Mac OS 9 Lives

Classic Mac OS Software => Digital Audio Workstations - General Discussion => Topic started by: macStuff on December 24, 2019, 04:21:50 AM

Title: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: macStuff on December 24, 2019, 04:21:50 AM
as is common knowledge at this point: TC Electronic have discontinued the Powercore platform back in 2011
not sure when the product was first introduced? 2001? 2002?

im just taking a quick look back at this topic that i previously largely overlooked; (in favor of UAD)
my questions for those more versed than i on this topic are:

is it still possible to buy + use TC powercore Products in macos9 in 2020?
im alot less familiar with this topic then with the uad-1 product;

how many different powercore products were there?
let me see if i can answer that.. if anything is missing or incorrect please correct me

PowerCore (Original?)
http://web.archive.org/web/20040409041843/http://www.tcelectronic.com/PowerCore

PowerCore PCI mkII
http://web.archive.org/web/20051123115129/http://www.tcelectronic.com/Default.asp?Id=1233

PowerCore Compact
http://web.archive.org/web/20050829194948/http://www.tcelectronic.com/PowerCoreCompact

PowerCore Element (is this the first "Mk1" version? or a budget scaled down version?)
http://web.archive.org/web/20050901082227/http://www.tcelectronic.com/PowerCoreElement

PowerCore Firewire
http://web.archive.org/web/20050831112915/http://www.tcelectronic.com/PowerCoreFireWire

PowerCore Express
PowerCore Unplugged (i'm guessing this version comes with 0 plugins?)
PowerCore 6000
PowerCore X8
PowerCore X8 Sonnox Edition


http://web.archive.org/web/20011214123248/http://www.tcelectronic.com/products.asp?page=overview
http://web.archive.org/web/20040409041843/http://www.tcelectronic.com/PowerCore
http://web.archive.org/web/20050907013812/http://www.tcelectronic.com/PowerCoreComparison
http://web.archive.org/web/20120516234658/http://www.tcelectronic.com/powercore.asp
http://web.archive.org/web/20120517120154/http://www.tcelectronic.com/powercorefamily.asp
http://web.archive.org/web/20120520010529/http://www.tcelectronic.com/powercore3.asp
http://web.archive.org/web/20120520155424/http://www.tcelectronic.com/powercoreconcept.asp
https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/tc-electronic-powercore-firewire
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: Stephan-O on January 22, 2021, 11:07:40 AM
I believe I am one of the last 10 guys (5 maybe...) in the world playing with the TC Powercore in Cubase VST...
The only model you can play with, is the original PCI version.
None of the further releases (PCI MKII, FW, etc, ) are what working in OS9...
Hth.
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: DieHard on January 24, 2021, 01:57:53 PM
Quote
TC Electronics PowerCore (Hardware Driver, Plugin Suite) - Version 1.6.1

The Download Folder also includes the World-class 247C Compressor and ClassicVerb Reverb Plugin Installs

Here is all our Powercore software
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,1146.0.html

The only caveat is the Master X3 that was authorized per serial number on the board,
I still have six originals with the Master X3 authorized Cubase Master X3 if you need one inexpensively
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: sequencers.io on February 28, 2021, 09:45:05 AM
I still have six originals with the Master X3 authorized Cubase Master X3 if you need one inexpensively

I might be interested in one of these.. I'll send a DM...
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: refinery on February 28, 2021, 12:28:20 PM
Interestingly enough, if you happen to have a Hackintosh with PCI ports, the original PCI powercore cards work perfectly fine up to at least 10.14...
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: IIO on September 21, 2021, 02:49:52 PM

powercore license unlocker is now available.

we needed 2-3 people with a card and missing licenses (such as someone who has not yet installed his master X5) who can test something before we post it here.

PM
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: AtariMan on October 09, 2021, 01:42:17 PM
Where can you read about it? Need to flash the card or have a patch?
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: IIO on October 09, 2021, 02:02:23 PM
you need to put the card into a computer which can boot into windows, then try to patch the OS9 and OSX PPC demo versions under windows.

