4 ms·

I had a 400MHz model that I hand overclocked to 800MHz by re-soldering the multiplier on the processor. That thing ran perfectly for over 10 years as my main P

I had a 400MHz model that I hand overclocked to 800MHz by re-soldering the multiplier on the processor. That thing ran perfectly for over 10 years as my main PCI Pro Tools system. 2001-2010. RIP you beautiful grey beast.

geerlingguy 4y ago
That was the era where I remember every radio and audio production studio would start moving systems over to Windows—except for it seemed there was always one Mac left running ProTools, since it could sit quietly in the studio and the licensing was pretty crazy expensive. Plus the audio processing chain the Mac was a lot better (better latency and easier introspection) than anything on Windows at the time.
- Maursault 4y ago
  > That was the era where I remember every radio and audio production studio would start moving systems over to Windows This is a myth. I seriously doubt any nationally marketed record was ever tracked and mixed using Pro Tools on Windows, at least, I am unaware of any. When big artists showed interest in Microsoft products, it was not for Windows with Pro Tools, it was for Internet technologies. Throughout the 90's up to 2000 (500Mhz G4 "era") nearly all pro audio was still Mac, but Windows was an alternative in audio by 2001 and it got talked about. Certainly some had built Windows rigs, but they were independent and home-based operations. Few, if any, professional studio enterprises used Windows for tracking and mixing. By 2004, Windows and PCs still did offer a slightly cheaper alternative (Digi equipment cost what it cost on either platform), but only new operations and some higher education communication programs had invested in audio on Windows platforms. No one was replacing and tossing Mac DAWs, ever, because Pro Tools and other audio hw was expensive and still sounded good, no matter how old it was it sounded the same as it did when new. By 2004, Windows still barely had its foot in the door in pro audio, and most pro audio operations were still Mac central.[1] By 2011, any competition Windows ever gave Mac in the studio was over, but for some reason the myth that Windows took over audio production from Mac at some point still existed.[2] But it was always false. Certainly, there were Windows PC fanatics that have ever insisted Mac was overpriced and better rigs could be built on PC, and some of them were engineers and opened their own studios, but in general these were much smaller operations compared to full size, full service recording studios. You'd have some little studio that had a tracking room and a control room built into their basement or their garage or shed. Any large studio with a full-sized control room and multiple tracking rooms, a couple smaller control rooms ("Studio B, Studio C") and, you know, a lobby, an artists' lounge, a business office, storage rooms, what you'd consider a "real" professional studio, was always Mac, even if they were still running OS9 and older Digi equipment as late as 2009 and beyond, these systems stayed in place because they kept working and new ADCs and Pro Tools software licensing was and still is expensive. It is 2022, and I guarantee you there are full sized pro studios still using OS9 on G4 with Pro Tools and Digi racks that will only upgrade to 10yo hw when those things stop working or they can't find replacement ATA hard drives, because Mac Pros are crazy expensive and it is hard for them to get their head around USB3 and Thunderbolt2 and not needing PCI anymore, but mostly reluctance comes from having to reinvest maybe tens of thousands of dollars into Intel-based plugins they already