PPC plugins?

[Chris_Avakian]

Hey guys. so i got an old powerpc g5, and i know its old, but im trying to set it up for a recording computer. Ive got a friend who gave me his old copy of digital performer 6, but im having trouble finding anybody who supports or sells any plugins for this guy! the old UAD-1 cards are going super cheap with a few decent plugins, but where can i find anything else? Just keep a lookout for people selling their licenses? or if i buy plugins i can get the older ones i need? just kindof at an impass as far as getting plugins for this guy.

[kslight]

Just keep a lookout for people selling their licenses?

This. Probably be hard pressed to find more than a few supporting PPC in the last several years.

[Jeff White]

I'm not sure what version of OSX you have set up on the G5. I was running Digital Performer 4.61 under 10.4.11 up until a year ago, when I switched recording setups to DP7 on a MBP (and had to upgrade all of my stuff!). I still use my PPC computers (G5 tower and Powerbook) for Unisyn and various synths, and my old recording setup is still up and running.

http://www.stillwellaudio.com/plugins/s ... o-plugins/

These should all work as AU plug-ins within DP. They are Universal Binaries, which is what you need to run on both PPC and Intel-based Macs. Going forward, most everything is going to get phased out for PPC if they have not already. It is a dead format. My advice to you is to download and backup all of the Stillwell plug-ins. Of course, you should pay for them if you use them. You will find that they are excellent tools for the studio, and they are priced modestly.

Also, DP comes with a bunch of great plug-ins, and some decent plug-ins. The Masterworks EQ is awesome. That should keep you going for a while. I would also comb eBay for used software that will work on PPC. You may be able to score some stuff for cheap, but I would DEFINITELY contact the manufacturer to make sure that they still support the installation process. I know that Nomad Factory not longer supports PPC at all through experience (I tried to upgrade after acquiring a faster G5).

Hope that this helps!

Jeff

[crow]

Reaper, even the current version, is quite forgiving of PPC systems, and the developers are seemingly unique in the DAW world in that they prioritize backwards compatibility, so I think you could keep updating your PPC Reaper for some time without worrying.

It also comes with very good bundled plugins. The ReaPlugs suite, which includes essentials like compression and eq as well as some very interesting hard-to-categorize plugins, is excellent. I have a lot of third party plugins and find myself using ReaComp and ReaEQ more often than not.

Also, Reaper includes its own plugin format, JS, which is a user-modifiable programming/scripting language. A standard Reaper installation includes a LOT of JS plugins in a bunch of categories: Comp, EQ, Delays, Utilities, MIDI manipulation. They are all open source, and can be tweaked by you or your nerd friend to your heart's content. Other users write their own and share them at the Reaper Stash or on the user forum.

The GUIs of the Reaper and JS plugins are quite bar-bones: no fancy-looking vintage faceplates and shadowed knobs. This turns some people off, but using them for a while made me realize how much I had been letting the look of other plugins color my perception of their sound. Now I prefer the neutral interface, as it encourages the use of my ears.

The only downside to Reaper that I can think of is that it doesn't include much in the way of virtual instruments. I don't use virtual instruments much, and I have some 3rd party ones for when I do, so it doesn't bother me one bit. But if soft synths are your bag, you might have a hard time finding good ones for ppc. maybe not.