OSX intel works this way, PPC is still untested but should use the same encryption. eventually we need to restructure the resource forks later.

do you have a spare win computer with PCI around?

i am not going to search for the demo installers when nobody can help / wants it for himself. :)
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: AtariMan on October 09, 2021, 04:01:58 PM
Thanks for the answer. One of these days I'll try to get a Pentium 4 from my friends.
Should this be done in Windows XP or Windows 7?
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: IIO on October 09, 2021, 04:03:23 PM
the later one wont hurt i think.
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: nickbirkby on November 12, 2021, 03:20:23 AM
Im still using my Powercore PCI and very happy with it. I have just today successfully installed the 247 and Classicverb, super pleased. :)

I never managed to get the Master X on my card, I would be keen to give it a try..



Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: IIO on November 12, 2021, 05:48:08 AM
you would need to put the card into a windows PC, then generate a license there using a copy of the OS9 plug-in. there are two different methods, both are unknown terrain for OS9 and OSX PPC. eventually we can also make use of the windows plug-in to reach what we seek for. if you are ready to try it, send a PM.
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: refinery on November 12, 2021, 04:19:36 PM
you don't need to put the card in a PC to generate the license or patch the existing plugins. I used the patcher in a windows 10 VM on hardware that didnt even have a powercore installed and it worked fine when I moved them over to the machine that does have them installed. For the OSX versions anyway.

Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: nickbirkby on November 13, 2021, 09:29:16 AM
Thank you both for the replies. Im on 9.2

I have a spare machine running Vista that has PCI slots. Will Dm.

Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: IIO on November 14, 2021, 08:42:57 PM
could you add what exactly you used (and didnt you try the same with OS9 / carbon plug-ins?)

i cant recall, what was the last version for PPC? 4.4.3? if all products exist in late enough versions then this would be a sufficient solution.

unfortunately, surround and restoration demo for OS9 is not in my collection. the one to test the procedure with is X5 or, if you have missed the free registration, X3.

that would be funny if it actually worked using virtual PC in OS9. i have totally missed that idea, and never had something like that installed.
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: refinery on November 20, 2021, 06:39:53 PM
according to my research, at least the last "official" version of the powercore software (4.3.3, I have not found a change log for the later "beta" releases) there is still support for PowerPC architecture. I will try to test this out soon with 10.5 in my dual-core G5 and my powercore express card.

As for OS9, I think it would be a totally different ball game. The OS9 versions of the software were all 1.x versions, and back in those days the powercore used a different registration mechanism than the later 2nd generation cards. I dont think there was ever support for the second generation cards in OS9. I do have a PCI MK2 I can use to test this theory.

I recall, wayyyyyyyy back in the timefog, that the old powercore registration mechanism was cracked at one point... which was why they introduced the second generation cards with their "uncrackable" copy protection mechanisms (they weren't far off in that assessment... only took ten years after it was discontinued for somebody to figure it out?)  But I think that the first generation cards were just done by serial number or challenge/response, as there's no mechanism in the TC POwercore control panel for registering a plugin.

Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: DieHard on November 21, 2021, 12:52:22 PM
Software can be found here for the original long PCI card (non-element version); Version 1.6.1 and some later added plugins
The Element version of the PCI card does not run all the plugins and could NOT run Master X3, their premiere Multi-Band compressor for Mixing/Mastering

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,1146.0.html

All these stock plugins run under OS9 and do NOT need challenge codes or serial numbers, the main exception to the rule was Master X3...

