Mac OS 9 Lives
Mac OS 9 Discussion => Hardware => Topic started by: BIg_Macintosh on May 24, 2025, 10:39:20 AM
-
It needs to have balanced 6.5 jacks out and preferably phono jacks in :)
Alternatively, does anyone have a list of cards that work?
Thanks.
(I don't mind hardware modding cards if they don't have the phono out though, it shouldn't be too hard to just convert 6.5 outputs to phono outputs :) )
-
1) M-Audio Audiophile 2496 PCI is most like the best card as far as price per performance in OS9.
Jacks are RCA so you'll need some adapters, but both system sound or ASIO apps are all covered under OS9, the 2496 also gives you MIDI IN/Out if you need it.
2) The famous RME HDSP 9652 PCI has expansion boards and is the pinnacle as far as quality in a PCI OS9 compatible card, but I am not sure if they were only digital; if so, you can buy a small optical to analog box, but again... more "stuff" and wires.
3) I am sure PT6 and others can give you all the info on the Audiomedia III PCI, which is also excellent
-
1) M-Audio Audiophile 2496 PCI is most like the best card as far as price per performance in OS9.
Jacks are RCA so you'll need some adapters, but both system sound or ASIO apps are all covered under OS9, the 2496 also gives you MIDI IN/Out if you need it.
2) The famous RME HDSP 9652 PCI has expansion boards and is the pinnacle as far as quality in a PCI OS9 compatible card, but I am not sure if they were only digital; if so, you can buy a small optical to analog box, but again... more "stuff" and wires.
3) I am sure PT6 and others can give you all the info on the Audiomedia III PCI, which is also excellent
Thanks :D
-
1) M-Audio Audiophile 2496 PCI is most like the best card as far as price per performance in OS9.
Jacks are RCA so you'll need some adapters, but both system sound or ASIO apps are all covered under OS9, the 2496 also gives you MIDI IN/Out if you need it.
2) The famous RME HDSP 9652 PCI has expansion boards and is the pinnacle as far as quality in a PCI OS9 compatible card, but I am not sure if they were only digital; if so, you can buy a small optical to analog box, but again... more "stuff" and wires.
3) I am sure PT6 and others can give you all the info on the Audiomedia III PCI, which is also excellent
AM-III has worst converters than AP 24/96. AM-III has 18 bit AD and DA converters, That were fine in 1996. To have all its potential you can use it with modern converters Thru SPDIF I/O that is 24 bits.
RME is other league. And only has ADAT I/O IIRC. But is the best (with MOTU really close) in stablility.
Jacks can be 6.3 and 3.5 mm. I guess a Kemper can be used to do AD, or a M-Audio Black-Box or any modern guitar rig.
Lots of cheap AD/DA to search for. Apogee is on sale on eBay.
-
AM-III has 6 RCA (Phono) conectors. 2 Analog outs(18 bits) 2 Analog ins (18 bits) 2 SPDIF (Input output at 24 bits)
AP 24/96 is just like AM-III but with MIDI I/O and full 24 bits on analog.
RME 9652 has 3 ADAT Ins and 3 ADAT Outs + Midi +WordClock. Full 24 bits
-
RME HDSP 9652... pinnacle as far as quality in a PCI OS9 compatible card
lynx would like to have a word :D
(https://i.postimg.cc/mhJPGDDp/AP2496.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/mhJPGDDp)
-
lynx would like to have a word :D
Ha, you are 1000% correct, never had one, but if it's in the budget, go for it
-
it wasnt easy but you can get a Lynx AES PCI for 20 eur (at least i did locally), do the soldering yourself (which i had to do anyways since the multicore aes cables are coming from the main studio towards the machine room) and have a few email convos with lynx and they might even help you get it running on mac os 9. then that is the best quality soundcard for mac os 9 (gotta dig out the chats how to)
-
it wasnt easy but you can get a Lynx AES PCI for 20 eur (at least i did locally), do the soldering yourself (which i had to do anyways since the multicore aes cables are coming from the main studio towards the machine room) and have a few email convos with lynx and they might even help you get it running on mac os 9. then that is the best quality soundcard for mac os 9 (gotta dig out the chats how to)
I saw one of those on the cheap actually, would it really be worth the effort of building cables and such or should I just get an M-Audio Audiophile 2496 PCI and just go from there?
