I have personally had no issues with updating a 2014 MacBook Air that my son gave me. It originally had High Sierra. Went through all updates to get to Catalina which is now replaced by Big Sur. No issues. Big Su 11.0 Big Sur 11.1

Properly structured & coded software (cracked), installs & runs flawlessly.

Installed & running apps so far (more to come, iLok etc..) Logic, Reaper, S1:
Ableton Live 10 runs in demo mode (Terminal patch worked. Keygen app won't run. Windows keygen?)
Ardour 6.5.0
Avid Link20.10 & Pro Tools First 2020.9 (With help from iLok Avid account is now active with license)
Bitwig Studio 3.2.8
balenaEtcher 1.5.101
Digital Performer 10 (Demo)
Firefox 83.0
FL Studio 20 (trial 20.73 build 1303. No glitching or dropouts on any demo project)
iLok 5.3.1
Logic Pro X 10.6.0
Melodyne 5.0.2.003
qBittorrent 4.3.0
Reaper 6.16 (Demo)
Reason 11.3.5d22 build 12,097 Stable
Studio One 5.1.0 (Demo)
Waveform Pro 11 (90 day Demo - cracked version would not run)
VLC Media Player 3.0.11.1

Plugins:
ADHD Audio Tools Leveling tool 1.3.3
Arturia Pigments 2.0.1.837
Crave EQ 2.0.23 (trial)
Initial Audio IA-LA1 Compressor 1.0.3
iZotope Nectar Plus 3.3.0, Neoverb 1.0.0, Neutron 3.2.0
Klanghelm DC8C3 3.3.0, SDRR2 2.3.0, MJUC 1.5.0
Korg Legacy Collection 2
Lindell 80 Series 1.0.0
Lindell Plugins Bundle 2.0.0 R2R
MeldaProduction 14.12 Free Bundle
MellowMuse ATA 2.3, CP1A 2.9, CP2V 3.0, CP3V 2.0, CS1V 2.3, EQ2V 2.6, EQ3V 1.6, IR1A 4.1, LM1V 1.6, STAV 3.0
Native Instruments Kontakt 6.4.2 (R93)
Nektar Bolt 1.0.1
NEOLD V76U73 v1.0.0 MAC-DDP crashes DAW at start or, when loaded in DAW.
OverTone DSP FC70 3.0.0, EQ500 3.0.0, DYN600 3.0.0, PTC-2A 3.0.2, PTM-5A 3.0.2
SoundSpot Union 1.0.3
SSL Native Bundle V6 6.5.39
Toontrack Superior Drummer 3.2.3, EZbass 1.0.7, EZdrummer 2.1.8
ToneBoosters Bundle 1.4.9
XLN Audio Addictive Drums 2.1.9

 

Last edited: Dec 16, 2020

Kontakt 6.4.2 ?
For me only 6.3.2 plugins are working with Big Sur,
6.3.2 standalone don't start (it was OK with Catalina 10.15.7)

 

Installed after Big Sur update to see if it would run.

 

The problem of Big Sur is that Little Snitch can't block the OS from phoning home anymore. In theory it can't block anything anymore, if anything adds itself to the list of stuff Big Sur doesn't allow to block. Including malware. LS won't even tell you if anything like that is phoning home.

And the second problem ist probably that you can't go back after installing Big Sur.

 

Big Sur is great, just wait for 10.1 (coming soon), very promising for audio production and video. Graphics use way less CPU, and APFS on SSD is mind blown. But we must wait.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Nov 22, 2020

Enjoying the performance of macOS.

As this is not my daily driver, I feel more at ease doing updates as they come. The experience so far has been great. Also, I disconnect from internet anytime I am installing or using cracked software as a general rule.

 

Last edited: Nov 22, 2020

Just came across this article:
Apple MacBook Pro 13" M1 Audio Power Test - Pro Tools

 

what? do you read/listen/watch any software news?

read LS developers blog:
https://blog.obdev.at/a-hole-in-the-wall/

 

Any reliable source(s) that confirm that on Big Sur graphics use way less CPU ?
I assume this would be very welcome for DAW's that have a resource demanding GUI, like FL Studio and Cubase.

 

I tested only Cubase 11 and S1 (which have compatible versions for metal and Big Sur) and compared with Catalina and Mojave, Cubase 11 have full metal support and Pro One 5.1.1 half-baked, not there yet but much faster redraw.