Back in the day you would email TC and they would send you back a Master X3 plugin file that was "married" to your card via the cards serial number.  At one point TC refused all requests for the free Master X3 under OS9 claiming "we no longer have the machine (or ability) to generate Master X3 plugins for OS9"  which really sucked for those who bagged cheap cards from eBay and could not get a Master X3 plugin file for OS9.  The "non-element" version of the PCI card sold for over $1000 back in the day and Master X3 was one of the selling features; I bought about 4 cards back in the day because the quality and results of the plugins were way above what was available in "Native" VST stuff, of course, Protools was a whole different topic.  The original Powercore, IMO, was the "Protools of VST"

Now, to the point, as far as I know, nobody has been able to reproduce generating the Master X3 serialized file or fake the process of getting Master X3 to run under OS9; please let me know if this has changed.  FYI, I have 5 to 6 unique master X3 files for Mac OS 9 and the serial number of each card associated with each file if anyone wants to reverse engineer or figure the differences in each file that corresponds to each card's serial number.
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: IIO on November 21, 2021, 04:22:16 PM
that is what we are talking. the combined license / blowfish encryption of poco has been cracked recently and enables all plug-ins, but until now nobody has tried it on Mac PPC.

on OS9 we probably only need it for the surround and restoration bundles, master X5 - and for master X3 non-enabled cards - for OSX it is about 7 or so more plug-ins which are using the tc protection scheme, including virus unlimited.

as soon as someone successfully tried it we can write a guide how it works - with or without using a windows computer.

as usual, atm everybody waits until somebody else tries it first.^^

and we still dont have the missing demo versions, for some reaons i also dont have them from back in the days.
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: refinery on November 21, 2021, 10:53:29 PM
Well I have every version of the Powercore cards except the element (which I think was just repackaged 1st gen cards) so I am happy to do some testing. Just need the installers for the non-free plugins.
The one I always wanted to get my hands on was the Waldorf d-coder. I asked Tc support once upon a time and they basically gave me the same answer, they stopped having the ability to issue OS9 licenses a long time prior.
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: refinery on November 21, 2021, 10:57:18 PM
There's also one important thing to note... There's two versions of the cracks out there... There is the unlocker which as I understand it, disables the demo timer, and then there's the license generator which creates fully-working license files. After that, as far as the card is concerned, you've just loaded a legit license file to the card, and is permanently bound to the card. So those should by all expectation work perfectly fine in a PPC Mac as there's no cracking trickery involved at that point.
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: DieHard on November 22, 2021, 09:56:55 AM
Just dusted off an MDD with an original PowerCore, please PM or post a link of what you guys want tested and I will download and try under OS9, or simply attach files
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: IIO on November 22, 2021, 12:21:13 PM
(welcome back after the forum crash everyone^^)

didnt i send you that stuff 6 weeks ago in a PN? (sometimes i accidentially only reply to myself there)

will do again.

btw. pls dont post these direct links here.

refinery is right about the ver 1.1. - but it would be not be the worst idea to test both, so i was asking everyone to try the 1.0 style first and communicate while you do, that we can make sure we found a procedure replicable by everyone else with a simple instruction text. (if it actually works under OS9 and OSX PPC by simply running it into a windows emulator that would be awesome, but i am not yet convinced.)

myself i dont have an intel based mac or PC with PCI here (except the Xserve), otherwise i would have presented the final result here instead of making mysterious comments.

regarding d-coder:

while i have a legit copy in my main mac since ever, i can assure you that it did not use TC protection with blowfish back in the OS9 days, it will work with any non-legit serialnumber.

funfact: that is why there is a crack for mac for 20 years while windows users had to wait until recently. :)

 
yes, the missing demo versions. what a pity. nowhere to find on the web, so hopefully one of us has them.

i always think "i have everything", but somehow that got forgotten.

it is master x5, restoration, and and the first smaller surround bundle. d-sound, waldorf and sony will not work this way for mac os 9.

Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: AtariMan on November 22, 2021, 12:25:09 PM
https://audioz.download/software/198007-download_tc-powercore-license-unlocker-v10-win-mac-readnfo-c0dereload.html

I have PowerCore PCI MK1.
I successfully unlocked all the plugins under Windows 7,
but it does not work under PPC,
Crossover does not work under PPC, only Intel.
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: IIO on November 22, 2021, 12:36:35 PM
the next question is if you can patch the mac plug-in files under windows.

open master x 5 with resedit, copy the vst fx part into a new files´ datafork, save one time as .bin and one time as .vst, send to windows and see if the patch app finds it.
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: DieHard on November 22, 2021, 02:14:09 PM
Quote
I have PowerCore PCI MK1.
I successfully unlocked all the plugins under Windows 7,
but it does not work under PPC,
Crossover does not work under PPC, only Intel.

