I've previously extolled the virtues of PowerPC Macs still being great low cost recording platforms and posted links to the music I make on them - has anyone done anything creative on theirs recently (or ant time really) and care to share?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Anyone Being Creative With PowerPC?
- Thread starter Dronecatcher
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I occasionally hook my guitar through my Toneport DI-S on my 12" Powerbook, and running Pod Farm 2 and Riffworks, record riffs that pop into my head. Every so often I'll dig through my huge collection of riffs and put a song together. This has declined over the past year since I've decided that bands are no longer for me, but it's still fun to see what I can come up with...
Here's an older example (excuse the crappy guitar tone)- http://atari.vg-network.com/public/monthu.mp3
I'm actually over this kind of depressing doom metal these days, and have been doing more upbeat, jammy kind of stuff, in regular 440 tuning.
Here's an older example (excuse the crappy guitar tone)- http://atari.vg-network.com/public/monthu.mp3
I'm actually over this kind of depressing doom metal these days, and have been doing more upbeat, jammy kind of stuff, in regular 440 tuning.
Last edited:
It's a sad fact but i've decided the music I like the most and what I'm best at writing isn't compatible with my age..hence retro electronica direction...
I have a PM 6500 that I did a bunch of upgrades on a long time ago. I maxed out the RAM (128 MB), installed a Sonnet 500 Mhz G3/1MB L2 cache, and a MOTU PCI-324 audio card with a rack mount MOTU 2408. I used to use it for home recording a really long time ago.
I just got the machine up and running again tonight and it still seems to work fine, even though the MOTU card isn't officially supported. I also put in a Sonnet Tempo SATA PCI card and hope to install an SSD (or two) next. It's running MacOS 8.6 and MOTU Digital Performer 2.7. I also have an old EMU rack mount sampler that I connected via SCSI and used Peak as an audio/sample editor. For a mixer I used a Korg 168RC connected to the 2408 via ADAP light pipe optical cables (16 channel in/out).
I just got the machine up and running again tonight and it still seems to work fine, even though the MOTU card isn't officially supported. I also put in a Sonnet Tempo SATA PCI card and hope to install an SSD (or two) next. It's running MacOS 8.6 and MOTU Digital Performer 2.7. I also have an old EMU rack mount sampler that I connected via SCSI and used Peak as an audio/sample editor. For a mixer I used a Korg 168RC connected to the 2408 via ADAP light pipe optical cables (16 channel in/out).
Shameless self plug here, but all of my music productions 2011 and prior were PowerPC based, however for our live shows I upgraded from my PB 15” 1.5Ghz to a MacBook unibody ‘08.
Here are tracks previews from our last LP released late 2010 called “Surfacing” by Empty:
My band mate is still going strong under the name of Sleepless Droids.
I’ve been working on a few compositions since, mostly on my G5s, but I don’t exclusively use PowerPC and find myself mixing new and old hardware as part of my workflow and recording/virtual instruments setup.
Once I get closer to completing a series of work I’ll start putting together something to share.
EDIT: This was our first music video from our EP "Open Aeon" in 2006.
Empty - "Ghost Beside You"
Empty is all on iTunes/Spotify/Amazon/CDBaby/etc if anyone is enjoying it and wants to hear more.
Here are tracks previews from our last LP released late 2010 called “Surfacing” by Empty:
My band mate is still going strong under the name of Sleepless Droids.
I’ve been working on a few compositions since, mostly on my G5s, but I don’t exclusively use PowerPC and find myself mixing new and old hardware as part of my workflow and recording/virtual instruments setup.
Once I get closer to completing a series of work I’ll start putting together something to share.
EDIT: This was our first music video from our EP "Open Aeon" in 2006.
Empty - "Ghost Beside You"
Empty is all on iTunes/Spotify/Amazon/CDBaby/etc if anyone is enjoying it and wants to hear more.
Last edited:
Shameless self plug here, but all of my music productions 2011 and prior were PowerPC based, however for our live shows I upgraded from my PB 15” 1.5Ghz to a MacBook unibody ‘08.
Here are tracks previews from our last LP released late 2010 called “Surfacing” by Empty:
If you’re interested, take some time to peruse my independent label website aphotic.com.au there are preview tracks for each album listing. Unfortunately I haven’t updated much since about 2012.
Also see:
http://emptyband.com
http://motionfused.com
My band mate is still going strong under the name of Sleepless Droids.
