Old OSX music software

My girlfriend found a g3 imac on the side of the road and brought it around to my house; surprisingly it still works and I've managed to set it up with a clean user account. So naturally I'm wondering if there are any cool outdated music apps I can chuck on it, ie. stuff that doesn't work on current/Intel macs. I was considering just putting some general midi composition software on it to make some dinky seapunk stuff but apparently macs don't have on-chip GM sounds but instead just use a software emulation..?

 

Anyway, if there are any cool trackers/oldskool apps/etc I'd love to know!

I'd heavily advocate running OS 9 not OS X on it. There are a ton of rad apps from that era. I've got a bunch on a old original g4 PowerBook I can probably drag off...

yeah os9 had some weird shit...lots of free granular and timestretch kinds of apps. might have some on a cd-r somewhere.?

a good number of ppc apps were ported to intel so i can't rem too many cool ppc-only things.

 

this page has some old os9 and os x free softwares > http://arvidtp.net/guide9.html

  On 5/18/2015 at 3:07 AM, xf said:

I'd heavily advocate running OS 9 not OS X on it. There are a ton of rad apps from that era. I've got a bunch on a old original g4 PowerBook I can probably drag off...

I noticed it has some OS 9 compatibility mode apps so I guess they work with older versions of OS X (this one has Tiger); is there any drawback to using it like this?

not everything runs in that mode, especially music apps and games. If you're doing this to run things that can't run on a modern machine I'd just use OS 9

interesting.. I'll see if there's a way to get OS 9 on to it. Might run a bit better than Tiger as well!

g3->os9->vocalwriter

get the older versions to get your algorithmic composition on; http://www.actoolbox.net/download/

For OS9, old versions of Metasynth.

Edited May 24, 2015 by RSP

Just read this Ars piece http://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/09/an-os-9-odyssey-why-do-some-mac-users-still-rely-on-16-year-old-software/ and it was quite enjoyable, if brief. It only barely touches on music makers using older OS X software/hardware, but admits that a large part of the community who still uses the old shit are exactly those types. Thought some of you might enjoy the read, though I didn't think it warranted its own thread.

 

It's of particular interest to me because my current Mac seems to be next on the chopping block; the version of macOS coming out later this month will still be supported by it (I've got a mid 2011 Mini Server), but the writing is on the wall that in a year or two that my hardware might fall into legacy status.

  On 9/11/2016 at 7:12 PM, auxien said:

Just read this Ars piece http://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/09/an-os-9-odyssey-why-do-some-mac-users-still-rely-on-16-year-old-software/ and it was quite enjoyable, if brief. It only barely touches on music makers using older OS X software/hardware, but admits that a large part of the community who still uses the old shit are exactly those types. Thought some of you might enjoy the read, though I didn't think it warranted its own thread.

 

It's of particular interest to me because my current Mac seems to be next on the chopping block; the version of macOS coming out later this month will still be supported by it (I've got a mid 2011 Mini Server), but the writing is on the wall that in a year or two that my hardware might fall into legacy status.

 

I know the feeling, I use a BLA modded digi002 and the last driver was released in like 2009 (and even that isn't officially supported, but it still works fine in everything but Wavelab), so I'm pretty much wedded to a Windows 7 machine forever.

  On 9/11/2016 at 9:20 PM, RSP said:

 

  On 9/11/2016 at 7:12 PM, auxien said:

Just read this Ars piece http://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/09/an-os-9-odyssey-why-do-some-mac-users-still-rely-on-16-year-old-software/ and it was quite enjoyable, if brief. It only barely touches on music makers using older OS X software/hardware, but admits that a large part of the community who still uses the old shit are exactly those types. Thought some of you might enjoy the read, though I didn't think it warranted its own thread.

 

It's of particular interest to me because my current Mac seems to be next on the chopping block; the version of macOS coming out later this month will still be supported by it (I've got a mid 2011 Mini Server), but the writing is on the wall that in a year or two that my hardware might fall into legacy status.

 

I know the feeling, I use a BLA modded digi002 and the last driver was released in like 2009 (and even that isn't officially supported, but it still works fine in everything but Wavelab), so I'm pretty much wedded to a Windows 7 machine forever.

 

 

 

Still keep an XP slate for running older sysex editors, too. Graphical patching with a stylus is weirdly gratifying. Makes me feel like

 

Edited September 11, 2016 by RSP

What kind of mod is that on the digi002?

 

I can't barely imagine the patching with a stylus lol, I'd guess it would feel futuristic and totally outdated all at once.

 

I've wanted a Nord modular for years but now the software is well out of date so beyond buying the actual synth I'd also have to buy an old yet reliable laptop or something. One day. Lol