Hello All,
My girlfriend bought a Macbook Air M2, but also wants me to be able to do music production when at her's, we live about 100 miles apart, so I see her at the weekends.

I have used PC all my life, and I'm familiar with how to install and use products from the sister site, however for mac, I'm clueless.

Can you guys give me the Do's and Dont's, to make sure I install things correctly, and can access Keygens to "activate" plugs/programs.

I use a legitimate Reaper license for DAW context.

Many thanks

 

A quick answer to one of your questions:

To run .exe keygens, such as the ones from R2R, using CrossOver is pretty much the standard. Search for that on the sister site. There's also an app called Parallels, but it's a much more comprehensive package designed to run full Windows. You'll need to search other sites to get that one.

 

install a firewall. LuLu is free: https://objective-see.org/products/lulu.html. or Little Snitch.

Get Permissions Reset 2 and BatChmod. They are for fixing permissions on folders and files:
https://ohanaware.com/permissionsreset/
https://batchmod.en.softonic.com/mac/download

Get a torrent client: https://transmissionbt.com/download

Get an archive utility program (like winzip/winrar) for mac. Keka is most popular: https://www.keka.io/en/download
There is also The Unarchiver: https://theunarchiver.com

Also Whisky, https://github.com/Whisky-App/Whisky

Also, you will need to install Xcode, so you can codesign files (and other things): Do this in Terminal.

The command xcode-select --install will open a dialog for installation of the command line tools. You'll see a panel that asks you to install Xcode Command Line Tools. Click 'Install' to begin the download and installation process.

 

Last edited: Feb 29, 2024

Using cracked apps/plugins is immoral: He sees it, He knows it

 

Also, consider antivirus:

I've been running Avast Antivirus on my Macs for as long as I can remember. It's free and I haven't had any problems with malware.

https://www.avast.com/en-us/free-mac-security#mac

 

Avast wouldn't be my first choice. They just got fined $16.5 million dollars for selling customer data.

Avast fined $16.5 million for ‘privacy’ software that actually sold users’ browsing data
/
For years, the antivirus software company harvested information from users’ web browsers without their consent

 

It's great when your partner shares your passion of music..
I guess @clone has given you a comprehensive list for your convenience....
JUST a suggestion..
Don't install/try Softwares/Plugins you don't use on the new MAC. Since you got your PC try them out on your PC then if you like it or found useful then install it on the new MAC...
This way you will keep your MAC clean and softwares to the required minimum.
HAPPY Music Making...

 

I don't like to be critical, but it might be easier to just get a new girlfriend...

 

My Goodness, it sounds a lot more complicated than doing the bits on windows hahaha. Thank you for all that info! I have no doubt i'll be back here asking questions!

 

I installed Wine to run kegens. Don't have an M2, so haven't tested.
you can also extract your .pkg files like zips or rars.

 

I left out Crossover because @krameri had already mentioned it. Use that for Keygens.

for a more robust archive multi-tool, get Pacifist. https://www.charlessoft.com. But not everyone likes it.

to run Windows apps, you can use Paralells Desktop instead of traditional VM player: https://www.parallels.com/products/desktop

If you are using Kontakt, get KLU (Kontakt Library Utility): https://audiosex.pro/threads/klu-kontakt-library-utility-version-2.72857/

to quickly audition samples, get (or find a shared copy) Audio Ease Snapper: https://www.audioease.com/snapper/


probably still leaving some out...

 

@clone you forgot your codesigning "script"

these are for doing the whole folder, install xcode, copy paste into terminal

and these are for doing them separately
sudo xattr -cr [/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/[plugin name].vst3]

sudo xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine [/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/[plugin name].vst3]

sudo codesign --force --deep --sign - [/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/[plugin name].vst3]


what might also be useful is the audio plugin uninstaller app. for some reason uninstallers are very rare on mac and unless you know exactly where to look, a simple deleting of the plugins will leave traces in other folders.

 

Last edited: Mar 11, 2024

also: crossover has reached the point where it can correctly run cyberpunk 2077. wine is to crossover what linux is to macos, the advantage you have over running a VM is the size, crossover winebottles are usually smaller than 1gb (without the software you want to install) and a VM will be the actual size of a windows installation.