An old question - is there a new answer?

I have shed loads of old Logic files going way back to Notator on Atari days, including literally hundreds - nay thousands of pre 7.1.2 files. I made an error and updated to Lion - I thought I had it all figured out...............

Bizarrely the old notator .son files still open fine, and I had no problem until I stupidly updated to Lion! Now anything prior to Logic 8 will not open at all. I know that if you open the files in 7.1.2 they can then be read by L9 - but L7 is 'greyed out' with the 'no access' symbol through it - so all my old files are suddenly unreadable.

Of course it is IMPOSSIBLE to go through extensive archives updating ALL files every time Apple do an OS change - you just need to pick out the files you want when you want to use them. Grrrr. Anyway, this is Apple we're talking about so there's absolutely no use getting cross or asking for help from them - we all know this!

I'm thinking of purchasing a new main drive and partioning it with Snow Leopard so I can boot in SL, retrieve my old files one by one (sigh, yawn) and then reboot in Lion so I can work on my old material.

So - anybody got a new and better way of accessing 25 years worth of work? I'd really appreciate some help!

John G

www.musicals4kidz.co.uk

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.4), 2x2.26 Quad Core Intel Xeon, 22 Gb

The reason you can't open LP 7 is that you have 7.1.*, which was a PPC only application. You'd need 7.2.* which was the first intel version, and then you could still run it to convert your older files.

It might be an idea in your case to keep/get an older PPC Mac to access the old legacy stuff.

Thanks Desmond - as I suspected. I was certain I had every version of Logic ever released - but can I find 7.2? No!

And yes, I find Lion's abandonment of Rosetta a pain, as there were more apps than I released were still PPC code, which can no longer be used on my main machine...

Basically, it makes sense for people like us with Logic files going back years (I've still got Atari Notator Logic 1.x files) to have working instances of Logic 4.x/5.x on a PC or Mac, and Logic 7.2.x on a Mac purely for translation purposes in the event you need them.

I find it bizarre that I can open Notator .son files but I can't open files (which I need URGENTLY) done on a comparatively recent version of Logic on a G5.

Still I feel a bit better having been a grumpy old git courtesy of SOS.

I am now going to claim back the G5 I gave to may daughter - I suspect it will cost me a new laptop - I am SERIOUSLY thinking of getting a PC!!!!

How many others out there are p***** off with Apple's cavalier attitude to long time users?

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I find it bizarre that I can open Notator .son files but I can't open files (which I need URGENTLY) done on a comparatively recent version of Logic on a G5.

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Notator .son files are essentially fairly simple MIDIfiles, and the format was largely pretty consistent over Notator's lifetime.

Logic files however have gone from just MIDI only songs, to include audio across a bunch of external audio devices, to internal audio when computers got fast enough, to then starting to include it's own audio plugins, to third-party plugins including VST on both PC and Mac, and AudioUnits, maintaining cross-platform compatibility, and going through significant architectural changes (PPC -> Intel, 32-bit to 64-bit and many others).

The file format is both *way* more complicated and has undergone *massive* changes in the last twenty years.

Quote sticky 117:

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How many others out there are p***** off with Apple's cavalier attitude to long time users?

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There are times when the overhead of maintaining backward compatibility makes development difficult almost to impossibility, and restricts the development of future features. With a relatively simple file format, it's usually possible to maintain some degree of backward compatibility for some time, but it's not always possible with real world projects, and the cost of continuing to support, develop and test backwards compatibility across an ever increasing number of older versions every time you implement a new feature means it soon gets impractical, and you draw the line at what you are going to support and move forwards.

Nothing to do with Apple, it's just life...

Thanks for the info and calming words Desmond - much appreciated!

Have you tried using 'Import' rather than 'Open'? I've been able to access older Logic files using that rather than opening in L7 and resaving etc.

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www.mosso.co.uk

I know this does not solve the immediate issue, but wouldn't it be good if you could run snow leopard in a VM I am sure at some point someone will monkey around with SL so you can, you can, if you have a copy run SL server in VM.