have on PPC and new multi-channel digital rack ADC systems. If it was only the Pro Tools licensing, they might have stayed current, but even with bundled plugins and lower cost hardware, it's hard to abandon things that are already paid for 20ya and still working, unless, of course, you're Skywalker Sound. [1] https://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=99826 https://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=99826 [2] https://gearspace.com/board/music-computers/609183-most-professional-studios-use-windows-using-windows-7-now.html https://gearspace.com/board/music-computers/609183-most-prof...
  - klodolph 4y ago
    When people post pictures of their studios, I still see plenty of G3/G4/G5 towers in the pictures. Maybe it’s not at the center of the studio, but you definitely see them.
  - Brian_K_White 4y ago
    They said except for protools. The whole point of the comment was to say "except for a mac running protools".
    - Maursault 4y ago
      Pro Tools was cross-platform since 1997 with the release of the PCI version of Avid's AudioMedia III card and Digi 888 interface. By then most other extant DAW software, such as CuBase, had dropped Windows support, while MOTU Digital Performer was Mac-only until about 2015, though I can think of one Windows option that appeared around 1997, Sonic Foundry's Acid, which was Windows-only and reasonably popular. Regardless, the point here is that there was a choice of OS platform with Pro Tools since 1997, and yet the vast majority of established studios used Macs. The brief window that Windows had to infiltrate that space was between 1997 and Mac OS 8 when Apple's flagship OS was already desperate for modernization, and 2005 and Mac OS X 10.4, when the OS was finally both stable and performed decently. I suspect there were newer small (home) studios at the time that were fully PC, but these engineers would never consider running Macintosh. That's who used Windows... die hard PC users that subsequently got into audio engineering. But any established studios, even if they had no actual computers tracking and mixing audio until 2001 almost always went with the Pro Tools interface options running the software on Mac OS 9. Precious few studio installations that already had Mac switched to PC. New studios either invested in PC hardware initially as their first DAWs, or they didn't, but I expect most of these failed as a business for no other reason than most new businesses fail, it had nothing to do with their computer platform. So Windows started to appear in pro audio between 1997-2005, but the PC platform just didn't have enough time to ever remotely become dominant. Maybe there were a lot of Windows DAWs out there, they just weren't surrounded by a purpose-built studio generating any revenue to speak of, and among actual ground-up purpose-built studios, Windows installations were a very rare exception. That said, engineers are gear junkes, and even in Mac studios there were bound to be an old PC and a handful of cheap PC laptops for stereo on-location tracking because they became cheaper and more reliable than a portable digital recorder.
hot_gril 4y ago
There's something fun yet practical about holding onto a solid old computer (or car) that's been upgraded well beyond the original specs. Until this year, my main work machine was a 2009 Mac Pro with dual Xeon x5670s (12 cores total), 24GB RAM, RX580, flashed to 5,1 firmware and OpenCore'd to run the latest macOS. Yes there are beefier versions, but this was good enough. Got an M1 Mac mini and miss a few things. The Mac Pro connectivity is still important. USB-C accessories are never as reliable. Also hate having to use DisplayLink for >2 monitors.

