Hello, i installed hackintosh about a year ago. For audio production I really like using it.

The problem i'd find with OS X is that I cant get used to the user interface. I've worked with Windows for all my life and I'm very comfortable in its environment. I have been going back and forth between both operating systems which is not really ideal for my workflow.

I want to continue on OS X, this is because my soundcard focusrite 2i4 gives much better latency then on my windows 7 computer. Also, the CPU load in OS X seems to be more efficient in OS X (using ableton)

There fore i wanted to ask if anyone has some tips and tricks to make OS X more comfortable. I installed spectacle, a free app, which basically does split view like in windows. But other then that, I find OS X still a bit of pain in the ass to use... For example, opening multiple finders is really cluttered, and I just came to the conclusion that I can close these cluttered finder windows with apple key + w.

Does anyone have more tips or tricks like these to make my experience with OS X better so i can use it as my main audio production OS?

 

I've done exactly that: After many, many years of using Windows, I started using MacOS because I had to.
After 5 years of using both Windows and MacOS I can say:
1. Take your time to find all the little tools, utilities, helpers that you loved under Windows
2. Don't try to make MacOS look and feel like Windows. Just get used to it as it is. It might take a year until you get fluent with it, but everything makes sense once you know your way around.
3. I have a large collection of command line aliases and action scripts written in bash that is steadily growing. If you need that...
4. There is no such thing as a really good file manager for MacOS. On Windows, we have Total Commander, but on MacOS, even "Commander One Pro" which is said to be the "Total Commander for MacOS" is light years away from Total Commander. Crashes, stalls, issues handling large files and large archives, problems with viewing some files, no useful file rename tool, 100% CPU load when it shouldn't... Others like Crax Commander and various freeware is stronger on these points but weaker on others.
5. There is no such thing as an ultra-fast audio player under MacOS. Either it won't open folders from the opened file automatically, or it takes some time to start, or it is a much too bulky app. What works quite well is homebrew > mplayer and "Red Snapper", a Finder extension for playing many audio file types, even RX2.
6. Need an audio editor? Use the free Ocenaudio. Done.
7. I wonder why you're not able to achieve low latency under Win. These days should really be over, except the 2i4 only comes with shitty drivers...?

 

Last edited: Feb 7, 2019

Thanks @fiction your tips are very helpfull. Yes I do agree, the more I use OS X, the more I get used to it. Though having a real macbook speeds up the process, as I owned one before for work related things and got used to it in a matter of weeks. This is mainly due to the fact that the touchpad really speeds up the workflow.

Yes, the 2i4 come with shitty drivers for windows 7. The difference is insane: buffer size on windows 512 gives latency of 57 ms, while working in OS X only gives 11 ms latency. Also the crackling which occurs on win7 when I load 3 or more plugins.

Specs of my laptop are above average, so that's not the problem. Though I installed windows 7 on my second boot partition which I replaced with my cd/dvd drive and is not as fast. But that is only hard drive related.

PS. Yeah, I'm very interested in your bash scripts. I used to write some customs actions? I think they are called? they are quite powerful.

 

@fiction Have you tried the file manager, ForkLift?
And what about VLC as media player?

 

Just my 2c . As @fiction said, don't try to make OS X behave like Win. Once you get comfortable with it, you'll find it easier to handle (at least that's what happened with me when I switched to Mac) and even though the new Apple era f**ked us pros and I wanted to switch, I wouldn't left OS X . Day by day you'll find all sorts of short keys etc.And even if you need something and can't find it, google it. Say you want to learn how to copy-paste something. Ask google. I know you were looking for specific tips and not something general, but the truth is , if you don't use it you can't discover all the features.An each one of us has a different workflow. Even if I told you my keys you might not find them helpful.

But as a conclusion , a really helpful key comb is cmd+T . I use it all the time. Not only safari but also finder has tabs and this helps a lot

 

Thanks, you're right, i shoud just learn the OS and google things when needed. Though currently I dont have a wireless card for it. Kinda like it keeps me more focused on producing music instead of browsing. But whatever. I need to look into a wireless card that is supported for hackintosh and download littlesnitch or something.

 

The first software every mac user NEEDS is Pathfinder.

However, the problem you will soon face is that you can't live without it anymore and there is nothing like Pathfinder for Windows. There are some decent file explorers, but nothing comes even close to Mac Pathfinder - and they are all just ugly.

What else do you need when you run a hackintosh?

iTerm 2 - much better command line

SteerMouse - like the Logitech Mouse software, but it actually works and is great, not like the Logitech shit on Windows. Setup pretty much every Mouse for Mac. You can set different macros and controls for every Software you run. Sadly, there is no equivalent on Windows.

KeyboardMaesto - control every key on your keyboard. Switch keys or program even complicated macros for pretty much everything you could think of. Very easy. Sadly, there is no equivalent on Windows. Nothing as powerful and nothing as easy.

SwitchResX - Switch monitors and resolutions by a mouse click or a keyboard shortcut easily.

And then there is LittleSnitch, probably the most requested software by Windows users on the internet. There is nothing even in the same league as LittleSnitch in the Windows world, and there will never be anything, as it's impossible with Windows. If you ever used it for your privacy and firewall and you didn't hated Windows before, you will then.

