Best version of OSX for audio production/plugin compatibility

Discussion in 'Mac / Hackintosh' started by The DegoWOP System, Jan 13, 2017.

  1. odod

    odod Rock Star

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    Snow Leo :)
     
  2. vanhaze

    vanhaze Platinum Record

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    Running Mojave 10.14.2 on a macbook pro Retina 2015.
    I am using (and having installed) only 64bit Plugins.
    I honestly must say, Reaper, Logic Pro X and Protools 12 run utterly smoothly and no Plugins incompatiblities at all.
    (newest versions of these DAW's installed, also newest plugin versions installed).

    I honestly must say, i will never understand an OSX version preference that people have for audio production.
    In my situation, all OSX versions, from Snow Leopard till now, all behaved just nice and smooth ; never encountered issues with these, regarding bugs/performance issues during audio/music production.
    Even better: i experience more snappiness in everything i do, the higher the OSX version.
    (maybe it's just my Good Karma i have on my Mac's i used and still use).
    IMHO: Apple delivered a just fine OSX with Mojave, i love it.

    I am totally aware of the fact that it's all up to a user's personal computer (mis)configuration regarding how well a user's computersystem performs.
    And this goes not only for Apple, it certainly goes for Windows.
     
  3. MORTIX

    MORTIX Kapellmeister

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    Sierra! I was on High Sierra and a little after a bit in Mojave and cubase 9.5 was always crashing when i exported heavy projects.. I go back to sierra and boom! Flawless ever since with all the DAW (Logic, Cubase, Ableton, Reaper, Bitwig) and all the plugins! I bet El Capitan and Yosemite are ok too.. but with sierra you get a more clean and recent look and everything just works (drivers, apps, etc..)
     
  4. fiction

    fiction Audiosexual

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    El Cap yes, Yosemite: No!
    Yosemite still carried a lot of old messy stuff in the OS that has been cleaned up in El Cap 10.11, making it a noticeably more stable and more responsive system. It may not have been obvious always, but that's my conclusion after working with both for a while.
    My next update will most likely be to 10.12 or 10.13, if more people could report about their own experiences with both I'd be happy to know :mates:
     
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  5. jazzzz

    jazzzz Platinum Record

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    @vanhaze
    You were lucky not to have M-Audio interface that stopped working after updating to Mavericks and the only solution was to uninstall the dedicated driver, so it worked again but as a generic soundcard with some limitation from the original features. Mavericks was a nightmare experience for external sound device owners. Avid (who had bought M-Audio) screwed many of its customers. I never ever suggested anyone to buy their stuff anymore.
     
  6. EddieXx

    EddieXx Audiosexual

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    it depends a bit on how long you expect to work with a certain setup/installation.

    are you the kind of person that makes a initial install of a daw/vst versions and then expects to work with that same setup for the next 10 years?
    or are you the kind of guy who will want to update all of the time and will renew it all after 2 or 3 years because you always want to be having the latest features in logic etc?

    if you are the first case then install either high sierra or mojave, it doenst really matter unless there is a certain specific problem with your current vsts or hardware.

    but, if you will be wanting to stay on top of updates of logic then you better use mojave, you will then win a year or so, until apple forces you you update the os to be able to update the daw, like they did recently
     
    Last edited: Dec 24, 2018
  7. The Mazeman

    The Mazeman Kapellmeister

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    Can anybody recommend a version of hackintosh to run on my AMD FX 4300 machine ? I use VMware Workstation 15.
     
  8. fiction

    fiction Audiosexual

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    Any version you want. Running in a VM is not hackintosh but rather an unmodified version of MacOS.
    The "only" thing to do is "unlock" VMware so it will not refuse to run it (Blocking that by default, I guess, must have been some kind of deal between Apple and VMware).
    Usually (and that's what I do to have a different MacOS version handy) I'm running a second MacOS in VMware Fusion on my Mac, which is allowed by Apple's licensing policy. That's also the way I test compatibility issues of specific software with new OS updates.
     
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  9. The Mazeman

    The Mazeman Kapellmeister

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    Sorry ! I am new to this. So, I have unlocked VMware but when I run the iso, it rejects my processor and pauses at the apple logo. Please Help
     
  10. fiction

    fiction Audiosexual

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    I've installed the VM under VMware Fusion running on MacOS. It was easy to run it using VMware Player, but setting it up from scratch on a Win machine is something I never tried.
    You might have to search online for how to do it, I'm sure there's more than one forum where you can find step-by-step instructions.
     
  11. The Mazeman

    The Mazeman Kapellmeister

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    I am scratching my head for the past couple of months for this. I just can't find anything except people saying you should opt for Intel CPU. I tried AMD OSX but their forum is a barren crap. I tried many versions 10.12 , 10.13, etc but nothing seems to work. Every time it rejects my processor even though I did everything I could find on this matter.
     
  12. The Mazeman

    The Mazeman Kapellmeister

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    I just don't know what to do anymore.
     
    Last edited: Dec 26, 2018
  13. fiction

    fiction Audiosexual

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    I don't own any machine with AMD CPU, but a quick search revealed that out of the box, the OSX kernel does not support AMD CPUs at all.
    My advice: If you don't have any Hackintosh experience, setting up one on Intel can be tricky at times, but adding another hurdle before even starting will most likely end in frustration. I've set up three laptops with different OSX versions successfully and with all the time spent (or should I say wasted?) I really don't know if I'd ever do it again. The only reason might be that Apple has dropped the quality of the Macbook Pro models for the sake of making the laptops even more flat (what a BS!), and on the PC laptop market there are better quality alternatives with better keyboards, better CPU cooling, better connectivity, better batteries but not a better display. Well. That's the way it is now.
    Sorry I can't help.
     
  14. groove

    groove Kapellmeister

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    Mojave here and no problem with plugin
     
  15. tzzsmk

    tzzsmk Audiosexual

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    10.13.6 is rock solid right now :chilling:
     
  16. Frubbs

    Frubbs Ultrasonic

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    This has been my experience too. I resisting upgrading from Yosemite for too long, concerned about losing a lot of older plugins, eventually did a complete clean reinstall to Sierra and it's noticeably more stable, no longer forgets my MIDI interface or drops audio out without any reason - yes, this an many other headaches came with Yosemite. My second system is a MacBook Pro running El Capitan and it's been pretty solid too. I have avoided High Sierra and Mojave, mainly because of all the extra hyper-security features - many previously accessible directories now get locked down, wreaking havoc on all kinds of utilities and plugins trying to write temp files, etc. Both my macs are a bit older (2015 & 2014), so I'm not sure how many of the newer features would benefit me anyhow
     
  17. ANTIMONOS

    ANTIMONOS Producer

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    El Capitan works well here ! But i begin to experiment some compatibility problems with few utility softwares...
    I don't want to mess with my work in progress so i keep it for the moment !
    I would suggest you to make a clone of your actual OS and try to install the last one, If it's flawless you'll have more quiet time before being forced to do the next OS update :):wink:
     
  18. fiction

    fiction Audiosexual

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    FYI: I've just updated to 12.13 and two non-music programs that had graphical glitches (and one of them even crashed sometimes) under 10.11 now work as they should under 10.13!
    They're both a few years old, from the times of MacOS 10.7.
    Haven't done a lot of deep testing yet, but it looks like although most of us couldn't care less about new OS features, OS updates sometimes bring fixes with them that you might actually want.
     
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