Guessing nothing will work under OS9... oh well
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: d97 on November 24, 2021, 06:35:08 PM
I know that what I'm about to write is a long way away from the focus of this board because I'm talking about my experiences on an Intel Mac.  Still, I thought that it couldn't hurt to mention that I have 2nd hand Powercore FireWire unit and was able to successfully freeze the demo time for a couple of plugins.  (I haven't had time to try more than a couple of plugins but both of them worked fine when I was able to figure out exactly which file the patcher was looking for.)

Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: IIO on November 25, 2021, 11:39:42 AM
long story short; if the crack wouldnt work as intended, it wouldnt have been released.

our main problem here is that
1. we lack most demo versions
2. we dont know if the plug-is are really using exactly the same scheme and
3. that PPC is another architecture, and OS9/carbon even is a different file format.

there are just not enough PPC users left on this planet, so we have to find out all on our own. :( haha :)

but if you have an intel mac and a PPC mac, too, you are invited to try if your card works under PPC, too. just install the latest demo installer and attach the card to the PPC. if it works for firewire, it will also work for the mkI.
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: refinery on November 29, 2021, 12:08:39 AM
opening up one of these plugins in resedit, I see that there's a resource called "Aeff" which would appear to be the main code for talking to the powercore.
I think given how the patcher works on the newer version of the plugins, the best place to start would be to try to export that Aeff resource into its own file, and see what the patcher does with it. might need to convert it to a data fork as I would imagine that's what the patcher will look for.


few tests:
MKII PCI does not work in OS9, its not seen by the Powercore software. (this was expected)
I need to install 10.5 on my MDD so I can test out if the patcher works on PPC OSX. Latest Powercore software (4.4.3) requires 10.5+
My PCIe already has all its plugins unlocked so I cannot test out patching plugins on my DC G5 which already has 10.5.
Will probably be a week or two before I will have time to install Leopard on the MDD and test out with my MK2 PCI cards.
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: mrhappy on November 30, 2021, 07:36:57 AM
I bought the Element version some years back before I knew any better! >:(
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: refinery on December 05, 2021, 02:09:39 AM
I'm working on getting a Leopard install set up on my MDD to test these out. Are there any DAWs you guys would like me to test with? Keep in mind this is for OSX 10.5.6, a little outside the scope of this forum but wanted it to be documented somewhere

Once we get our hands on either some demo installers or full-version installers off original CDs, I can test things with an original PCI card in OS9. But for now I'm just testing to see if the unlocker works with PPC plugins at all, so going with the last documented version that works with PPC, which is 4.4.3, according to my research.
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: AtariMan on December 05, 2021, 09:32:13 PM
PowerCore PCI MK 1 will not work with 4.4.3 drivers.
The latest firewood for this 3.2 board works under Mac OS 10.4.11 and 10.5.6.
How are you going to launch an unlocker for PPC?
The unlocker can only work on Intel Macs with CrossOver.
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: refinery on December 06, 2021, 12:25:27 AM
MKIs work fine with 4.4.3. Been using them in my Hackintosh on Mojave for several years without issue.

I dont think you understand what we're talking about here. What we're talking about is using the unlocker, on whatever platform you want (Crossover, VMWare Fusion, legitimate physical PC) to patch the plugins, then move the patched plugins over to a PPC machine and see if they will work.

