Anybody got any MIDI software from the mid-late 80's?

[tevion5]

I want to get a copy of something like MOTU Performer 1.2.1 or and early Opcode sequencer.

Any of these:
MIDIMAC (sequencer) by opcode systems
TOTAL MUSIC (sequencer) by southworth music systems
MEGA TRACK (sequencer) by musicworks
MIDI COMPOSER (sequencer) by Assimilation
STUDIO MAC (sequencer) by creative solutions
DELUXE MUSIC CONSTRUCTION SET (sequencer) by electronic arts
CONCERTWARE PLUS (sequencer) by passport designs
MUSICWORKS (sequencer) by macromind inc
PERFORMER (sequencer) by mark of the unicorn

I have been searching for some time but can't find old enough versions of ANY of them. I am aware of the experimental 1.1 version of MusicWorks with midi support but that just crashes for me on all my 512Ke, Classic II and Power Mac 8600.

All the major midi pioneering software seem to be all but lost. I think this is really sad. I am in the process of trying to get in contact with the folk at the present day MOTU to see if they could point me to some archives.

My 512Ke runs MusicWorks but that lacks MIDI support. I have a MACMAN MIDIMAN interface hooked up to it but no software to run it

Anybody learned anything I haven't found yet?

The 68K army guys discussed a similar issue here:
https://68kmla.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1094

 

[Jessica Lares]

Here's an old newsletter from TidBITS dated Sep-93 with a few more programs:

http://cara.gsu.edu/courses/MIDI/midimac.html

And here are some reviews:

http://www.umich.edu/~archive/mac/misc/documentation/midisoftwareforthemac.txt

Have a dig around and see if you can find any archives. I know these are from the 90's, but you might get lucky.

I just think that some of these programs were way out of price reach for the average person and were limited to studios. I studied audio engineering my first year of college, and even they talked about how most of them do lots and lots of upgrades to keep up with the music industry.

 

[tevion5]

Here's an old newsletter from TidBITS dated Sep-93 with a few more programs:

http://cara.gsu.edu/courses/MIDI/midimac.html

And here are some reviews:

http://www.umich.edu/~archive/mac/misc/documentation/midisoftwareforthemac.txt

Have a dig around and see if you can find any archives. I know these are from the 90's, but you might get lucky.

I just think that some of these programs were way out of price reach for the average person and were limited to studios. I studied audio engineering my first year of college, and even they talked about how most of them do lots and lots of upgrades to keep up with the music industry.

Those are some excellent resources, thanks Jessica

I see what you mean by out of reach, MOTU performer was almost $500! That's on par with a full studio version of ProTools 11 today! Certainly not consumer grade stuff alright.

 

[harrymatic]

I take it you've asked in the Macintosh Garden forums? I didn't see any of your list on the site, but they have been known to track down very hard to find software before so it's worth a shot.

Trax by Passport Designs looks interesting - http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/trax-desktop-music-recording-studio

 

[Jessica Lares]

Those are some excellent resources, thanks Jessica

You're welcome.

And aswell as what harrymatic said, when you're Googling, go into Search Tools, and then click Any time, then Custom range... It's old software, so you want to look at old cached pages. You might use the Wayback Machine too. Of course a lot of these pages might contain dead links and such, but a lot of stuff is still archived somewhere.

 

[tevion5]

I take it you've asked in the Macintosh Garden forums? I didn't see any of your list on the site, but they have been known to track down very hard to find software before so it's worth a shot.

Trax by Passport Designs looks interesting - http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/trax-desktop-music-recording-studio

Okay, I'll try asking people there. Their forum is just a hell of a lot more cluttered than ours. Even when you search for software, random threads are scattered in the results! What a mess

Traxs does look interesting, I haven't seen it before. I'm not sure if a 512Ke could handle such a heavy app though...nevertheless I'll give it a go