Well we are almost back up and running in the studio. I decided that since the hood was up so to speak, I might as well do a fresh install of OS 9. Yes you are reading that correctly: we are running OS 9 on the G3. The main reason is that it isn’t capable of running OS X and Cubase. But it does a good job for what is required of it (except for this whole crash and burn routine). We’ll be picking up a G5 soon (ideally before summer) which will hopefully coincide with getting a Mackie TT24.
We did pick up some new gear during the downtime. The Akai MPD16 was the item I was trying to get up and running when the external hard drive crashed and burned. Then yesterday we traded in a Behringer Virtualizer Pro (we got it home only to discovered it will not allow remapping program changes to the user bank and as such ditched it) and the Lexicon a|ex (no midi capabilities) on a Lexicon MPX1, Behringer RX1602, and a Nord Rack. I’m a huge fan of virtual analog synths, so spotting the Nord yesterday… well let’s just leave it at there was no question regarding if it was coming home with us. The Behringer RX1602 is a 1U 16 channel line mixer (well really just 8 stereo channels) that we have reached the point of requiring. There were no more available channels on the board, so the only option left was another console, or a line mixer. We aren’t getting another console until we can get the TT24, so by default it was the line mixer. We’re submixing the synths through it so at the moment we can get another 5 stereo synths into it before it’s filled.
Tonight I’m hoping to finish installing applications and configuring everything. Hopefully it won’t take all evening.