Extensions, Control Panels, and General Tweaks for a Mac OS 9 D.A.W.

[Protools5LEGuy]

Let's make an active topic about minimal extensions needed for every DAW.   
It is know that a system with less extensions boots faster and runs faster. Let´s get rid of garbage!
For example, one ati user should take off Nvidia extensions.
If you are not using a Iomega Superdisk or a Rio Mp3...
It also could be interesting to compare DAE versions with DSI(?) for swingers    (maybe too much Protools biased)
Also in some extensions the latest is not the more stable one.
There was some talk about firewire extensions, but it is open to CarbonLib version prefered (on a particular DAW setup)

DieHard say what not to use and MacTron what he uses both approaches are cool!

[MacTron]

I use to keep a very small amount of system extensions in my Macs, but this may be a complex topic because each hardware/software combination needs his own combination of system extensions and, furthermore some are dependant of others.

Apple Audio Extension by example is needed in MDD but no in Sawtoth. Sound Manager is needed for QuickTime 6, which also need OpenTransport (I think).
I use to start with empty extensions folder and I go adding extensions as hardware and software require it. To keep the things more clean, I use to put most of the shared libs on the folder of the app that uses it  (if is possible).
This is what I use to have on the extensions folder:

Network related extensions:
Apple Enet 2.4.5, AppleShare 3.9.4, Open Transport 2.8.3, Open Transport ASLM Modules 2.8.3, Shared Library Manager PPC 2.0.2, Internet Config Extension 2.0.7

USB/FireWire related extensions:
FireWire Enabler 2.8.7, FireWire Support 2.8.7, HID Library 1.5.9, USB Device Extension 1.5.9

QuickTime And Sound Manager related extensions:
Apple Audio Extension 2.4, Sound Manager 3.7.1, QuickTime Extensions, QuickTime 6.0.3, QuickTime Musical Instruments 6.0.2, QuickTime  PowerPlug 6.0.3

OpenG related extensions:
OpenGLEngine 1.2.4, OpenGLLibrary 1.2.5, OpenGLMemory 1.2.4, OpenGLRenderer 1.2.4, OpenGLUtility 1.2.4

Video card related extensions:
NVIDIA 2D Acceleration 3.5.2, NVIDIA Drive 3.5.2, NVIDIA DVD Accelerator 3.5.2, NVIDIA Engine 3.5.2, NVIDIA OpenGL 3.5.2, NVIDIA Video Accelerator 3.5.2

Other Extensions:
DrawSprocketLib 1.7.8, InputSprocket Extension 1.7.3, Time Synchronizer 8.3.3, Contextual Menu Extension 1.0.2, Joliet Volume Access 2.1b5,
Text Encoding Converter 1.6, Apple CD/DVD Driver 1.4.8, DVD Region Manager 1.1, CarbonLib 1.6.1, Multiprocessing

Control Panels:
Joliet Control 2.1b5,USB Overdrive 1.4,Appearance 1.1.4,Date & Time 8.3.3, Energy Saver 3.0.5,File Exchange 3.0.5, General Controls 8.0.3, Internet 1.0.3, Keyboard 8.6.2,Memory 8.1.3,Monitors 7.5.6, Numbers7.1,QuickTime Settings 6.0.2, Sound      8.5.8, Startup Disk 9.2.6,TCP/IP 2.5,Text  8.0

As I am a "Cubase only guy" In my system there isn't a lot of DAW related extensions, Rewire is usually in the trash can (I never liked it), OMS is optional in cubase (I never liked it, too) as Cubase can handle the serial ports for MIDI by it self.

Edited to add version numbers as requested by Protools5LEGuy. Control Panels also  added.

[DieHard]

I will not explain the function of every control panel and extension here, you can google something if you are curious or use this as a quick start guide and take the advice on pure faith...

1) INITIAL TWEAKS

- Memory ControlPanel
From the Apple Menu, choose the “Control Panels” pop-up, and click MEMORY
Turn Virtual Memory OFF
Be Sure RAM DISK is OFF.

- Energy Saver Control Panel
From the Apple Menu, choose the “Control Panels” pop-up, and click ENERGY SAVER
In the SLEEP SETUP page, set “Put the system to sleep” at NEVER.
(It is also recommended that the SLEEP command not be used from the "Special" menu)

- Disable Appletalk
From the Apple Menu, click CHOOSER
Click INACTIVE in next to the Appletalk option at the bottom right corner of the window.

