I`m totally new to mac

Hi just bought a new MAC
well 2009 Used mac but new to me , (wish i had $35,000 in my pocket to buy the latest model , yeah right)

Inside the mac i have 4 slots for hard-drives
I HAVE 3 DRIVEs
2 X 1 TB DRIVE (one new drive and one used drive)
1 X 500 GB DRIVE (used but empty)
DRIVE 1 OSX ?
DRIVE 2 VST ??
DRIVE 3 anything else

*I wanted to know how should i set my mac up ?
**should I partition the main drive into to (giving it 2 x 500) = 1TB
***How should i install the VSTs ? on Main drive or Second drive ?

*ALSO i only want to install MAX 10 plugins any suggestions ?
*Any suggestions on the Best synths for Jazz soul and pop music
(also if i test demo-plugins how do i uninstall them ?)
Thanks in advance

 

I believe your biggest problem will be the operating system. Old macpros are stuck on leopard os, this means that you wont install any recent os like sierra, or mojave. This means also that your apps must be outdated in order to work (with all the obvious limits you can imagine)

OR

try this tool: https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac-software/update-macos-old-mac-3654960/
I don't know if it is really effective, i've never used, just heard about it, good luck

 

first things first: you wont be able to decide where you will install your vst's, osx is not like windows. a mac from 2009 is still a 10 year old computer and like recycle said it's very likely you wont be able to upgrade to newer versions of osx. it can still be a good machine but you'll have to use older software which doesnt have to be a problem.

you hd's: 500gb - primary install
1tb - projects, kontakt libraries, etc etc
1tb - porn, movies, series, random stuff

 

I'd say
1/ OS ( with VSTis )
2/ loops - libraries
3/ your projects sessions ( ableton, logic, whatever )

regarding synths, there's some good things in kontakt libraries from native instruments

 

Do yourself a favour and look into getting a cheap SSD as a system drive as soon as you can. MacOS isn't fun without an SSD.

@statik is right in that a Mac is not Windows and you won't be able to decide where to INSTALL your plugins. However, you are completely free to MOVE them anywhere you like. They are all under /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins AUs are in Components, VST and VST3 in the directories of the same name. You can move them anywhere you want and just make a symbolic link into this library directory to point at them.

But usually they are very small and just fine where they are. Only very few plugins are so big that you want to move them somewhere else.

You can also go the other way around, make your own directory structure for your plugins and name it like Synth, Compressor, Amp, Reverb etc. and just make symbolic links in them to point to the real VSTs, this helps a lot in programs like Ableton Live. Just point Ableton to your own directory where you put the symbolic links and you will have a very clean and sorted structure for all your plugins right away.

Do not split any drive into multiple partitions. This doesn't make sense for Macs and just restricts your space. One drive, one partition.

However, it's always a good idea to make one exception of that rule and create one additional partition which should be slightly bigger than your system drive. Name it "backup", install Carbon Copy Cloner and make a backup of your main drive every morning. Takes just very few minutes and you feel a lot safer. So in your case, if you use the 500GB HDD for the system, make a 550GB partition on any of the two other drives and use it for backup only.

 

Last edited: Jun 10, 2019

I have an old macpro 5.1 3.33 6 core. This is how mine is setup:

Bay 1: 1 tb system
Bay 2: 3 tb sample library
Bay 3: 3 tb Kontakt libabry
Bay 4: 1 tb omnisphere libabry

External : 10tb backup drive

Hth

 

Nope that was mac pro 2.1 or erlyer ( i have a 2.1 silly as i have older PC i built and i can install win 10 on them Apple screw us) so that solution only works on those mac pro,s
This is from 2009 which means it was probably released with ML and it may be able to update up to yosemite but maybe there is gonna be a similar solution to those mac pros aswell?
I think most ppl rather build a hackintosh if they want the latest osx but WHY do audio ppl need those osx updates?
Best osx for audio is still snow leopard

 

Last edited: Jul 9, 2019

Oh you can decide which disc as long as it is VST (and that goes for most of their conten aswell) if you wanna use AU however your forced to use the systemdrive.