Hello all,

I have a 400mhz Mac G3 powerbook with 512mb ram.

I want to use it with a midi keyboard as a standalone synth, no sequencing just an alternative to spending thousands on a few classic hardware analog polysynths. I have a midi interface.

Will latency rule it out ?
do I need a new sound card ?

Any tips or help would be really really great!!

Many thanks
W

just install MAC OSX, jaguar or Panther, and with the core audio driver you should be fine with latency and the integrated soundcard, i manage to get 5 ms with an imac G3 with Panther..
So , to use a single standalone soft synth, it should work..

OK thats a great help, cheers! Nice to know its do-able!

hi,
on G3, OSx is not so good... a little slowwww !

better to have a king of VST host ( look at Steinberg vst Stack or a free one ???)
or you can use www.dsp-quattro.com as a vst host AND sound editor !
I use it , it is great and cheap.

zGo

It's true that OSX is not super fast on a G3, but it work with a decent amount of ram...
A vst host won't resolve the problem of latency, and if waxedapple is on OS9 and don't want to buy a soundcard for the moment, i think the best solution is to get Panther... (Panther work better on older machine than Jaguar..)
I'm sure his Powerbook, is enough to run a standalone softsynth..or Reason for example which is really light on the CPU...
Just my two cents

Hi,

Thanks ZGo. I imagine OSX needs more ram and therefore is a little slow. But can the sound drivers in OS9 give as good latency, even with a good host ?

If they can I will be pleased as it does make sense to me to use a less ram-thirsty OS to give as much juice to the plugins as possible.

Does anyone know the latency of basic OS9 sound drivers with cubase on a mac g3 ?

Thanks
W

cheers counterfit, I totally see what you are saying, I though the host would not affect the latency.

So now I am gonna sound like a real Mac newbie - Is panther a certain 'breed' of OSX ?

Why is panther better for g3 ?

counterfit have you tried using VSTis with OS9 at all ? Many thanks for your help
W

Hi again,
I boot on an externam FW under OSx to prepare myself to jump for OSxand maybe the new G5 !

With a G3 processor, osX works ok but it is a little slow certainly because we have a 8 mo VidéoCard on those Pismo G3 400/500 mhz.
The OsX graphics are beautifull but Grafix ressource eaters !

About the latency, it depends the quality of the ASIO driver under os9, some are very good, some are good
for example, you can go to 128 samples with a MOTU (os9)which is 4ms latency, but it depends how many VST you open.If there is too many VST, you will have to increase the Buffer settings.

With a FW410 M-audio ( osx)you can go to 256, my last test with 128 was to difficult for the same project.

I heard go thing about the Tascam 122, a very small interface, but it need a test.

The probleme is that there is nothing new under os9 .
hope this help;