#242

My thinking is if your panning on buying a full on upgraded one i would wait if you not investing to much its not a bad time…where going to soon be entering the new processors on macs and there is going to be a software point your going to reach that you cant upgrade but if you dont need new os’s and so on your be fine…just remembering how the last time went around with the processes and a lot of music diy and other fun stuff got lost to the weather…could be sooner or later with mac who knows.

#243

I looked into it a little bit ago. The iMac Pro’s processor is catered towards workloads that require a high cpu count, where as DAWs performer better with processors that cater towards single core clock speed (i.e. the i9 option in the iMac bests the pro). It seems the internals are optimized better in the pro though…the fans are supposed to be very quiet. Where as the recent iMac’s have people complaining of fan noise.

I have a 2018 15" MBP with base specs…DAW performance is great (much better than my base specs mid-2014 15" retina MBP), fans are very loud on both.

IMO there is not a mac out there that is optimized for DAW work, there are trade-offs with every option

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#244

That’s a good callout. Actually, part of the reason I was thinking of making the change now was to do my upgrade BEFORE the new hardware, or Big Sur is released. I figure that Catalina seems pretty stable now, so if I can get the best computer I can on Catalina, that will last me will into the Mac hardware release without needing an upgrade. I’m totally fine not upgrading software. I’m still on high Sierra now, and only upgraded to that about a year ago. Basically, I want to go as long as possible before needing to upgrade to one of these Apple produced processors, so I can make an educated decision of what I need at that point.

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#245

Anyone else have thoughts about this? I’ve been thinking about picking up a Mac mini as a studio machine but don’t want to be an early adopter of Big Sur. I also expect we’re a few years out of seeing the new chips in the Minis but I’d be curious if someone has more informed thoughts about this.

#246

It seems to me that the iMac would be a great Mac to buy now. It was very recently released and as has been said, with an i9 it could roughly equal any Pro Mac for speed for a DAW. I would stay away from the iMac Pro since it’s overdue for an upgrade, unless you want to take your chances and wait for it to be updated. It will be much more expensive.

I haven’t looked into the state of the Mac Mini lately, but it too could be good. Are they quieter than the iMacs?

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#247

Not sure if this is the right thread, but I just wanted to give a tip in case anyone wants to try going from Mojave to Catalina. Which I finally decided to do because aside from a few older 32-bit apps (rip Akaizer :frowning: ), it seems like compatibility is pretty good. But of course, Apple’s made it near impossible to find the Catalina installer now that Big Sur is out.

After a bunch of looking around, I finally found this and can confirm I’ve gotten the installer (TBD if it actually works, I’m going to restart my computer which is supposed to start the installer after I send this). https://github.com/munki/macadmin-scripts

I just ran the install script with no options, picked the latest catalina item in the choices it prompts, and it did a bunch of downloading and packaging to create a disk image you can click on to start the install process.

Hope this saves anyone who wants to try this time.

EDIT: just use the apple supported ones as mentioned by @robotboot :sweat_smile:

#248

hey they are all still in the app store but they are hidden or something. you can get to them from the apple support pages = https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT201475 and then a link to the app store is in there at “Get macOS Catalina” = https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/macos-catalina/id1466841314?ls=1&mt=12 I have ran into this in the past when i need to go back to High Sierra.

4 Likes
#249

I’m planning on going PC when my 2015 macbook does, but can’t help you with the apollo! I use motu, max and reaper

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#250

i looked around on their site for 20 minutes…totally missed that install old versions doc! luckily it seems like my comp is doing good on 10.15 after the install process from that macadmin-scripts tool

#251

great insight for maintaining old upgradable macs. Due to privacy concerns I would not upgrade to Catalina but the described hardware upgrades are well worth the investment.

#252

if anyone has any tips on how to use PureData on a 16" 2019 MBP without the fans blasting and my battery dying after 60 minutes i’m all ears.

i’m used to ableton causing my computer to turn into an oven - but pure data ?!? :sob:

#253

I always had PCs until I got married, and my wife has since had a succession of mac laptops that I use or take over completely. the first is a 2.2 i7 MBP that will only do 10.7.5 but runs Reaper totally capably. I only recently started using VSTs and plugins and finally bought my first plugin, which does not run on 10.7.5. so I reached for candidate two, a four-ish year old Macbook Air, which will run the plugin and Reaper, but doesn’t have full featured sound.

so what next? my impulse is to get a pimped out G5 tower since I do not need a laptop and the tower is like half the price. I will never gig outside of streaming, it seems like kind of a steal at the prices I’m seeing. my brother in law says Mac Mini, I’m not opposed, but it seems like you can get the same era G5 tower for maybe a couple hundred more.

love to hear some thoughts, but I will read back through this thread cause there is a lot of info in here.

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#254

Does anyone know what the most recent macOS that is stable and not likely to wreck general functionality is?

I’m still on Mojave and my iPhone can’t connect to my 2015 MacBook Pro which evidently needs to be updated.

I’m hoping to avoid Big Sur for now.

Thanks!

#255

Unfortunately, there are too many variables. My feeling at the impression is that Big Sur 11.1 is no worse than Crapalina ever was. But the fact is that it all depends on what you run and what you try to attach. :tired_face:

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#256

Understood. In that case, was Mojave known for being particularly stable? It’s been pretty solid for me … I recall hearing all manner of scary reasons not to upgrade to Big Sur, but maybe it’s actually ok?

I’m primarily running Ableton with a LOT of plugins, some pretty obscure…

#257

Opinions about the various MacOS releases seem to vary for the same aforementioned variables. I recall Mojave got off to a rocky start, but five point releases followed. Some folks are not having a good time on Big Sur. I didn’t upgrade any systems until the first point release came out, and it actually solved a couple minor irritations I was having with Crapalina.

I would stick with Mojave until you cannot any more, then jump straight to Big Sur. But YMMV. Indeed, it probably will. :tired_face:

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#258

Really, the only systematic approach is to make a list of every device, plugin and application you use, then check the compatibility of each. And you can still be disappointed.

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#259

The developer of one of the software I use professionally told me to upgrade to Catalina and ditch Mojave. It appears that the implementation of the dark mode in Mojave was a bit messy and got ironed out in Catalina and then Big Sur.

His software was having issue with the graphic server from Mojave.

It’s also really easy to create a new volume on a disk using APFS and do a clean install of any macOS to test it.

#260

just got a new Imac pro and apparently Supercollider is not supported yet :frowning:

#261

Has anyone had trouble recently sending loopback audio from YouTube or other program info Ableton with a UAD Apollo? I have no issues routing my system audio to a virtual channel in the Console software, but Ableton won’t recognize the input. This has always worked for me, so I think something might have changed with Big Sur or Ableton. I tried sampling Spotify into Luna and it worked fine, which is what makes me suspect it might be an Ableton issue. I’ve tried Live 10 & the 11 beta. I might test sampling into Renoise or Audacity this evening to confirm it’s an issue with Live.