Ableton Forum

I've been using Live 4 in OS 9 on my Powerbook G3 333 (384 ram) for adding samples and keyboard parts to a rock band.

I would like to use OS 10.3 though, but I'm wondering how the performance would compare. I would probably use Live 5 if I was on OS X. Anyone have any experience/recommendations?

Hey there....

I have a mac 933 quicksilver and 1ghz tibk and amd still using OS9 since my music apps run better on them in 9 instead of X. OS X is great but also kinda bloaty and just plain ole requires more everything to run.

guess what? i refuse to let newer software make me get deeper into debt.

so my word of advice is to just stick w/ OS 9 and L4. OS X is likely to sludge things up on the CPU end.

i have a great list of OS9 legal freeware - post a reply if you like to know more.


pixel parties and angstrom annagrams,
elizabeth - aurascene

g4 933 1g ram. g4 1ghz 1g ram. L4. cubase 5.2pb. metasynth. pluggo. sonicworx. waves platinum. motu 828x2. midisport 8x8. nord modular & lead 2. microwavext. k2500rs. asr-x. event asp8x2. eml101. mono/poly. sh101. bla bla bla.

I'd say go with OSX. While it's true that maybe OS9 can makes things run smoother, it is much harder to recover from a crash than it is on OSX, and my G3 does have quite a few crashes. If I'm using Live in OSX, it'll take me less than 30 seconds usually to recover from a crash. Also, once you learn OSX you'll find it really wipes the floor with OS9. I didn't get into it much at first, but now that I have, going back to OS9 is like visitng the stone age.

G3 and OSX is a no no...

I run OSX 10.2.8 on a IBOOK G3 900mhz running Live 5 which runs fine, no problems at all.

So the previous poster, please elabirate on your statement.

what I meant was his specs and OSX is a no no..

Definitely stick with OS9.

Thanks all. I tried OSX on a new partition (10.3.7) and Live 5. It seems that once the app is loaded it runs okay and with the same CPU hit, but I keep getting strange problems like audio dissapearing and everytime I open a previous song it can never find the samples for simpler on its own.

I may just have to go back to OS9, but I'll give it another day.

Annadyne - I would definitely appreciate that list of OS9 freeware if you have it handy.

yup - i guess that's what i really meant - for music or video w/ g3 <400-500 mhz stick w/ os9.

list on its way... give me a day to get it on the forum....


cheers and good luck,
elizabeth - aurascene