As I've mentioned before, it is not a requirement that you run the unlocker directly on the machine the cards will be used in. The unlocker is just modifying code in the plugin files to remove license checks.
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: AtariMan on December 06, 2021, 12:44:45 AM
I wrote specifically about MDD G4, and not about Hackintosh.
I repeat, driver 4.4.3 does not work on MDD G4 with MK1 PCI, only 3.2.
And everyone in this thread is talking about PPC Mac OS 9, not Intel.
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: refinery on December 06, 2021, 03:00:16 AM
Cool. Thanks for the input.
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: AtariMan on December 06, 2021, 06:40:56 AM
Checked again on MDD G4.
Driver version 3.2 works flawlessly.
Unfortunately, version 4.4.3 is not available.
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: IIO on December 06, 2021, 10:48:58 AM
those who can, are asked to put the card in a windows machine and do the process (v 1.1.) there.

but of course this might not help us for OS9 until we have the missing demo installers, because depending on the software version, X3 will not by encrypted, since it is free. (it is even free for OS9^^)

Quote
And everyone in this thread is talking about PPC Mac OS 9, not Intel.

no need to fight about this, if anyone can test mkII or elements in PPC that is also welcome :) - yet not releated to OS9 (dual boot machine) situations (which of course is mkI only)
 
 
if i had one wish free i would suggest that someone makes the firewire poco work in OS9, but i guess that is a bit asked too much and will be even more complicated than cracking.
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: AtariMan on December 06, 2021, 04:54:09 PM
Personally, I would be happy to dual boot Mac OS 9
and Mac OS X 10.4.11 with MK 1 and all the plugins.
Hope someone can do this.
I tried to unlock all plugins on Pentium 4
with iATKOS v7 10.5.7, but it didn't work.
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: IIO on December 06, 2021, 06:35:15 PM
it is a pity that it doesnt work to unlock under windows, then bring the card back to OS9. but we shall not give up so early. :)

back in the days i almost bought noveltech character, but then i noticed i dont use OSX for audio anyway. in between the noveltech plug-in it is available for native VST for some 35 bucks. of course it is intel only. :)
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: AtariMan on December 11, 2021, 08:28:25 AM
Hello everyone.
I was able to unlock all plugins for MK1 PCI on iATKOS 10.5.7
as I thought it would not work for a PPC machine.
I took pictures and was able to open the virus file
and there are two files in there for x86 and PPC.
Unlocker ignores the PPC file and will only unlock the Intel x86 license.
See screenshots for details.
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: smilesdavis on August 08, 2022, 09:52:26 PM
so whats the bottom line for someone who got the pci
version and is intending to run it in logic under os 9?
all licenses unlock or do i need to buy cards for some?
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: IIO on August 08, 2022, 11:38:43 PM
i´ve tried it with someones help and software prior to 2.0 hardware can not be unlocked.

but the factory content (and the 3 freebies) of the powercore PCI is already 60% of what exists for OS9.

classicverb alone is worth the 1200 bucks the card costed, and today you get those under 100.

go try and find one with restoration bundle or sonnox license if you think it is fun - but the support is long expired so if the card breaks, the licenses are gone.
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: DieHard on August 09, 2022, 10:35:06 AM
Quote
classicverb alone is worth the 1200 bucks the card costed, and today you get those under 100.

Yes, probably one of the absolute best Reverbs for any OS..

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,1146.0.html

Quote
The Download Folder also includes the World-class 247C Compressor and ClassicVerb Reverb Plugin Installs
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: smilesdavis on August 10, 2022, 10:41:08 PM
just bought a firewire as well

so the C0DERELOAD license utility doesnt work for os9?

1. Unrar.
2. Run TCPowercoreLicenseUtility.exe
3. Open the Powercore Control Panel and right click on your Powercore
Authentication ID to copy it.
4. Paste your Powercore Authentication into the Keygen box provided.
5. Click Generate to create licenses for all your Powercore plugins,
or use the dropdown menu to create them individually.
6. Load the generated licenses into your Powercore Control Panel.
7. Enjoy!

(This release is intended for Windows users but can be used to generate
valid .pocolicense files for MacOS by using a VM or Wine.
Title: Re: anyone using TC Powercore in 2020? (Discontinued in 2011)
Post by: IIO on August 11, 2022, 04:32:36 AM

so the C0DERELOAD license utility doesnt work for os9?

the license utility does not work and the firewire poco doesnt work either.