hello, thanks for checking my message.

i will be getting my new powerbook next week and am not sure whether to run osX or os9 as i don't know if there are sufficient programs, virtual instruments and plugins available yet on the osX platform.

i currently run cubase 5 but plan to change to logic eventually though i will initially be using both on the mac until i complete the tracks half done in cubase!

If anyone could advise me whether its worth running osX now that would be great as it would save me a lot of trouble of buying and installing loads of programs (if they exist!) and finding that there are essential things i cannot use. i plan to use the two sequencers mentioned as well as lots of softsynths and effects.

any help is much appreciated.
thanks in advance,
r0cker

You can (with subtleties) use both but :

- at this time only Logic, reason, Live are X released (correct me if I'm wrong) the current state can be followed in the X forum and in the news

- your interfaces may not have a full working driver, if one at all, either midi or audio

- everything runs ok under 9

I don't say you can't use X, but you'll be reduced to logic at the moment. It'll change soon, but when…

Anyway, install both, have a OS9 separated from the Classic used for X that you can use for music, so that you have a clean environement in 9, and you can begin to learn X. The best would be to begin directly in X so that you don't have to burden yourself learning 2 OSs but I don't know if your interfaces will permit it. Read extensively the OSX forum, check the hardware you have in mind, the homework will give you the complete answer

I am not sure what is that you can not do with Live, Reason, and Logic in OS X. There are some short comings such as the performance issue (but the system is very stable), some incompatibility with third party hardware, oh yeah lack of SoundDiver support actually hurts too.

I guess it depends on what you do with computer. If you have an old MIDI hardware that is not supported under OS X yet, of course you'll be using OS 9. If you have a lot of SysEx compatible MIDI hardware (Line6 PODs, Korg Triton, etc) of course you want to use OS 9. On the contrary, if you don't do any of those "OS 9 only" things and plan on getting latest audio hardware, OS X will probably be okay.