- Disable Font Smoothing
From the Apple Menu, choose the “Control Panels” pop-up, and click APPEARANCE
Click the FONTS tab inside the Appearance window.
Disable the option “SMOOTH ALL FONTS”

2) VIDEO CARD INFORMATION (needed for later on)
From the Apple Menu, click "Apple System Profiler"
Select the Second Tab at the top "Devices and Volumes"
Under the PCI, Slot-1, AGP section, click the blue triangle to the left of "Display Card" to open the Video card info. write down the card Manufacturer

3) EXTENSIONS AND CONTROL PANELS
Trim your Extensions & Controls Panels to help performance and prevent possible extension conflicts; if you are a Newbie to OS 9, when in doubt, don't turn off an extension unless you are sure you don't need it, the amount of RAM saved is not worth the headache you are going to have if you inadvertently turned off something you need and don't realize it...if you want to experiment, you can use this guide first as a baseline and then pick "Duplicate Set" and try variations of your initial modified setup, that way, you can easily switch back if you make a mistake

From the Apple Menu, choose the “Control Panels” pop-up, and click EXTENSIONS MANAGER..
Click “Duplicate Set” at the bottom right corner of the Extensions Manager window. Name the duplicate set when prompted… something like "Recording Studio Mac" or your name as an Artist or Production Company

Sort First... it will make the below list much easier !
Click on the word "Package" at the top of the Package column to immediate sort the Control Panels and Extensions, this will immediately give you a bird's eye view of which packages belong together

- Control Panels to turn off

If you don't intend on using a dial-up telephone modem..
Remove the X from
     DialAssist
     Modem
     Remote Access

Also, Remove the X from
     Location Manager
     Multiple Users (assuming you are the only user, you better be, don'y let anyone use your Music Mac)
     Software Update
     USB Printer Sharing (who likes to share anyway)
     Web Sharing

- Extensions to turn off

If you don't have an Airport Wireless Card Installed...
Remove the X from
     Airport AP
     Airport AP Support
     Airport Driver

If you don't access your Mac remotely...
Remove the X from
     OpenTpt Remote Access
     OpenTpt Serial Arbitrator
     Remote Only

If you don't Voice Control your Mac...
Remove the X from
     Speech Recognition

If you use iTunes, but don't own a Nomad, SoundSpace, or Rio (I don't think you own any of these)...
Remove the X from
     Nomad II USB Driver
     Nomad MG USB Driver
     Nomad USB shim
     NomadJukeboxLib
     SoundSpace2Lib
     NomadJukeboxLib Driver
     USBRioDriver
     USBSoundSpace2 Driver

To turn off hard drive file indexing (trust me, you want it off)
Remove the X from
     FBC Indexing Scheduler

No Zip or Jaz drive ?
Remove the X from
     Iomega Drive

Some to trust me on... unless you know otherwise
Remove the X from
     Location Manager Extension
     Multi-User Startup
     Serial Tool
     Software Update Engine
     Software Update Scheduler
     Voice Verification
     VT102 Tool
     XMODEM Tool
     Web Sharing Extension
     Setup Assistant API
     Setup Assistant Launcher
     Setup Info Dispatcher
     Setup Internet Support
     Setup Modem Selector

To turn off un-needed video extensions (remember you found out your video card in Step 2
If you have an nVidia Card
Remove the X from
     All Extensions with "ATI" in them

If you have an ATI Card
Remove the X from
     All Extensions with "nVidia" in them

4) ADVANCED TRICKS & TIPS:
After an Initial Mac OS 9 Install navigate to the Extensions folder in the System Folder, select all the files (hold down Command/Apple and press 'A'), and label them with a color. This way, any third-party extensions added subsequently are easy to spot since they will appear with a different color to the original set and these colours will be visible in Extensions Manager!.  Remember to load your mac up to 1 GB of RAM and allocate to the Host DAW Application as much as possible (Get info, Command-I on the Application, switch to "Memory" and set both memory values to 400,000 or more for your main Application if it hosts many plugins).