I’ve been working on a few compositions since, mostly on my G5s, but I don’t exclusively use PowerPC and find myself mixing new and old hardware as part of my workflow and recording/virtual instruments setup.
Once I get closer to completing a series of work I’ll start putting together something to share.
EDIT: This was our first music video from our EP "Open Aeon" in 2006.
Empty - "Ghost Beside You"
Empty is all on iTunes/Spotify/Amazon/CDBaby/etc if anyone is enjoying it and wants to hear more.
Great stuff! I'm not that familiar with that kind of music, but that's some interestingly catchy stuff!
I always forget about this, but I've also got a collection of isolationist ambient stuff, done between 1995 and 2011, that was released by Stone Groove Records last year. You can find it on Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon Music under the project name Sublibrium. Much of the work was done with found sounds and analog sources, then mixed on my old Mystic G4 with a Sonnet 1.8ghz processor. The older stuff was dumped from cassette and remixed on the same machine.
I forget about it because I did much of it while I was high, and going through very dark periods of my life (blah blah blah). Not that I want to put it out of my mind, but I'm not that attached to any of it anymore. My friend Randy, who owns Stone Groove as a label and music shop, liked it so much that he had it all mastered and released. I just told him to go for it.
Last edited:
My dual 2.7 takes care of all my film scanning needs, which includes both some of my old work, old family negatives, occasional jobs for others, and probably more importantly my current film work.
I use two main scanners-a Nikon Coolscan V and an Epson V700. The Coolscan excels at 35mm but that's all it will handle.
The V700 can scan anything up to 8x10. With a wet mount kit(which I have) it's possible to scan ANY size film provided it's not too bit to fit on the glass mounting tray(8x10). This makes it possible to scan 110, although wet scanning is a pain and I usually just use anti-newton glass on 110 and other oddball sizes
Since a lot of my film work these days is on medium format or 4x5, the Epson gets a work out(although I only use it for 35mm when I'm bulk scanning slides for someone else and they just want "powerpoint quality" since I can load 12 slides at once). Unfortunately, the MF film holders are lacking(or they frankly suck) so I keep meaning to buy some better after market ones.
All of that aside, I have and use Vuescan. This is a currently maintained program that will operate both of these scanners. With that said, Vuescan doesn't have "real" Digital ICE, and testing side-by-side on the same frames I've found their infrared cleaning algorithms to both miss things that ICE gets and to cause more resolution loss than ICE. Thus, I run Nikon Scan most of the time on the Nikon-it's a Carbonized program so requires 10.6 or older.
After scanning, the scans get popped into Photoshop CS4 for clean-up(a dull task). Even ICE misses some things, and it doesn't work on B&W or Kodachrome. The latter doesn't matter since most of the Kodachromes I care were long ago scanned, but B&W is a big deal to me. I try to get the scan exposure "right" but I'll also make any contrast and levels adjustments needed in Photoshop.
I use two main scanners-a Nikon Coolscan V and an Epson V700. The Coolscan excels at 35mm but that's all it will handle.
The V700 can scan anything up to 8x10. With a wet mount kit(which I have) it's possible to scan ANY size film provided it's not too bit to fit on the glass mounting tray(8x10). This makes it possible to scan 110, although wet scanning is a pain and I usually just use anti-newton glass on 110 and other oddball sizes
Since a lot of my film work these days is on medium format or 4x5, the Epson gets a work out(although I only use it for 35mm when I'm bulk scanning slides for someone else and they just want "powerpoint quality" since I can load 12 slides at once). Unfortunately, the MF film holders are lacking(or they frankly suck) so I keep meaning to buy some better after market ones.
All of that aside, I have and use Vuescan. This is a currently maintained program that will operate both of these scanners. With that said, Vuescan doesn't have "real" Digital ICE, and testing side-by-side on the same frames I've found their infrared cleaning algorithms to both miss things that ICE gets and to cause more resolution loss than ICE. Thus, I run Nikon Scan most of the time on the Nikon-it's a Carbonized program so requires 10.6 or older.
After scanning, the scans get popped into Photoshop CS4 for clean-up(a dull task). Even ICE misses some things, and it doesn't work on B&W or Kodachrome. The latter doesn't matter since most of the Kodachromes I care were long ago scanned, but B&W is a big deal to me. I try to get the scan exposure "right" but I'll also make any contrast and levels adjustments needed in Photoshop.
