackers),
a bunch of too much music tech hoarder stuff basically.
I always look into everything I’ve purchased deeply, like Sheldon on BigBangTheory, its got to be special, and do something (that sounds good) that the others don’t do.
No more though, I’ve got quite enough. (as Korg’s modwave..... and an fs MS20 are vaguely lingering in the back of my mind, MS20 purely for future preservation of those mighty filters and access to them)
ironically I had an Amiga 600 when I was a kid (briefly), finally a floppy drive computer, after years of Sinclair spectrum ZX tape cassette loading madness, but it went back day after Boxing Day because the fault thing, and it was all about the Amiga’s and Atari’s back then, my Loving parents bless them, did their best and instead of getting an Amiga 500 or the like, they got me an Acorn A3010 or something, with RISC OS and ruined my computer life forever:)
I should’ve spoke up about Ataris and Amigas, I knew better.
Synth Runs.
(I’ll make actual music again one day when I stop doing these so much)
and stop noodling around with stuff, and get the Setup setup….and get OS9 installed of course.
Ive done hours of synth runs (just playing having fun with synths n stuff), plenty of unique audio to cherry pick from and fire into hardware samplers at the press of the space bar.
I always start by trying to create the perfect womp sound over and over, eg. ARP Odyssey running hot through an MS20 hpf (both mini’s of course).
And after a good while at failing to create the perfect womp, I move onto other kinds of sounds, or go off on a sample and hold tangent, because I think there’s got to be at least 3-4 womps in there “worthy” of being sampled:) oh wait let’s do some sample and hold womps.
I feel to create the “almost” perfect womp you need a resonant hpf.
I hate it when I go to press stop after a big sonic exploration and find I never pressed record in the first place:(
That slight sinking feeling inside, but its like oh well, never mind I’ve been there ill go back near that dream-like sonic realm and tread that terrain again sometime. If it’s meant to be.... no it’s gone.
Loads of times I’ve started out thinking ill just have a quick womp or two and ended up standing there tweaking my way through an hour or two journey through sound, only to press stop and remember that not only was record not pressed, but the computer wasn’t even switched on.
I love the MS20 filters, all synths should have resonant hpf’s as well as the usual lpf, both at the same time.
MS20’s set the bar years ago (before I was born) and no one has followed suit since, not even Korg:(
And as nice as all these sound, if they’re not going through compressors, I’d feel allot less excited and dare I say uninspired. Got to tame those resonant peaks and keep them in line with the rest of the sound, don’t want them all the way up there creating havoc.
Besides it feels and sounds better.
Recording/editing Synth Runs.
Ocenaudio is the “best in the world” wave editor I use for all these tasks, seriously what a program:) Lean, mean, orange, green, and to the point.
I didn’t give it much time at first on PC, but took a second look on Mac and for recording, chopping, editing, and more, multiples of audio files on one screen, frequency analysis, etc. and more It’s great. just make a few quick shortcuts.
I don’t think I’ll find better. I feel like its the “evolution of cool edit”. Nice.
I’ll miss that on OS9 but am sure I’ll manage with what is available back then.
OS X MacBook Pro and iMac.
Because I left Windows and PC more or less, in favour of Apple Mac, which also seem more like the 80s/90s computers.
Recently bought a 2012 15” MacBook Pro (non-Retina), and maxed out the Ram and got a 1TB SSD.
Split it half ElCapitan, and half HighSierra, because I want a portable good modern-ish old Mac. (That’s ram-able, hard drive-able, battery-able, and fix bits yourself able)
It should run any of my DAW audio midi requirements, and ZBrush also.
The 2010 white MacBook is still good, but I’ve time capsule’d it as my Snow Leopard machine able to run Logic 9 and mixbus 32c. I might ElCap or HighSierra half of it.
2017 iMac has HighSierra too, twice, once time capsuled for nvidia egpu and graphics, and another for DAW. Both external ssd’s, Sierra is on the actual iMac.
And some iPad also…and iPhone… i promise I’m not a fanboy though I am a fan of the computers
No presets.
I don’t/try not to use other people’s pre made samples, and don’t use presets on synths (vst or hardware), don’t care about sample banks, sample packs and VST synths,..
just say no to presets. I might once in a while twist a preset up but try not to, im a bit funny like that.
Unaltered straight clean “pure” samples/recordings of various famous and not so famous drum breaks that preservationists/sample lovers have lovingly uploaded, yes, of course, sample them or be inspired or whatever.