[supernova777]

great info here.. thanks for adding i will see about testing these settings for improved performance on my machines shortly!

[Jakl]

If you don't access your Mac remotely...
Remove the X from
     OpenTpt Remote Access
     OpenTpt Serial Arbitrator
     Remote Only


If you use Recycle up to version 1.x - 2.0 for macos 8.6-9.2.2 one of these Open Transport extensions is needed... not quite sure which one - I'll have to make the error happen again(after almost 14 years).

[IIO]

i go contrary: leave everything in.

most extensions just patch the system, they dont use any CPU cycles, and the RAM they use is minimal.

of course i agree with the list given above (software update and modem drivers is really not something one would need today), but the biggest handbrake at startup is something else: the apple menu!
so, general rule: dont put bigger archives with thousands of items (for example complete harddisks) into your applemenu. if you want to have something like that, use some third party menu which does not scan the files live at startup.

what can also help (and all of this has probably been discussed already somewhere here):
 – use a modern SSD as boot drive
 – use a smaller partition with more or less only the OS9 system folder on it
 – use the startup doubler controlpanel

p.s. i also agree about disabling any energy saving shit including the default software by apple. (for audio work, that is. for a file server which runs 24/7 i would turn it on even in OS9.) energy saving can cause a lot of trouble especially with CRT monitors, SATA controllers, or certain software.

[DieHard]

most extensions just patch the system, they dont use any CPU cycles, and the RAM they use is minimal.

Well, that is true, however the main reason is not to tweek just so save a tiny bit of RAM... remember OS 9 does NOT utilize memory protection and when you load all the extensions you have, this will multiple exponentially your chances of having extensions conflict and either not load or crash the system; you can trouble shoot this scenario, but we are trying to keep the newbies up and running easily, if they load everything they may decide to scrap OS 9 before they even get a chance to use it, when frustration sets in... lastly, things like the hard drive indexing and ruining a multi-track DAW session is a nightmare.

but the biggest handbrake at startup is something else: the apple menu!

Newbies can explore other menus / system utilities after they get going (I like Action Go-mac)

so, general rule: dont put bigger archives with thousands of items (for example complete harddisks) into your applemenu. if you want to have something like that, use some third party menu which does not scan the files live at startup.

Again, I really like Go-Mac,, you can check or uncheck all preferences, like "Drives" and other preferences

use a smaller partition with more or less only the OS9 system folder on it

Yes and remember to copy the System folder to at least 1 other volume so you can boot to that volume also, this provides the means to maintain and repair your default system volume

[IIO]

i concur, if our goal is to assemble the ultimate audio OS9, everything not needed for that purpose should not be included, and if it is only for the sake of our perfectionism.

but my personal installs looks a bit different, they are in use for some other things, too.

once i stood in a place with a system with no appletalk, serial switcher, and stuff it engine and was really f*cked. since that day i gave up to "optimise" by deleting .

[DieHard]

Well let's not "delete"... the beauty of Mac OS 9 is the ability to have many different "extensions sets"

Just so the Newbies understand, you can have different sets that simple "turn off" the extensions that you do not need for your current workflow; save the set as a different name, and reboot.... for musicians the very basic mode would be 2 sets to choose from, "DAW Mode" with the tweeks mentioned above and "Non-DAW mode" maybe with almost all extensions turned on.

[IIO]

sets ... nah ... better ... 2 different system folders.

[Protools5LEGuy]

i concur, if our goal is to assemble the ultimate audio OS9, everything not needed for that purpose should not be included, and if it is only for the sake of our perfectionism.

but my personal installs looks a bit different, they are in use for some other things, too.

once i stood in a place with a system with no appletalk, serial switcher, and stuff it engine and was really f*cked. since that day i gave up to "optimise" by deleting .

Well let's not "delete"... the beauty of Mac OS 9 is the ability to have many different "extensions sets"

Just so the Newbies understand, you can have different sets that simple "turn off" the extensions that you do not need for your current workflow; save the set as a different name, and reboot.... for musicians the very basic mode would be 2 sets to choose from, "DAW Mode" with the tweeks mentioned above and "Non-DAW mode" maybe with almost all extensions turned on.

sets ... nah ... better ... 2 different system folders.

 

Let`s make the cleaning!