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Strictly an amateur with some nice toys,

I've tried importing. It would be good just to import the midi data - I can match up the audio stuff manually if necessary.

It seems that the only answer is to have an old mac handy to retrieve files. I still find this kind of redundancy crazy - does this happen with word files?

Quote DAGGILARR:

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wouldn't it be good if you could run snow leopard in a VM

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I run Leopard, not in a VM but in a RM (real machine). It's a G4 mini that is hooked up with a plain ethernet cable to my iMac. When I need it, I just power it up, and start a remote login session. So I run Leopard on a PPC in a window, no emulation - it's the real thing.


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cheers,
t-:

Quote DAGGILARR:

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I know this does not solve the immediate issue, but wouldn't it be good if you could run snow leopard in a VM I am sure at some point someone will monkey around with SL so you can, you can, if you have a copy run SL server in VM.

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I thought you COULD do this with Parallels or similar?

SO much simpler to keep an old Mac for such occasions.

I have a positively geriatric blue & white G3 running OS9 for just such occasions - it never ceases to amaze me how often I use it to "recover" old songs for myself and clients and copy them across to my i7 beastie.

I also have a G5 which despite its obvious age, runs perfectly well ( - actually mainly used for DVD printing as the software is crap for intel Macs - go figure ??? )

Best of all - the G3 cost me a pint !


Old but gold.....

Nope, only server edition, it an an apple limitation they have insisted that VMware,Parallels and Virtual box disallow installation. VMware did slip up and release an edition of fusion that did allow it but they fixed it. there are versions of SL in the wild that have been adapted to work on VM PC machines and they may work on a Mac

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Strictly an amateur with some nice toys,

Quote DAGGILARR:

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Nope, only server edition, it an an apple limitation they have insisted that VMware,Parallels and Virtual box disallow installation. VMware did slip up and release an edition of fusion that did allow it but they fixed it. there are versions of SL in the wild that have been adapted to work on VM PC machines and they may work on a Mac

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Oracle's (free) Virtual Box does now allow you to create a VM of client Leopard OS, so log as you create the VM on a real Mac machine - this is how I run a leopard VM on my Lion Mac so that I can still run a legacy version of XCode (I guess Apple loosened this restriction when they EOLed the server product line).

Thanks for that handy bit of info

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Strictly an amateur with some nice toys,

Just for the record - I reclaimed a G5 which I donated to my daughter. Running Logic 6 I can access all my old files, open them up, save them and then they will open up in Logic 9.

Thanks for all the input on this thread.

I STILL find it amazing that Apple don't provide a facility to access old files. Logic was a hugely expensive piece of software aimed at pro users. How hard can it be to extract midi info from these files?

Thank you and goodnight

John G

Quote sticky 117:

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Just for the record - I reclaimed a G5 which I donated to my daughter. Running Logic 6 I can access all my old files, open them up, save them and then they will open up in Logic 9.

Thanks for all the input on this thread.

I STILL find it amazing that Apple don't provide a facility to access old files. Logic was a hugely expensive piece of software aimed at pro users. How hard can it be to extract midi info from these files?

Thank you and goodnight

John G

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Is your daughter still talking to you?

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Matt
www.krcollective.org

My daughter IS still speaking to me - I did a carbon clone bootable copy of the entire HD onto an external HD. This boots up in SL and in this environment I can open all my old files - woo hoo!

It seems all I have to do is open up the files in Logic Pro 6.4.1 and save them to an internal drive in my computer. I then restart in Lion and the newly saved files will open in Logic 9.

Problem solved (with some faffing) and my daughter gets her G5 back! What a relief - I have years of work invested in this stuff!

Regards to all who have followed this thread

John Gleadall

www.musicals4kidz.co.uk

Thanks for the update - yeah, just having something handy you can use for old stuff on the occasions you need it is definitely a good idea.