Martin Russ investigates OMS and FreeMIDI compatibility, explains how you can protect yourself from copy protection, and rounds up more Mac news and useful 'net addresses...
While I was looking at Mark of the Unicorn's (MOTU) Digital Performer 1.7 for my SOS review (see the September issue) I used their FreeMIDI system to make the connection between the sequencer and my MIDI interface. This prompted me to look into what would happen if I had both MOTU's FreeMIDI and Opcode's OMS (Opcode MIDI System/Open Music System) in my system, so that I could use both programs — or even if I didn't have OMS and wanted to use FreeMIDI. This is what happened...
Free & Easy?
The FreeMIDI documentation explains that it and OMS can co‑exist, and that you can use the OMS Emulator to run OMS applications with FreeMIDI. This all sounds reasonable; in fact, I had no problems installing FreeMIDI with my standard MIDI interface, and I felt at home quite quickly. The auto‑configuration routine detected some of my eclectic collection of equipment (about the same amount as OMS, actually!) and provided almost exactly the same sort of visual mapping of my MIDI system. Apparently, the automatic detection of the equipment in your MIDI system is improved if you disable the transmission of MIDI clocks — it makes all those test SysEx messages easier to decode.
But things became more complex when I tried the same thing with my Studio 5LX. The Studio 5 (and its smaller cousin, the Studio 4) is rather more than just a MIDI patchbay — it functions as a sophisticated MIDI processing device too. In order to be used with FreeMIDI, it needs to be in 'MTP emulation mode', which also disables its MIDI processing, since it is now emulating a MOTU MIDI Time Piece (MTP), which is an 8‑port MIDI Interface dedicated to providing patching and synchronisation facilities only.
In order to put the Studio 5 into emulation mode, you need OMS, since the Studio Setup application provides the only way to configure the emulation, and this application only works when OMS is running. There is an OMS Emulator system extension provided with FreeMIDI, but the Studio Setup application does not work with it. It is not possible to have Opcode's OMS in the Extensions folder inside the System folder at the same time as FreeMIDI's OMS Emulator — OMS detects this and complains that there are two copies of OMS present. This is because the OMS Emulator replaces OMS, and so you need to disable the OMS extension.
I would normally try compatibility tests with the latest versions of software that I could obtain, but the current Vision version (3.0) requires OMS 2.0, and it does not recognise the OMS Emulator provided in FreeMIDI 1.2.4. In fact, version 1.2.4 of FreeMIDI does not recognise OMS 2.0 Studio Setup files either, which suggests that FreeMIDI is still working towards OMS 2.0 compatibility — and it highlights the perils of using non‑Opcode software with Opcode hardware! So I removed OMS 2.0, installed an old Vision 2.08 and OMS 1.2.3, and then restarted the Mac. I then used the Studio 5 Setup Application to put the Studio 5 into MTP emulation mode — taking care to assign my MIDI devices to the ports (otherwise no MIDI input or output occurs — and you can't change the emulation configuration without reloading OMS!). Inside Vision, this gave me a Studio 5 which appeared as normal, since when OMS is running, the Studio 5 still behaves like a Studio 5.
I then removed OMS from the Extensions folder, replaced it with the OMS Emulator, and restarted the Mac again. This time Vision saw what appeared to be a MIDI Time Piece, as expected. When it does not receive OMS messages, the Studio 5 goes into MTP emulation mode. Within MOTU's FreeStyle sequencer, the Studio 5 also behaved like an MTP, and so now I had replaced OMS with FreeMIDI (but I still needed OMS in order to achieve it!). The price of this was the loss of the MIDI processing in the Studio 5, and no way of patching things from port to port on the emulated MTP — or was there?
I went to MOTU's web pages and got the latest version of the MTP Console, version 1.1, from:
www.motu.com/pages/DownloadMacCo...
This is the application which allows the setup of a real MTP to be configured. Of course, expecting a Studio 5 which is emulating an MTP to respond in the same way is asking a lot, and it didn't work.
If you're not completely confused by this point, let's see what I've learned. Firstly, FreeMIDI and OMS 2.0 compatibility seems to be flawed — although this will no doubt be 'fixed in the next update' from MOTU. Secondly, you appear to need OMS in order to be able to not use it, if you want to use a Studio 5 (or 4). Thirdly, both MIDI systems seem to peacefully co‑exist if you do not use the OMS Emulator — and then you can change from one to the other as needed. I also discovered that this sort of investigation takes lots of time — and I didn't even try using the inter‑application communication, or any of the more sophisticated features of FreeMIDI or OMS. And finally, after all this fiddling about, I discovered that the Studio 5 patches no longer worked when I returned to OMS. Don't panic if this happens: you just need to use the 'Rebuild All' option to restore normal working.
How It Works: Copy Protection
Or rather, how to help it work. My recent transfer from one Mac to another required me to de‑authorise lots of programs, and then re‑authorise them on the new machine. Now you're probably expecting me to say that I maintain a detailed database of my installs and where the master disks are — and consequently I can blithely say that everything went smoothly.