 

Last edited: Feb 9, 2019

Enable show path in finder, and use colum view. The finder is actually much more powerful than the Explorer.
It starts with simple things like showing foldersizes without opening a popup
Just play around and you will get very fast used to it and the. When you come back to windows you wonder how you could ever worked with it... just my xp

 

Windows alternative for Little Snitch and it is free:
https://www.binisoft.org/wfc.php

 

i don't want to just contradict your request just share my experience, ive done all these "experiments" been back and forth and at the end of the day my conclusions are, for the time and effort you spend fixing and tailoring a hackintosh its a total waste of time on the long run unless you must use logic, and I really mean must, because if there is a chance of using the pc with its corresponding os you will save huge amounts of time and effort that could have gone to making music instead of fiddling with fixes to make it work.
you dont even like osx for gods sake, why are you exposing yourself to this.

if the performance difference you say you get is something that is not only marginal I would suspect you are working with older hardware(?) otherwise I dont have any experience of a hackintosh actually been significantly better performance wise.

unless you are short of cash update, upgrade update, at least as far you can afford. that will save you so much headaches. other ways if you cant dont expect to suck extra gain from a hackintosh, it will just suck your energy. cheers

 

ah I do understand so much what you need,
I've become Mac user just few years ago, so I hope I can help a bit:

1) get Hyperdock - that way you get aero thumbnails on Mac dock, and the window snap functionality (there is k'ed version ofc, but dev is cool guy, you can support him, for business he will provide cost-efficient multilicense if you ask him)
2) get Smooze - that way you can enhance functionality of mouse (be it mouswheel-click scroll in Chrome for ex., or mapping side buttons of gaming mouse)
3) get Karabiner - that way you can customize your keyboard, additional buttons, macros, combinations etc..

there are tons of scripts and settings you can adjust MacOS, here's a few of my favourites:

disable gatekeeper:
sudo spctl --master-disable

remove app from apple quarantine:
sudo xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine applicationpath

change Launchpad items grid:
Set the Launchpad Column Icon Count:
defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-columns -int 14
Set the Launchpad Row App Icon Count:
defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-rows -int 9
Reset Launchpad:
defaults write com.apple.dock ResetLaunchPad -bool TRUE
Relaunch the Dock with killall:
killall Dock

change screenshots location:
defaults write com.apple.screencapture location /path/
/path/ = drag n drop folder target
killall SystemUIServer

disable recent files list:
Open System Preferences / General and set Recent Items to None.
Note: While this keeps the minimized-items section of exposé clear of recent items, it also unfortunately disables access to recent items in most other places (e.g. the menubar or dock)

Disabling Dashboard:
defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES
killall Dock

show hidden files&folders:
terminal commands:
defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
killall Finder

 

There is no alternative to LittleSnitch on Windows and there will never be one, because it's impossible on the OS level. There are many many many firewalls and tools for firewalls on Windows but none will ever offer reliable instant notification when a program accesses the internet and ask for confirmation or block of certain domains.

Windows firewalls are a joke. It doesn't even come close to what LittleSnitch is capable of doing.

E.g. it's easy with LittleSnitch to let Cubase phone home to ask for updates but nothing else. To block every VST inside of Cubase from phoning home, but letting Plugins which require an online connection (e.g. CaptainPlugins) connect to their server. To give a certain VST access for today to download an update and block it right afterwards again - and ONLY this VST. And I get asked before any connection at all is made if I allow it or want to block it, for how long, to which domains, from which application. This works even on the mac OS itself. Not even Apple can phone home without LittleSnitch asking me first if I allow a connection to the specific domain name.

LittleSnitch and a Windows firewall don't even live on the same planet.

 

I remember Windows 10 Firewall Control Plus is the only app for Windows (7 also supported) which is closest to Lil Snitch

 

Karbiner is now Karbiner Elements and still lacks a lot of the functionality the old Karbiner had. It's also fairly complicated to work with.

I highly recommend Keyboard Maestro. It's much more reliable, more powerful and way easier to work with.

 

Yes, I get what you're saying it is quite the headache. But performance wise OS X is way better, at least for me. Say for example i load 3 three different instances Reaktor in my project; For OS X it's not a problem at all, I get a cpu load of 30 / 40 %. But loading 1 ensemble of Reaktor in Windows this unthinkable as my cpu starts to choke very quickly. Specs op my laptop are decent enough, 4th generation i5, 16gb 1600mhz, and samsung evo series ssd. So ultimately, I have to choose the OS which performs better...

Yes, I do agree, i've seen nothing like littlesnitch before. It even let you choose to block Apple services, like updates, notifications, possible spying, itunes etc. To block these kind of notifications on windows is unheard of and is something i've never came across.

 

oh so its a laptop! wow, yeah I understand, that is a lot of difference. I thought is was a desktop. on a laptop you take what you get since there isn't much one can do internally, then I get it, i would be glad for whatever performance increase i could get. how sad you get that low performance on windows. but, whatever makes it work right, cheers

 

Windows Firewall Control works actually quite good, anytime a program likes to connect to a host it shows a popup.
You can even totally lock down and then even windows update services etc show that you are offline.

 

A lil bit off topic, but this is really nice:
https://www.marcmoini.com/sx_en.html

 

Very first thing Im installing when (rarely) building a new OS on mac:

https://www.trankynam.com/xtrafinder/

 

uBar is another must if you miss Windows toolbar