im on latest mojave. my setup is mostly outdated slightly versions of apps that just worked for me i never felt need to update. for instance i use ableton live 9.7.1 just beacuse it works fine and was faster at launching and had smoother performance vs ableton 10 (when 10 first came out and i tested). and other plugins maybe 2018 versions just because they work.
almost none of my plugins or daw will work if i go to catalina.
are lots of popular plugins and daws updated for catalina AND cracked as well yet?
for people who upgraded and still use cracked stuff, how has the experience been?

 

Everything seems to be working well so far. Running Logic Pro X on an older 2014 Macbook Air.

Only mixing audio tracks so far using included plugins mostly.

Have the following installed & working:
Analog Obsession
Apulsoft
FabFilter
LVC-Audio
NoiseAsh
OverToneDSP
T-Racks

Interested to see what happens with plugins under the Plugins Alliance banner & A.O.M Factory.

Should mention that this is the first Mac I've used in years so, I don't have a lot of baggage & bad habits to trip me up.

Very impressed with the improvements to Logic Pro since version 5. Solid sound, solid plugins, workflow similar to Pro Tools & Reaper. Very nice!

 

Really bad so far. A lot of plugin installers don't work so you have to use Pacifist to install the plugins (like IK Multimedia, Antares, AIR and some others).
Since I use a Hackintosh, it feels really sluggish and randomly reboots when watching youtube. Probably a config issue but for now, I am glad I don't have to rely on Catalina for production. I have an M.2 SSD with High Sierra for actual work.

 

Apple was good 10 years ago.
Today it's only overpriced/overhyped gear, and the software looks more like a swiss cheese full of bugs.
Sorry guys, but it's the truth... No Steve Jobs/Wozniak no good stuff anymore.

 

Catalina fixed lot of beta staff from High Sierra and Mojave (apfs, Ui glitches, hdpi fonts etc..) but added more beta staff :D
They removed a lot legacy code from the past so expect older app to crash (mostly app called 32bit libs form 64bit app and installers), oldest plugins that I managed to run are camelPath 3.5
and Ohmicide 1.23 - 2013-2014, so x64 plugins should work even they are not supported yet ( PA, FabFilter, Voxengo, PSP, DMG and others)

NI works great but some installers are not updated, but you can copy all files from VM or other places
iZotope same problem with old installers but works.
Forget plugins from Sugar Bytes and Rob Papen until new version, you can run but it will crash soon or kill your CPU

But biggest problem if you don't have legit daw, they will crash even if plugin work, R2R give up so
ableton live and so1 users are out of luck, logic, raper and dp user can be happy with latest versions

Suggestion for peace and less frustration:

• old macs and hackintosh <= 2013 keep 10.12.6 sierra for stable audio work
• mid and new macs >= 2015 mojave 10.14.6
• and for rich producers with logic 10.4.7 and ibiza hits can go with catalina and latest mac pro or macbook pro 16 but must check for compatibility status for hw drivers and plugins, lot of hardware drivers depend on 32bit code and old kext way

In short, best os in general but worst for 'hobby' audio producers, hackintosh users and malware creators.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Nov 23, 2019

almost none of my plugins or daw will work if i go to catalina.Not true. everything is working for me.
But biggest problem if you don't have legit daw, they will crash even if plugin work, R2R give up so?? BS. So untrue

 

I'm perfectly happy with Catalina. Everything works, is all perfectly stable. Studio One and all plugs that I use work fine. Crossover has been updated, so, keygens work with that. I was using VMWare Fusion before that in order to have some sort of windows environment.
So far, I don't know what all the fuss is about. Most, if not all the plugs (obviously not old 32 bit ones) work just fine. Maybe I had an easier go at it since all I did was update from a perfectly working Mojave instal.
Latest Studio One 4.5.4 works perfectly as expected. That's the only DAW I use though, so, no idea about Logic
I haven't run into any installation problems either. Not sure where all the negativity is coming from with Catalina, but I have had a great experience with it. Maybe due to things mostly being installed already?

 

I'd love to see a fixed installer for T-Racks CS4. I need my TR Metering Plugin. I don't like the one of cs5, it's way too big and expensive and overloaded with features i don't need.

Using pacifist does work for installation but no way to activate the plugin without using the activation software which does not work in catalina. I am pretty sure i have to look for a new metering plugin because i don't think IK multimedia will updaye the cs4 installer.

 

Atleast you guys got a cool trendy computer..

 

Has anyone actually seen CPU improvment?. Heavy projects running lighter on Catalina?

 

OSX died with. Jobs IMHO, with each OS update it seems just more of the same with a sprinkling of useless "new features" I don't use and becomes more and more difficult to get what I do use to work in it as devs having to update to keep pace with. all that is new under the hood. it is why I switched to PC for audio work a long time ago. my mac is now just a really nice internet machine at this point.

 

How do I use pacifist to install? I’ve been having some issues trying to install certain things like Kontakt 5.6 and getting installed failures