Whatever method used, there should be some extensions chosen. IIO, would you be a lamb and told us yours chosen ones? And please indicate too the machine used and the DAW, synth chosen if it needs extensions.

just for the sake of our perfectionism

[supernova777]

what if u were to install more then 1gb ram and allocate all the space above 1gb as a ram disk?
could there be made a script (applescript?) on boot, to copy your favourite apps + plugins to this disk?
would the computer behave as though it only had 1gb installed (ie: logic 4.x still works?)

[IIO]

what my configuration looks like?

as far as i remember i haven not removed anything. i use a machine specific 922, without bullshit like "maps" and without user&groups and keychain (i cant really tell if those are in a standard install or not), plus the latest updates for quicktime, nividia and ati, and plus some 20 third party extensions in addition.

this is, like i said before, because my audio machine is not used for audio only, so i can hardly "optimize" for that purpose.

if i could, i´d really like to remove the appearance manager ("themes"), and - most of the time - navigation services, but thats not possible after OS850. the latter can be trap-patched, but i havent found a good solution yet ...

[IIO]

btw., if you want to find me between the other lambs, thats easy: i am the black one.


 

[Protools5LEGuy]

btw., if you want to find me between the other lambs, thats easy: i am the black one.

That explain lots of things.... LOL 

I haven not removed anything. i use a machine specific 922, without bullshit like "maps" and without user&groups and keychain (i cant really tell if those are in a standard install or not), plus the latest updates for quicktime, nividia and ati, and plus some 20 third party extensions in addition.

this is, like i said before, because my audio machine is not used for audio only, so i can hardly "optimize" for that purpose.

Is your Install MAX focused or multimedia focused? Or Office ?

if i could, i´d really like to remove the appearance manager ("themes"), and - most of the time - navigation services, but thats not possible after OS850. the latter can be trap-patched, but i havent found a good solution yet ...

I use A-dock as "appearance manager" and recommend it for any previous OSX user new to OS9.  http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/a-dock-301

Also Greg Browser is recommended for any previous OSX user new to OS9 http://kaleidoscope.net/greg/browser.html

With these 2 any OSX user can use OS9!

[IIO]

Is your Install MAX focused or multimedia focused? Or Office ?

i do audio, graphics and video in OS9 (video is of course a joke on a G4, but for prototyping applications and DSP it is fine)

it is more a philosophical question wether you are going to remove components from the standard install or not.

sure, you can remove the startup disk controlpanel on a machine which is used for cubase only. but what if you one day need to boot from an other disk and you dont have a keyboard connected in that moment because it has been stolen by aliens?

With these 2 any OSX user can use OS9!

installing new tools in addition to the apple components will not make the system faster.

what had to be removed is the requirement of these stupid "themes" so that you could go back to the AM extension. eventually i just have not tried hard enough, maybe it is possible.

another thing where OS9 is pretty slow with is copying files. finding where to write files to should work atomar since HFS+, just like on OSX, but in practice it is 2 times slower.

[mrhappy]

So I was 'mucking' about in my system folder and wound up having some problems with my Pro tools... so I decided to start fresh again... installed a fresh 9.2.2 using DieHard's "Drag Install", which worked great! I also used the 'D.H.T' (DieHard Tweaks) to my extensions... I LOVE the 'colored extensions' trick... that's a GREAT idea and it's already come in handy! Happy to report that things are running MUCH better now!

[IIO]

haha, i just downloaded DH´s systemfolder and see that he actually has some 15 extensions in it.

in my extension folder in my main computer there are more than 300 extensions.

i think it is proven that you can have a wide variety of extensions set: you can remove almost everything, but you can also install hundreds of add-ons for two different sorts of working systems.

[Super Joe]

what is the advantage of having the virtual memory off?

[Protools5LEGuy]

what is the advantage of having the virtual memory off?

I am not an expert, but using virtual memory means using the hard drive as memory, and that is a bottleneck as the hard drive is MUCH slower than the memory. Only using SSD the performance of the virtual memory on could be acceptable.

When using virtual mem. off you told OS9 to use only the memory, and that is quicker for lots of apps. You just have to click on app with right click-(control+click) to see ... Memory  and told OS9 to use more memory. Normally, in that way, the apps runs better/quicker. At least on DAWs.