I will dabble with VST synths at some point again because they’re amazing and animate-able, but I have to do my own presets from scratch. Preferably. OCDc.
I might give logic X’s drums a download and look at one day got to be some legit free drums to sample in amongst that lot.
Don’t get me wrong, I used to “evangelise” all things VST and still do, especially all the brilliant legitimately free VST, there’s no reason to use illegal crack shite, and compromise the integrity of your machine and/or morals;) but my allegiance is more to hardware since re-falling back head over heels in childlike wonder with it all, and it just sounds better by automatic, before it even gets to the computer, with DAW’s/sequencers just being the almighty impossible all possible glorified tapeless tape machine, capable of everything imaginable and unimaginable and more if you or I like.
It’s all so wonderful and convenient that we can pick and choose.
Anyway Mac OS 9.
Recently I bought the first iMac RevB - out of curiosity it was just so pretty, cheap and good condish with keyboard and mouse, its weak but has OS9 on it, wow this is cool, gets me curious, and I realise, or re-realise that Mac OS9 is what is current (1998-99) when my Akai sampler was released (bought “cheaper” in 2001).
It’s got usb but no FireWire.
So I get a few G3 iBooks, 12” ones, very pretty and cute, but then go hunting to get more G4’s because I soon discover “they” can run OS9.
It’s been a bit hit and miss but I’m on a mission, absolute bargains popped up and were to be had, and Suffice to say, I have enough OS9 compatible devices now. (Or I think they are):
iBook G4 14” A1055 2003, the mint in box one from before. - I think its a go.
iBook G4 12” 2004 - has the 9200 ATI Radeon so I think that’s a good one too.
1ghz G4 17” aluminium PowerBook A1013, the good one from January with the nvidia card.
G4 Mac mini 1.44ghz 1GB Ram. X3 of those. Bargains with keyboard and mice.
Also:
A bunch of Transcend 256 GB mSata SSD’s with the CY mSATA Mini PCI-E SATA SSD to 2.5 inch IDE 44pin Hard Disk Case Enclosure’s. - I hope they all work.
I only wanted to have some backups for this OS9 thing, because if it’s as good as I think I know it’s going to be, I want more than one old machine in case it goes belly up. I want a good few couple;)
I mainly only want OS9 on these machines, but I suppose it’s worth having a partition with OSX on it for transferring audio files etc. via usb 2. And/Or if it’s needed for disc management, or something.
I have OS X Panther 10.3 retail box discs, and original installer discs for the 14” iBook and one of the Mac-Minis.
(I also got a few wrong/non compatible G4’s along the way but are good for parts, so I won’t mention them for my wallets sake.)
FireWire Audio interfaces.
Edirol FA-100, X2 of them. The second one was too much of a bargain.
Edirol FA-66, X2 - (which I don’t think are do-able in OS9 but they were super cheap).
digidesign digi 001 - full package consisting of the audio interface, pci card, and cable, no software disc or license though.
I got the digi for a ridiculous low price, as in, its a bargain even if it doesn’t work, sort of thing.
I kind of wish the seller had set a minimum bid it was such a bargain. If it works.
So yes I now need to get a G4 Power tower also to try it out, but alas cannot afford it for a while yet so... and then there’s finding them on eBay deliverable that are not collect in person only.
...So yes I’m very much looking forward to OS 9.2.2, so exciting.
The suspense is terrible, I hope it’ll last.
Will OS9 be the ultimate cool DAW?, if it were it would be twewiffic.
Joy of joys, dream of dreams?
Could well be, Let’s see how it goes
Thanks.
I would also like to say right now, a Big Thank You and Thanks to all the brilliant passionate people on this planet and macos9lives for putting in no doubt lots of hard work, passion and whatever computer wizardry it all took to make this thing possible, I have no idea…
OS9 on unsupported Mac’s, meaning more powerful G4’s that shouldn’t be able to run it, will run it, and run it blazingly fast?
Sequencing midi bang on time and Recording multitrack 24bit 44.1 kHz audio?
Sounds good to me.
OS9 here I come.
Thanking you very much.
Long live Mac.
They most certainly do it seems, longevity, long lasting computers.
Long “gone” OS’s, but behold it’s alive..... Alive.
I’m totally ready and willing to do the whole one button mouse thing as well, even though I think I haven’t got to:) Oh wait I just found out that wasn’t the case anyway, no of course not, Wacom tablets and all sorts, of course. I’m such a Mac newb.
What’s with the one button mouse thing? I might run with it anyway, I’m game.
Thanks:)
mark.