-
Depends if you need to get 8 stereo channels of audio in and out of your g4 powermac or just want to play some music
-
Depends if you need to get 8 stereo channels of audio in and out of your g4 powermac or just want to play some music
____________ ____________
| CARD |-------------| , |
| | | / < |
|__ R___L___| | /____\ |
/ \ |_____________|
/ \ | MAC |
__/_______\_ |-------------------|
| 1 2 3 4 |
|III III III III | MIXER
|O O O O |
|---------------|
\ \ \ \
\ \ \ \_____ SYNTH IN
\ \ \_______ SYNTH IN
\ \__________ SYNTH IN
\_____________ SYNTH IN
-
Depends if you need to get 8 stereo channels of audio in and out of your g4 powermac or just want to play some music
____________ ____________
| CARD |-------------| , |
| | | / < |
|__ R___L___| | /____\ |
/ \ |_____________|
/ \ | MAC |
__/_______\_ |-------------------|
| 1 2 3 4 |
|III III III III | MIXER
|O O O O |
|---------------|
\ \ \ \
\ \ \ \_____ SYNTH IN
\ \ \_______ SYNTH IN
\ \__________ SYNTH IN
\_____________ SYNTH IN
-
since this can and has been made compatible with mac os 9 (ill hunt down the info later) this is the top converter.
i shall work more on the pci interface thread and work out how i can transfer my google sheet database onto here (spreadsheet layout in forum), then i can add connection # of each type (analog xlr, analog trs, digital spdif, digital adat, digital aesebu etc)
original prices in 2006: Aurora 16 £2344; Aurora 8 £1639; AES16 £640; LT-ADAT expansion card £222.
todays if you are lucky prices: Aurora 16 800eur, Aurora 8 550, AES16 20EUR, LT-USB – USB 2.0 interface, LT-HD – Avid Pro Tools | HD interface, LT-FW – FireWire interface, LT-ADAT – ADAT optical interface, LT-MADI – MADI interface
-
Hey Big_Macintosh,
Your diagram does not illustrate a very important fact...
1) If you are recording the synths 1 at a time, and want MIDI, the 2496 is the best choice for the money and the mixer/line mixer approach is fine.
2) If you want to record all synths at once, then a super cheap MOTU fireware (OS9 compatible) or other FW or MOTU with PCI card with 8 ins is the way to go. You can still use the mixer for vocals or just get a good pre-amp and bail on the mixer all together.
The MOTU 828 is down to about $25 and gives you 8 1/4" in, S-pdif, XLR
The MOTU 1224 needs the 324/424 card but has very unique converters for the MOTU line of that era and has warm sounding converters when recording synths, seen them for around $125 with a card
-
Hey Big_Macintosh,
Your diagram does not illustrate a very important fact...
1) If you are recording the synths 1 at a time, and want MIDI, the 2496 is the best choice for the money and the mixer/line mixer approach is fine.
2) If you want to record all synths at once, then a super cheap MOTU fireware (OS9 compatible) or other FW or MOTU with PCI card with 8 ins is the way to go. You can still use the mixer for vocals or just get a good pre-amp and bail on the mixer all together.
The MOTU 828 is down to about $25 and gives you 8 1/4" in, S-pdif, XLR
The MOTU 1224 needs the 324/424 card but has very unique converters for the MOTU line of that era and has warm sounding converters when recording synths, seen them for around $125 with a card
I do want midi.
Since I may have bought a 2496 but now realized that having the ability to record multiple things at once to separate channels will be useful...
Is there any benefit to having 2 soundcards? :D
-
what sequencer will you be using? pro tools, logic, cubase?
-
what sequencer will you be using? pro tools, logic, cubase?
https://sourceforge.net/projects/playerpro/
-
like aphex twin
-
like aphex twin
Kind of lol, I'm used to using trackers and strange programs for making music.
-
I do want midi.
Since I may have bought a 2496 but now realized that having the ability to record multiple things at once to separate channels will be useful...
Is there any benefit to having 2 soundcards? :D
No stick with 1 sound card for simplicity.
Yeah I was afraid you may way separate tracks per device... simultaneously.
The 2496 will still give you great results is you want to trigger all synths via MIDI (each on a separate MIDI channel) and mix them with the mixer and record the stereo out of the mixer. Or alternatively, you can create a stereo track for each synth by playing the sequence over and re-record. It's very easy to line up the audio tracks later; obviously the better idea for many synths is a multichannel audio interface... so with 1 pass you can have all tracks separated for EQ and effects.
This is one one those topics that if you clearly defined what you wanted to accomplish... I was under the assumption you wanted to transfer vinyl as a stereo source into OS9; we could have been more helpful from the start if you mentioned the synths... please forgive us, you may have to sell the 2496 :(
-
I do want midi.
Since I may have bought a 2496 but now realized that having the ability to record multiple things at once to separate channels will be useful...