To early but very promising, lot of users waiting for Vulcan on Windows or maybe Microsoft "Heavy Metal" for same effect


one public info from regular user:

"Just installed Big Sur on the Mac Pro 2013 6 core and I gotta say, Cubase 11 is so responsive on this setup. This is the best experience with Cubase I’ve had yet. I’m not using 4K though, i have two 60” LG lcd TVs since I like to move around the studio a lot and stand away from the screens but still see things clearly from far away. But man Big Sur is really responsive and Cubase is incredible.

Played with Logic for a few days and it has great stuff but feels really sluggish when you start adding automation and editing with big track counts, Cubase is responsive under any load and feels great. A fantastic time for Cubase users on Mac, thank you Steinberg! These are tough times and you really came through here."

source: https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=307&t=203425

 

Last edited by a moderator: Nov 23, 2020

https://audiosex.pro/threads/macos-11-big-sur.54596/page-5#post-511963

 

OK, will correct I mean which have official support for metal not in general, so in context of reply.

DAW is key player here imho, plugs especially vst's are hosted, so I worry less for plugs

 

Last edited by a moderator: Nov 23, 2020

I'm not on Mac but that would make sense. The versions before Direct3d (12) and OpenGL(3 or4 something) were very bad in the CPU overhead department and in general.
That's why Vulkan kicked their asses. More complex to develop but way faster. Since Vulkan is open source is predating OpenGL. Direct3d12 was Microsoft doing things Vulkan-ish.

Apple like usual sticks to their own technology, but probably happens the same under the hood. Apple aside, Vulkan is the future. It's at least as fast as Direct3d12. It's a pity money talks too in this and Windows/Direct3D it's the platform to develop games extremely cutting-edge games.

PS. You may think Vulkan and Directx12 are quite old already, but the transition is hard for developers so games/Cad/3d aside not so many know how to exploit them fully.

 

Last edited: Nov 23, 2020

I was more verbal about it, and that we have to wait and see if this gets sorted out, in another Thread. Didn't wanted to repeat everything. So far, I don't recommend Big Sur (or M1 Macs). I'm not sure how this will go on, in which direction and when. It's possible that Little Snitch finds a way to work reliably again, it's possible that Apple may turn back to respect the privacy of the users again, but it is also possible that Apple hides it even deeper, so LS can't fix it anymore. I wouldn't rule out anything as Apple put quite a lot of effort into blocking Little Snitch already. And they just say now that may make an option to opt out of the certificate check, they didn't say they will revert all of the hidden connections behind the back of firewalls.

 

Updated (Intel) apps load much faster and, so far seem to have better performance.

 

None of the XLN Instruments run on Big Sur. Even their website acknowledges this with the updates.

Are you certain you managed to get AD 2.1.9 to work on BS? If so, I'd love to know your trick.

 

Yes it ran on Big Sur. XLN_AddictiveDrums2_219_OSX (application & plugins - 17.6MB)

R2R Instructions:
[MacOSX]
0.Uninstall previous versions.
1.Burn or mount the ISO.
Copy the Addictive Drums 2 folder to (root)/Library/Application Support/XLN Audio/
(you can now eject/unmount the ISO to save memory)
2.From the XLN_AddictiveDrums2_219_OSX\Applications folder, copy the XLN Audio folder to
(root)/Library/Application Support/.
3.Run and close the software.
Log file will be created in : (Caution, it's USER dir! In Finder, it has the House symbol)
~/Library/Logs/(ProductName) Logs/
Open latest log file and find ComputerID.
4.Run our keygen on Windows.
Input ComputerID you found from the log file.
Click "Generate (OSX)", save the license.
Locate the generated license (LicensesOI.txt) to :
(root)/Library/Application Support/XLN Audio/XLN Online Installer/App/Licenses/
5.From the XLN_AddictiveDrums2_219_OSX\Plug-Ins folder copy:
Addictive Drums 2.component to (your user name)/Library/Audio/Plugins/Components
Addictive Drums 2.vst to (your user name)/Library/Audio/Plugins/VST

Hope this answers your query...

 

Yeah, standard install. No XLN products work with Big Sur at this end. Something must be weird here. Thanks.

 

I have my doubts about upgrading from Catalina to Big Sur. There is something that makes me want to do it ... but on the other hand I have serious doubts, especially in relation to Little Snitch's behavior.
On the other hand, I wanted to ask you if it is worth updating for performance, or is it a small and partial improvement, only in some apps?

 

Have had zero issues with any properly installed app on my Intel based MacBook Air. Mainly for running logic & testing updated releases of plugins & audio software.

I have even run the most current AV Linux-MXE from a live USB image with zero issues. preparing to move away from Windows OS completely as version 11 is clearly borrowing from Linux & macOS. Then there is the issue of less control of how you can easily use & alter the OS going forward.

When unsure of updates, do a complete system backup & then, do the update(s).