Greetings,

I have been thrown a challenge by my Father in law regarding some old software that he used to run in some vintage mac's. The program is called Opcode Music shop which runs perfectly on MacOS 7 - 8.1 when run on an actual PowerMac however it will not run correctly within Mac OS X 'Classic' environment nor can I get it to run on SheepShaver. After getting the onto the SheepShaver Mac and overcoming a couple of issues (it needs the Sonata Font and 'Vision' keyboard layout) the program will open and allow you to write music (the software is a Music Package) however it will not play. This is consistant with what happens in the OSX Classic environment, that the software loads but when you put a few notes in your music sheet and hit 'play' there is no movement of the 'playbar' (essentially this follows the notes as time progresses and the notes are played).

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with this sort of problem and if they've found a solution. If there is a solution then my next question is going to be is has anyone found a USB to MacSerial converter that works with SheepShaver? The serial cable would plug into a MIDI box that plays the music generated within MusicShop to insure it actually sounds right before recording.

If I can get this going on MacOS 7.5 I can retire 3 very old Mac's that are hanging onto life by a thread.

Cheers.

Welcome to the forum.

Please specify the host system and the SheepShaver build you use. I suppose you run SheepShaver on a MacOSX host.

I am not sure that you will be able to get your software to work fully in SheepShaver (or possibly BasiliskII). The MacOSX Classic Environment used to be able to run most Classic applications better and more completely. Some remarks:

- Is the software PPC or 68k (or both)? If it is 68k only, it will probably run better in BasiliskII that emulates a 68k Mac.

- A USB to MacSerial converter will probably not help. SheepShaver is not aware of the USB ports on the host machine. There have been discussions in the forum about using MIDI devices before. Try a forum search (click the magnifying glass icon above).

A real challenge indeed.
I doubt a MIDI interface has been implemented ever into Mac emulation. Christian Bauer wrote in his ShapeShifter guide in 1999: "Using MIDI is not possible".
If you would like to drive an external MIDI synthesizer, best stick with your Macs and watch out for replacement hardware.

If you have an old Windows box to play with, FusionPC or BasiliskII build 142 will be your best chance for emulating old hardware to run your app. (The most recent host for FusionPC is Windows98SE)
The Quicktime MIDI player should work for you in BII or FusionPC with a suitable QT version.
Will that sound right for you? Hm...

Fusion will run anywhere in DOSBox, I understood.

Thanks for updating Jorpho! Of course DOSBox can be used to run FusionPC.
I found it difficult to route hardware devices from the host to DOSBox to FusionPC.
Maybe thats due to my poor knowledge of DOS device drvers.

DOSBox/FusionPC might be a good idea to try whether the app likes the emulation at all.

If you have a Windows PC with internal serial port, you can try Sheepshaver or Basilisk II for Windows as their serial emulation seemed to work out of the box.

I'm enjoying the latest SS 2.4 on my 2010 iMac with Snow Leopard 10.6.8. OS 9.04 runs well enough. Warcraft II is playable again.

This is about MIDI (again).

Like others I'd love to be able to access MIDI data to/from connected keyboard(s) in a Classic-style sequencing environment. (I have a number of old applications that DID work in Classic.) It needn't be a "pure" emulation to make me happy....

The probs with USB ports are noted. The info about MIDI "not possible" dates from 2001, with no progress .

I have OMS installed, but OMS Setup looks for a serial MIDI interface from Printer or Modem port that aren't available on new machines. (It looks as though OMS or FreeMIDI is necessary for all my sequencers to work.)

I have an Edirol UM-1 USB interface that works well in SL after setting up the Audio MIDI Setup utility.

I was wondering if there might be some way of adding "hooks" into Core Audio in the SS program itself so it can work that way? If I was a programmer, I'd try it....

For what it's worth, you might be able to access standard MIDI sounds from the Quicktime Music Player once OMS is set up properly. I don't know Music Shop.

1) Instal OMS
2) In OMS Preferred Device control panel select Quicktime Music
3) in OMS Setup enable Quicktime Music

If I knew how to add a screen shot, I'd do it here....

Well behaved sequencers (I use Muzys) will allow selection of standard MIDI channels and instruments if you know their numbers. Remember MIDI Drums are on Channel 10.

I can even use Nostaglgia Atari ST emulator to run Master Tracks Pro this way(!!)