Very dark droning ambience. Thanks for sharing @swamprock
My band mate and I did some soundtrack work under the name "Motion Fused". Here's one which was used for the opening credits of the Australian Horror film "The Tunnel".
Again, this was all on the G5.
Thanks for sharing..I'm hear echoes of NIN in there...
I prefer the earlier stuff - Ghost Beside You is excellent
[doublepost=1510565364][/doublepost]
The video's not available in the UK, so had to use a US proxy to play it...very dark stuff, maybe not recommended for late night listening
Reconstructing found sounds is an art in itself - even recording the ambient silence in an empty room becomes something else when you timestretch it, amplify, add effects etc.
[doublepost=1510565790][/doublepost]
I've always found such features are either too aggressive or not enough...never a real substitute for doing it manually, as tedious as that is..
Thanks for sharing..I'm hear echoes of NIN in there...
I prefer the earlier stuff - Ghost Beside You is excellent
Thanks man. Yes, Reznor has always been an influence
It feels like a lifetime ago as it was all B.C (Before Children). My future sound has quite a different style. I think this comes from relaxing with life and dropping "The Image", so to speak.
Thanks man. Yes, Reznor has always been an influence
It feels like a lifetime ago as it was all B.C (Before Children). My future sound has quite a different style. I think this comes from relaxing with life and dropping "The Image", so to speak.
I'd have to concur with this. Age does change things, as well as children, and settling into a *good* life. "The Image" no longer matters at 47
Dig the soundtrack piece. Nice work!
The video's not available in the UK, so had to use a US proxy to play it...very dark stuff, maybe not recommended for late night listening
Reconstructing found sounds is an art in itself - even recording the ambient silence in an empty room becomes something else when you timestretch it, amplify, add effects etc.
I always loved fading in different waves of sound to capture a specific mood, which at the time consisted of dark, darker, and almost suicidal. I did find inspiration in the various past space missions, and in forbidden places that one cannot reach. I find it hard to listen to any of it these days, which is a shame.
Last edited:
This first album was recorded on a OS9 Quick silver dual 1ghz to some 003s & a buncha preamps etc to board to pro tools.
https://theoktoberpeople.bandcamp.com/album/the-oktober-people
I remember some shelved material (poor bass capture) was done at a house on a PBG4 too in combo with a nice half rack of preamps and 1 003 IIRC. Our subsequent releases were captured on OSX core 2 dro Intel machines at our studio (at the time).
https://theoktoberpeople.bandcamp.com/album/the-oktober-people
I remember some shelved material (poor bass capture) was done at a house on a PBG4 too in combo with a nice half rack of preamps and 1 003 IIRC. Our subsequent releases were captured on OSX core 2 dro Intel machines at our studio (at the time).
Last edited:
Now you're talking - great stuff
Would you have classified your music as Shoegazing? Certainly feels influenced by that wave of 90s Brit rock..maybe a bit of Pavement too?
Did the band have any success - that kinda sound enjoyed a resurrgence around 5 years ago?
Now you're talking - great stuff
Would you have classified your music as Shoegazing? Certainly feels influenced by that wave of 90s Brit rock..maybe a bit of Pavement too?
Did the band have any success - that kinda sound enjoyed a resurrgence around 5 years ago?
Ya man - My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Ride, Mogwai etc. are favs of mine (especially Mogwai
), face melting baby eating shoegaze, post-rock etc. Success? No real financial success (like I’m not retired from it lol) but 3 albums, vinyl record, 3 er 4 comps (I dont remember), tours, music festivals some regional AirPlay in the mid 2ks etc. So commercial success? Not in the traditional sense but it was a pretty awesome 11 or so years none the less.I certainly miss those loud rock n roll days but put down my SVT & Pbasses for a whee baby boy (or two or three maybe down the road?)
Last edited:
Ahh, Here's the last full length we did. While it was recorded, mixed etc. on intel, many of the initial song ideas were originally captured on ppc. Haven't listened to these in years lol.
http://oktoberpeople.com/
http://oktoberpeople.com/
Last edited:
Great music Rhian, really loving the chilled riffs. What are your parts? I've always loved Mogwai and this reminds me in some ways to a similar vibe.
Bassist. Some backing vox here n' there & some Rhodes but that's about it. Other than that, fending off all the lustful naked women left little time for anything else.
Last edited:
Bassist. Some backing vox here n' there & some Rhodes but that's about it. Other than that, fending off all the lustful naked women left little time for anything else.
Such is the life of a rockstar
I'm really enjoying Explore the Sky Too.
