The latest build of QEMU is really exciting to use OS 9.2 again with good audio performance. I rarely use Sheepshaver now. My Atari ST Emulators also work very well. I prefer NoSTalgia .65 for most compatible functionality here.

I have been able to instal OMS to work with Quicktime 5 Instruments and an old DAW (Muzys) to compose and play midi and audio tracks. Some old VST plugins work well in this environment. Even my old MIDI projects running in NoSTalgia with Master Tracks Pro sequencer produce sound in Quicktime Music Instruments!

But I can't figure out midi data in/out to my external Casio CZ1000 keyboard. Back in the day, OMS used to connect via the printer or modem port using external serial midi box that won't plug into my Late 2009 iMac.

I use an Edirol UM=1 usb midi interface that works well with Garageband etc in Sierra (with modern driver). Is there a way to link the Sierra Audio/MIDI Setup to QEMU? Something in the Networking maybe?

This might be a bit esoteric or advanced at this stage of development. Other musicians might be interested.

_________________
iMac 21.5-inch, Late 2009, 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 8 GB RAM. OS X 10.12.6

I'm not sure whether Mac OS 9.2 will recognise usb devices connected to the host, but qemu does support usb-pass-trough when you know the vendor and product id of the usb device.

This should look something like this on the command line.
-device usb-host,vendorid=0x16b2,productid=0x1001

Best,
Cat_7

QEMU can also write serial out to a bluetooth device; might it be possible to link bluetooth serial to a virtual modem port on OS 9? This will let you patch directly into Audo/MIDI Setup, which in turn will let you mix MIDI between the host and guest OSes and any connected devices. However, I'm not sure whether you'll get an acceptable clock sync for OMS that way.

Bon_Glung: I'm still experiencing glitchy audio that freezes QEMU after a minute or so, how did you achieve good audio performance?

I'd love to be able to work with external MIDI gear too, but at this point working with audio & MIDI in the box would be a great step up from Sheepshaver.

BTW, I'm using 'Qemu_(20171215)_-_PPC_-_Mac_OS_9.2.2.rar' from Macintosh Repository, and added audio using -device usb-audio.

Hi,

To get decent audio behaviour in 9.1/9.2 you should get one of the experimental screamer builds dated 24-12-2017. You then do not need -device usb-audio in the command line.
You can still use the hard disk image you downloaded.

See here:
viewtopic.php?f=34&t=9028
or here:
viewtopic.php?f=34&t=8848&p=52102#p52102

Best,
Cat_7

Hello grebben,

Back in the day OS9 machines struggled to manage complex audio/midi schemes. Midi only worked better.

Muzys was the only sequencer that worked for me on a Performa 6030 and later iMac G5, with up to 8 audio tracks (but try for less). This was discontinued in 2003. You might find a woking demo version on old Computer Music magazine CDs. I had an early version of Cakewalk that had 4 audio tracks but proprietary plugins. You might find an old version of Cubase or Vision at Macintosh Garden. I haven't been able to get any version of Pro Tools working yet.

I'm using the new QEMU version from 24-04-2018 these days. It works well for me. See Cat_7's reply, the second link.

Other than that, instal OMS as usual. There is a bit of setup to do. One of the options is to set Quicktime instruments as the player for simple midi outputs. QT4 works well too. So, if QT5 won't run smoothly go back to QT4.

I was able to find an OS9 version driver for the Edirol UM-1 from a Japanese site, but there was something wrong with it, and it wouldn't instal. (sniff)

Finding old VSTs to use in an OS9 environment might be difficult. Old Computer Music magazine cover CDs from a Library(?) might help. DS-404 was (is) a good sampler with some nice presets.

Good luck.

_________________
iMac 21.5-inch, Late 2009, 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 8 GB RAM. OS X 10.12.6

Hi! I want to start off to say I'm really excited about the QEMU project for OS 9. I enjoy MOTUs Digital Performer 3 and Composer's Mosaic, which both work great in Sheepshaver with Quicktime but I miss the possibility to record MIDI. Since it seems Sheepshaver won't ever get USB support, I'm putting my future hopes in QEMU and I'll try and help as best I can through testing builds, etc.



I tried this with my Edirol PCR-500, but I couldn't get it to work. That keyboard is from 2007 and I suppose it has be to one that shows up in the list of midi devices in the setup of OMS or FreeMidi.

I do also have an old Roland PC-200 MKii which is a model that shows up as an option in OS 9. But I'm not sure if a regular MIDI-USB adapter would work. I have MIDI IN in my USB Audio Device (Focusrite Scarlett 18i20) and that one doesn't work, at least.

The best info I could find was here: http://wiki.freepascal.org/Qemu_and_other_emulators where they succeeded getting MIDI I/O via USB, but had to fiddle around with the vendor ID to get it recognized for their keyboard.

Hello,
I've just become aware of QEMU. I'm also a musician, without programming skills or deep knowledge in that area. i.e. a fairly "normal" person, so don't be too hard on me!

I've run Sheepshaver for quite a few years with a music engraving program written for Mac OS9.x It does almost everything I need, the big exception being MIDI. I know that MIDI is not supported in Sheepshaver, but it's something that I MUST have - to retire my old G5 and move onto a contemporary Mac.

Reading in this forum that there is support for MIDI in QEMU has gotten my mouth watering. However I'm not sure if I really am understanding this correctly. I went to the QEMU web site and couldn't find any (understandable to me) information. I tried downloading a Mac version from what looked like a link on this page: https://www.qemu.org/download/#macos - but nothing worked.

The question I'd love someone to answer (in as non-technical English as possible) is: "Is there a QEMU build that works in Mac OS 10.13 that supports MIDI in OS 9.x?" And if so - "Where would I start? Is there some documentation or a tutorial or other help in getting everything installed?"

Thanks for any help!