geerlingguy 4y ago

That was the era where I remember every radio and audio production studio would start moving systems over to Windows—except for it seemed there was always one Mac left running ProTools, since it could sit quietly in the studio and the licensing was pretty crazy expensive. Plus the audio processing chain the Mac was a lot better (better latency and easier introspection) than anything on Windows at the time.

Maursault 4y ago
> That was the era where I remember every radio and audio production studio would start moving systems over to Windows This is a myth. I seriously doubt any nationally marketed record was ever tracked and mixed using Pro Tools on Windows, at least, I am unaware of any. When big artists showed interest in Microsoft products, it was not for Windows with Pro Tools, it was for Internet technologies. Throughout the 90's up to 2000 (500Mhz G4 "era") nearly all pro audio was still Mac, but Windows was an alternative in audio by 2001 and it got talked about. Certainly some had built Windows rigs, but they were independent and home-based operations. Few, if any, professional studio enterprises used Windows for tracking and mixing. By 2004, Windows and PCs still did offer a slightly cheaper alternative (Digi equipment cost what it cost on either platform), but only new operations and some higher education communication programs had invested in audio on Windows platforms. No one was replacing and tossing Mac DAWs, ever, because Pro Tools and other audio hw was expensive and still sounded good, no matter how old it was it sounded the same as it did when new. By 2004, Windows still barely had its foot in the door in pro audio, and most pro audio operations were still Mac central.[1] By 2011, any competition Windows ever gave Mac in the studio was over, but for some reason the myth that Windows took over audio production from Mac at some point still existed.[2] But it was always false. Certainly, there were Windows PC fanatics that have ever insisted Mac was overpriced and better rigs could be built on PC, and some of them were engineers and opened their own studios, but in general these were much smaller operations compared to full size, full service recording studios. You'd have some little studio that had a tracking room and a control room built into their basement or their garage or shed. Any large studio with a full-sized control room and multiple tracking rooms, a couple smaller control rooms ("Studio B, Studio C") and, you know, a lobby, an artists' lounge, a business office, storage rooms, what you'd consider a "real" professional studio, was always Mac, even if they were still running OS9 and older Digi equipment as late as 2009 and beyond, these systems stayed in place because they kept working and new ADCs and Pro Tools software licensing was and still is expensive. It is 2022, and I guarantee you there are full sized pro studios still using OS9 on G4 with Pro Tools and Digi racks that will only upgrade to 10yo hw when those things stop working or they can't find replacement ATA hard drives, because Mac Pros are crazy expensive and it is hard for them to get their head around USB3 and Thunderbolt2 and not needing PCI anymore, but mostly reluctance comes from having to reinvest maybe tens of thousands of dollars into Intel-based plugins they already have on PPC and new multi-channel digital rack ADC systems. If it was only the Pro Tools licensing, they might have stayed current, but even with bundled plugins and lower cost hardware, it's hard to abandon things that are already paid for 20ya and still working, unless, of course, you're Skywalker Sound. [1] https://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=99826 https://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=99826 [2] https://gearspace.com/board/music-computers/609183-most-professional-studios-use-windows-using-windows-7-now.html https://gearspace.com/board/music-computers/609183-most-prof...
- klodolph 4y ago
  When people post pictures of their studios, I still see plenty of G3/G4/G5 towers in the pictures. Maybe it’s not at the center of the studio, but you definitely see them.
- Brian_K_White 4y ago
  They said except for protools. The whole point of the comment was to say "except for a mac running protools".
  - Maursault 4y ago
    Pro Tools was cross-platform since 1997 with the release of the PCI version of Avid's AudioMedia III card and Digi 888 interface. By then most other extant DAW software, such as CuBase, had dropped Windows support, while MOTU Digital Performer was Mac-only until about 2015, though I can think of one Windows option that appeared around 1997, Sonic Foundry's Acid, which was Windows-only and reasonably popular. Regardless, the point here is that there was a choice of OS platform with Pro Tools since 1997, and yet the vast majority of established studios used Macs. The brief window that Windows had to infiltrate that space was between 1997 and Mac OS 8 when Apple's flagship OS was already desperate for modernization, and 2005 and Mac OS X 10.4, when the OS was finally both stable and performed decently. I suspect there were newer small (home) studios at the time that were fully PC, but these engineers would never consider running Macintosh. That's who used Windows... die hard PC users that subsequently got into audio engineering. But any established studios, even if they had no actual computers tracking and mixing audio until 2001 almost always went with the Pro Tools interface options running the software on Mac OS 9. Precious few studio installations that already had Mac switched to PC. New studios either invested in PC hardware initially as their first DAWs, or they didn't, but I expect most of these failed as a business for no other reason than most new businesses fail, it had nothing to do with their computer platform. So Windows started to appear in pro audio between 1997-2005, but the PC platform just didn't have enough time to ever remotely become dominant. Maybe there were a lot of Windows DAWs out there, they just weren't surrounded by a purpose-built studio generating any revenue to speak of, and among actual ground-up purpose-built studios, Windows installations were a very rare exception. That said, engineers are gear junkes, and even in Mac studios there were bound to be an old PC and a handful of cheap PC laptops for stereo on-location tracking because they became cheaper and more reliable than a portable digital recorder.

hot_gril 4y ago

There's something fun yet practical about holding onto a solid old computer (or car) that's been upgraded well beyond the original specs. Until this year, my main work machine was a 2009 Mac Pro with dual Xeon x5670s (12 cores total), 24GB RAM, RX580, flashed to 5,1 firmware and OpenCore'd to run the latest macOS. Yes there are beefier versions, but this was good enough. Got an M1 Mac mini and miss a few things. The Mac Pro connectivity is still important. USB-C accessories are never as reliable. Also hate having to use DisplayLink for >2 monitors.