Is there any benefit to having 2 soundcards? :D
No stick with 1 sound card for simplicity.
Yeah I was afraid you may way separate tracks per device... simultaneously.
The 2496 will still give you great results is you want to trigger all synths via MIDI (each on a separate MIDI channel) and mix them with the mixer and record the stereo out of the mixer. Or alternatively, you can create a stereo track for each synth by playing the sequence over and re-record. It's very easy to line up the audio tracks later; obviously the better idea for many synths is a multichannel audio interface... so with 1 pass you can have all tracks separated for EQ and effects.
This is one one those topics that if you clearly defined what you wanted to accomplish... I was under the assumption you wanted to transfer vinyl as a stereo source into OS9; we could have been more helpful from the start if you mentioned the synths... please forgive us, you may have to sell the 2496 :(
Hahaha, it's all good.
I have the synths going into FX units then going to the mixer that goes to the card but sometimes I need to adjust volumes in post so I thought multitrack recording would be nifty, though recording one at a time into the card often gives rise to chopping up the sounds to rearrange them and then using them like that.
Additionally two sound cards is always useful to send stuff out of the computer through external FX units and then back into the computer.
I might buy a second sound card after this one arrives because of that reason though.
Hopefully the midi is much tighter on this card than those shitty usb to midi cables I have because they are terrible for syncing computers to play together.
-
Oh and until you guys mentioned it I didn't even realize that recording multiple inputs to different channels simultaneously was possible :D
And having two soundcards makes recording to tape easier too because then I wouldn't have to unplug the speaker cables to record and stuff like that.
-
And having two soundcards makes recording to tape easier too because then I wouldn't have to unplug the speaker cables to record and stuff like that.
I really think you should stick to the 1 audio sound card/interface rule because in older DAWs (like the ones for OS9) there are dedicated drivers (ASIO) and these DAWs only allow you to select a single Audio Interface used at a time. Work arounds and exceptions get very complicated.
I mentioned the multichannel MOTU stuff {or any other 8in /8out interfaces} because you can use the outs and ins all at the same time. In many cases, these multichannel interfaces have their own control software so you can do things like take what is coming into inputs 1 & 2 (synth1) and route the audio out of outputs 1 & 2 into an external stereo FX unit; then take the stereo out of the FX unit and put it into inputs 3 & 4... thus in this example, you can record both the unprocessed Synth 1 audio and externally processed synth 1 audio at the same time.
-
And having two soundcards makes recording to tape easier too because then I wouldn't have to unplug the speaker cables to record and stuff like that.
I really think you should stick to the 1 audio sound card/interface rule because in older DAWs (like the ones for OS9) there are dedicated drivers (ASIO) and these DAWs only allow you to select a single Audio Interface used at a time. Work arounds and exceptions get very complicated.
I mentioned the multichannel MOTU stuff {or any other 8in /8out interfaces} because you can use the outs and ins all at the same time. In many cases, these multichannel interfaces have their own control software so you can do things like take what is coming into inputs 1 & 2 (synth1) and route the audio out of outputs 1 & 2 into an external stereo FX unit; then take the stereo out of the FX unit and put it into inputs 3 & 4... thus in this example, you can record both the unprocessed Synth 1 audio and externally processed synth 1 audio at the same time.
I get what you mean about selling the other card now lol, well I suppose I will use the card I bought until I get bored of it haha :D
Are there any cards that have CV outs on them?
-
I get what you mean about selling the other card now lol, well I suppose I will use the card I bought until I get bored of it haha :D
Are there any cards that have CV outs on them?
OS9 era equipment was kind of peak MIDI. CV Gate was more commonly converted to midi vs people using sound interfaces as CV/Gate control.
-
peak midi was M.ROS direct hardware access with the Atari ST. nothing beats the timing of those machines.
-
peak midi was M.ROS direct hardware access with the Atari ST. nothing beats the timing of those machines.
Which is why I have 2 Ataris in my setup.
-
2 of each model i hope or else its hard to tell if you take things serious
-
OS9 era equipment was kind of peak MIDI. CV Gate was more commonly converted to midi vs people using sound interfaces as CV/Gate control.
indeed, it kind of started only with OSX PPC, but not OS9.
you can use motu interfaces to output CV in OS9 - but then you have to make the software
for that yourself.
-
you can use motu interfaces to output CV..
Without modifying the hardware? Are outputs on Motu DC coupled?
-
you can use motu interfaces to output CV..
Without modifying the hardware? Are outputs on Motu DC coupled?
If they are then would it be possible to record CV into your computer and then play it out through one to control an external synth?