I bought Arturia's SparkLE several months ago (and the TR-8 last week) -- great bit of kit(s) there -- Spark 2 was just released and looks GREAT (much improved) -- however, the v2 update requires me to upgrade to 10.7 (MacOS) or greater in order to use it. I have yet to take that plunge (still on 10.6.8), for fear of what I might lose in regards to audio SW, functionality, etc. I've been considering an upgrade, but not sure I'm up for the (potential) troubles. I keep getting Apple 'AppStore' prompts to upgrade to 10.9 (for FREE) -- a bit pushy (and odd) imho, has me wondering ... WTF? Any Mac OS users care to impart some solid OS advice in regard to upgrades -- 10.7, 10.8, 10.9 --- what's the word!? Suggestions ? Any help/advice appreciated -- Thanks in Advance !


DAW: Ableton Live 8 & 9, Studio One 2




PYRUSMALUS

 

Abandon Mac Come to Windows, "We miss you" LMFAO

 

I am also running OS X 10.6.8 and I feel it's rock solid for my needs and requirements.

I have one of my HD's partitioned so that I can run multiple OS's (including a partition for Windows via Bootcamp). I have Snow Leopard on one partition, Mountain Lion on one and Mavericks on another. That setup works great for me.

If you have an external HD that you can install 10.7, 10.8 or 10.9 on then you could clone your current system to it and then install whatever OS X version you want to test out along with your DAW's and plugins - that would be my best advice. You have nothing to lose that way and that's why I have a partitioned HD so I can test run OS versions and software I have to see if there are any issues.

I don't have any issues with any of the OS X versions. I use Logic 8 with 10.6.8, Logic 9 with 10.8.4 and Logic X with 10.9. I also use MOTU Digital Performer pretty regularly.

My preference is 10.6.8 running Logic 8 - all the plugins I use run perfectly and as I said it is rock solid. There are a lot of folks still running 10.6.8 with zero issues because it is solid.

I think many times people have what I like to call "upgrade-itis" just because some shiny new piece of software is released (no offense to anyone). I usually recommend that people stay where they are, OS version, DAW and plugins, if everything is running perfectly for them. I also ask people, do you really need that new piece of software or is what you currently have installed doing the job. I understand that sometimes you do need the new plugin and then you may have no choice but to upgrade your OS. Everyone likes new toys and I am no exception.

I only recommend that people upgrade an OS version if it's "really" required per their requirements and absolute needs. Pro studios usually hang on to what runs rock solid for them and "mostly" upgrade if a strong business requirement is exists or a strong competitive need exists (example: the big studio down the block has updated to the latest Pro Tools, or insert DAW of choice, plus several gazillion new plugins and are advertising the heck out of their capabilities and if they are hurting your business, yes then sometimes you might have to upgrade).

Another example would be if you bought a new Mac with 10.9.x on it - then you are pretty much forced to upgrade some, not all, programs and plugins.

One more thing to bear in mind is the current hardware you have versus the new software you're looking at - be it an OS version, DAW or plugins - does your system meet or beat the requirements of the software you are looking at? In your case with the system you have I would think that you should be able to handle anything software-wise at this time.

I am not trying to open a can of worms here - I am simply offering my experiences. If anyone has some other advice or experiences I am all ears too.

Good luck with whatever route you choose!!!

 

I always ran a partition when I used osx. 1 partition for my stable the other to pre test updates (as osux was/is always updating whether it/you need it or not.)

Could you not just set aside a 5 or 10 gig test partition to instal 10.7 on to try out the softs (or all of them)? or even on an external hd?

 

10.6.8 here too and I hate Logic (maybe I'm the only mac user who say that, but I don't care) Because I use mac for development I don't need to upgrade.

 

I had a big thread up that spoke about my fear of going from 10.7 (whatever its last update was [maybe 10.7.5?]) to 10.8 for logic support as its my main DAW.

Me and Ghostinthemachine and xsze all threw thoughts back and forth until i decided to try 10.8. And it was perfectly fine. I will say AFTER i did the update my computer started having its horrific, incurable issue of the 2011 Discrete Graphics failure (Macbook Pro). But i believe that is coincidental.

There was only some filesystem change which was my big fear upgrading. But only some stuff i didnt really care for went away. Everything else worked fine. You lose some things but you have decide whats more important. I lost very little in the transition.

One thing i IMMEDIATELY did was get rid of that stupid facking 'notification center'. I dont have social media, i dont want to see the song i played 3 weeks ago on there, i just dont care. Useless. But you can remove it using terminal commands.


I WONT however go to 10.9 Mavericks. I just havent heard good things about the update. So i will wait until something more stable comes out beyond mavericks. Thats mainly what it was was stability reasons why i wont go to mavericks. Some people dont have problems, some do. I dont want to chance it and be part of the 'some do'. Already have enough trouble with this stupid discrete graphics issue killing my computer.

