I use an I9 mac with Ventura, thinking about upgrading to Sonoma, but I don't want to have the same nightmares I had when I upgraded from Mojave to Ventura (dozens of VSTs that don't work anymore). Any suggestions here?

 

Mojave to Ventura is a multiple Major Version # OS migration. From Ventura to Sonoma is no big change at all. I bet if you did not click on About This Mac you wouldn't even be able to tell which a machine is running, until you get into the much finer details. Like High Sierra and Mojave, and probably not even that easy to tell.

You are on an Intel Mac. There are only going to be very small differences for you anyway; because they are focused on optimizations and improvements for their own chips. I would do that upgrade without any worry. However, there is almost nothing for you to gain by doing it. Any of the developers who are dropping support for older MacOS versions are still not anywhere near requiring Ventura. Most are at either Catalina or Big Sur. I do not think I have even seen any of them require Monterey yet.

I wouldn't bother unless you can even see a benefit to doing it; but I would have almost no concern about doing it either. You can take that with a grain of salt, because I would have already rolled it back to Mojave. A good part of what they are doing blowing thru major version # changes is so they can more quickly deprecate intel macs and sell everyone new stuff.

 

Last edited: Oct 22, 2023

What about mac m1 Ventura to sonoma(ma) “ any issues with the nice audio video plugins?

 

Had a few minor issues with M1/Ventura, can recommend upgrade to sonoma ...

 

I would wait, personally. What's the rush? There are some issues apparently, in Sonoma with Final Cut Pro crashing/broken playback, problems with some plugins. You can look at the Developers Release Notes: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-notes/macos-14-release-notes

Usually it is the external hardware that you get stuck waiting around on software updates; and it never takes very long. They are just "late". But I would recommend you look deeper into this one. The way they have been pumping out new macOS versions; I would do more research into the specific things you are using, but I would wait if I had no reason to update.

 

NEVER upgrade this early, you won't get any fancy features, and there is absolutely no software or plugin which requires Sonoma and wouldn't work just fine on older Ventura

 

I did it on one mac, seems fine accept for loopback audio app., the instructions on their website suggests to reboot in “Recover Mode” and choose reduced security to allow their apps to work using a kernel..you guys think this is safe?
I already use little snitch, lulu, edited host files to block certain address activity, is there anything i should know to avoid issues?

 

They are probably telling you to disable SIP. So, if you plan to use the VR Mac releases of Cubase, Wavelab and other related software from Steinberg; you will have to disable SIP anyway. If not, I would not disable SIP. Or is it one where it asks you to ok it in security/privacy immediately after rebooting, on a 30 minute timer ? Usually that is a normal reboot only.

That Loopback program works ok, but it is going to add 2 more sound input/output devices. I would figure out another program to use, if possible. If you click your speaker icon at top right, that list will have those 2 new Loopback entires listed there. I don't like stuff like that, maybe you won't mind.

I would generally not use 2 application Firewalls. I would use the MacOS System Firewall for applications, and then one of those 2 for plugins and any other files which are not .app. You really should not need both. On "other Operating Systems", that can actually cause false positive detections.

What are you using Loopback for?

 

Last edited: Oct 31, 2023

Dunno about Intel Mac's, but Apple Silicon ones do work better and I have zero issues with plugins, before upgrading I investigated a little and seems like it was already good to go in beta phase, seems like Sonoma is new Snow Leopard.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/sonoma-is-crazy-fast.2391954/
https://www.bluecataudio.com/Blog/t...ixed-multicore-performance-for-apple-silicon/

 

Loopback is to route audio into screen recording, example safari, logic, a live webcam or pro video cam connected OBS etc etc.
Basically the main tool for audio to create YouTube videos
https://rogueamoeba.com/loopback/

Loopback is the only way I can record audio and QuickTime screen recordings at the same time at 4k resolution or decent resolution., I tried other apps and they sounded awful or has issues.

Here https://rogueamoeba.com/support/knowledgebase/?showArticle=ACE-StepByStep
this is the page directing how to change security settings,

as for firewall, I dont trust Apple, their firewall is ok but is set up for apple to exploit users data.

Little snitch also re written their app to have flaws as requested by Apple, by default little snitch has allowed the same backdoors at Apple's uses, they designed flaws to deceive their customers, example you can allow or block an ip, how ever, for the default apple backdoors little snitch will not show the option, you need to right click and uncheck the allow, there is no NOT ALLOW or red box option to block specific ports Apple needs for their own benefit and nothing to do with user end device or cloud services.,

Lulu catches whatever Apple firewall and little snitch do not, then I edit the host file to assure no other dial backs for outside developers take place.

I only use Logic and Pro tools as DAWS, I gave up on Cubase, Live etc, I have Live installed but..not sure if its wasting space still.

-Is there a better solution then loopback?
-so far im fine, even with Parallels desktop but do you think my firewall set up can cause other issues?
-When I reboot Ventura on m1 Macs many of the finder prefs change if I turn on off SIP etc, especially when I change my user password, I would both into the user and notice I have to again change finder window views etc.