TUTORIAL: How to make PPC Plug-Ins work on Intel Macs!

Question

Hi guys, I wanted to share this brillant method with you all, collect ideas and create a list of Plug-Ins, you have succeeded to make work (I guess nearly all PPc Plugs will work this way but lets better stick to facts). Maybe there is a way to work with more than 1 Plug - Feel free to report and contribute! Kudos goes to a dear friend of mine... Let' share some power...
"I noticed some people complaining about not being able to use Trilogy and Atmosphere on Intel Macs. There's a tricky way to do it that takes about ten minutes to set up the first time and after that is easy. It probably works for other PPC-only instruments as well.
Here's the outline: OSX for Intel contains a layer called Rosetta, which runs PPC software that hasn't been updated. (You might run Microsoft Word via Rosetta and not even know it.) In general, Rosetta is no good for audio software: you can't use it for a sequencer or a recording application. But it's good enough for a lightweight plugin host like Rax, which does nothing but serve as a host for Atmosphere. So you can load Atmosphere into Rax via Rosetta, then run it alongside a UB sequencer like Live or Logic.
The only tricky part is connecting the two together. You need to get MIDI out of your sequencer and into Rax, and you need to get audio out of Rax and back into the sequencer. The MIDI can go via an internal IAC bus. The audio can go via the handy freeware audio-routing utility Soundflower.
Here's how to set up:
-- download Rax version 1.2.3. (Version 2 and up won't work.) You can find it at http://macmusic.org/software/view.php?id=395 . Use the serial in SerialBox to install.
-- download and install Soundflower from http://www.cycling74.com/downloads/soundflower
-- in Audio MIDI Setup, create a new IAC bus. Instructions on how to do this are at http://www.spectrasonics.net/news/Creating-an-IAC-Bus.html . Name it Rhino. (You can name it whatever you want, but in these instructions I'm going to call it Rhino.)
Now you're ready to go.
-- Open your sequencer and create a MIDI track and an audio track. Set the MIDI track's output to Rhino. Set the audio track's input to Soundflower 2ch.
-- Open Rax and load Atmosphere. In the Preferences, go to the Audio tab and set Audio Device to Soundflower 2ch. Now go to the MIDI tab and, under MIDI Inputs, make sure Rhino is the only thing checked.
You should now be able to send MIDI from your sequencer to Atmosphere, and then hear the audio through the sequencer. One last stage is to sync Atmosphere to your sequencer's MIDI clock, so that tempo-synched effects will work properly.
-- Still in Rax Preferences, on the MIDI tab, set the MIDI Clock dropdown menu to Rhino. Close the Preferences window. At the top of the main Rax window, make sure the Ext. Sync box is checked. The Tempo window should say 0, which means Rax is following the sequencer's master tempo.
And you're done. Save the Rax document and you can open Atmosphere with a single click. Trilogy works the exact same way, obviously.
If you want to use multiple instruments from Rax, you'll need to use SoundFlower 16ch and send MIDI on a different MIDI channel for each instrument (using the same IAC bus).
Anyone who's tried this, please post your results in this thread. Especially, try out other PPC instruments, and try using multiple instruments at the same time, and let us know how it works for you."
Maybe one of the Admins wants to sticky this
With my very best,
Vic.

Answer 1

There's another shortcut I've used successfully in order to access 'old' PlugIns on an Intel MBP :
Just use Logic 6 - and take full advantage o' that ole rotatin' rosetta
Meaning : Other than with native Logic versions 7 and 8, Logic 6 has to be fully emulated by the rosetta engine, and if your intel mac is fast enough, it does so very well - thus including all PPC PlugIns you still may have installed. Also works fine for PlugIns that were converted via FXpansion's VST-AU manager.