 

I am on 10.8.5 and is very stable!
Sure you lost some old plugs, but nowadays I thing that every major plug have a better replacement.
With the free memory cleaner ram is not a problem

 

10.8.5 here too, it just works fine. I was really upset when I found that I can't install any pre Lion OS on my 2012 MBP
cause I used to love SnowLeo, but after some time I can't tell the difference.

Some things are annoying but you can remove almost all of them,
like the fecking notification center (get rid of it after 5 minutes)or the LaunchPad.
It just get cluttered in 30min. Useless for me to say the least.
Not to talk about that "natural" scrolling joke (natural for who? Maybe for a shrimp *no* )
but that's not a problem, you can make it how it should be for human beings in 1click.

The only thing that I find still annoying is the move from Exposè/Spaces to this new Mission Control.
(I never used spaces but used a lot expose with secondary mouse buttons)
You can't disable only spaces in mission control but you can set it up
to work like exposè in SL and just ignore spaces.
But maybe I'm just one of the very few people that don't like/use spaces.

Regarding compatibility no problems at all, all audio software & plug-ins I used on SL works on ML,
to say it all some software I already used in SL got updated to work only on 10.7+ so better move on.

I just found that some nice freewares (not audio stuff anyway) got abandoned by devs after SL,
but I found good substitutes, i.e. for iFreeMem I found a couple of free alternatives (RamCleaner if I rember well).

One thing for sure, I'm not planning at all to update to Mavericks, I hope to be able to stay on this setup for 2-3 years,
without being forced again by Apple to update to a new shiny piece of crap that looks like iOS.

 

I suggest that you better stay on 10.6.8 ! If you upgrade..!' That means you asking for to match trouble and head aches..! I have expereance on that..! Upgrading to Mountain lion don't even think..! Lol that upgrade will ruin a lot of things and rgisteries on you Maschine..! You may try it your self ..! But Back your system up first..! I am 100% sure that you gonna restore 10.6.8 Back..! Lol

But I say Maverics is not bad still some bugs and issues there..!

I am sure that you still can install Arturia's 2v softwares on 10.6.8 and that will work..! The problem you have is only Installer it self not compatible with Osx 10.6.8..! There is trik how to install..!

If you still didn't figure out let me know..!
Good luck

 

10.6.8 is best OS for me until now and still working great with non problem..!

 

Thanks for the hint Sohill, I too am on 10.6.8, installed Spark 2, in which the installer does NOT warn you that it won't work on your OS (again, in this case 10.6.8), do you mind providing the info for installing on 10.6.8? Or am I just hosed in this regard. Thanks for your help!

 

sisyphus,
you may want to have a look at Pacifist to forcefully install the .mpkg
If it can be installed on 10.6, that's the way to do it. Sorry can't test I have no 10.6 anymore and I don't use spark

 

The basic dilema will be always:

Lost old things X gain new things

I think is real stupid to install every update, and this kind of conflict is old...remenber 10.3 or 10.2 lovers?
Since 10.7 fucked with logic 9, I always made test everything firt and them jump or not to new system.
In 10.6 you are trutly loosing amazing things (GIYF),
But you are lazy, do not have time to invest, or do no want learn new things why askying?
Of course it depends about the tool you need, if you need faster/better general rules go mountain lion...
I also think that update for just one plug is a great loose of time.
I like to test everything I use but its really time consuming... my wife is jelous from all the new updates

 

Thanks for the advice my friend… the problem was, it was ABLE to install, it just won't open in any of my DAWs on 10.6.8… The installer is not courteous enough to do a system .plist check and tell you, "hey, you can't run this on your os, don't install"…. I was just wondering if there was a way to edit a .plist or something that would allow spark2 to open on my system, or do I have to do an app cleaner uninstall (i'm sure they don't have an easy uninstaller), and then roll back to 1.7 or whatever…. but thanks for your help and comments.

 

sisyphus, try this way:

•Go grab a copy of PlistEditPro .
•Locate the plug-in AU VST or whatever you want to run, right click -> Show Package Contents -> Contents
•Open Info.plist with PlistEditPro.
•Modify MinimumSystemVersion string to reflect your osx version like shown here. Save.


Try if that works, many times it does, if it doesn't probably there are no choice you can run it on 10.6.

 

Excellent suggestion copylefter, thanks, will go try soon and report back.

 

tried copylefter, but plist editor pro revealed no field in your suggested area, I did mod one field that said macosx10.8 to 10.6.....



but did not work. Alas, thanks for your suggestion however, is anyone else has a clue, let me know! Appreciate your time..