I recorded an entire hip hop album, produced the beats, and mixed and mastered it on a G5. Have since removed everything from spotify band camp et. al but yeah.
I'm in the process of turning our spare bedroom in to a "man cave / recording area" so i actually have a place for my amps, guitars and macs to be near each other. Anyway, i'm just a hobbyist and i don't use anything but free software for this. Mainly GarageBand, LMMS, Audacity and Hydrogen. Ideally i want to focus back on my love of metal/thrash/punk, but the wife loves techno/electronic type stuff (and i don't mind that genre myself). So if anyone is bored feel free to take a listen. These include some default GB loops, some downloaded royalty free loops and effects, and some made from scratch. These were made either on an iBook G4/PM G5 with leopard, on a macbook with snow leopard, or on an imac with el capitan depending on what room i was in.
https://soundcloud.com/wart-hog-matt (good speakers/subs or decent headphones are a must for most of these)
Cheers
https://soundcloud.com/wart-hog-matt (good speakers/subs or decent headphones are a must for most of these)
Cheers
Have you ever used real Kodak ICE-both the software and hardware?
I worked for a while with Canon FARE on a flatbed, and was never totally satisfied. Now I find myself with two scanners that have ICE-an Epson V700 and a Nikon Coolscan V.
After I first got both, I continued using Vuescan, which is a great solution to keep a lot of older scanners running and was also very "comfortable" for me. It saved me having to learn both the Epson and Nikon software, and gave me good enough scans.
Although it uses the IR-channel scanning function of these two scanners, the software algorithms are different and in my experience nowhere near as effective as ICE.
I did some side-by-side tests and using ICE in Nikon Scan completely got rid of some things like scratches that Vuescan didn't touch. At the same time, it resulted in less artifacting than Vuescan set to "high." ICE rarely leaves me with a perfect scan-I have to do some stuff manually still-but in my experience it does a good job of getting rid of the worst without a loss in detail. It's also extremely helpful when it happens in high detail areas-places that are also VERY difficult to manually retouch.
Wet mounting is still the gold standard for reducing the appearance of dust and scratches, but it's also a pain. Unfortunately, using ICE on any type of glass mount, but especially on a dry mount with AN glass-gives some REALLY weird artifacts. If I want the best scan possible, I'll wet mount it, but would rather not do that.
I've easily scanned in the thousands of frames of film, and considering that I'm still shooting in the ballpark of 100 rolls or so a year(35mm and 120 combined) plus probably 50 sheets a year, that number is only going to grow larger. Fortunately, I've found another C-41 lab in town that manages to not scratch my film. I just need to invest in a slide mounting machine since the E-6 lab in town doesn't imprint the mounts(plus, even though I like having my slides mounted, it's easier and usually better to scan them unmounted).
No, any scanning is far and few between - in some cases the dust and scratches are part of the charm.
1. I'd suggest trying the best hardware+software implementation of IR cleaning available before dismissing it-and at least to us normal folks that means a scanner with Kodak Digital ICE technology AND the corresponding Kodak software package. Most later Nikon, Epson, and Minolta scanners offer this WHEN USING THE MANUFACTURER'S SCAN SOFTWARE. Supposedly, the Nikon LS-9000, a scanner I'd really love to have, can even use ICE on Kodachrome. This is still a ~$2K scanner on the secondary market. Third party scan software like Vuescan and Silverfast have "infrared cleaning" but it's not ICE. Canon's FARE is also not ICE.
2. I guess we can agree to disagree, but I strive for technical perfection in my scans and I'd rather any "quirks" come from the way a particular film/lens/format renders a scene than from issues in the scan itself. I'm not at all into the Lomography trend. I shoot a lot of expired film, but if it doesn't render the way I expect-as compared to the current production equivalents or what it looked like when it was current(fortunately, in most cases I have actual examples rather than relying on my memory). I pay a good premium for film with a known good storage "provenance" for that reason.
My original quote was more in relation to the labour saving gadgets and gizmos that have been added to Photoshop and other image editors over the years - they tend to be great for superficial use but fail on serious work. So, no - I'm not reallly qualified to pass judgement on pro scanner software and my limited use of the scanner I have certainly wouldn't warrant any exploration of pro software for it - Photoshop covers everything for my needs.
I too am not into Lomography - however, I enjoy a photograph for what is it, regardless of how it's derived - analogue/digital, stylized, enhanced, under/over processed etc etc.