Not quite. Isn't over‑confidence wonderful! For my major bits of music software, I keep the disks separate from all my working files and backups. So it was relatively easy to find the disks and do the de‑authorise/re‑authorise process. But there are several shareware utilities I use which were not quite so well organised. It took quite some time to find the postcard that told me the password for one program, and the sheet of paper containing the vital instructions only turned up when I was preparing my accounts for the taxman — it was stapled to the receipt for the Eurocheque which I used to pay the software registration fee!
In the course of sorting out my hard disks before I transferred things from the remains of the old machine to the replacement, I took a detailed low‑level look at the contents, and found quite a few hidden files on the boot drive, with names which indicated that they were the keys for the authorised programs. Some of these were in the System folder, others were in the root (highest or top) directory of the drive where the application was stored, and yet others were in the folder with the application itself. With any software copy‑protection scheme, these files usually contain some sort of record about where and when they were placed on the disk, so you should leave them well alone — which means that any sort of disk optimisation or defragmenting might upset them. And any attempt to move a folder around between drives may also cause problems. The trouble is that speeding up your hard drive, or moving a folder from a dying computer to a new one, is not the sort of thing that makes you think about de‑authorising and then re‑authorising later.
So here's the Apple Notes quick guide to maintaining your sanity about copy protection.
1. Keep your master or key disks in a place where you can find them easily and quickly.
2. Keep any passwords, registration or de‑crippling documentation in a safe place, preferably with the master or key disks.
3. Keep a list of everything that requires anything other than a simple install from disks — ie. anything that is protected. Stick this list to your computer monitor.
4. Get into the habit of pausing before you rush ahead with major changes to your computer hardware, especially disk drive upgrades (I changed my boot drive from a 40Mb to a 540Mb, and then discovered that I needed to put the 40Mb back, de‑authorise, and then re‑install the 540Mb and re‑authorise to that!), or optimisation and defragmenting. That pause is where you remember that you have loads of de‑authorising to do — and you reach for that list!
Apple News In Brief
- A MAC FOR ALL SEASONS
You can already run MacOS on Windows and UNIX systems. And there are strong rumours that the next full release of the MacOS will be able to act as a front end to other operating systems. This could mean that MacOS 8 may turn out to be exactly what people have long been asking for: a mature and consistent user interface for any operating system. - MISSING TIME
QuickTime 2.5 is out, but may be suffering from the same sort of distribution problems that affected QuickTime 2.1 — where the important bits for MIDI aren't included by default. I'm looking into this and will try to report back in a future Apple Notes. - THE NEXT GENERATION?
Apple's headlong rush towards models which are outdated as soon as they are released is having an interesting effect. With some models coming with clock speeds of 200MHz, the 'Performa' name is fast losing its low‑cost, cut‑down image, and is changing to one of 'home power'. Mac musicians may not be too interested in the bundled Cubasis sequencer, but at under two grand, the 6400, with its mix of raw speed, 3D sound, and a curiously housed sub‑woofer, may well be the machine to short‑list.
On The Net
MAC MAGAZINES
UK edition of MacUser:
UK edition of MacWorld:
uk.macworld.com/
MAC CLONES
Power Computing:
Umax:
APPLE DEVELOPMENTS
QuickTime 2.5:
Developer support:
Tip Of The Month
There's a bottleneck in the hardware architecture of the Macintosh — the serial ports. With the exception of a few PowerBooks, all Macs give you a pair of ports intended for use with a printer and a modem: in fact, that's how they are named and iconised. This is adequate if you only need to connect a printer and a modem, but if you need to connect anything else, it is less than perfect.
If you're reading this, you probably already know about connecting MIDI Interfaces to Macs — about the switches that turn the MIDI Interface into a 'Thru', so that the printer still works, and how, if you forget to select it correctly, the printer doesn't work because you're trying to print to your MIDI equipment! In my case, because I use both serial ports to connect to my Studio 5 LX, I need to remember to change over if I use either my printer or my modem. And trying to use the modem when it's really a MIDI Interface means that I need to reboot the Mac!
To make matters worse, if you've got network printing or use file sharing via AppleTalk (aka LocalTalk), this can require reboots every time you need to restart AppleTalk after using MIDI. And I've had problems with MacTCP conflicting with Opcode's Galaxy universal librarian software too.
So this month's tip is really just an expansion of my old recommendation about not bloating your Mac System folder with non‑essential fonts, extensions, Control Panels, INITs and other 'fun' add‑ons. I now recommend that you should try not to mix music/MIDI and Internet/comms on the same Mac. Music and MIDI can make such high demands on your computer's processing power that expecting it to become a telecommunications machine as well may make it schizophrenic. Which prompts the question: so which of those files in the System folder aren't needed? As usual, I seem to have committed myself to finding out — more later.
Of course, what we really needed is extra serial ports. If this was the PC Notes page, this might be just a question of adding in another EISA or PCI card — but then there's the interesting problem of persuading the MIDI drivers to work with it. Did anyone mention 'Plug & Play'? Of course, in these PCI days, you might expect that plug‑in extra serial port cards for the Mac could solve the problem — but you'd be wrong. You can buy the cards, but I've not found any that allow MIDI interfaces to work over them. One example of an extra serial card is the six‑port SmartSerial card for PCI PowerMacs from AM Micro (01392 426473): a card plus connectors will cost about £700. At this sort of price, it is almost worth getting a second‑hand Mac and using that — which I think I've mentioned previously...